Funfair: An Extreme Horror Novella

by Sam West

THE FUNFAIR HAS COME TO TOWN.


They arrive in Broadgate on the morning of October 31st and take over the clifftop park. Hordes of carnival folk in a convoy of black vans with one-way windows. It’s almost as if they’ve come from nowhere…

High fencing is erected around the park and they get to work, assembling the stalls, rides and tents away from prying eyes. And, while they work, clowns patrol the perimeter, handing out fliers to passers-by.

Tonight, they will put the fun into funfair, and hundreds will flock here to partake of the jollities, to experience something that is part funfair, part circus, and part amusement park ejected straight from the deepest bowels of Hell…

Most will have so much fun, in fact, they might just stay forever…


This is extreme horror. Reader discretion is advised.

Genres: Horror, Fiction

138 pages, Kindle Edition

Published April 17, 2023

Reviews

[Peter · Rating 5 out of 5]

This definitely was one of the spookiest fairytale stories I read in quite a while. Several people are going to see some distraction. They see sheer terror. Will one of them get out of it alive? Let Sam West take you on a rollercoaster ride full of extreme horror. One of the hardest scenes includes maggots... I won't do any spoilers here. Read for yourself. What a ferris wheel of horror. Highly recommended!

[Peter Topside · Rating 4 out of 5]

I appreciated Sam West’s introduction to this book. It was focused on just suspending disbelief and having a fun literary experience. And that’s exactly what this was. Authors tend to want their books to be groundbreaking and hidden with symbolic concepts and deep characters, all with the purpose of elevating themselves. The ambition is good, however most end up allowing themselves to be fairly narcissistic and forget how to just have some fun with their writing. I said most, not all. And for someone like myself who lives, breaths, and eats horror 24/7, I thought this was just a mindless blast. A mysterious circus comes to town, we follow three groups of people that get pulled into it, all with their own unique situations, and the violence and scares ensue. That’s all it was meant to be and that’s all it was. And I loved it. As a superfan of Killer Klowns from Outer Space, this brought me back to that, which got me all nostalgic. All fans of 80s and even some 90s horror will have some good takeaways from this.

[Carla Remy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pausing in the midst of reading The Mysteries of Udolpho, I wanted to read something totally different. And this was. Entertaining in its fast, tawdry, violence. I enjoyed its speed and how the traveling carnival comes every fifty years and is part of the town’s hidden mythology. I liked how the one guy escaped and lived to tell the tale.
I get sick of carnivals and circuses being used in horror. Yes, they are creepy.

[Sea Caummisar · Rating 4 out of 5]

4

This cover totally rocks! The story is fun, and I just adore the way West keeps weaving more tales in my favorite fictional seaside town. I know fairs are fun, but they're usually not my jam, not even in my reading. Still, I liked this read

[Diane · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sam West never seems to disappoint me when I read her books,this was gory,brutal and well written and full of sadistic clowns with big weapons doing nasty things to people visiting the Funfair! I only gave it 4 stars for the simple reason I wasn't blown away by the ending...shame...because it spoilt a really good read... I did expect something better for the ending as the story was so good!!🤡🤡🗡️🗡️🩸🩸

[Kathy Brackin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Scary fair 😱

[Stephen Cooper · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fun surreal read with plenty of dark humor and Gore. Enjoyed this one.

[Janelle Schiecke · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this novella! It's my first read by Sam West, and I look forward to reading more from this author. You can't go wrong with a horror story revolving around a funfair, and this took full advantage of the spectacle and madness. What I appreciated most was the creativity and imagery, and there was also no fluff. It's a fun horror story with lots of dark forces at play and some grisly kills.

[Yvonne (the putrid Shelf) · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a bonkers storyline. Supernatural clowns that love playing with poles and weapons.

[DA · Rating 5 out of 5]

Twisted fun!

Loved this gory deranged carnival story! Fast paced, adrenaline pumping terror fills the pages once you enter the fair. Looking forward to reading more from this author!

[Kade Gulluscio · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow.
This was my first book by Sam West. While I'm not new to the splatterpunk / extreme horror genre, this was my first by this author. Let me start by saying, this genre is NOT for everyone. You have to read the triggers and understand what extreme horror means before going into this.

With that said, I loved this book. The writing style is amazing. The world building is brilliant. And the characters? Whether you found them likeable or unlikeable, the author's descriptions and details about each character were RIGHT ON. I wanted to know even more about all of the crazy clowns, haha.

I can't wait to read others by Sam West!

[Kate Victoria RescueandReading · Rating 1 out of 5]

So boring at the beginning, then just kind of a “meh”/gross storyline. Was expecting to be wow’d by this author but it’s like it was written by a teenage boy with a clown fetish. The female characters are so stereotypical “fat” or “fake”.

[ashley 👻 · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was just a lot of fun and a lot of gore.

[Lis. Griggs · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dark horror

Don't read if you have a weak stomach. Well written and modern. Thank you for writing. I all look for more of this authors work.

[Karen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hey Kids!!! Wanna read a book about killer clowns doing messed up things to people??





And what was our reaction when we finished reading this?






I don't know, maybe I've just read too many extreme horror books in the past that this one just fell flat for me. Don't get me wrong, there were parts of this novella that were disgustingly good times. I loved some of the death scenes that took place and to some well deserving people. I also loved the little hinted twist of how the clowns the people encountered changed from person to person. But, I don't know, it was just an alright read for me. I didn't even dock this story for the abrupt less than satisfying ending.

