Dark Carnival

Serenity Falls #3

by James A. Moore

It began with a centuries-old curse, Writ in Blood. It gave way to the hellish fury of The Pack. Now, as night descend on Serenity Falls, the fun really begins...

A widow is tortured to death - by the husband she killed. A collection of curious dolls has been discovered with a terrifying secret carved in each. And then, with a whistle that screams like hell, the circus arrives in town to raise a ruckus.

But the Carnival of the Fantastic is raising more than that. It's raising the dead. No one can save Serenity Falls now - except the stranger known as the Hunter. Only he can protect the innocent from the damned. Because only he can tell them apart.

Genres: Horror, Fiction, Fantasy, Magic

343 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published July 26, 2005

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name.

James A. Moore was the award winning author of over forty novels, thrillers, dark fantasy and horror alike, including the critically acclaimed Fireworks, Under The Overtree, Blood Red, the Serenity Falls trilogy (featuring his recurring anti-hero, Jonathan Crowley) and his most recent novels, seven Forges, The Blasted Lands, City of Wonders , The Silent Army and the forthcoming The Gates of The Dead (Book Three in the Tides of War Series) and A Hell Within, co-authored with Charles R. Rutledge.

Reviews

[Beth Roberts · Rating 4 out of 5]

When you write a review for the final book in a trilogy, do you write it for the book itself or the trilogy overall? I guess, for this one at least, I'll sum up my thoughts for all three books:

1. The first book was the strongest. I said in my review for the second book that it dragged and that stayed true for parts of book three as well. Probably, the whole thing could be condensed into one Stephen King-length book.

2. These books read a lot like a mash-up of King, with elements of It and Cujo most strongly felt, among others.

3. Stephen King once said if he couldn't scare his faithful readers, he'd settle for grossing them out. This trilogy is a splatter-gore fest to be sure. For those sensitive to it, be warned. There's incest, rape, murder, violence to animals - you name it. I just really hate reading reviews where people rake authors over the coals for writing about that stuff. You've been warned! Don't read it - don't rant about it.

4. James A. Moore is now a fantasy writer, from what I can tell. That's too bad because while he wrapped up the storyline in Serenity Falls, there's always an opening for more. . .

5. Jonathan Crowley. . .AAAAAAARGH!! Don't leave me like this! Who are you? WHAT are you?? Jonathan Crowley, you are a sadistic, smartass dream come true. But please, don't call me "cupcake" - it never ends well for those you call "cupcake", but damn - it makes me giggle every time.

[Erin *Proud Book Hoarder* · Rating 3 out of 5]

As the story finally concludes, brings everything together, and the carnival comes to town (what brought me to the series in the first place), the trilogy slowly loses some steam.

Action scenes are done effectively, although some of the mains I’ve come to expect play a smaller role than I figured they should.
Violence still stands firm and not many are saved in this one – certainly not a classic happy ending. With this type of series and genre, that’s expected. Anything else would have been cheap and ruined the series. Having a fighter on their side who is classic anti-hero further cements this.

Characters galore, as we’ve had three books now and plenty of heads to hop in, sometimes too much so. Characters are likeable enough but the shifting of viewpoint can be frustrating if indulged in too much. Since it’s obviously more of a plot-orientated story than a character driven one, I would have liked a little more complexity in it’s layers.

My biggest gripe and disappointment is so much is left untold and unexplained about the mysterious Jonathan Crowley. If the series were to continue, that would be okay, but since it’s over, we’ll never find out what he is and more about him. The curse itself seems slightly aimless now, not a full circle with complete direction like I figured it would be, too much unraveling at the frays.

A good, but not amazing, finish to the trilogy, it’s worth reading in its entirety.

[Jaimie · Rating 1 out of 5]

I read all three books of the trilogy in a row and I felt like I needed to wait until this one to review them all. This trilogy had so much potential and started out well with the first book, Writ in Blood, that I committed to the long haul. I'm still not sure what the heck was going on. You had the curse set in place by one of the founders that, when it comes to fruition, I'm still not sure what it was even supposed to be other than cause chaos and more violence. Then there was this entity that just so happened to be in town doing its own thing but at some points seemed to be part of the curse as well. And everything about the mysterious stranger, Jonathan Crowley, remained a mystery. He had "rules" he had to stay within that were never explained, he and one other character "weren't exactly human" but that was never explained. The prologue in the first book and a mysterious stranger in the same book were never explained. I just feel like I, the reader, was supposed to just infer the rest on my own, or somehow I was supposed understand all the *wink winks* the author threw at me. So much potential ending in a lot of loose ends and so many things left unexplained to the point that I got nothing out of it.

[Damond · Rating 3 out of 5]

A satisfying end to the trilogy. This book suffered from one volume being split into three more than the first two. By the time we reached this book, so many characters had been introduced (which is natural in a book dealing with an entire small town) that I really wanted to be able to flip back to remind myself who some of them were when they popped in, but I couldn't unless I carried the previous volume around with me. The whole trilogy evoked the Castle Rock books of King, but each of those were at least all in one volume so you could flip back. I know they added and expanded some of the story when Jove picked up the publishing rights and decided to split the original book into these three, I just would've liked to see them keep it in one book. Otherwise, I really recommend this to lovers of sprawling dark fantasy. I would enjoy reading more adventures of Johnathon Crowley or a continuation of the loose ends revealed at the end.

[Korynn · Rating 2 out of 5]

At this point I came to the conclusion that I don't like horror. In this volume we follow a hero around who can't manage to save anyone but seems to delude himself into thinking he's succeeding while most of the town dies horribly. In fact everyone dies in the most horrible slowest fashion possible...it's never violent sudden death, it's all limb removal, or methodical stabbing/strangulation/beating/raping/burning/etc, and then there's the mutilation, the constant terror and shock...it really wears on a person after awhile. Anyone you like in the book seems to die. At the end, only a couple of the loose ends are tied up...you never learn what happened to some of the characters introduced. But on the good side there's only one typo this time. What an improvement!

[Donna · Rating 1 out of 5]

What a mess. Many of the events of this book (and the previous ones) seem meaningless in light of the ending. Some subplots are just dropped, others are dealt with in frustratingly vague ways. The resolution of the main story is over-complicated.

As the series went on, I cared less about the town and it's inhabitants than I did after finishing the first novel. I was expecting Crowley to be more fleshed out, but the story still didn't reveal a satisfying amount of information about his character.

The ending seems to set up another book, but I can't say I have any interest in reading it.

[Wendy · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a so-so ending to the trilogy. My least favorite of the three books, but a must read if you have read the first two. I found this book to have a lot of carnage, that IMO, was not really necessary. The storyline kind of lost steam for me and I was not totally satisfied with the ending. There were some loose threads left hanging that I would have liked to have had sewn up, but it was an okay read. Seems there may be room for another story that involves Crowley which I would enjoy reading. Crowley was probably my favorite character and I would be interested to see his story continue.

[D · Rating 1 out of 5]

Not my type of book at all. Not the author's fault though. I'm sure it is very well written for it's genre. But this was on the paranormal romance shelf when I bought it, but it should have been in "horror". So... just not my type of book.

[Mommacat · Rating 5 out of 5]

Serenity Falls trilogy author manuscript

[Rebecca Wittman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved the Serenity Falls series. By chance, started with book #2 and had to go back and get book #1, then finished off with #3.

[Kevin · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great ending to a great saga.

[Hugo · Rating 3 out of 5]

A step back from the previous instalment, largely due to the reappearance of the aggravating Crowley character, whose pompous and self-satisfied aggression drags down every scene he's in. By the finale, a distinct sense of far too much going on, and with too little context or explanation, and the overall feeling that—even into this third novel—there's a prequel or follow-up series we're missing, with far too many characters and subplots left hanging or unexplained.

[Amy Webster-Bo · Rating 4 out of 5]

i read this cause i liked the cover, though it was not a 5 star it was pretty close, and i wish now that i had or could get the 1st two

[Strega · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow, what a finish!!! Awesome end to the Serenity Falls trilogy, but still left just a few threads dangling. James A Moore has made it on to my 'favorite authors' list.

[Victoria · Rating 3 out of 5]

Though very exciting, picking right up where its predecessor left off, this conclusion just wasn't everything that I had hoped it would be. Some of the major questions that I had that built over the series of all three books - about Crowley, the entity, Amelia - went completely unanswered. Moore is a good writer, though, with a clear sense for the creepy, the gross as well as retaining a sense of humor about it all. I just am disappointed because I feel like the mysteries that I am the most interested in were just never resolved to my satisfaction. That left me feeling a bit frustrated in the end.

Hopefully Moore decides to expand this past a trilogy someday - it is certainly open-ended enough to do so!!

[Lynn · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a "must" read if you have read the other two books in this series. In my opinion, the first one was the very best one, the second one was still good, but this one I had trouble finishing. It didn't answer a few questions that I had, but I haven't been able to find any other books by Mr. Moore that answer them either. While it does wrap up a few ongoing storylines, it doesn't tie them all up by a long shot. Still, it was an ok read.

[Pamela · Rating 2 out of 5]

A curse on the town and John Crowley, the hunter who has come to save the town. Supernatural Thriller, demons, etc. Interesting but don't think I will read books 1 & 2.

(2010 December note - it may be a better book than I remember - I had just finished a couple of books about Ecuadorian missionaries - that may have colored my feelings about this one.)

[H3yd00 · Rating 5 out of 5]

The final book in the Serenity Falls trilogy. An excellent ending to the story, everything wrapped up neatly at the end. It wasn't my favorite of the three, maybe since it was the end of the series, but still a great book.

[Brett]

Horror