Everybody Scream! [Paperback]

Jeffrey Thomas (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1, 2005

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.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Set in Thomas's non-Earth city of Paxton (aka Punktown), a futuristic dystopia introduced in the story collection Punktown (2000) that's equal parts H.P. Lovecraft's Arkham and Blade Runner's dark metropolis, the author's second noir horror novel (after 2003's Monstrocity) starts slowly, but the patient reader will be more than amply rewarded. On the last night of Punktown's annual carnival, the paths of several bizarre characters converge, including a former prostitute turned chanteuse who fears her lover is sexually obsessed with her conjoined twin, and a being who runs a cafe and claims to be one of the Roswell aliens. The results are alternately hilarious and terrifying. A black claw of an enormous monster is emerging from another dimension with such glacial slowness that it has already been tagged with gang graffiti. The anarchic yet organized violence resonates with that of our own society. For instance, because there are more bodies in the carnival's morgue than usual, the security chief worries about how to persuade the city's numerous gangs to check their firepower at the front gate. As in his earlier works, Thomas uses techniques and ideas pioneered by Lovecraft to make caustic social observations about humanity, in particular our exploitation of other species.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Review

Full of edge, honesty, pain, and eroticism, it will satisfy any insatiable appetite looking for a damn fine read. -- Gothic Review

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Product Details

• Paperback: 296 pages
• Publisher: Raw Dog Screaming Press (January 1, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0974503193
• ISBN-13: 978-0974503196
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.5 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,281,857 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I am the author of such science fiction/horror novels as DEADSTOCK (finalist for the John W. Campbell Award), BLUE WAR, HEALTH AGENT, MONSTROCITY (finalist for the Bram Stoker Award), THE FALL OF HADES, LETTERS FROM HADES, UGLY HEAVEN/BEAUTIFUL HELL (coauthored with Carlton Mellick III), THOUGHT FORMS, and A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET: THE DREAM DEALERS. My short story collections include PUNKTOWN, VOICES FROM PUNKTOWN, PUNKTOWN: SHADES OF GREY (coauthored with Scott Thomas), NOCTURNAL EMISSIONS, UNHOLY DIMENSIONS, VOICES FROM HADES, THIRTEEN SPECIMENS, DOOMSDAYS, and AAAIIIEEE!!!. Stories of mine have been reprinted in THE YEAR'S BEST FANTASY AND HORROR and THE YEAR'S BEST HORROR STORIES. Though I consider Vietnam (my wife's place of origin) my second home, I am a resident of ye olde Massachusetts. Visit my blog at www.JeffreyEThomas.com.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Everybody loves a carnival, especially one in Punktown..., April 20, 2005

By 

Schtinky "Schtinky" (California) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Everybody Scream! (Paperback)

Fans of Jeffrey Thomas's 'Punktown' are going to love this full novel of Punktown's carnival adventure, but even those who have never journeyed to Punktown should enjoy this alien infested midway within Thomas's dreamy landscape of the planet Paxton, and the city of Punktown.

Overflowing with a wide variety of characters, 'Everybody Scream' still narrows most of its focus on Sophi and Del Kahn, owners and operators of Paxton's annual Carnival, a free-for-all of rides, amusement, and murders. Central to its theme are Mitch Garnet, the Carnival's security chief, Pearl Mason, a singer with a mutant body, and Hector Tomas, a Theta Researcher who has found out the truth behind the multiple dimensions.

I am a fan of strange worlds, mutated bodies, oddly imaginative aliens, and a good carnival. 'Everybody Scream' delivers on each of these twisted needs of mine, along with a lot of action on the last day of the carnival's season, plus a sizzling finale that keeps you reading right up to the last page.

Worlds collide across dimensions, drugs are bought and sold, corruption seethes underfoot, and people's daily lives float by as you immerse yourself in Thomas's Punktown world. Thomas does use his strange platform to put out some messages on political issues such as Animal Testing and Animal Rights, but the lessons are not long or tyrannical, more thought-provoking, so if you hold a different view just skip the paragraph and enjoy the book.

