Nightmare Carnival

by Ellen Datlow (Editor), Stephen Graham Jones (Contributor), Laird Barron (Contributor)

A boy's eleventh birthday heralds the arrival of a bizarre new entourage, a suicidal diva just can't seem to die, and a washed up wrestler goes toe-to-toe with a strange new foe. All of these queer marvels and more can be found at the Nightmare Carnival!

Hugo and Bram Stoker award-winning editor Ellen Datlow (Lovecraft Unbound, Supernatural Noir) presents a new anthology of insidious and shocking tales in the horrific and irresistible Nightmare Carnival! Dark Horse is proud to bring you this masterwork of terror from such incredible creative talents as Terry Dowling, Joel Lane, Priya Sharma, Dennis Danvers, and Nick Mamatas!

‘‘Work, Hook, Shoot, Rip’’Nick Mamatas
‘‘Hibbler’s Minions’’ Jeffrey Ford
‘‘The Firebrand’’ Priya Sharma
‘‘Swan Song and Then Some’’ Dennis Danvers
‘‘And the Carnival Leaves Town’’ A.C. Wise
‘‘Corpse Rose’’ Terry Dowling
‘‘A Small Part in the Pantomime’’ Glen Hirshberg
‘Screaming Elk, MT’’ Laird Barron
‘‘The Lion Cage’’ Genevieve Valentine
‘‘The Darkest Part’’ Stephen Graham Jones
‘‘The Popping Fields’’ Robert Shearman
‘‘Skullpocket’’ Nathan Ballingrud

Cover Artist: E. M. Gist

Genres: Horror, Short Stories, Anthologies, Fantasy, Fiction, Adult, Thriller

381 pages, Paperback

First published October 7, 2014

About the author

Ellen Datlow has been editing science fiction, fantasy, and horror short fiction for forty years as fiction editor of OMNI Magazine and editor of Event Horizon and SCIFICTION. She currently acquires short stories and novellas for Tor.com. In addition, she has edited about one hundred science fiction, fantasy, and horror anthologies, including the annual The Best Horror of the Year series, The Doll Collection, Mad Hatters and March Hares, The Devil and the Deep: Horror Stories of the Sea, Echoes: The Saga Anthology of Ghost Stories, Edited By, and Final Cuts: New Tales of Hollywood Horror and Other Spectacles.
She's won multiple World Fantasy Awards, Locus Awards, Hugo Awards, Bram Stoker Awards, International Horror Guild Awards, Shirley Jackson Awards, and the 2012 Il Posto Nero Black Spot Award for Excellence as Best Foreign Editor. Datlow was named recipient of the 2007 Karl Edward Wagner Award, given at the British Fantasy Convention for "outstanding contribution to the genre," was honored with the Life Achievement Award by the Horror Writers Association, in acknowledgment of superior achievement over an entire career, and honored with the World Fantasy Life Achievement Award at the 2014 World Fantasy Convention.

Reviews

[James · Rating 5 out of 5]

An absolutely terrific anthology of horror and dark fantasy. Though I liked all of the stories, I recommend the following: "Scapegoats" by N. Lee Wood, "Firebrand" by Priya Sharma, "Hibbler's Minions" by Jeffrey Ford, "The Lion Cage" by Genevieve Valentine, and "Screaming Elk, MT" by Laird Barron.

However, I HIGHLY recommend the following two stories within: "Skullpocket" by Nathan Ballingrud and "The Darkest Part" by Stephen Graham Jones.

Nathan Ballingrud is quickly rising toward the top of my list of favorite weird authors. I was more than wowed by his recent and only anthology. But his story here, “Skullpocket,” was completely unlike anything of his I’ve read thus far. If you’ve seen The Nightmare Before Christmas or Beetlejuice, those movies will give you something of the Tim Burton-like feel of “Skullpocket.” The story’s protagonist is one Jonathan Wormcake, the Gentleman Corpse of Hob’s Landing and the story tells how Wormcake came to be who he is, along with the history of his town, their long-running festival, and Wormcake’s long lost love. This is an absolutely amazing story. It gives us humor, sadness, and sheer creepiness throughout, and at just the right beats—in my opinion, a very hard combination to pull off. And Ballingrud succeeds in doing with a horror ending something I’ve never seen before: “Skullpocket” ends on both a dismal nihilistic note and a positive hopeful note as well. That description sounds incredibly contradictory—but Ballingrud pulls it off superbly. I highly recommend this anthology for “Skullpocket” alone.

