See you here at 8PM.........................
Group reading for December 18th--Dark Carousel by Joe Hill
- Thread starter Spideyman
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....or earlier as is my custom......my review is short and sweet....this would have made one hell of a great Night Gallery episode.....just the right amount of creep factor......
I will also need to weigh in early.
There is no denying Joe Hill can write. He's got a style unique to him, but similar to his dad's in the way they pull you in. Just regular guy talk, putting you at ease, using familiar things to lull you into a sense of comraderie.
Unfortunately, I was not quite caught up with this story. The premise is eerie and again, some beautiful lines of writing, but I didn't feel it was developed enough. Things felt thrown out there quickly even though it was on the longer side of a short story. Obviously there were plenty of pages to tighten it with meaningful information.
It felt like a lot of just random facts and very thin and slapdash character story pasted together.
I didn't feel Joe hit his stride with this one.
Maybe a more visual adaptation like Scott mentions above would've sold me on it.
There is no denying Joe Hill can write. He's got a style unique to him, but similar to his dad's in the way they pull you in. Just regular guy talk, putting you at ease, using familiar things to lull you into a sense of comraderie.
Unfortunately, I was not quite caught up with this story. The premise is eerie and again, some beautiful lines of writing, but I didn't feel it was developed enough. Things felt thrown out there quickly even though it was on the longer side of a short story. Obviously there were plenty of pages to tighten it with meaningful information.
It felt like a lot of just random facts and very thin and slapdash character story pasted together.
I didn't feel Joe hit his stride with this one.
Maybe a more visual adaptation like Scott mentions above would've sold me on it.
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...."slapdash" would be a good descriptive of the cohesiveness-yet he even manages to make some faulty approaches entertaining......
Oh for sure.
He is a really gifted writer.
So, part of my feeling might be that I have him so high on a pedestal of what I expect, that it's hard to stay up there. Not that I want to knock him down. I want him to stay up there, so I just expect them all to be home runs. I want them to be.
Nothing I say will change his hard-earned talent. This just wasn't one that spoke to me personally.
Joe Hill sets original vinyl first audiobook
I listened to the excerpt of this and I'm thinking I might have enjoyed it better in this format. The story being read to me. I liked that.Joe Hill sets original vinyl first audiobook
and yes, I meant slapdash, fixed my typo!
I liked the story but not as much as last week's. I thought it was going to go a different direction than it did, with the carousel animals coming to life.
I did think it was clever to have the lone Survivor go overseas because they could not reach him there.
All in all, enjoyable enough but not one of his best stories, I agree.
I did think it was clever to have the lone Survivor go overseas because they could not reach him there.
All in all, enjoyable enough but not one of his best stories, I agree.
Well, the sea serpent from the carousel found him eventually.
I liked the little nods to Christmasland and October Country by Ray Bradbury.
Had thoughts it might be like Joyland, but took a dark and twisted path instead. Not a favorite from the book, but did have the gore and horror. Guess they rec'd the ultimate judgment for their misdeeds. Did anyone catch Carlie Manx NOS4A2 mention?
Note also the upcoming book cover of SK next book-- If It Bleeds.
In Dark Carousel one of the Wild Wheel’s seats is a sinister black cat with a limp mouse in it’s mouth, this cat was a present from Manx, owner of Christmasland, for the original carousel of 10.000 lights.
I liked this one. A good ole Horror revenge story.
I liked how we thought that maybe the lone survivor survived because he wasn't as involved as the others but then that turned out not to be the case.
I liked how we thought that maybe the lone survivor survived because he wasn't as involved as the others but then that turned out not to be the case.
I bet all the places these carousel animals were from have some meaning.
A mention of Mordor.
Why do you guys think this happened? Because they carved into the horse? Because they robbed the operator?
And the way that was all cleaned up -- I had a hard time suspending disbelief on that.
A mention of Mordor.
Why do you guys think this happened? Because they carved into the horse? Because they robbed the operator?
And the way that was all cleaned up -- I had a hard time suspending disbelief on that.
...deeds most foul reap a dark harvest...
I think both but maybe the carving part just a little bit more as a reason why.
I thought the operator would have more of a role so was disappointed when they found him unresponsive.