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kenreads's review against another edition
dark
tense
3.0
wish the ending didn’t feel so rushed but a good horror story overall i think
cmbarowsky's review against another edition
4.0
Rating: 4/5 Stars
“In the sheeting rain that was now laced with tendrils of fog, the dark Ferris wheel thrust up like a prehistoric skeleton, weird, mysterious, its familiar lines obscured and distorted and made fantastic by the night and the mist.”
The Funhouse weaves the terrifying and, at times, gruesome into the joyful bright lights and thrilling rides of a carnival. Elena could no longer stand the strict rules that her mother gave her. She decides to run away with the carnival and the man she loves. But when she gives birth months later to an evil child, she murders the beast. Years later, Elena has escaped the carnival and started a family with healthy, normal children. But the carnival is back in town and Conrad is desperately seeking revenge.
Koontz sucked me into the story within the first few pages. His attention to visual imagery captured the eeriness and horror of the story. The opening scene and the subsequent frightening scenes that took place at the carnival were vivid. It’s difficult to describe the events without spoiling anything, but it was fast-paced and so much fun to read. I loved the intensity of this book.
Although this satisfied my desire for something fast-paced and scary, it definitely is not for everyone. There were a few gruesome scenes and some religious references. This didn’t bother me, but it’s not for everyone. I was disappointed with the lack of character development. The characters didn’t have a lot of depth. The female characters were often sexualized and ditsy, and the male characters were horn-dogs or violent. I wasn’t a fan of the drastic stereotypes, but I still enjoyed the book.
The Funhouse was both gripping and horrific, and I absolutely loved it.
“In the sheeting rain that was now laced with tendrils of fog, the dark Ferris wheel thrust up like a prehistoric skeleton, weird, mysterious, its familiar lines obscured and distorted and made fantastic by the night and the mist.”
The Funhouse weaves the terrifying and, at times, gruesome into the joyful bright lights and thrilling rides of a carnival. Elena could no longer stand the strict rules that her mother gave her. She decides to run away with the carnival and the man she loves. But when she gives birth months later to an evil child, she murders the beast. Years later, Elena has escaped the carnival and started a family with healthy, normal children. But the carnival is back in town and Conrad is desperately seeking revenge.
Koontz sucked me into the story within the first few pages. His attention to visual imagery captured the eeriness and horror of the story. The opening scene and the subsequent frightening scenes that took place at the carnival were vivid. It’s difficult to describe the events without spoiling anything, but it was fast-paced and so much fun to read. I loved the intensity of this book.
Although this satisfied my desire for something fast-paced and scary, it definitely is not for everyone. There were a few gruesome scenes and some religious references. This didn’t bother me, but it’s not for everyone. I was disappointed with the lack of character development. The characters didn’t have a lot of depth. The female characters were often sexualized and ditsy, and the male characters were horn-dogs or violent. I wasn’t a fan of the drastic stereotypes, but I still enjoyed the book.
The Funhouse was both gripping and horrific, and I absolutely loved it.
justlily's review against another edition
2.0
Able to be read but is offensive to...nearly every group of people on the planet the way books from this time period tend to be. So. Yeah, can't recommend it in good faith or say I enjoyed it. Just a D grade horror movie when there's nothing else on.
schmick's review against another edition
2.0
Not one of his best
Too many loose ends and a lack of closure on certain details for my taste. Also a bit heavy on the religious themes, even for him.
Too many loose ends and a lack of closure on certain details for my taste. Also a bit heavy on the religious themes, even for him.
evanbaker's review against another edition
4.0
*** SPOILERS ***
The book starts off with a woman taking shots of vodka to get courage. We find out she's trying to get up courage to kill her baby. The baby is deformed and the mom thinks it's evil. When Ellen (the mom_) tries to kill the baby it fights back fiercely, unlike a baby ever should or could be able to do. She kills the baby, and her abusive husband, Conrad comes home to find the baby dead. He hits her but doesn't kill her, makes her move out right that second, and tells her that he is going to wait how ever long it takes and one day find her children she has in the future and kill them.
The next part of the book is many years later. Ellen has had two children, a teenage girl and a 10-year-old son. Ellen is a god-fearing alcoholic that is a very strict mom. Ellen's daughter, Amy, realizes she is pregnant and when she tells her boyfriend at the end of Prom night, he refuses to give her money for an abortion, breaks up with her, and says he will say she slept with someone else.
Amy can't find a way to raise the money to get an abortion so she finally decides she will have to tell her mom, and is genuinely scared that her mom will kill her. She tells her mom and her mom says she has to get an abortion and can't tell anyone about it ever. She mentions that the baby could come out as a monster and deformed. Meanwhile, Ellen gets belligerently drunk most nights and sneaks into her son's room when she thinks he is asleep. He isn't asleep and hears her talking about how she hopes he won't turn into a monster because she wouldn't want to kill him like she had to kill Victor. This really scares him. He decides that when the carnival comes to town he will try to run away to be with the carnies.