If that wasn’t enough gushing, let me add that I think there was even a better story in Nightmare Carnival: Stephen Graham Jones’ “The Darkest Part.” Any short horror story that starts off with the line “All we wanted to do was kill a clown,” you know you’re in for a wild ride. Stephen Graham Jones is an incredibly able horror writer. I highly recommend his 2010 collection The Ones that Got Away, especially its story “Father, Son, Holy Rabbit.” Jones is a gritty, hard-hitting writer and “The Darkest Part” is no exception. This story is unsettling on several levels and though I thought I knew where the ending was going, Jones completely surprised me. It really plays on the typical fear of clowns trope without becoming cliché or predictable. In addition, it’s rare for me to get a chill from a horror story but “The Darkest Part” is one of those extremely disturbing and scary tales—very effective!

Any anthology edited by Ellen Datlow is good. But like any artist, some works are better than others. Nightmare Carnival is definitely one of her better anthologies. I recommend it!

[Jess · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rated just for Genevieve Valentine's story "The Lion Cage" --always thrilling to find a new (to me) Valentine circus story!

[Roger · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nightmare Carnival was an utterly fantastic short story collection. Every entry here is a winner and every story is creepy as hell. Even reading the first tale broke my heart-memory tells me it is based on a true story but honestly I can't bear to find out. I prefer not to know. Some good authors contributed to this book. Obligatory name dropping: Terry Dowling, Jeffrey ford, Genevieve Valentine, Stephen Graham Jones, and Laird Barron all have stories here. Happily there is not a weak link in the whole thing, which is the mark of a good anthology. Enjoy wrapping your head around this.

[Christy McDaniel · Rating 3 out of 5]

I picked this out of my "to read" shelf after finishing the Mr. Dark/Carnival tale (that bothered me so much) in "The Two Sams." I guess it was a bout of curiosity related to the somewhat common trope of the Dark Carnival rather than a real love or appreciation of it. I mean, I don't have a fear of clowns, have no fear of the animals, and probably would have begged one of the traveling shows that haunt these stories to snatch me up in the night and take me away when I was a kid—especially once things started getting tough. And I don't find most carnival "freaks" disturbing in the least, so in terms of expectations, I didn't really know what I'd get from this. I guess I was interested in how many stories in this collection might dip a toe into Bradbury and was pleased to find that not too many did. As for specifics, like most horror anthologies, this has some great stuff alongside the tedious. I won't dwell on it, but I suspect folks will either love or (like me) hate the Ballingrud story, "Skullpocket." I usually love his work, but it irritated the hell out of me—to the point that I put this anthology away for a while. A couple of stand-outs: "The Mysteries" by Livia Llewellyn is, like much of her work, poetically unsettling and truly Weird...and I mean that with a capital "W" since she does such a great job of toying with the sub-genre to great and creepy effect. I found myself disturbed by it, and that's always fantastic. Also, I enjoyed much of "Hibbler’s Minions" by Jeffrey Ford, but I still can't help but wish the entire thing had been dedicated to the Dust Demon. What a great monster! I wanted to read more about it, particularly since it was a creature so entrenched in a very specific historical period (i.e., the Dust Bowl). There is a Laird Barron story included, "Screaming Elk." I like his work a lot, but it is a Jessica Mace story. I know many of his fans adore that character, but I don't for some reason. (Well, I have many reasons, but they're neither here nor there in this review.) Its inclusion could be another reason to love this anthology for many, so I thought I'd mention it. Overall, it's not a bad assemblage of short fiction. It's not fantastic, and many of the stories drag quite a bit despite being interesting and well-crafted (see the A.C. Wise story for a prime example of this). I do recommend reading the stories by Ford and Llewellyn, if nothing else, and this might be one of those books you purchase and leave on the coffee table for occasional thumbing rather than a straight read-through.

[Pachelbel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ellen Datlow is by far my favorite editor. She puts together beautiful, original anthologies and she consistently picks topics I love. Like carnivals!

Nightmare Carnival runs the gamut from the early days of carnies, to mythological performers, to the social tensions that followed some of the shows--like Klansmen with a grudge against foreign wrestlers.

And the Carnival Leaves Town by A.C. Wise was one of my favorite stories. A carnival comes to town, stays a while, and leaves; a happy family vanishes the same day. Their home is left in perfect condition, coffee mugs half-filled, beds made. The little boy's room is the only exception: all of his posters have been turned to face the wall. His stuffed animals have had their eyes removed. Forty years later, the detective assigned to the case is still chasing answers....

