Carniepunk Paperback – January 1, 2013

I bought this collection bc of Seanan Mcguire and Rachel Caine.. LOVE THEM!!! I am now going to read the Blud series ("the Three Lives of Lydia") this will probably be the only series I pick up reading from this anthology. I would pick the series about "Freak House" but that is the 1st introduction to a future series. I don't like reading unfinished series.The Great:Painted Love -4/5 stars- A really old "guy" likes to blend in attach himself to another so he can observe life without interfering. Until he FINALLY has an interest in someone.The Three Lives of Lydia -5/5 stars- Waking up in a different crazy world, wouldnt that be crazy?? Loved the crazy ending!The Wherewife -4/5 stars- Told from the husbands perspective about his wife as a wherewolf and all the negative stuff he has to deal with as a husband.The Cold Girl -5/5 stars- A young girl who loves her unkind boyfriend too much. The things she learns about him at a carnival. Awesome ending.Freak House -5/5 stars- A half jinn women trying to rescue her father. This will be a very good series.Hells Menagerie -4.5/5 stars- A young girl and her sort of dad and her hell hound are on an adventure to rescue the hellhounds pups.Daughter of the Midway... -5/5 stars- A young mermaid girl traveling with a carnival ends up in a not so nice town. The only story where the carnival is the good guys and the ppl r the bad guys.The okay:The Demon Barker of Wheat Street -3/5 stars- An elementalist his assistant and his dog (who he can talk too) go to a carnival where he doesnt have his full power and get more than whats expected. Part of a series that i hope is better than this short, which is just kind of blah...The Sweeter The Juice -3.5/5 stars- The story of a transgender women who is trying to finish his/her change into a women in a zombie world. This story is a bit weird for the sake of weirdness. I kinda liked it looking back though.Parlor Tricks -3.5 stars- 2 sisters go to a carnival in a crooked town searching for a missing girl (a pretty girl) and maybe one of them might be the next target? Don't worry they both yield magic.The Inside Man -3.5/5 stars- 3 dark skinned powerful ladies are on a mission to find out what is wrong with the boss' sister and her family. His family and the town they are from are all acting like zombies and it is up to them to stop a certain clown.The not so good:A Duet with Darkness -2.5/5 stars- I would have given this story a 3 if it had an ending. This author didnt write a short story she wrote a hook to get you to read her series. The idea of the series is a little weird. Girl plays violin and is conceded about it and plays a little worse than she should so she wont make her band look bad. WHy? bc her man (also in band) tell her too. This chick is hard to like.Recession of the Devine -2.5/5 stars- A greek god taking a break from being her godly self and is working as a human and her job ends her up at a carnival where there are some other gods/killers. The only reason i didn't give this one 2 stars is bc it had a nice ending. Mostly, it was boring.A Chance in Hell -2/5 stars- Too much sexual content, if that's for you then here you go. Succubus turned human trying to keep her and her freinds souls and just be human. Except every demon is trying to corrupt ppl including her. They go to a carnival so she can try to be normal and that doesn't work out the way they want it too.

