Dag is a journalist who is trying hard to resurrect his career. When he meets Aurora, who is an oddball, he thinks this could be his chance, as she is obsessed with Carni and the now defunct amusement park called Island Wonderland. Maybe the dark history and deaths would be enough to breathe new life into his writing career.

This was just an okay read for me. I felt so much of this book just dragged, and the characters didn’t really pull me in. Dag was a jerk and while the author may have intentionally written him that way, he just didn’t interest me. Same thing for Aurora. She was just an odd character with not much to her. Both of them and their weird relationship pulled me out of the story too much.

The story idea was interesting but could have been executed better. More backstory on Carni would have been great. I enjoy clown horror and really hoped to enjoy this more, but there was too much missing for me.

I loved both the premise and the setting of this story. It opens with a bang, detailing a series of gruesome events that took place in Burlington Island back in the 1950s (I think), and have become a part of the place’s dark history.

Years later, journalist and certified POS Dag Altan dives into the island’s grisly past, with the help of his mysterious clown-obsessed girlfriend who seems to know a little too much about it. Along with Carni, the evil spirit tied to the legend, they form an unholy trinity of unlikeable characters riding a rollercoaster to disaster.

This is a very fun book to read. I was rooting for absolutely no one; there was only anticipation and excitement for things to go badly for the characters. And the action did not disappoint…. there was plenty of death and gore to go around!

I was satisfied with the scarce information we are given about Carni’s origin as it emphasises the urban legend aspect of the story but I could understand some readers wanting more of that. The story also offered a fun, original twist to the haunted carnival trope by adding a clown-worshipping cult, a journalistic investigation gone wrong, and even a sprinkle of sex magic.

I would recommend this book to horror lovers that also enjoy zany B-movies.

Meet Carni, your master of ceremonies in a carnival of terror! In the grip of public disgrace and desperate to resurrect his career, journalist Dag Altan stumbles upon a compelling lead that could be his ticket to redemption.

Pretty good! A fun little horror romp that doesn't pretend to be anything other than what it is.

In “Carni”, by R. Saint Claire, we meet Dag and Aurora. Dag, a washed-up news reporter, is a very flawed character. Aurora, an effervescent woman, knows all about Carni

“Carni centers around Dag. He wants to redeem his reputation and career, starts a relationship with Aurora, and wants to know everything about Carni. Dag was the most fleshed-out character. He was unlikeable but also changed the most. All the others seemed very stagnant with no real depth.

The story builds slowly and then things speed The short chapters always ended in such a way that I wanted to continue reading. Even with the buildup, I was engrossed in the story. Every time I found a moment, I would sit down and read it.

I would have liked more of a backstory in regards to Carni and how he came about. There was a little lore sprinkled throughout. An origin story might have made the story more well-balanced

“Carni” was a creepy clown story with a slasher feel. Definitely, a fun one for clown horror fans.

Unfortunately, Carni just wasn’t for me! I felt like there was so much potential but it fell flat. I unfortunately didn’t like any of the characters (ESPECIALLY Dag) and his ‘relationship’ just felt extremely juvenile. Listen I get that we’re not necessarily meant to like him, but I need to at least like ONE of the characters in order to be engaged in a story

I am sure other readers will enjoy this, but I personally did not

I first heard about this book on Instagram. I wasn't familiar with the author, and feeling that I needed more clown horror in my library, I decided to check it out.

The book was an okay read, but I found it to be very predictable. I called the ending after finishing Chapter 3. I kept reading, hoping the author would prove me wrong, but alas, there were no surprises here.

When dealing with clowns, especially within the context of this particular story, you run the risk of being compared to King's It, and that's the problem this author faces. At times that's exactly what I thought I was reading, but sadly, this book is but a pale shadow when compared to It. The second problem the authour encounters is the characters and how she chose to paint them. The colors used aren't pretty. You don't really like any of the central characters (they're either users, abusers, or both), so you never really become invested in them. There's no character growth, and no arc or journey, only a flat line that never blips. Any positives the author paints on the surface of the central character, Dag, are erased by internal dialogue. Anything that portrays him as redeemable is merely a facade, a mask created to show people he has changed, but his real thoughts are exposed to the reader. As a result, you don't really care what happens to him, or any of the characters. In situations like this, you usually end up rooting for the Big Bad, but even he fell flat for me. The author had the opportunity to build a platform/universe here ripe for future volumes, but it's squandered. There's some research involved that's performed by Dag and Aurora, but there's very little meat provided, only bare bones, and you're left hungry for more. It was as if the author was afraid of providing too much information for fear of bogging down the story, which is more plot driven than character driven. The author does set things up for a sequel, which I doubt I'll be checking; however, the writing in Carni is solid/strong enough that I would be interested in reading more from the author.

Dag Altan wants his career back. He thinks he has discovered a story that could help him. But what Dag thinks is just a legend may be all to real. Will Dag be able to escape the evil he has found? Spellbinding frightening read full of suspense.

This just wasn’t for me. I liked the idea of the myth behind Carni and his cult, but we never get any detailed information about how it all started. The one thing we do get is the point of view of Dag, the main character, but he was not at all a likable character for me to relate to or care for throughout the story.