This is what Walter Eckert knows deep in his bones: If you are not invited, you cannot attend. You will not be invited unless you would give up anything, everything to have the carnival steal you away.

This story incorporates things that almost always chill and thrill me: a family vanishes right in the middle of every day life with no sign of struggle; a carnival with creepy clowns; found footage.

My very, very favorite (and about 1/2 the reason I bought the book) was Genevieve Valentine's The Lion Cage.

It's not about the lions you saw on The Lion King. This is about mountain lions who aren't quite right.



The main character is a young woman who is, or is nearly, a giant. She works for a beat up circus by hammering stakes and setting up the events and, like most people, avoiding the mountain lions and their psychotic captor.

Look mountain lions are my favorite big cat but they are scary as fuck, especially if you live somewhere they roam and you happen to love hiking. Imagine them the way Genevieve Valentine writes them and it's even worse. This story hit all the right notes for me.

...And the story right after this one is about three friends who set out to kill a clown. That story is dark.

This collection as a whole is enchanting, unsettling, downright disturbing at times, and I highly recommend it for horror fans' summertime reading.

[Horror DNA · Rating 4 out of 5]

When it comes to anthologies, fewer phrases bring me more joy and anticipation than "Edited by Ellen Datlow". Because while I freely admit I have not read all of the anthologies she has had a hand in – I'm probably not even close – I can honestly say I have yet to be disappointed in any book she's edited, and Nightmare Carnival is another that can be added to the win column.

If you haven't gathered by the title or the cover picture above, Nightmare Carnival is a collection of 15 stories that center on the goings on at what is supposed to be a place of happiness, but we all know there's something evil that resides just below the carnival's surface. I mean, come on…clowns for one. The book is more dark fantasy than horror (although the latter does creep in here and there), and while each story is enjoyable in its own right, for the first time in recent memory I can actually pick some standout stories in a Datlow-edited anthology.

You can read Steve's full review at Horror DNA by clicking here.

[Michael Duren · Rating 1 out of 5]

2022 Horror Reading Challenge: Short Story Collection

What a bore!!! This was such a let down, especially with how excited I was to read it. There are 3 stories I enjoyed. The rest where the least interesting stories. I’m really surprised I finished this one. Stephen Graham Jones is the only standout here. I’m a big fan of his work, so I’m glad his story stood out. I’d recommend you read his story and skip the rest.

[Tiffany Spencer]

Nightmare Carnival
Do people just not know how to write a good short horror story in this day and time? If its in a collection of short stories forget scary. Most authors seem to think “scary” is just bizzare and nonsensical. You would have thought I’d learned my lesson by now reading these. I think tho that when I’m done with the ones I’ve already collected to read, I’m just gonna be done with short story horror books like this one. Not horror in general mind you just collections of stories because they are ALWAYS BAD! Why do I continue to read them then you ask? GOOD QUESTION! I think all these circus-themed- ones have been for inspiration and to spark something in my own writing. I might get a slight flicker from a certain paragraph every now and then but “it” just isn’t there. I don’t even know what people see in these collections.

The first story was called “Scape Goat”. This one just struck me as sad. It was about a circus that came to town and a man abuses an elephant by throwing a light cigar in its mouth. It tramples him and the people want it put to death. Before the circus people leave in revenge, they rob the people blind. I thought that was a fitting revenge because of the people’s heartlessness. They did absolutely NOTHING to the man. I don’t know why it made me think of circus’s today and how just recently I found out they don’t even have animals in circus’s now because they don’t have adequate environments for the animals. It just made me think ok why can’t they just provide better living arranges for them. I know that’s random.

The second story was called “The Fire Brand”. This one is about a man whose infatuated with a circus performer and investiages the deaths of her, her brother-in-law, and her husband because of an act that went wrong. He accuses the lady but it turns out it was the performer he interviewed to give him background information on all three (Rolly). Rolly was always in debt and jealous. He didn’t know Leo was about to promote him *and* Cristos so he killed Christos and made it look like a freak accident. Rebecca-whose talent is catching fire- *accidently* kills Leo after that. Not exactly scary!