Overall, this collection gets 3 stars. There were some standouts, like "The Cold Girl," "Parlor Tricks," "Feral House," "The Inside Man," and "Daughter of the Midway, the Mermaid, and the Open Lonely Sea." But some of the stories fell flat for me. Below is a brief synopsis of each and my rating:"Painted Love" by Rob Thurman - I had a bit of confusion about the main character, Doodle, and it took some time for me to get into this story (really, until Doodle's origins were explained). This was a creepy story about predators who hide in carnivals. 3/5I've never read anything before by Delilah Dawson, but I wasn't very fond of "The Three Lives of Lydia." This story features Lydia, who enters the magical world of Sang when she falls asleep in our world. She meets and falls almost instantly for Charlie, a "Bludman" (another term for vampire), who is part of a carnival full of magical beings (like a two-headed boy and a wolfman). 2.5/5I lost interest in Kevin Hearne's series after the second book, so I skipped "The Demon Barker on Wheat Street." Not rated"The Sweeter the Juice" by Mark Henry has both zombies and transsexuals. Sounds interesting, but I didn't enjoy it. 1/5"Werewife" by Jaye Wells was a quick read about a couple, Brad and Annie, who are dealing with the consequences of her being bitten by a werewolf at last year's carnival. They return to the carnival a year later looking for a cure, and find something else altogether. 3/5"The Cold Girl" by Rachel Caine is a story of a naive girl who finds out the kind of person her boyfriend really is when they visit the carnival, and how she gets her revenge. 4/5I didn't read "A Duet with Darkness" by Allison Pang since I'm not really a fan of her Abby Sinclair series. Not rated"Recession of the Divine" by Hillary Jacques was disjointed and one of my least favorites. It features Olivia, a seer, god-descendant, and insurance investigator who tries to find the cause of an accident at a carnival. 1/5"Parlor Tricks" by Jennifer Estep was one of my favorites in this collection, and is also available free on Amazon. Gin and Bria visit a local carnival in search of a missing teenager. While this story is short, Gin and Bria get to show off their investigative and butt-whomping skills. 4.5/5"Feral House" by Kelly Meding was, in my opinion, the best in this collection. It features a character not seen in her prior books, half-djinn Shiloh, who teams up with a werewolf and human to save her djinn father (and a few others) from a supernatural freak show. Ms. Meding has a way of immediately engaging you in her plots, and this was no different. The story ended with an opening for a new series...one I would absolutely read! 5/5"The Inside Man" by Nicole Peeler is about a supernatural trio investigating what caused an entire town to become catatonic. They encounter an evil clown and end up fighting for their lives. I know I am oversimplifying the story with this brief summary, but I enjoyed this one. 4/5"A Chance In Hell" by Jackie Kessler didn't grab my interest in the first few pages, so I gave up. Not rated"Hell's Menagerie" by Kelly Gay takes place when Charlie is off saving Hank. Emma, Brim, and Rex visit a carnival to rescue Brim's mate and newborn pups. Emma couldn't carry an entire book on her own, but it was nice seeing her shine in this short story. 3.5/5"Daughter of the Midway, the Mermaid, and the Open Lonely Sea" by Seanan McGuire is about a carnival that returns to the place where their star attraction--a mermaid--was found as an infant. She joined the carnival as a pregnant adult, and her daughter is now faced with learning about her past and future. This book really captured the otherworldly nature of mermaids, and I enjoyed it. 4/5

By the very nature of anthologies, the quality varies quite considerably from one story to the next. This makes an overall review quite hard to do. I think one of the problems here is that they're all too similar. Whoever put this together obviously had one tone in mind when I was expecting some variation. Some of them were like highlights packages for what could make a good feature length book but were hurried by the nature of the short story format. "Duet with darkness" is probably my favorite though that's just a personal opinion and I can't put my finger on why specifically. There could also be an open debate on what "horror" is exactly. I thought too many of them bordered on "fantasy", and on in particular (the first one) didn't use any real horror techniques, but instead tried to shock readers by being "immoral" as opposed to "scary". It's said that first impressions count and having that one up first was a strange choice because it soured my expectations for the rest. It's also transpired that a lot of them are small parts of a wider series which is a bit odd. I guess it's trying to advertise that author's particular series but it didn't really work, I've got no interest in looking in to any of these authors further.

I am not a great lover of short stories but the cast of writers for this volume was so impressive that I decided to put my disinterest aside and give it a shot. I was not disappointed. The quality of the writing was everything one would expect from such experienced authors, with clever plots, great characters, and the thread of the carnival running through every story. Creepy carnival is not just an alliteration.Some of the stories are taken from a universe that the author has explored in full length novels, others are stand-alone and complete in themselves. All were equally readable though of course I have my favourites.Stand-out for me was Rob Thurman's contribution. A well-crafted, tightly worked story that hinted of the outcome but left the reader with a nice flourish at the end. Kevin Hearne also deserves a special mention. His contribution featured characters from his best-selling Iron Druid series in a context that was consistent with the overall story line of the series, and yet worked very well on its own.The other stories in the collection were also high quality and too numerous to review individually. A great collection and a great addition to anyone's book shelf.

It is worth paying the cover price for the first story alone . while all the stories have merit some are weaker than others, but as mentioned the first short story is outstanding.

I got this on the strength of some of the authors I like not having heard of the others. I was very disappointed.so much in fact I have not yet finished the book. I was expecting a mix of fantasy ,suspense and horror but so far and I am half way through it is unrelenting horror all bodies and gore not my idea of a good read.

A great collection of stories from different worlds. Hard to put down. Worth the read and highly recommended for any fantasy lover.