Scenes From The Carnival Lounge: A Collection Of Odd Tales

by Michael J. Picco

What scares you?


Let’s consider fear for a moment…
Fear strikes in many ways. It titillates and terrifies. It can be prosaic or sublime. It’s grim, gritty, seedy, and dark. Fear can be subtle — something that bubbles just under the surface of our perception. It can linger for years, or effervesce before the page is turned. Fear transforms, mutates and evolves. It can be silent and gentle
or thundering and vicious. And, in large enough doses, fear can kill. But, there are fates worse than death.
Far, far worse fates, indeed…
Scenes From The Carnival Lounge is a collection of tales that explore the many facets of fear. Here, you’ll travel that strange shadow world between waking and sleep; where angels whisper to their acolytes; where monsters don the skins of their victims; where love and betrayal cross paths with deadly consequences; where things long-buried come lurching and hungry back to life.
Dare to enter The Carnival Lounge and remember: that which does not kill you, will probably try again.

263 pages, Paperback

Published July 24, 2018

About the author

Over the last decade, Michael Picco has published over two-dozen short stories; produced two award-winning collections; and has received numerous accolades for his brand of “literary” horror. Michael’s work “explores the dark and disturbing recesses of what is possible” and has been described as “eloquently-written terror.” Michael received his B.A. in English from Western State College in Colorado. He is a member of the Horror Writers Guild, the Denver Horror Collective, and the Colorado Independent Publishers Association. His most recent publishing credit, The Horse Leech Has Two Maws appears in The Jewish Book of Horror. He is currently working on The Wretched Bones, a revision and expansion of some of his most popular published work.

Reviews

[P.J. Blakey-Novis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Scenes from the Carnival Lounge is a genuinely frightening collection of short stories, covering a range of horror sub-genres. This is one of those rare collections where I have enjoyed each and every story contained. The writing was flawless, the author dragging the reader into the atmospheric terror of each tale perfectly. My personal favourites were All Good Dogs and The Pass, but there are stories in this collection to satisfy every fan of horror tales. A really great read, and a definite 5 stars.

[GracieKat · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love the cover for Scenes from the Carnival Lounge. The art is fantastic. As is the art throughout the book. There aren't any full page illustrations but small ones on the title pages that fit the stories they're matched to very well. I really loved the stories. There was one or two that I didn't care for, personally, but I'm sure someone will. The book and stories within were excellently written. If you like well-written horror stories then I strongly recommend it.

So. The stories.

I'm not going to do a story by story rating because I really don't want to ruin anything for you. It's hard to really even tell you my favorites because there were so many of them. Esrever Rapture was great, as was All Good Dogs, Agents of the Seraphim, The Baelaehgra of Llangennith Downes, and Chains of Darkness. These were my top favorites. I loved them. The only story that I really didn't care for, honestly, was The Lost Tribe. And I honestly think that others might like it better than I did.

So, with all of this glowing praise, why the four stars? Well, it's more like a 4.5. There were some very unnecessary footnotes in a lot of the stories. The author himself says that he knows he uses too many and actually took out some. I love footnotes and annotations if it's information that I don't already know, is very obscure or I can't extrapolate from the story. There were very few absolutely necessary ones. It just felt as though the author didn't want to slow down to explain in-story and so added a footnote. But it had the effect of taking me out of the story. Another, more minor, issue was the Author's Notes on the stories. I really like to read the Author's Notes on stories because it's interesting to see how the ideas have formed or developed but it would be better if they had been after the stories instead of before.

I would definitely recommend Scenes from the Carnival lounge. It was a great read with some really creative ideas and fresh spins on older concepts. I really can't say enough good about it and I don't want to give the stories away so, really, just pick it up to read!

Received from the author for review consideration

Find this review and more at https://www.scifiandscary.com/

[Bert Edens · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of the amazing benefits of this age of publishing is the sheer number of amazing authors out there who are able to self-publish or be published by the small presses. No longer are they reliant upon the big houses for getting their books out the door.

While that definitely means there are also some real duds out there, that wasn’t the case with this horror short story collection. I must admit the cover is what really caught my attention with this book, and the admiration only grew as I dug into it.

The collection starts with “All of Yesterday’s Yesterdays”, introducing us to the titular Carnival Lounge. The story grabs you right away, and you soon feel yourself immersed in the story.

That’s how it went with most of the stories in this collection. As always, there are a couple that didn’t strike me as much as others, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t good. And it definitely doesn’t mean someone else won’t like them.

Others I really enjoyed were “Valley of the Flies”, “The Sceadu”, and “The Lost Tribe”. Picco even includes an essay on fear and what scares people, which is at the end of the book.

Overall, I really enjoyed this collection, and I’m glad I got to read it. I will definitely be on the lookout for more works from Picco, as it seems his style is right up my alley.

[Valerie · Rating 4 out of 5]

The stories in this collection are definitely uncanny! All Good Dogs is great! D’Sai-wow, would like to see this as a full length novel! Valley of the Flies was disturbing! I could list them all but I’m not, you just have to pick this one up and read it! The only thing that kept this from a 5 ⭐️ is The Horror Writer and The Ten Bears! I didn’t feel this fit with the atmosphere of the book! I get the explaining of fear and what that means but not at the end of a collection of great horror stories! That’s my opinion...

[Jules · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked, didn't love, this book. At times I felt it was difficult to follow but the writing is very well-done. The author shares an "author's note" at the beginning of each chapter: I wish he hadn't; it's not necessary and throws off the story (in my humble opinion).