The third was “Work, Hook, Shoot, RIP”. This was about an Indian pretending to be a Greek pretending to be an Indian. In the ring he spots a KKK member in the crowd and goes up against him in a match. This one wasn’t scary either. It was just BORING! It was written descriptions of wrestling matches (all I can remember anyways). I think the only time I’ve ever really watched wrestling was G.L.O.W (the Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling) a LONG time ago. Couldn’t tell you why if you asked me.

The fourth story was “And the Carnival Leaves Town”. This one started off interesting. It was about a man named Walter that was investigating a family that went missing after a carnival comes to town. Then more people started missing. He kept getting clues. Only (to me) the clues never really made any sense and I had a hard time connecting them with the disappearances Like, he finds a canister, and shirt with the words of a fairy tale about a girl that taught crows to pick out people’s eyes. There’s also a postcard of a stone with a Russian carving. Do these things fit into anything. NO! Then he finds out about a carnival that you have to get invited to. His friend (a librian then goes missing). So, he takes all the clues and uses them to get invited into the circus. He chases a boy with a wolf head and runs through endless tents but never sees Marian. When he wakes up despite all the evidence, he tells himself it was a dream. If he was invited to the circus, why didn’t he stay and how can he get back. I REALLY hate vague endings that just trail off into absolutely no point. Was this even an ending at all?

The fifth story was called “Corpse Rose”. This one just left me confused! I even read it a couple of times and didn’t understand it any better. It was about a man named Jeremy Scott that gets picked up from (a train station? Bus station?) by a lady named Mally Quinn and taken to a ground full of tents (The Heirloom Circus) and is told by a man named Fleymann that he has to pick 3 tents because he has a special gift. So all the tents have some word play going on. Some I got. Some I didn’t. Then at the end Fleymann tells him he won because he picked all three correctly. He needs him to help him collect heirlooms (like the fallen space station). Only he guesses the secret name of (I’m not sure what. The circus? Fleymann) and he’s freed and finds himself back at the bus station. Again there is NO SCARE in this AT ALL!

The sixth story was called “The Last of the Fair”. This one was just STRANGE! A man named Mark notices there’s a fair in the park. No rides. Just tents. He thinks about this lady Caramel that he went out with once. (I think or is it that he’s admired her from afar). He goes to the fair. Then he goes back. He’s lead to a room with a screen and he sees a half-naked woman dancing that turns him on. He goes back the next day with thoughts of burning the whole thing down to get back at them, but he sees Carmen, kneels to his knees, and the smell of the fluid calms him down. THE HELL?!!! Another thing “horror writers” seem to think works is throwing in an absurd sex story. Seems like this writer thought. “I have a story about a man lusting over a woman, but oh wait. That’s right it has to have a circus theme. Let me just throw in a visit to the circus and maybe I can burn the circus down at the end. Yeah, that’s work.”

Story number seven is “A Small Part in the Patomime.” This one actually gave me a headache because I kept trying to sort it all out in my head. A group of teachers tells a new teacher (Jalena) the story of their college David Roemer. One night his lover killed herself and they say he found “The Dark Circus”. He went missing for years and then just turned up back at the school one day with his nephew. When the teachers tracked him down he was holding the kid hostage. Only he just wanted them to *think* that so they’d kill him so he could join his lover. Jalena discovers there’s a wind there that possessed him. So, it wasn’t “the Dark Circus”. Some of the other teachers end up dying when they go to the location because of this wind. Actually, story wise “The Dark Circus” is a little more appealing an idea than “an evil wind”. So if it would have just went with that and abandoned a whole lot of the excess conversation maybe this one wouldn’t have been so bad.

The seventh story is “The Hibbler’s Minions” A farmer comes to the owner of the Carnival of Splendors and offers to sell him a “Dust Demon” (that a dust storm unleashed) for one hundred dollars. Only it dies the very next day. Ichbon (the owner) is discovers its fleas are the right size for a previous act that was preformed by Jon Hibbler aka Professor Dunce. The act is a success but the animals start dying off. Soon there aren’t any left. Then one of the performers (Fallen Angel) takes ill and dies during a stunt. The flies kill off the Maestro by suicide (a bullet to the head and everywhere else there’s an itch). Other performers die one by one. The dwarf and the Two-Faced Man try to run away but the fleas kill the dwarf and spell out “Sorry”. Finally, during a final performance where the fleas have decided to get rid of them all, the Miserable Clowns set the tent on fire. There’s another dust storm after this, but the Two-Faced Man survives it and actually sees the devil in the storm like the farmer did. This one actually wasn’t so bad! At least it was easy to understand and it did have some horrifying elements in it. There’s a suicide and a man falling to his death.

The eight story is “The Swan Song and then Some”. This one is about a carnie that falls in love with one of the performers who sings as she plumets to her death. Only she never dies. He finds out the secret is that she takes a life from a willing someone in the audience at every show. Surprisingly with many offered. Now I did think this one had an interesting concept. It’s something I’ve also thought about last year when my ex died. How sometimes life can be taken so suddenly from people that want to live and then there are people for whatever their reasons actually want to pass on. Just seems unfair and I wrote a blog about what happened in this very story. What if there was a way to trade.

Story nine is “The Lion’s Cage”. Why does this story keeping talking about the smell of peanuts? This is about a man who joins the circus but he’s scared of the lions. The lion tamer Carvessa seems to like to harass him by scaring him with the lions. There seems to be something strange about these lions because no one ever wants to look at them. The man telling the stories sees shadows in their cages that move on their own. Noone else really likes to look at them either. One night, it seems like he goes to send them free-he’s not ok with them being kept in cages- but then Carvessa is there and something weird happens with them vanishing and appearing and then Carvassa vanishing and appearing and then they come toward the guy but he blacks out. Or maybe Carvessa was waiting for him to come there and set the lions loose on him and instead he was the one that got swallowed up. Sometimes these short stories are so hard to interpret so if I’m not doing it right then yal will have to forgive me.

Now this one was really STUPID. Story ten was called “The Darkest Part” and this is a VERY loose summary of this one. Three guys want to kill a clown because one of them’s father ran away to join the circus. Then another one of them had a dream about a clown in the Tunnel of Love that eerily watched him while he and his guy friend kissed. So, they take one of them’s son to lure the clown. Another of the guys has a dream about a clown in his bed. They finally do get a clown, torture him, and kill him. But then one of the friends ends up committing suicide. First of all what kind of shitty parent uses their child as bait to lure a clown? Secondly you want to kill a clown because you had a bad DREAM. REALLY? Sheep scare the hell outta me but I don’t want to take a gun and go to the country and kill a bunch of them because I had a nightmare about one. Or are you mad because the clown in the dream uncovered a truth that you wanted to keep burried? HMM!!!

“The Popping Corn” is story 10. It’s about a man named Joshua Shelton that likes to make balloon animals for kids outside of the circus. He has a daughter named Ruth. He discovers a trapdoor in his floor. Down it are tons of balloon animals. They welcome him to the Popping Fields. They’re all deformed. They all want him to put them out of their misery. He does until he can’t do it anymore. He does this night after night. One day his daughter meets a boy from the circus named Ed that teach’s her magic. There’s a star on his knuckles. Shelton tells Ruth he doesn’t want her to see him again. Eventually Ruth leaves and goes off with Ed. Weirdly no one at the circus has heard of Ed. The circus people kick him out. One day the trapdoor vanishes. His daughter comes back pregnant. The baby dies and comes out balloon like. Ruth leaves again. Ed comes and starts some ish attacking Shelton and demanding his baby. Ed inflates and Shelton lives him there. One day, Shelton also inflates and flies up the sky where he sees his daughter.

Story 11 is “Skull Pocket” I guess this story made sense in the authors mind. It certainly didn’t in mine. All I got from this is that 14 children are summoned in a dream to a fair thrown by ghouls. Now if you can give me a better short summary BY ALL MEANS PLEASE DO! I just couldn’t keep this story straight in my head. I felt like I need to read it over but didn’t have the interest.

The twelfth story is called “The Mysteries” Ok so there’s a lady that’s pregnant. There’s a grandmother that she’s staying with. There’s a sister and I think she stayed with the grandmother before. There’s a barker and the lady has to make a choice and what she chooses will cause her a lot of pain. I think she delivers some kind of monster baby. Kinda put me in the mind of Twilight here. Something has claws. That’s all I got.

The Screaming Elk is story 13 (and thankfully the last). A lady named Jessica is called to a carnival to renact the role of the lady named Vinette in a curse when there’s murders on the carnival grounds again. It turns out tho that the murders were committed by the Sheriff.
Rating: 5 Only a couple really had potential. The rest I could have done without. And it took me far to long to finish this.

[Lou Perry · Rating 4 out of 5]

Worth the price of admission for the Ballingrud, Barron, and SGJ stories alone.

