Moontown

by Peter Atkins

“This finely written and sharply told tale is a strong example of modern horror…the kaleidoscope of peril keeps readers guessing and gasping."—Publishers Weekly “Atkins’ fusion of fast-paced narration and surreal horror packs a large wallop…His continuously morphing and malevolent Moontown demon is memorable enough to rival Elm Street’s Freddy Krueger."—Booklist “Atkins is a brilliant supplier of shudders and splendors.”—Clive BarkerShelley Campbell only meant to help people.Recruited by her professor into working with a group-study program investigating phobias, Shelley has been using her ability as an empath to enter the minds of troubled patients. Within the dreamscape of their memories, Shelley uncovers their repressed childhood fears in order to help heal them.But some fears are buried for a reason. Now, more than lost dreams are resurfacing. Something else is waking too, something dark and long forgotten, something hungry for the taste of our terror…Shelley Campbell has gone too deep, has found the place where the darkness waits. A place ruled by the moon, a place where midnight lives, a place where every night is Halloween.A place called Moontown

Genres: Horror, Science Fiction

221 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 15, 2008

About the author

PETER ATKINS is the author of the novels Morningstar, Big Thunder, and Moontown and the screenplays Hellraiser II, Hellraiser III, Hellraiser IV, and Wishmaster. His short fiction has appeared in several award-winning anthologies and has been selected eight times for one or more of the various 'Year's Best' anthologies. His collection, Rumors of the Marvelous, was a finalist for the British Fantasy Award, and his new collection, All Our Hearts are Ghosts & Other Stories, will be published next year. He blogs at peteratkins.blogspot.com and can be found on Facebook under his own name and on Twitter and Instagram as @limeybastard55.

Reviews

[Jack Tripper · Rating 4 out of 5]

Shelley is a psychic empath who uses her gift to help others dealing with buried trauma and phobias, by entering their dreams along with them and finding the root cause, under the guidance of her professor. Unfortunately this unleashes a Freddy Krueger-like demonic being from the nightmare realm — known as Moontown — and her patients/subjects are ending up dead, with herself likely being the next victim. But who will believe her story?

Based on this and Big Thunder, I can’t believe Atkins isn’t a bigger name in horror (outside of his well-known screenplays for the Hellraiser franchise and Wishmaster). His imagination is on par with his buddy Clive Barker, imo, only more accessible and streamlined, with far less bloat and little interest in being artsy or profound.

His writing isn’t quite as visceral either, with reduced emphasis on body horror or sacred and profane carnal pleasures — at least in the two novels I’ve read — but he’s able to tap into similar deep-rooted fears as well as the surreal and hellish sort while keeping the reader unsettled and on constant edge. Especially so here, as the characters never feel safe since they could actually be in the nightmare realm without knowing, where anything at all can happen.

Overall this was a fast, fun read, with some chilling scenes of phantasmagorical goodness and a tight pace that’s always forging ahead, giving the reader little to no downtime to simply relax and settle in.

Plus there’s a giant funhouse with a creepy hall of mirrors (and possibly living puppets as well, but I’m not telling). So it’s got that going for it, which is nice.

[Lizz · Rating 2 out of 5]

I don’t write reviews.

Moontown was chockful of creepy bad dream imagery and my favourite parts were the nightmare memories and the strange liminal spaces. Unfortunately, Atkins didn’t bring this together into a cohesive story. (Is it a case of Should Have Been A Short Story Syndrome (SHBASSS)?) The vaudeville, funhouse, boogeyman aspects worked, but there was so much left unexplained/unexplored.

My rant.
1.) Why are the two women, who clearly don’t like children and have mental issues themselves, running a children’s program? What’s the point of this program and why these specific children? It’s as if Atkins could not find any other way to introduce a kid into the story.

2.) Why bother bringing up the children’s book with the intriguing title, if we don’t learn anything about it? Why bother with the dead friend thing at all?

3.) How is she entering people’s minds? It’s implied that it’s through hypnosis, but then later she just sleeps next to the person while holding hands. We’re told many times that it’s “groundbreaking” treatment, but we’re never shown what that entails.