Thomas is a talented writer that is definitely worth the attention, so don't forget to pick up the anthologies Punktown and Punktown Third Eye, along with the upcoming Punktown Shades Of Gray. Strange worlds and strange beings, it doesn't get any better than this.

Take an extra minute to note the fantastic artwork on the cover by David A. Magitis, a very talented artist in my opinion. Enjoy!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Sex, drugs, and rock and roll, August 6, 2010

By 

Michael J. Tresca "Talien" (Fairfield, CT USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Everybody Scream! (Paperback)

Everybody Scream is about Punktown's otherworldly carnival, a word rooted in the Latin cognate "carn-" or "flesh." And if there is an overarching theme throughout Everybody Scream, it's that the carnival itself is one giant organism with its various constituents all appendages of its body.

Sophi Kahn is the head. The owner of the carnival and the thinker of the group, she always tries to maintain a cool detachment from the inevitable murders that happen at the carnival. Yet when one of her indiscretions come back to haunt her, her emotions take over...

Del Kahn, former famous singer and de facto leader of the carnival, is its heart. He thrives on emotion in the moment, preying on young girls who idolize his memory as a star. But if his unfaithfulness is driven by the gaping void in his soul, his redemption is galvanized by Sophi's jeopardy. And when roused to anger, the fist is raised...

That fist is Mitch Garnet. A forcer with a checkered past, he itches to retaliate with violence against those he deems worthy of scorn. When the gloves are off, little can hold Mitch back, not even Del. The only person who can tame Garnet is Pearl Mason...

If Garnet is the masculine portion of this carnival's corpus, Pearl Mason is its feminine voice. A former prostitute-turned-singer, she has a conjoined twin that she conceals beneath maternity clothes. She is both mother and maiden, torn between two roles. Pearl is also a canary in the coalmine, the first to react to a wrongness about the carnival that's the surest sign something is rotten in Punktown...

...as evidenced by the parasites. There are two kinds, equally loathsome: the ghoul-like snipes (yes, snipes) and the roach-like coleopteroids known as bedbugs. Both feed off the carnival's denizens in different ways, but only one group has an agenda. And the only person who perceives that agenda is...

...is Hector Tomas, the eyes of the carnival. Hector is a Theta researcher who has seen awful things in other dimensions that are enough to drive him to use drugs - so he can sleep, so he can forget, so he can function. A broken man, Hector turns to the only people who can satisfy his needs.

And that is the odious Johnny Leng, enforcer for Roland LaKarnafeaux's drug-dealing gang of bikers. Leng is the carnival's embodiment of lust, and he rapes and murders his way through the carnival with abandon. It will take a strong heart and a clenched fist to bring him down.

Everyone else in the novel is a victim or an accessory to this twisty tale of a carnival's last night. As always, Thomas' superb writing is in full effect here, detailing a myriad of alien races and cultures effortlessly. Everybody Scream is a fascinating series of character studies and a chaotic whirl of sex, drugs, and rock and roll. Just like a carnival.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good, clean, fun, but..., March 9, 2010

By 

Czig - See all my reviews

This review is from: Everybody Scream! (Paperback)

Suffers from not being Deadstock, Monstrocity, or Letters from Hades.

Kind of like reading anything by China Mieville after Perdido Street Station, nothing ever quite measures up.

Anyway, this is a Punktown novel. And Punktown novels are excellent for a anyone bored with conventional, sci-fi, horror, fantasy, and a few other things. It's a day at the carnival. There is no plot line that is terribly important to all of the characters; they meet and bounce off each other, everyone trying to make the most out of what they have. Or, in some cases, just trying to get laid.

Some thought-provoking stuff in here, along with interesting, likeable characters. And a few douche bags. A novel with a bizarre but believable setting, consisting of plot created by bizarre but very real characters.

If you're a fan, read it. If you aren't, read it anyway.

Once again, not for the squeamish; but what fun would it be otherwise?