[Hilario Peña · Rating 3 out of 5]

No me gustó esta colección de cuentos de terror ambientados en ferias ambulantes. Los sentí forzados. Como que fueron escritos por encargo, por amigos del antologador, en lugar de recurrir a autores clásicos que han escrito sobre esto mismo, como Ray Bradbury (su cuento Dark Canival y su novela Something Wicked This Way Comes son auténticas JOYAS), Fredric Brown (Madball), Theodore Sturgeon (Dreaming Jewels) y William Lindsay Gresham (Nightmare Alley).

Entre la mediocridad, encontré un par de relatos que destacaron. Uno es The Darkest Part, de Stephen Graham Jones, el cual empieza así “Lo único que queríamos era matar a un payaso…”. Este cuento trata de tres rednecks que buscan vengarse de un arlequín que abusó de ellos cuando eran unos niños. Es un relato muy crudo, tanto que hace que It, de King, sea Bambi.

El otro que me sorprendió es un cuento titulado “Hibbler’s Minios”, el cual debió haberse titulado Las Pulgas de Satán. MUY imaginativo. Su autor es Jeffery Ford. Buscaré más cosas de él.

[Jeff McIntosh · Rating 3 out of 5]

In my personal opinion, the huanted carnival is perhaps one of the most overused tropes online. I don't find clowns particualrly scary (apologies to anyone afflicted with coulrophobia)....and John Wayne Gacy notwithstanding. There is, of course "Killer Clowns from Outer Space", and the recent book "Clown in a Cornfield" and its two sequels....not to mention the film version, to be released in May 2025.

Now, with ALL that out of the way....I at least expected some creepy or downright scary stories centering round the old bigtop. And did I get them? Well...mixed bag at best. Many stories weren't frightening or scary at all.....BBUT...several stories were quite good, aong them Scapegoats, Hibbler's Minions, and my vote for best story - Screaming Elk, MT.

As a personal aisde, there is also a story by Stephen Graham Jones (The Darkest Part). I just don't feel any connection to any of his novels or short stories...just my personal opinion.



Jeff mc

[Kate L · Rating 4 out of 5]

I initially bought this book because any anthology that contains Nathan Ballingrud's Skullpocket (an all-time favorite of mine, goosebumps everytime) is going to kick ass. Also, the OG of horror editors Ellen Datlow is involved so you know it's going to be a banger. This is one of the best horror anthologies I've read in a long time; the narrowing of the scope to carnivals/fairs/circuses (which are already sort of ghoulish) enhances the storytelling, rather than restricts it.
These stories range from haunting and beautiful (Swan Song - Dennis Danvers) to extremely dark and weird (The Darkest Part - Stephen Graham Jones) to sprawling and distubring (And the Carnival Leaves Town - AC Wised).
Fair warning, I was midly turned off because the first story features some pretty graphic animal cruelty and even a hardcore gorehound like me can't stomach animals getting hurt.

[Megan Hex · Rating 3 out of 5]

I might have expected too much from this one, which has a theme I really love. It felt like too many of the stories were self-restrained. The weirder, wilder ones were better; I adored Nathan Ballingrud’s ‘‘Skullpocket’’ and Robert Shearman’s ‘‘The Popping Fields’’, and I'm always happy to see Jeffrey Ford in an anthology. Many of the stories, though, felt like they couldn't quite hit escape velocity from the theme to really rocket off into wild abandon. "Skullpocket" alone makes this book worth it, though.

[The Reading Ruru (Kerry) · Rating 4 out of 5]

6.75/10
I have very mixed feelings about this anthology - I knew some would be nightmarish (which is NOT my favourite genre) but I have a fascination of carnivals. We never got carnivals as such in NZ, and circuses were rare due to the cost of travelling to NZ and they stopped coming altogether by the late 80s. The closest I've got is Circus Soleie (sic) and the carnival season of American Horror story.
It certainly was a me thing as there were authors in this work who I read a idly but stories made me squirm.

[Maverick · Rating 3 out of 5]

Was it horror?

Nah. But most moments were pretty horrific. This collection probably would have been a lot more successful with honest advertisement of labeling this as Dark fantasy it was morbid at times, certainly touched upon darker themes. But nothing really terrible happened to anyone. Sure, psychology in all of its murkier types were explored but than nothing deeper than that.

Worth a read for thematic topics alone!

