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Sideshow
The smoke ring rose, higher and higher, changing shape as it went, until it disappeared into a cloud that moments ago had looked like the caboose of a train, a cloud that now began to change, to mold and meld, to twist and turn and take on the shape of the thing that had entered it. This thing, this dark entity, hung frozen in the sky, calling those chosen few out from their houses, their bars and their factories, calling them forth to face what waited in that dark and foreboding night.
Justin Henry didn’t believe his friend had seen a Ferris wheel rise up from the ground like a runaway vine. But he followed Mickey Reardon out to the overgrown field at the edge of their little country community anyway.
Now two thirteen-year-old boys have seen something they shouldn’t have, witnessed something they couldn’t have, and neither of their lives will ever be the same again.
The carnival is in town, a very different kind of carnival this year.
One no one will be coming home from.
Justin Henry didn’t believe his friend had seen a Ferris wheel rise up from the ground like a runaway vine. But he followed Mickey Reardon out to the overgrown field at the edge of their little country community anyway.
Now two thirteen-year-old boys have seen something they shouldn’t have, witnessed something they couldn’t have, and neither of their lives will ever be the same again.
The carnival is in town, a very different kind of carnival this year.
One no one will be coming home from.
212 pages, ebook
First published January 1, 2010
102 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
September 3, 2021
I like the writing style of William Ollie, an author I'd never heard of before I found this book, reminding me of a young Stephen King somewhere in his stage between Night Shift and The Body, but it's maybe closest to Richard Laymon in tone overall.
Like a more modern Something Wicked This Way Comes, this would make a perfect companion piece to The Traveling Vampire Show or The Black Carousel by Charles L. Grant.
The story of best friends, Justin Henry and Mickey Reardon, two thirteen year old boys living in the small town of Pottsboro, South Carolina.
While Mickey rides his bike to Justin's house he sees a ferris wheel sprout up like Jack's magical beanstalk right in the middle of Godby's Field. Convincing his best friend of this supernatural event will prove a challenge, however.
Godby's Field is a place of dread where brutal, racial beatings and hangings once took place, carried out by the town's ancestors dozens of years prior to the carnival arriving in town.
None of the townsfolk knew there was a carnival coming at this time, or at least not for a couple more weeks, and certainly not scheduled to find root in Godby's Field.
Named, 'Hannibal Cobb's Kansas City Carnival', the Ringmaster is one Hannibal Cobb himself, befitted with top hat and all the other expected accoutrements of a sideshow carnival barker.
Soon upon arrival select townsfolk uncharacteristically transform into ravenous carnival admirers putting the rest of their fellow neighbors in harm's way or at the mercy of the evil machinations of Hannibal Cobb and his sideshow entertainers.
This novel holds nothing back. It doesn't have quite the atmosphere of Ray Bradbury's famous novel or Grant's Oxrun series of books and short stories but it has a little and what it lacks in that department it does its' best in providing more action, more gore and a little humor.
More said and I'd be spoiling the fun. It grabbed me from the start and I had a hard time putting it down. It was entertaining and horrific. I think some sequences will stick with me for awhile.
*If you like this sorta thing check out my books tagged dark-carnival-night-circus.
**Although this is not a graphic novel check out the cool comic book style cover art by David G. Barnett.
September 1, 2012
Has there ever been a nonentertaining book about the circus? Especially one with sideshow freaks. Ollie doesn't disappoint with this book as fun and creepy as the cover promises. New (to me at least) author, he does a good job with a story of a small town with a guilty past that gets visited by the most nightmarish carnival you could ever imagine. Told from a POV of two young boys, the heroes of this book, the story moves fast and wild with some great very vivid descriptions and well fleshed out characters, small town denizens with secrets and flaws and nightmare worlds of their own making. This is my first book from Dark Regions (relatively new horror publishers) and while nothing can replace the affordability of leisure MMPs back in the day, I'm pretty impressed with the overall quality of this edition, although there were some typos that could have been avoided. Fun and scary read, recommended for horror fans.
February 15, 2012
William Ollie weaves a masterful tale in this story about a wicked carnival entity who travels from town to town, dementedly using the town's past wickedness and discretions to inflict retribution. A fast paced read that will keep you hooked from page one...
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August 31, 2010On an empty field in Pottsboro, South Carolina, a Ferris wheel rises, seemingly out of nowhere. A black cloud appears into the blue sky above town, and leaves many of the men mesmerized. Hannibal Cobb’s Kansas City Carnival has come to town, but it is a carnival unlike any other.
Justin Henry rides out to the field with Mickey Reardon to see if the Ferris wheel is real. What they end up seeing that afternoon couldn’t actually have happened. The two thirteen-year-old friends decide to go back later that night, as do the same people who were entranced by the black cloud. They want to know what other tricks Hannibal Cobb has up his sleeve. What they experience is the best of every carnival they’ve ever been too….almost too perfect. Justin and Mickey meet Hannibal Cobb in the Sideshow tent where he gets Mickey to make a wish, but Justin is wary and begins to doubt what he sees around him. Hours after they’ve left the carnival, Mickey’s wish comes true. Well, you’ve heard the saying ‘careful what you wish, you just might get it’?
