Carni

A couple of days ago, I saw a book trailer for this on insta. It looked super fun and creepy but clowns aren't really my thing. Then I heard a booktuber talking about it and I was like, 'hmm, sounds interesting.' Then it popped up on netgalley and I was like, "ok universe, I get it, you want me to read the amusement park clown book! FINE!"

And you know what? The universe was doing me a solid because this was such a fun time. It's so much more than just a creepy clown. There's gore and cults and possession, and a main character who could not make a good choice if his life depended on it. So much bloody chaos. Such a page turner!

This was so good. I love trying to overcome my crippling fear of clowns by reading as much clown horror as possible. R. Saint Claire is really good at bringing the horror, and telling an entertaining, creepy story.
We follow journalist Dag, and his ever growing fascination with an abandoned amusement park, and the legend of Carni. If you want a good clown scare with a stellar story please pick this up.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced copy of the book, in exchange for a honest review.

Talk about an opener. It was pure carnage with all of the casualties that Carni wreaked havoc on the carnival. From this point I was hooked. It was a while before Carni made an appearance again. So, if you are looking for an instant horror scare read, this is not that book. Yet, if you are looking for a very well written, creepy horror that is not in your face, then this is the book for you.

Aurora is a free spirit. She definitely gave off "cult" vibes. I was never sure what she was going to do next. To be honest, Dag is one of those people that is kind of unmemorable but due to what was happening to him, it makes him interesting.

The voice of Carni is creepy. The last several chapters of this book is where it really amps up. This book will not calm your phobia of scary clowns.

This is a fantastic slasher type novel that brings the scares with many different tropes that I just love in a novel like this.

The setting is an abandoned island that was once home to a permanent carnival. After a brutal series of murders take place (which we get to read in the first chapter), it's shut down. But what caused these tragic events lives on.

In the present day, our protagonist is a journalist, a young man who was cancelled after some tweets and video footage were released that painted him in a very bad light. He moves back in with his parents but accepts a writing job with the small local paper. After he meets a strange, cryptic, but beautiful woman who agrees to show him around this abandoned island he thinks he's back because the story she tells is too incredible not to go viral.

But, as these things tend to do in a horror book, separating fact from fantasy becomes blurred. The clown known as Carni is itching to come back. And he's very thirsty for blood.

This novel is well written, suspenseful, and doesn't cheat on the carnage. As events start to unfold and the body count rises, the full extent of this urban legend becomes apparent and it's horrifying. But it might be too late for everyone.

I really enjoyed this novel and the legend behind Carni. It made for a creepy, brutal read and I highly recommend it.

Thank you, R. Saint Claire and NetGalley for the ARC. I leave this review voluntarily and happily. Also, thank you publishers for your hard work!

Oh my God! I absolutely loved this book! Of course, the only thing I wished it had was more lore explaining Carni and just overall more of him. He truly was an interesting character. The momentshe you get to experience him were truly interesting, sinister, eerie, and I loved every moment of it. Is he a ghost, phantom, demon, or something else entirely? He could even be something that was created from pure rage and menevolent actions. Who knows. I just know I absolutely lived learning about him, and the book was full of murder, mystery, cult like atmosphere, and more.

The main character wasn't my favorite, but he was needed for something far more sinister than any of us can realize until the end of the book. What he's needed for suits me just fine in the end. He did, in a way, get what was coming to him. Does that make me cruel? Perhaps somewhat, but you read the book and tell me what you think by the end of everything. Did he deserve better or worse?
I loved the fact they added the small tide but about slender man and Carni being similar for this book. For this book, it certainly is true. Death follows Carnis story wherever it goes, and it keeps his story going, making him more famous. So, do you dare read and find out the story? I certainly did and now am a fan myself.

I plan to read this again in the future, if not soon.

Delicious horror: scary clowns, gore. cults, possessions, a rising body count. No cheating or skimping on the macabre here that's for sure. A pretty solid story too. The last several pages had me captivated.

Se você curte um bom suspense, Carni é uma ótima dica. Impossível para de ler. Cada capítulo fica aquele gostinho de querer saber o que vai acontecer com os personagens. R Saint Claire constrói uma história sólida, com personagens reais (o personagem masculino me irritou bastante com certas atitudes), mas mesmo assim, fiquei torcendo por ele. Uma bela homenagem a Stephen King. Não preciso dizer mais.