[Brett Burkhardt · Rating 4 out of 5]

I guess I wasn't in the mood to go to the carnival. I usually LOVE the books Ellen Datlow edits, she has fantastic taste but, for whatever reason, most of these stories weren't hitting the mark.

However, that being said, the ones that DID hit it, hit it out of the park. Some of the standouts were Scapegoats, And the Carnival Leaves Town, The Darkest Part, SkullPocket, and The Mysteries.

[Jeanne Pocius Dorismond · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Plethora of Great Stories!

These wonderfully well-written stories run the gamut of what you might expect from a book titled "Nightmare Carnival". Step aboard this Carnival Carousel, and sample a smorgasbord of deathly good horror, situated amongst the beasts and prey of Circuses and Carnivals....Read this book! You'll thank me when you waken from this Carnival of Nightmares.
A++× Bravo!

[Bay Lady · Rating 4 out of 5]

Most of the stories included are good, solid, horror, but the type is so varied that trying to read one after another was jarring. After a while I started reading the remaining stories as breaks between other books. The theme of "carnivals" should have tied the stories together, but the vastly different carnivals made this a disjointed anthology.

[Taylor · Rating 1 out of 5]

I’m sorry to say 90% of the stories in this book are complete trash. I kept reading hoping for a diamond in the rough but I never found one. Total waste of time - do yourself a favor and don’t even open this one. 🤡🎪🤹‍♂️😒

[Rich Jeffery · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great collection of macabre and mysterious stories. Well worth a read!

[Holl Nelson · Rating 2 out of 5]

a couple good stories, but mostly a disappointment.

[Christine · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found this a mixed bag. Honesty, if you like animals, skip the first story.

[Katie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not my favourite Ellen Datlow collection I have to say. Some of them didn't feel horror like or like they fit the theme that well.

Still there were some in there that I really enjoyed. Short story collections are always a hit or a miss after all.

[nikki · Rating 4 out of 5]

"skullpocket" by nathan ballingrud and "the darkest part" by stephen graham jones were the showstoppers of this collection, hands down.

also, a tip: don't go into this expecting a horror-exclusive anthology. there are some good dark fantasy/literary pieces in here but if you look at the cover and title thinking you're going to read a bunch of good ol' sensationalist horror stories, you'll be as disappointed as i was.

[Lord Humungus · Rating 3 out of 5]

The general premise of a 'nightmare carnival' or any sort of evil circus didn't sound particularly appealing to me; it seemed too limited a setting. After reading the intros and the first story I set the book aside and read something else for a while.

When I came back, I read Priya Sharma's The Firebrand and now I was sold. I decided to trust the rest of the authors. And yes, though there are definitely lots of recurring themes, each author gives the 'carnival' theme their own special turn. I loved The Firebrand and Swan Song And Then Some by Dennis Danvers, both very similar stories. Laird Barron's contribution was great, as was Jeffrey Ford's. There are other noteworthy efforts scattered within, and some are really disturbing. Overall this was a creepy and entertaining compilation. I'd highly recommend this if you're already into horrific clowns, carnivals and the like.

[Fortluna]

I'm quite fond of some of the later ones, like And the Carnival Leaves Town, the australia one, and the eldritch fleas one, which were very much in the spirit of what I wanted, but I have to wonder about anthology presentation - it must be an art of some difficulty but why start with a story about humans being awful, where I'm made to wonder if random words catching my eye are slurs after I give up a few pages in :| I was here for something at least /slightly/ uncanny, which my favorite, Skullpocket delivered in full. At least there weren't many clowns?

[J.R. McLemore · Rating 2 out of 5]

This collection of shorts was okay. Some of the stories were very good, while some were mediocre, and the rest weren't very good. I think that's the typical expectation when reading an anthology of diverse young writers. I bought this anthology because the theme was dark carnivals, something I like very much. I just wish all of the stories could have been home runs, but that's asking a lot.

[Jake Marley · Rating 5 out of 5]

There are a lot of good stories in here, but the price of the book is worth it for two alone:

"Skullpocket" by Nathan Ballingrud is like something out of a Mike Mignola comic. Strange and beautiful.

"And the Carnival Left Town" by A. C. Wise was creepy, haunting, and unforgettable.

[Richie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Came across this book during a visit to Savannah GA (said to be the most haunted town in the country) and breezed through this. My favorite story was "Skullpocket" by Nathan Ballingrud - a richly realized world despite the constraints of the novella format.

[Rick · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyable collection of carnival-themed short horror fiction.