Super Castle Fun Park

by Daniel Zomparelli

A wild, beguiling novel about isolation, technology, and raising the dead by the co-editor of Queer Little Nightmares


The dead want to speak to you. But are you ready to hear their words? Super Castle Fun Park explores a group of people tending wistfully to their precarious lives. Dario is an aimless pessimist staying at a themed hotel who is tasked with the care of his aunt at the end of her life. Jeremy is Dario's anxious boyfriend who is trapped in his home, plagued by disturbing visions. Chelsea is an ornery medium who spends her free time on her phone trolling a group of misfits in an online game. Each of them is at the precipice of change, and the people they are interconnected to, including the dead, will be there when it happens.


Moving seamlessly between quiet melancholy, wry humor, and the supernatural, Super Castle Fun Park is a novel that defies a tragicomic, very human story about isolation, ghosts, technology, and our deep, abiding need for connection.


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Genres: Queer, LGBT

312 pages, Paperback

Published April 14, 2026

About the author

Daniel Zomparelli is the founder of Poetry Is Dead magazine and the host of I'm Afraid That.

Reviews

[Logan Macnair]

Whether using the literal definition to refer to some pale apparition visiting from the afterlife, or as a more metaphorical way of depicting the lingering consequences of our choices and experiences from the past, the word ‘ghost’ can take on several different meanings.

In the context of Super Castle Fun Park, Daniel Zomparelli offers readers a world where ghosts (be them literal or metaphorical) are omnipresent features in the lives of the novel’s ensemble cast, using them to address themes of alienation and the need for genuine human connection in the digital age.

Read my full review at the BC Review:
https://thebcreview.ca/2026/04/09/288...

[Lauren · Rating 4 out of 5]

I went into this cold, picking up the ARC at Winter Institute for ABA. This is a gem of a tragicomic. The queer, neurodivergent cast of characters grow through many challenges, and the poetic language to abstract some of those experiences is quite beautiful. The genre-mixing (online game chat, Greek drama chorus, and prose) makes it a timeless and time-specific story of grief and connection. I’ll be recommending this!

[chloe strong · Rating 2 out of 5]

A case of too much all at once. I think if this was just stuck to one character (even though most of the book is of the POV of one character) the emotions and tensions would come off better. It just seemed to skip, jump, and hop too quickly. But hey, the quirky millennial brains not rotted by algorithms might follow along better than I, the wasteland of a twenty four year old.

It's an okay book. I wish things went more in depth on the characters feelings and the whole concept of the ghosts. That was the only cool and fun part but it just seemed unimportant/random at times. I think if it was the only depressed character and these randoms he talks to on his phone started showing up in his life, it would be cooler! Like little Easter eggs of some sort. I also am just not the person who enjoys multiple POVs. I love when a story just isn't complete? I don't need to know EVERYTHING. It just hurts because I know it could be better and it's weird to say about a book but it has a lot of potential that just isn't there.

But I am just a bookseller and not an author so what do I know. I do know when something is mediocre. I feel a little let down because the premise of the book sounds so fun and refreshing! My edelweiss curse strikes again.

[Lydia · Rating 5 out of 5]

The way this book talked about connection and disconnection has deeply changed who I am as a person. god

[Hannah Farquhar · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not 100 present sure what I just read but I know I had fun

[Enid Wray]

I think I’m just not the reader for this title.

Thanks to the publisher and Edelweiss for granting me access to an early digital review copy.

DNF

[Sarah-Hope · Rating 4 out of 5]

Daniel Zomparelli's Super Castle Fun Park offers a simultaneously kind and caustic exploration of the ways people live with one another and with their mortality. It's partially set in a not-so-great theme park/hotel sprinkled with second class technotainment glitter and reads as if the ghost of Samuel Beckett might have been one of the editors to work it over. It will take you to unexpected places. It will also leave you with "huh?" moments that are worth a bit of thought. But don't take it too seriously.

Oh, and some chapters are narrated by the collective dead.

I received a free electronic review copy of this title from the publisher via Edelweiss+; the opinions are my own.

[Haley Simmonds · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm really not sure what to say about this novel. I enjoyed it, but I'm left confused about aspects. I appreciated the delivery of mental health issues and how they were articulated throughout. It's a story about dealing with grief and coming to terms with yourself. If you're looking for something thought provoking with a dash of humor, sexuality, and vulgarity give it a go! The dead are waiting!

[Remi]

i want to visit that fun park.

*thank you to Arsenal Pulp Press for the ARC*

[Meeuhh_Gee · Rating 5 out of 5]

“The dead want to be heard. The dead want to tell you a story! The dead are waiting for you.”

The dead enjoyed the game. The dead love this book.
The dead love Super Castle Fun Park!

[David Knox · Rating 5 out of 5]

Funny, smart, and perfectly of the moment—the dead would insist you read this. Highly recommend.

[Dina Bucchia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Best novel of the year! It's dark and funny and made me sad, but in a way I appreciated and needed real bad. Just a perfect book. I loved it.