• Author: Jamie Stewart
• Publisher: independently published
• Publishing year: 2022
• Number of Pages: 366
• My rating: 5/5

Synopsis:

Kansas, 1983. Joe Cage wanders into the quiet farming community of Marybell looking for work. To his good fortune he discovers that he isn’t the only stranger that’s come to town. Montague’s Carnival of Delights and Terror, a traveling carnival, is setting up and looking for help.

Lily Grey, like the other kids, is excited at the prospect of riding the rides, especially Journey Through The Crypt – the carnival’s ghost train. That is, until she goes missing inside it, until all that can be found of her is a teddy bear coated in blood.

Montague’s Carnival of Delights and Terror is Jamie Stewart’s love letter to the horror novels of the 70s and 80s Those books shaped his younger years and made him fall in love with reading.

Review:

This book is a love letter to Carnival horror. Stepping in the (giant) footsteps of writers such as Stephen King, Dean Koontz and Ray Bradbury and paying homage to movies such as The Lost Boys, The Funhouse, Something wicked this way comes and even more recent the Netflix series Midnight Mass, Jamie manages to fill these footsteps with a bloodfilled, hair curling, spine shivering tale!

Joe Cage is a drifter, running away from his father and leaving behind his life and his sister, something that hurts him immensely. But he had no choice. When he comes to the little town of Marybell (Marybell’s not too kind on strangers though) he is looking for a job and that presents itself by becoming a carnie, an employee of ‘Montague’s Carnival of Delights and Terror’! Joe meets enigmatic Daisy and he feels right at home. Until a little girl disappears in the ride he was working at and suddenly his life takes another turn, but only for the worse. In the meantime, sheriff Jackson is invited to investigate a few weird and uncanny deaths. But what has Joe to do with these?

Carnival horror is thé perfect horror in my opinion. (If I ever get to write a story myself, I would choose this genre as my first foray) The weird and eerie rides, the coming and going of carnivals and carnies providing a perfect alibi and mix some great influences by the best authors (above mentioned) that have ever been on this planet and you might just say Jamie belongs to that list! I think true horror lovers will fancy this book, because it gives the right amount of background to its MC, sends a bundle of shivers down your spine and you might end up either with grey hair (out of fear) and run away as far as you can or you might just want to become a part of the carnival!

Sink your teeth in this wonderful novel that will be released 3rd of June! This is for the fans of graphic novels such as Ben Templesmith’s ‘30 Days of Night’ and ‘American Vampire’, for those who loved ‘Something Wicked this way comes’, ‘Salem’s Lot’ and ‘Midnight Mass’! This is for the fans of indiehorror writers and this will make you a fan of Jamie Stewart and his writing!