I guess I was just expecting a lot more than then what I got.

[Leslie Rambo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Gory and interesting!

Very Gory and extreme violence!
Short story that started off strong but ended abruptly. I thought the concept was good, but the ending felt rushed and I was left feeling as though I had skipped a few chapters and wound up at the end. There were certain ideas that were brought up but never explored, which feels as though the tale is unfinished.

[Mary-Louise Carter · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5
Pop - nope I’m done. That one word like killed me.

[Emily 😵‍💫 · Rating 2 out of 5]

very clearly a male author. that’s all i will say

[Theresa C Stovall · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book!

If you like ex treme horror this is your book. Although everything Sam West writes is awesome! This is a good read

[Kalaya Stutesman · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book definitely felt a little lackluster in my opinion, the gore felt a little bland and I hated most of the characters except Jim. Other than that, it was a pretty okay read, it was very PAINFULLY British to me which also made it a bit of a hard read 3

[Marian · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow Sam!

I love all your work, but this one..you have excelled yourself. I felt
like I was there as the descriptive writing took my hand and led me to the funfair... I will never look at a carnival the same!

[BookJunkie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ok, it took me a while to decide where to place this book in my review system. I enjoyed the book, but there were a few anomalies for me.

Firstly, the story follows three sets of characters, which I was expecting it to all come together at the end, the characters mildly interacted but it just didn’t make all that sense to me why there was three sets of main characters…

Secondly, the ending was hugely disappointing.

BUT all that being said, once I was over the hump of the slow start, it was a very enjoyable book. Filled with gore, and thrills of the weirdness of a funfair.

The characters within the book, were all well written, but for me Chris and her set of friends were the main characters and the rest should have stayed as secondary characters as I found I could not connect to them on the same level as I did the girls.

Overall this was an enjoyable book, albeit not for the feint hearted.

[Jessi · Rating 2 out of 5]

Free-For-All Killing Spree

A well-written short story, yet it left me unsatisfied. Although it had some classic horror scenes, the balance of it was off. The target of the horror had no real focus other than anyone that entered the Funfair. I had expected that each character I followed throughout the story would have a unique and drawn-out death designed for a specific reason - after all, I am reading an "extreme horror novella." Though it would have made more sense if each character was punished for some type of sin or wrongdoing, I found that not to be the case. The first death made sense and his "punishment" was understood, it would have been the punishment of lust, but West didn't use the deadly sins, and the other deaths gave me no answer as to why the person was receiving the death he/she was receiving and why that character was meant to suffer for all eternity. It was just a chaotic killing spree with an ending that left a lot of questions and loose ends. In comparison to another extreme horror type funfair, Satan's Affair, by H.D. Carlton, kept the focus on the killer and her reasons for choosing her victims and exacting punishment - also, many extreme deaths but with one clear focus.

[Emiliano Luna · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is supposed to be extreme horror?? Bitch where?!? Starts off promising but quickly devolves into misogynistic clown porn and never delivers on the promise of debauchery and violence implied by the books genre classification and premise.

I mean there's some violence and death here, but more effort was put into the sex elements than the violence.... the author spends pages and pages describing a beautiful young clown with big boobs who looks like harley quinn, but then breezes past much of the gore and violence.

The writing is just incredibly misognystic and gross and not in a fun way... the harley quinn clown sex scene just went on for ages. Even the third person narration of the story is just dripping with disdain and anger towards women. I'm big on extreme horror and Judith Sonnet is one of my favorite authors so trust me i'm not a super sensitive reader but this was just yucky and blegh. Worst of all, this was just plain BORING.

[Betsy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Kindle

Another Sam West with a slight nod to the Dark Red. There were only 2 decent characters & one of them was a teenage girl faced with a horrific situation. Her boyfriend, Jim, was the most likeable. All the other main characters were annoying & the people at the funfair were just wallpaper.

It had some editing issues, but not so bad for an extreme. The plot was ok & it is worth a read. It’s short, so not too in-depth, but it ends with a bang.

[Blackclaws · Rating 4 out of 5]

Welcome to the funfair of hell 🎪

I haven’t read a book with an atmosphere and environment this creepy in quite some time. I’ve always found funfair/circus sinister, but this one was a pure nightmare.

I loved the description of the body horror. The author's words give a vivid image of what was happening, but also manage to make the reader feel things. It was very disturbing, and I loved it.

[Vanessa Hoyles · Rating 1 out of 5]

This was a strange one, firstly it was very slow at the beginning and struggled to keep my attention but then it transformed into a very strange kind of clown porn. But then when the porn then turned into a disgusting twist, a few gory scenes but I definitely wouldn't class this as an extreme horror, was very laggy and a slog to get through

[Kadlin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Recommend

The mime guy stood in front of the door and grinned at them with his wildly-overdrawn, black-painted lips. He fixed his painted, black-crossed eyes on Chris and cocked his head to one side, wiggling his fingers of one white-gloved hand at her, and her alone. Then, still smiling, he did the gun-fingers at her.

[heather · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a fun book, I liked how it followed several different groups of characters flitting between them throughout the story.

I do wish in some scenes there was more detail and maybe some more depth into explanations of why but overall it was a fun trip to the fair!

[Kait G.]

If you are into extreme horror I think this book is super fun! It ended up being a teensy bit too splatterpunk for me but the concept and story up to my stopping point (about 30%) was super creepy and I couldn’t put it down