Meanwhile, we see that Conrad is a carny and he has been spending years trying to hunt down Ellen to find her new life and kill her children. Any time he sees a child that looks similar or around the age of what he thought Ellen's kids would have been. He makes another carny give free coupons to the psychic so the psychic could get more info about them.
Ellen's son goes to the carnival and while there, Conrad asks him questions and he feels a need to lie about his mom's name and life. Conrad gives him two coupons to come back to the fair anyway. He plans to use one to run away with the carnival on the last night they are open. He decides he will use the other one to go back again another time before the end of the carnival.
Amy gets her abortion and then starts hanging out a lot with her one very promiscuous friend and two boys that they double date a lot. They go to the carnival one night and go into the psychic booth. The psychic looks into the sphere and freaks out and tells the group they need to get out right away and they are in danger if they don't. She admits that she can't actually see the future and she pretends, but for the first time ever she really saw something bad and a lot of blood and danger and they had to leave. The group ignores her.
Conrad goes to talk to the psychic to see if she got any info on the girl. She said she didn't but Conrad said she is lying and kills her before she can try to stop him from taking Ellen's kids. Also, the psychic and Ellen had a child together named Gunther, and he was deformed and beast like. He had been raping, killing, and dismembering people before going to the next stop for the carnival. Conrad wanted to steal Ellen's kid and have Gunther kill them and torture them. Conrad thinks that he was meant to worship the devil and he gave birth to Gunther who is the new devil.
Conrad gives the group a coupon to go into the funhouse where he planned to steal Amy. Ellen's son was also at the carnival and when he was on the Ferris wheel he saw Amy going into the fun house so he went to go wait for her to get off. Conrad saw the boy and convinced him to help him fix the funhouse because he said it was stuck and that's why his sister was taking so long to come out.
Conrad stopped the funhouse and had gunther kill the three friends of Amy's one by one. Amy finally gets to a basement and sees Conrad with her brother. She has a crappy knife that she found in the darkness when trying to get out the funhouse. She leans down to give her brother a hug when she found him and when Conrad wasn't expecting it she sliced his throat and killed him. Then her and her brother started to find an exit and saw Gunther near the machinery after he killed the girl Amy was friends with. Amy was able to turn on a switch to start the gears and it caught Gunther and he was killed by getting sucked in the gears. That is how the book ends.
The book starts off with a woman taking shots of vodka to get courage. We find out she's trying to get up courage to kill her baby. The baby is deformed and the mom thinks it's evil. When Ellen (the mom_) tries to kill the baby it fights back fiercely, unlike a baby ever should or could be able to do. She kills the baby, and her abusive husband, Conrad comes home to find the baby dead. He hits her but doesn't kill her, makes her move out right that second, and tells her that he is going to wait how ever long it takes and one day find her children she has in the future and kill them.
The next part of the book is many years later. Ellen has had two children, a teenage girl and a 10-year-old son. Ellen is a god-fearing alcoholic that is a very strict mom. Ellen's daughter, Amy, realizes she is pregnant and when she tells her boyfriend at the end of Prom night, he refuses to give her money for an abortion, breaks up with her, and says he will say she slept with someone else.
Amy can't find a way to raise the money to get an abortion so she finally decides she will have to tell her mom, and is genuinely scared that her mom will kill her. She tells her mom and her mom says she has to get an abortion and can't tell anyone about it ever. She mentions that the baby could come out as a monster and deformed. Meanwhile, Ellen gets belligerently drunk most nights and sneaks into her son's room when she thinks he is asleep. He isn't asleep and hears her talking about how she hopes he won't turn into a monster because she wouldn't want to kill him like she had to kill Victor. This really scares him. He decides that when the carnival comes to town he will try to run away to be with the carnies.
Meanwhile, we see that Conrad is a carny and he has been spending years trying to hunt down Ellen to find her new life and kill her children. Any time he sees a child that looks similar or around the age of what he thought Ellen's kids would have been. He makes another carny give free coupons to the psychic so the psychic could get more info about them.
Ellen's son goes to the carnival and while there, Conrad asks him questions and he feels a need to lie about his mom's name and life. Conrad gives him two coupons to come back to the fair anyway. He plans to use one to run away with the carnival on the last night they are open. He decides he will use the other one to go back again another time before the end of the carnival.
Amy gets her abortion and then starts hanging out a lot with her one very promiscuous friend and two boys that they double date a lot. They go to the carnival one night and go into the psychic booth. The psychic looks into the sphere and freaks out and tells the group they need to get out right away and they are in danger if they don't. She admits that she can't actually see the future and she pretends, but for the first time ever she really saw something bad and a lot of blood and danger and they had to leave. The group ignores her.
Conrad goes to talk to the psychic to see if she got any info on the girl. She said she didn't but Conrad said she is lying and kills her before she can try to stop him from taking Ellen's kids. Also, the psychic and Ellen had a child together named Gunther, and he was deformed and beast like. He had been raping, killing, and dismembering people before going to the next stop for the carnival. Conrad wanted to steal Ellen's kid and have Gunther kill them and torture them. Conrad thinks that he was meant to worship the devil and he gave birth to Gunther who is the new devil.
