Thirteen Authors. One Story.
SAD House Press
The Carnival 13 contains thirteen chapters, each written by a different artist. It’s a gloomy play on the classic gathering game. In a darkened room, the guests sit close. The host begins the shenanigans by setting up the ghostly tale. He or she passes a flashlight to the next eager participant who continues the story. Around and around the flashlight goes, every guest contributing to the communal narrative adding personal touches to the ongoing yarn. It’s a creative approach to constructing a novel, one that I find personally fascinating.
The prologue sets up the storyline, the setting is a carnival. It is a familiar trope for horror fans, one we’ve seen before but never tire of. The possibilities are endless. And who, if even in some small, secret way, doesn’t fear the false façades of clowns? In ages past, there were guilds of assassins that camouflaged their sinister intentions with nightmarishly absurd costumes, their faces hidden behind painted expressions. No one will ever forget the serial killer John Wayne Gacy who, in part, used his birthday clown persona to disguise his truly evil demeanor. The carnival, a place usually seen as a world of merriment, is ripe for such giddily disturbing exploitation. In short, this was a great idea. Let’s see if it lives up to its dreadful oath.
John Everson introduces us to the characters and the setting in his prologue and the first chapter of the novel. As with the game that inspired it, going first is often a thankless job, much rests on the initial events, the words and the world they create can either hook a reader or not. Thankfully, we get snared and want to know where this is going.
Jason Darrick’s work on chapter two is often confusing. Head hopping from one character to another and back again is usually frowned upon, but somehow it works here. Perhaps it was even a deliberate choice, an artist’s prerogative to defy conventional rules. It certainly plunges us further into the psychologically manipulative world of this Freak Show. In fact, the subsequent chapters are no less schizophrenic as the tale itself takes on the very frenetic whirlwind of a carnival horror ride. I was half-way through the book when it finally dawned on me this project was designed to be a virtual haunted attraction, the literary equivalent of the cheap, cheesy ride we eagerly forked over a fist full of tickets to enjoy as kids.
The story is simple, ten friends head on out for a night of fun, frivolity, and perhaps a late night roll in the proverbial hay. Their destination is one of those fly-by-night carnivals that sets up shop in the unkempt parking lots of rarely frequented, if not completely abandoned shopping centers. It conjures familiar sentiments, nostalgia and even the thrill of urban paranoia. We’ve all been to one, and we’ve all been plagued by the nagging feeling that something about the world of modern traveling men and women just isn’t right even as we’re having a good time. Merriment, as we all know, can turn horrific in the blink of an eye.
As one friend in particular is targeted by a phantasmal clown with a wicked sense of humor and romanced by the most bizarre set of twins this side of a Clive Barker story, the others begin to die off one by one. The whiplash of varying voices can be disconcerting, but I have a sneaking suspicion that was very much the intention. The unique approach lends itself quite nicely to the schizophrenic effect of the story. At times you are just as flabbergasted as the main character.
Reminiscent of the more manically insane episodes of Tales From The Darkside or zanier additions to horror flicks of years past, “The Carnival 13” is a fast paced cavalcade of quirky, madcap, and often hallucinatory spectacle, the gathering of authors with subtlety varying styles add to the peculiarities of the proceedings while a few slight inconsistencies only seem to enhance its richly nightmarish allure. It feels like a kid’s nightmare. I enjoyed the hell out of this book, in spite of its flaws. There’s absolutely no character development to speak of, some of the more fascinating characters just disappear, and there are a few bumps along the way, all of which are surprisingly excusable within the framework of the story.
Before I could help myself, I’d devoured the entire tale in one sitting. It may not be everyone’s cup of tea, but for those lamenting the wacky world of 80s sideshow horror (Think Full Moon Films, Urban Classics, etc. etc.), this is for you. All the proceeds for this book are going to a charity called “Scares That Care,” an IRS approved 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that provides money, toys, and other items to help sick children. Pick up a copy, have a lot of fun with it, and help support a worthy cause.
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