Sadly, this had the potential to be so much more, but the few gory scenes scattered around weren’t enough to save this story for me. I wish we spent less time with Dag since he was such an annoying man child, and more time delving into the background of Carni, and perhaps more violence and gore.

This was a decent read. Good for those who need an easy horror book to read. Thought it was interesting enough, but there were times I just skim read through it. Think with a bit of work it could’ve been much better.

As far was horror novels go, Carni is awesome. It has notes of every single sort of creepy possessing entity you can imagine with personality to spare. The main characters are very difficult to like, near impossible honestly. The central character, Dag, is a womanizer, leech, and loser who can’t stand being shown up by women in any shape or form and is stinging from the backlash of his ex calling him out publicly as abusive. In the mean time while he tries to recover his journalist career, he lives at home with his parents letting them feed and put a roof over his head, borrowing their car, etc. He comes across a young woman by the name of Aurora who is obsessed with the legends of a killer clown named Carni who is in control of a broken down theme park on an island following a horrific massacre years ago when Carni possessed an innocent, abused young man and turned him into a weapon of mass slaughter. Now Carni needs a few gallons of blood and a new body to revive himself. The strange thing is with his gleefully wicked and relentless bloodthirsty ways, Carni is the most enjoyable character in the story. This would make an awesome horror movie, a new franchise of killer clown movies.

I found this in the "read now" section here and I was intrigued. Unfortunately, it didn't deliver for me, so it gets 2.5 stars. Not only is the main character deeply unlikeable, but this just didn't give the slasher, creepy clown vibes I was expecting.

I understand Dag is supposed to be unlikeable and that was successful because I hated everything about him. It just didn't make for an enjoyable read. It wasn't good for my health to want to punch him in the face every time he thought, said, or did anything.

The biggest disappointment was the clown, though, and the horror around it. I liked some elements and I could definitely see the references to other things, such as It, but it was lackluster in the end. I really wanted to like this, I love me a killer clown.

This tale of attempted redemption takes a ride through an abandoned theme park and the legend of its mascot. Much like Candyman the character of Carni lives through stories told by believers. There isn't much to like about the main character Dag, a journalist trying to get back to the top although there are some fun moments. A lack of any real scares does let this one down though.

Interesting twist but very attention grabbing the entire way through. I wish it had a little more of a grotesque and gory nature to the writing to really add the scare factor in but all in all this book was very good.

wow! i am blown away by this book!! it was just so fun and exciting and thrilling and wonderful!! thank you so much to netgalley for letting me have an early copy!!

What I liked about this story : how it was intriguing and disturbing at the same time, the creepy setting and Atmosphere of the carnival,and let's not forget horror elements that was mixed in , I could almost see this as a TV show or movie if it was done right , .

I love the use of carnival horror in this book. It had a great collection of characters that worked in the horror setting. It had a great tense atmosphere that I enjoyed. I thought the horror elements worked really well and that the legend of Carney worked perfectly. It had that urban legend field that I was looking for and I could not put it down and it had a great ending. I enjoyed the way R. Saint Claire wrote this and hope to read more from this author.

This book was intriguing and disturbing at the same time.
Dag, is a journalist who has fallen on hard times, meets Aurora, who is obsessed with Carni, Carni was the mascot for an old amusement park that burnt down in the late 1920s. Aurora is part of the Carni cult that knows what has to happen to Carni to manifest itself. As Dag gets drawn into this cult and its practices, he starts to question what is real and what isn't.
If you are into horror and gore, this would be a good read for you!

Carni - More ups and downs than a broken rollercoaster!

I adored this book. Loved it. It was tough to put down and stayed in my mind when I wasn't reading it.

The story begins in the past with the evil spirit of Carni kinda possessing a mistreated worker at the funpark. Chaos ensues as the lad finally snaps and wreaks revenge ion all around.

Many years later, a cult following of Carni endures and our protagonist - a deeply flawed and 'cancelled' journalist - happens to stumble across them when exiled back to his hometown and seeking a story to lift him from his pit of shame. As he follows that story, he becomes more and more embroiled in suspicious deaths, zealous cult parties and romatically entwines himself with the main Carni fan.

The story escalates to a Fyre-esqu part on the island that can only go one way. What a ride.

It's dark, humourous, sexy, gory and all the things I love in a book.

Really enjoyable - highly recommended!

The contents of this book is more smut than horror, with some noncey vibes (repeatedly referring to the main love interest with childlike terms and that he thinks is of age - I have no idea if she is). I don't understand why he didn't question hearing voices until towards the end. The actually killing was good, more popcorn horror than anything, but it was fun, it just took a lot to get there. Thank you to netgalley for the arc.

Thank you #netgalley for providing me this copy! I take two stars off this book for two reasons:
1-Way too sexual in unpleasant way, for my taste. Talking about the boner of the main character all the time and how he thinks about s*x all the time, he read like 15 years old teen, not like 40 years old man.
2-For book that is less than 200 pgs, I expected more action, more horror, more happening. Something like the last 30 pgs, but in the entire book, not reading about the same thing for 150 pgs.
The story was interesting after one point and the last 30-40 pgs I really enjoyed.