Conrad gives the group a coupon to go into the funhouse where he planned to steal Amy. Ellen's son was also at the carnival and when he was on the Ferris wheel he saw Amy going into the fun house so he went to go wait for her to get off. Conrad saw the boy and convinced him to help him fix the funhouse because he said it was stuck and that's why his sister was taking so long to come out.
Conrad stopped the funhouse and had gunther kill the three friends of Amy's one by one. Amy finally gets to a basement and sees Conrad with her brother. She has a crappy knife that she found in the darkness when trying to get out the funhouse. She leans down to give her brother a hug when she found him and when Conrad wasn't expecting it she sliced his throat and killed him. Then her and her brother started to find an exit and saw Gunther near the machinery after he killed the girl Amy was friends with. Amy was able to turn on a switch to start the gears and it caught Gunther and he was killed by getting sucked in the gears. That is how the book ends.
catwolfswritings's review against another edition
2.0
Цялото ревю тук > https://nikoljonnotsnow.wordpress.com/2017/07/04/панаирът-дийн-кунц/
Това е всъщност една история за сблъсъка между доброто и злото – толкова буквално, че са намесени Господ и Сатаната като двете сили, които движат героите и им помагат и насочват действията им. Затова и разграничението между добро и зло е пределно ясно – няма никакво съмнение къде на фронтовата линия стоят героите, защото не просто всичко е буквално, а е и ужасно пресилено.
Ако трябва да бъда честна, не останах очарована от тази книга. През цялото време си мислех, че вероятно този сюжет и изпълнението му би бил хубав хорър филм от 1980-те години, но като за книга… нещо липснаше просто, а образите бяха сковани, с предопределена цел (като човек, гледал достатъчно хоръри, не ми беше особено трудно да предвидя какво ще се случи накрая… а дори и да не си гледал много хоръри, пак няма да е трудно). Общо взето всичко беше като от калъп направено.
Както стана ясно, това е история за борбата между доброто и злото и пътят, който всеки човек воже да избере да поеме и да реши в коя посока иска да тръгне. Има ги и свръхестествените елементи, на които всъщност се основава историята, тъй като без тях тя не би могла да бъде това, което е.
Наистина, романът не е кой знае какво. С всичките фанатично-религиозни елемети дори ми досади, беше клиширан и съдбата на героите беше ясна ако не от самото начало, то поне от средата нататък. Но пък харесвам стила на Кунц, харесва ми начина, по който пише – толкова е плавно и леко, приятно и увлекателно, че може да забравиш, че историята не е нищо особено.
Това е всъщност една история за сблъсъка между доброто и злото – толкова буквално, че са намесени Господ и Сатаната като двете сили, които движат героите и им помагат и насочват действията им. Затова и разграничението между добро и зло е пределно ясно – няма никакво съмнение къде на фронтовата линия стоят героите, защото не просто всичко е буквално, а е и ужасно пресилено.
Ако трябва да бъда честна, не останах очарована от тази книга. През цялото време си мислех, че вероятно този сюжет и изпълнението му би бил хубав хорър филм от 1980-те години, но като за книга… нещо липснаше просто, а образите бяха сковани, с предопределена цел (като човек, гледал достатъчно хоръри, не ми беше особено трудно да предвидя какво ще се случи накрая… а дори и да не си гледал много хоръри, пак няма да е трудно). Общо взето всичко беше като от калъп направено.
Както стана ясно, това е история за борбата между доброто и злото и пътят, който всеки човек воже да избере да поеме и да реши в коя посока иска да тръгне. Има ги и свръхестествените елементи, на които всъщност се основава историята, тъй като без тях тя не би могла да бъде това, което е.
Наистина, романът не е кой знае какво. С всичките фанатично-религиозни елемети дори ми досади, беше клиширан и съдбата на героите беше ясна ако не от самото начало, то поне от средата нататък. Но пък харесвам стила на Кунц, харесва ми начина, по който пише – толкова е плавно и леко, приятно и увлекателно, че може да забравиш, че историята не е нищо особено.
adambwriter's review against another edition
2.0
Thoughts: https://wp.me/p1n6kW-2iV (available March 17, 2019)
neilsarver's review against another edition
3.0
Look, I think there should be way more slasher movie novelizations with wildly overreaching backstories, so that's the main reason to read this, and it succeeds at that. The problem ultimately is that the plot of the movie doesn't provide space to pay off all of these wild threads of revenge, Satanism and cycles of child abuse.
I am curious how much of the material that actually was in the movie that's lost here was later additions that weren't in the screenplay Koontz was provided and how much he just wrote himself into a corner with his additions that would require too much explanation to fit, so he just dropped the movie version of events.
It certainly provided me with what I wanted from it.
I am curious how much of the material that actually was in the movie that's lost here was later additions that weren't in the screenplay Koontz was provided and how much he just wrote himself into a corner with his additions that would require too much explanation to fit, so he just dropped the movie version of events.
It certainly provided me with what I wanted from it.