YEOW!!! Stephen King and Chuck Wendig look out..here comes R. Saint Claire, I wonder if she went through Derry to write this creepy book. It's got an IT clown in it so similar in looks to Stephen Kings. I love this noire clown freakout story...Incredibly vulgar, scary, explicit and bloody. What an imagination...R. Saint Claire has. I look forward to reading more of her books. Every fan of King and Wendig needs to read this, but keep the lights on!!

Hated the main char, loved the book AJ much it was so creepy. Ominous clown that went completely crazy. Always a good sign for a cool horror boom and this one was good

Dag is a disgraced journalist looking to fix his broken career after meeting a woman called Aurora she introduces him to an abandoned amusement park with a dark history of a clown known as Carni. Dag soon finds himself involved in something in which he isn't sure what's real and what isn't. Can Dag get away, or does Carni have him in his grip already.

This book had me gripped from the first 6 I couldn't stop reading ! Clowns are my ultimate scary in horror, so I had high hopes on the scare factor, and this did not disappoint!

Thank you to Netgalley, Books go social and R. Saint Claire for an advance copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Shades of "It" as an old evil, the clown (aren't they all evil?), weaves it's way through blood and death to gain a new form. Gory, creepy, insidious, and you may avoid carnivals ...

From the epigraph which is a quote from the song “she’s one in a million “ by The Tubes to an awesome forward by Andrew Lyle which helps you add to your TBR and TBW pile and including the main story of Carney it seems this book was destin to be amongst my favorite. Dag Alton was a reporter he was a man on the rise and had even won a Pulitzer win his ex-girlfriend Stephanie decided to re-post a tweet he sent her during an argument and it didn’t take long before Dag Alton was canceled. The unemployed reporter was in his 30s growing a paunch and broke this is why he found himself living at home with his mom and dad Ivy and George. Soon after moving in he got a job as a paper boy gave up his heavy drinking and the Internet and decided to take some downtime after a couple of months when he’s finally feeling better he decides he’ll have to rebuild his life on his own and this is how he comes up with the idea to look for a story to start a blog from his first post he gets in touch with a girl name Aurora who is hot as can be despite her pink hair and tattoos it seems Aurora wants to save Burlington Island in between New Jersey and Pennsylvania but first we must go back to 1928 to Wonderland Park on Burlington Island. We learn about a boy name Lewis who is beaten by his father and his only consolation was an old Turkish psychic and his imaginary friend Carney the clown after a severe beating from his father which happened on most days but this day would end like no other and and would begin the islands bloody history when Dag goes to meet Aurora he finds her floating in the boat with pink balloons tied to the hall she is very sexy and she knows it yet she has child like tendencies and keeps referring to her ex Keen. They take a trip to the island and despite a few strange things happening one of which is Aurora feeding blood from a splinter the clueless reporter let her take out in feeds the blood she collected in a bottle cap to the water and tells him she’s given it to Carney. This isn’t the first strange comment she is made about the clown and eventually he will learn why and OMG I was not prepared for that. I could go on and on about how Dags reputation gets built back up to the point where The Rolling Stones wants him to do A feature on The island and the clown in those who absolutely love him I could talk about how they reopen the park how Carny soon had Dag as his new buddy oh yes and I can’t forget to mention how Carney cannot let an opportunity pass when it comes to a really gruesome murder but I believe Regina Saint Clair could tell you better and so I totally recommend carny by Regina Saint Clair to anyone who loves really great campy horror this is a great horror story that will rival all great horror stories. It has everything an isolated location, a weird sexy woman, humans who are willing to help with murder, and a paranormal entity who strength comes from blood. If this doesn’t sell you on the book then it probably isn’t for you but OMG I am glad it works for me I totally enjoyed it and highly recommend it. I want to thank Books Go Social and Net Galley for my free arc copy please forgive any mistakes as I am blind and dictate my review.

I really enjoyed this.....it was a LOT of fun!!!! I didn't expect to enjoy it as much as I did!!!! thanks for allowing me to read this book!!!!!

It's ok not to like these people because they're meant to be terrible. Evil clowns, child murder, this is a horror for the sake of horror. From the beginning to the end, there were terrible things happening, and it was written well enough that I felt like I was watching from the front row.
Thanks to NetGalley for letting me read this.

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!

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.

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.

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 , .

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.

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.

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.

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.