Everybody Scream!

Punktown #3

by Jeffrey Thomas

It's the final day of the season for the annual Punktown Fair and excitement is high. For the couple in charge, Del and Sophi Kahn, it's a bittersweet day of transition. Little do they realize the trials they will face and how severely this one day will test their relationship. In fact, closing day seems to be a catalyst for many Punktown residents; drawing them in, stirring them up and letting them loose on each other. This roller coaster tale builds to a peak of expectation then plummets, twisting and turning, a breathtaking juggernaut to the final pages with plenty of screams and giggles along the way.

Genres: Horror, Science Fiction, Bizarro Fiction

296 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2004

About the author

Jeffrey Thomas is an American author of weird fiction, the creator of the acclaimed setting Punktown. Books in the Punktown universe include the short story collections Punktown, Voices from Punktown, Punktown: Shades of Grey (with his brother, Scott Thomas), and Ghosts of Punktown. Novels in that setting include Deadstock, Blue War, Monstrocity, Health Agent, Everybody Scream!, Red Cells, and The New God. Thomas’s other short story collections include The Unnamed Country, Gods of a Nameless Country, The Endless Fall, Haunted Worlds, Worship the Night, Thirteen Specimens, Nocturnal Emissions, Doomsdays, Terror Incognita, Unholy Dimensions, AAAIIIEEE!!!, Honey Is Sweeter Than Blood, Carrion Men, Voices from Hades, The Return of Enoch Coffin, and Entering Gosston. His other novels include The American, Boneland, Subject 11, Letters From Hades, The Fall of Hades, The Exploded Soul, The Nought, Thought Forms, Beyond the Door, Lost in Darkness, and A Nightmare on Elm Street: The Dream Dealers.

His work has been reprinted in The Year’s Best Horror Stories XXII (editor Karl Edward Wagner), The Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror #14 (editors Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling), and Year’s Best Weird Fiction #1 (editors Laird Barron and Michael Kelly). At NecronomiCon 2024 Thomas received the Robert Bloch Award for his contributions to weird fiction.

Though he considers Viet Nam his second home, Thomas lives in Massachusetts.

Reviews

[Spencer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jeffrey Thomas's second novel in the Punktown series is another successful foray into his fictional city of futuristic nightmares. This time the story is more self contained, set at a fair and centered around a handful of vastly different people and their intertwined stories. The plot is complex and the characters are really well fleshed out, sometimes the pacing was a bit off but that didn't really effect the book very much. The writing is fantastic and as with the previous two books Jeffrey paints a vivid and unnerving picture of Punktown. You'd be able to pick this book up as someone new or already familiar with Punktown and enjoy it thoroughly either way.

[David Barbee · Rating 5 out of 5]

Of the Jeffrey Thomas books I've read, this is by far my favorite. It's brutal, colorful, satirical, weird, desperate, and even a little touching. In the future, we'll all be threatened by invading interdimensional insects. But there will also be hippy drug dealers, so it's cool.

[Jennifer · Rating 5 out of 5]

A complex, imaginative story full of colorful characters, alien races and ideas. The "Punktown" world Jeffrey Thomas has created is detailed and alive.

Note: I edited this book

[Ryan Pidhayny · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another fun trip into the world of Punktown, Everybody Scream! fares well as a smaller-stakes entry. Set almost exclusively in the carnival over the course of a single day, the world building isn’t quite at the level of the previous books, but the characters are much better. I enjoyed how almost every little detail was foreshadowing more. My one complaint would be that the climax wasn’t properly introduced until a good portion of the way through the story and didn’t really have enough time for a significant build up.