The protagonists may be thirteen years old but this is not a story for children. William Ollie has taken a very dark part of American history and turned it into a modern horror story. Justin and Mickey take us through most of Sideshow. It is through their eyes that we see the “too perfect” carnival and it’s described with such detail you can almost smell the corndogs and funnel cake. There is a dark purpose for the carnival that Justin and Mickey were not meant to see. For those that the carnival is meant for, including some very prominent citizens of Pottsboro, they each see what they want to see….their own “perfect” carnival experience. It soon becomes their own personal nightmares. It’s time for payback for good men doing some not so good things to people, as well as for the things that happened many years ago in the very same field the carnival sits on now. There were some cool surprises but what I really liked was the fact that I didn’t see the purpose for the carnival coming. Sideshow is a brilliant story that I recommend to any horror fan. Highly recommended.
Contains adult language, sex, violence and gore.
Review by Colleen Wanglund
Justin Henry rides out to the field with Mickey Reardon to see if the Ferris wheel is real. What they end up seeing that afternoon couldn’t actually have happened. The two thirteen-year-old friends decide to go back later that night, as do the same people who were entranced by the black cloud. They want to know what other tricks Hannibal Cobb has up his sleeve. What they experience is the best of every carnival they’ve ever been too….almost too perfect. Justin and Mickey meet Hannibal Cobb in the Sideshow tent where he gets Mickey to make a wish, but Justin is wary and begins to doubt what he sees around him. Hours after they’ve left the carnival, Mickey’s wish comes true. Well, you’ve heard the saying ‘careful what you wish, you just might get it’?
The protagonists may be thirteen years old but this is not a story for children. William Ollie has taken a very dark part of American history and turned it into a modern horror story. Justin and Mickey take us through most of Sideshow. It is through their eyes that we see the “too perfect” carnival and it’s described with such detail you can almost smell the corndogs and funnel cake. There is a dark purpose for the carnival that Justin and Mickey were not meant to see. For those that the carnival is meant for, including some very prominent citizens of Pottsboro, they each see what they want to see….their own “perfect” carnival experience. It soon becomes their own personal nightmares. It’s time for payback for good men doing some not so good things to people, as well as for the things that happened many years ago in the very same field the carnival sits on now. There were some cool surprises but what I really liked was the fact that I didn’t see the purpose for the carnival coming. Sideshow is a brilliant story that I recommend to any horror fan. Highly recommended.
Contains adult language, sex, violence and gore.
Review by Colleen Wanglund
June 18, 2015
This review originally piblished in Looking For a Good Book. Rated 3.5 of 5
Although many readers are familiar with names like Stephen King or Peter Straub, or even H. P. Lovecraft, writing a novel-length horror tale is no easy task. Sustaining a high level of horror or fear through the development of a plot and the establishing of characters is tricky and it's easy to lose the horror when building the story. Author William Ollie manages to keep a strong sense of mystery and horror throughout his book, Sideshow.
Thirteen year old boys Justin and Mickey observe a carnival sprout up in a field near town. "Sprout" might be the operative term here as it doesn't just go up in stages, like most carnivals, but rather seems to grow. Aside from the strange way that the carnival appears, the carnival is also unusual in that it isn't set up in the usual place that the annual carnival usually sets up. Instead, it is set up in a field where atrocities once occurred by some of the city's leading citizens decades ago.
The adults of the town investigate the appearance of the strange carnival, but quickly become enthralled with Hannibal Cobb, the carnival's magician, and all that he brings to them. But their secrets are not so secret, and Cobb will show them some unkind truths.
Author William Ollie does a very nice job of establishing a mood (so important in good horror fiction). The carnival is so fully defined that one can almost smell the corn dogs. And yet he's also built in an air of mystery surrounding the show.
The characters are slightly less well-defined, though the use of teenage boys to observe the happenings is a nice touch (typically teenage protagonists would make this a Young Adult novel, which this most certainly is not). The writing itself is smooth and Ollie grabs your attention and holds on to it throughout the book.
Looking for a good book? If you like fiction that keeps you on edge and terrifies you a bit, then Sideshow, by William Ollie is probably just the right book for you.
Although many readers are familiar with names like Stephen King or Peter Straub, or even H. P. Lovecraft, writing a novel-length horror tale is no easy task. Sustaining a high level of horror or fear through the development of a plot and the establishing of characters is tricky and it's easy to lose the horror when building the story. Author William Ollie manages to keep a strong sense of mystery and horror throughout his book, Sideshow.
Thirteen year old boys Justin and Mickey observe a carnival sprout up in a field near town. "Sprout" might be the operative term here as it doesn't just go up in stages, like most carnivals, but rather seems to grow. Aside from the strange way that the carnival appears, the carnival is also unusual in that it isn't set up in the usual place that the annual carnival usually sets up. Instead, it is set up in a field where atrocities once occurred by some of the city's leading citizens decades ago.
The adults of the town investigate the appearance of the strange carnival, but quickly become enthralled with Hannibal Cobb, the carnival's magician, and all that he brings to them. But their secrets are not so secret, and Cobb will show them some unkind truths.
Author William Ollie does a very nice job of establishing a mood (so important in good horror fiction). The carnival is so fully defined that one can almost smell the corn dogs. And yet he's also built in an air of mystery surrounding the show.
The characters are slightly less well-defined, though the use of teenage boys to observe the happenings is a nice touch (typically teenage protagonists would make this a Young Adult novel, which this most certainly is not). The writing itself is smooth and Ollie grabs your attention and holds on to it throughout the book.
Looking for a good book? If you like fiction that keeps you on edge and terrifies you a bit, then Sideshow, by William Ollie is probably just the right book for you.
May 14, 2011
A trip to the carnival turns into a wicked adventure of survival for two friends. Sometimes reality isn't quite as innocent as it may appear....
William Ollie is quickly becoming one of my favorite authors.
William Ollie is quickly becoming one of my favorite authors.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews