 Well, first off I wanted to review this book because I love games based horror. I still have my old copy of Battle Royale which I read so often it practically fell apart. The novel is set at some time in the future, after we’ve fucked the planet so badly that clean drinking water and non essential plants are luxuries. The air is also so polluted in some area that people need breathing apparatus to step outside. In this universe of war, drought, famine, poverty and advanced reproduction technology, sit’s Carnival Panic. The game show offering contestants the chance of a shit load of cash and a better life. The risks however are high, should you fall for a trap, fail a task or fall into the paws of the shows mascot’s the pink PonPon Bunnies injuries, mutilation, disfigurement and life long disabilities could be and is more likely the prize you will take home. Going through hunger, thirst, humiliation and mutilation in pursuit of a dream of a better future through getting more money. Carnival Panic is not so much like Battle Royale or The Hunger Games. It is more like Alice falling down the rabbit hole and discovering that the rabbit is a deranged homicidal maniac who’s seen too many pirate copies of the Saw franchise. The closest thing I’ve ever read to it is a fantasy book whose name escapes me but Little Bo Peep is a prostitute, the Teddy is alive and the brains and there is an army of sex robot/assassins. My point is that Carnival Panic, the game show at the heart of this novel is CRAZY and I like that about it. It is the first what the fuck book I’ve read for Gingernuts and the insanity is refreshing. However, there are parts of Carnival Panic which I didn’t like and where I felt the over all story was let down. But first of all, what did I like about Carnival Panic? I liked the multiple first person narratives that told their stories about their lives, why they ended up in the game and their experiences of the game show. It is through the different narrators that the reader learns about the outside world and the social issues outside the game. The real horrors of the world that make watching someone have their nose cut off, or have poison induced graphic exploding diarrhoea on TV mass market entertainment. These issues also come to light through the interactions between the characters which helped to create a rich backdrop universe. We see prejudices, drastically different values to what most modern cultures have, vanity, determination and hope to not just help themselves with their winnings but others too. We see how characters see each other and the contrasts between how characters see themselves against how they are seen by others. I also feel that Sarmiento has taken the world backwards in some ways, alum is put in bread like some Victorian nightmare. It feels like the war between profit at all cost and human rights and welfare has been well and truly lost and Carnival Panic is the result. What didn’t I like? Well parts of the narrative felt unclear to me and in some cases it felt like it might even be missing. This made it unclear what was happening in some places and prevented me becoming too absorbed in the narrative. There also appeared to be a lot of alternating between the use of ‘he’, ‘her’, ‘him’ and with one character ‘ze’, ‘zir’ I would say they’re typos but I don’t think they are, I suspect the narrative might be saying something but I don’t know what. But instead of enjoying the narrative, I found myself counting and looking out for the change in pronouns and wondering if they were in fact typo’s. I also felt that the characters were forgettable in some ways because of narrative issues, it was not always clear what exactly happened to characters and I found that I soon forgot the previous narrator when I moved on to the next. The narrative may have been constructed to add to the the wacky uncertainty of the game or to keep the reader guessing. I’m not sure but it didn’t work for me in places, especially during the game play. Carnival Panic is a wacky book about a fate worse than death game show. Parts I really liked, others not so much. Give it a try, it might speak to you even though some of it didn’t speak to me.  Candy makes the PonPon Bunnies sweet. Be careful if they're angry. And watch out for traps! These are the dangers of competing in the Carnival Panic game show, a ruthless competition that tests the chosen competitors with mental and physical struggles. In order to claim the substantial monetary prize, the winner must solve a series of room puzzles and succeed in entertaining the fickle masses  Hello, I am Astrid Addams. I am the author of the novella The Haunting of Hacket House and various other short stories including the charity Christmas short Zombie Santa Claus: Axe Murderer Edition. I live in Britain with an ever evolving mischief and I love animals. I had been debating getting into reviewing after reading about reviewers choosing to stop reviewing following the conduct of what I hope is a tiny minority of authors. As a writer I know the importance of reviews and the difficulty in getting reviewers to check out your work sometimes. Also when I saw I Jim’s post asking for volunteers to review for Gingernuts, I had just resolved to read more this year. So on a spur of the moment, a vague idea about maybe getting into reviewing became more concrete, so here we are. Enjoy my opinions and buy some books! Follow Astrid on Twitter here https://twitter.com/AddamsAstrid And Check out Astrid's books on Amazon by clicking here https://smarturl.it/yjkcmi    Comments are closed.
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