Customer Reviews

The Funhouse

5 star:		(33)
4 star:		(33)
3 star:		(15)
2 star:		(16)
1 star:		(11)

 

 

Just another great Dean Koontz book as far as I'm concerned. A woman named Ellen gives birth to a deformed, monstrous child with claws and she kills it, even though her husband, who's a barker at a carnival, loves it and doesn't understand how dangerous it is. He nearly kills her when he finds out and tosses her out of the house. Fast forward several years and Ellen has two new children of her own and a new life. But she's turned into a religious fanatic, like Carrie's mother from Stephen King's first novel, and her children, espescially her son, are afraid of her. And now her old husband Conrad is tracking down her children in an effort to destroy them as revenge. Ellen's 17 year old daughter Amy and a few other dope-smoking rebels head out to the carnival for some fun and when they enter the Funhouse, where Conrad works, they get more than they bargained for. Much more.

I picked this up at my local gym. The plot seemed interesting, and I had never read one of Koontz's books before. I won't bother repeating the synopsis, but I can say that I did enjoy the book. As far as entertainment value, I was turning page after page. BUT....
**slight spoiler**
I could not believe the story ended without the mother coming face-to-face with the carny father. The kids ended up dealing with all the drama of the Dad's wrath, and the Mom wasn't involved at all. There was NO closure on the parents relationship, and/or the mother's anguish. I couldn't believe the book ended that way. It was quite a let-down.

If you can overlook thiat glaring omission, the rest of the story was worth the read.

This novel was alright through the first 100 pages or so, but after that this became abrasively boring and tedious. I had next 254 pages already played out in my head. Very predictable. I'm glad this is just an early novel by Dean Koontz writing as Owen West.

This is one of about 10 of his books I have read. I have greatly enjoyed his other books but this one seemed very shallow. Normally he writes extremely well thought characters - on both sides. But with this book you couldn't understand anyone except maybe the little boy. Don't read this as a first time Koontz. He states he wanted to show the reality of the carnival life - he does that okay but fails with the people.

The story centers on a woman named Ellen. At the age of 20, she runs away from home and marries a man named Conrad Striker who makes his living running a funhouse for a carnival. Ellen gives birth to a freakish baby boy named Victor. Convinced that the baby is the Anti-Christ, Ellen kills Victor. Outraged, Conrad kicks Ellen to the curb and swears to gain vegenance on any children she may have in the future. Twenty-five years later Ellen has a new life and has two normal children - a teenage daughter named Amy and a ten year old son named Joey. Unfortunately, the time has come for Amy and Joey to answer for their mother's sins because Amy is pregnant and the carnival is back in town.

Dean Koontz is an amazing author. I have read almost all his books, and Koontz always manages to supply suspenseful tales filled with great character development. The Funhouse is no different. It is an extremely captivating and suspenseful tale. Koontz does a great job at illustrating the carnie way of life, and makes the characters come alive. I was unable to put this book down once I started it. I was pleasantly suprised, because I really did not expect that much from this book. It is a very easy book to read, and you should be able to finish in a single day because it is less than 330 pages long. I wanted to give this book 5 stars so bad, but unfortunately I could not. The ending to this book is a major dissapointment and leaves many unanswered questions. You spend the whole time on the edge of your seat waiting to see what happens, only to be left hanging.

Overall, The Funhouse is a book that is filled with good intentions. The story is very suspenseful, and the characters are extremely well illustrated. The only problem is that the book lacks the follow through and supplies a horrible ending.

This horror novel, originally published under the name `Owen West', has many of the elements of later - and better - Koontz novels: clever children, a resourceful heroine, and an unnamed, but omnipresent, evil. However, this novel lacks the balance of other Koontz books; to my reading, it was all exposition and buildup, with a very anti-climactic final scene and no denouement. The plot concerns Ellen, who in the opening scene murders her possibly less-than-human baby; the opening is genuinely spooky, as Ellen fights for her life twice in a matter of hours, once from her child, then from her husband. She has married the owner of a carnival funhouse, Conrad Straker, after she ran away from her repressive mother. From there, the story shifts to Ellen's 17-year-old daughter Amy, who's forced to grow up in a number of ways she doesn't expect when a carnival comes to town. There's also Amy's brother Joey, a smart and loving child who, like Amy, fears his mother's combination of alcoholism and religiosity (one of the best moments in the novel is Ellen's realization she has turned into the mother she ran away from). Koontz builds the suspense well, and the reader knows it will only be a matter of time before Straker finds Ellen (or, from his point of view, better to find her children) to take his revenge for her murder of his beloved `Victor'. There's enough mysticism and jolts to keep the reader interested, but the final scenes seem cut short. Evil is vanquished, but we never know the true nature of the evil vanquished, as the novel ends after the quick and unsatisfying climax. In the Berkley paperback edition, Koontz provides insight into how and why this book came to be, and why the pseudonym: he adapted a screenplay, and he needed the money. He also shows more humor in the Afterword than in the entire novel; more humor in the actual story would have served the characters well. This is especially true in the account of the demise of poor `Owen West'...watch out for those buffalo!

I have started to read several books by Dean only to stop when the train of thought wonders to a newspaper ad or a flier. The Funhouse was good, and easy to follow. It seems that his earlier works are easier to read, not a lot of details, more like a fiction story, and less than 400 pages. I have started to read more of his stuff starting from 1972. Am having a problem finding "Chase" in "good to very good" condition. "Shattered" is next.

This book, by far, is one of the "creepier" ones that he has written. It is a fast-reader...it holds your attention, from the very beginning, to the very last page. It has a couple twists and turns, throughout, which gave way to huge elements of shocking surprise. I strongly recommend this book, if you're looking for one of his scarier ones! After I read it, I handed it over to two other readers, they both thoroughly enjoyed this book, as did I.

The book started off awesome, but towards the end it seemed rushed and the ending was a big let-down! Koontz is a brilliant writer and it seemed that he could have made the ending better

Dean Koontz was hired to write this book from the screenplay of the teen horror flick of the same name. Shallow boring movie = shallow boring book. This is not typical of Koontz at all, and we can only hope he has learned not to translate screenplays for a quick buck (and put his name to it)!