madarauchiha's review
adventurous
dark
mysterious
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
3.5
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The best ones that I liked:
And the Carnival Leaves Town by A C Wise
Corpse Rose by Terry Dowling
Hibbler’s Minions by Jeffrey Ford
Swan Song and Then Some by Dennis Danvers
The Lion Cage by Genevieve Valentine
Skullpocket by Nathan Ballingrud
◆ Scapegoats by N. Lee Wood
I dont what I was thinking reading this anthology. carnivals and traveling circuses are inherently ableist and racist and othering to the extreme. the very first story has rampant anti indian racism and sinophobic slurs. fuck this author specifically. no further cws for this story as I'm not finishing it.
The Firebrand by Priya Sharma
minor guns, child death, diseases, alcoholism,
major death, guns, clowns / clowning,
◆ Work, Hook, Shoot, Rip by Nick Mamatas
medium pedophilia / csa
major police, police abuse of power, racism and race faking, kkk, white supremicy,
confusing. I'm not sure where the horror is? This story is basically a circus puts and then the story cuts off. Confusing. I guess its tantalizing horror if you're a white (cough horror anthology editor or author) and think the klan is a harmless racist group.
◆ And the Carnival Leaves Town by A C Wise
minor sexism, medium missionaries / colonization, minor ableism, birth defects, gore, animal gore, insects,
medium human skeletons, child death, clowns, body horror, gore, eye trauma, body horror, medical horror?,
◆ Corpse Rose by Terry Dowling
medium anti Rromani g slur,
◆ Last of the Fair by Joel Lane
I skipped this one because lmao if you a male author make me read a dumb jerking off scene straight off the bat I'm not taking anything you write seriously.
major NSFW in general
◆ A Small Part in the Pantomime by Glen Hirshberg
minor anti Rromani g slur, insects,
medium sexual harassment involving a Black woman
"Apropos of nothing, she thinks of her drunken mother—dead before Jalena even got the scholarship that freed her from the Piedmont—hanging sheets outside their glorified shack. Up on the splintering, nail-spiked wooden boards that pass for a porch sits Jalena’s drunken, unemployed ex-poet father, who will die in a drunken car wreck hours before he was meant to hop the train Jalena had paid for to come see her graduate magna cum laude. He’s clicking discarded oyster shells in time to the Jessie Mae Hemphill groove on his one-speaker boom box."
I'm legit not ok with a rich white cis man writing Black characters like this. yes, rich, as his father was head designer at Nissan and his mother is a psychologist. no further cws as I'm skipping.
◆ Hibbler’s Minions by Jeffrey Ford
minor ableism, misogyny, murder,
medium clowns, unsanitary, body horror, animal death, major insects,
major death
◆ Swan Song and Then Some by Dennis Danvers
major heights, gore, body horror,
◆ The Lion Cage by Genevieve Valentine
minor dogs, alchohol,
medium clowns,
major big cats (lions),
◆ The Darkest Part by Stephen Graham Jones
minor gore, arm trauma, guns, alcohol,
medium underage alcohol, child death, blood, emetophobia, torture scene,
major clowns, child abuse, pedophilia, csa, anal trauma, blood,
This was the worst. Imagine King's 'IT' but like an alternate universe fanfic.
◆ The Popping Fields by Robert Shearman
minor emetophobia,
medium claustrophobia, pregnancy and unsanitary,
major toxic masculinity?, sharps, minor blood, weird inflation porn????
◆ Skullpocket by Nathan Ballingrud
minor child death, ableist language
medium body horror, racism (anti black? the mermaid part), ableism (the entire freak show part),
Major insects, unsanitary, body horror, skeletons,
◆ The Mysteries by Livia Llewellyn
minor use of the q slur once,
medium (internalized) fatphobia,
major incest. no further cws as I'm not reading this shit
◆ Screaming Elk, MT by Laird Barron.
minor alcohol, serial killer, anti native racism , sharps,
medium sexism, violence, sexual harassment, NSFW sex scene, gore, ableist language,
major police,
tbh I'm not into noir of the misogyny category. no further cws as I'm not reading this. This is the second worst.
The best ones that I liked:
And the Carnival Leaves Town by A C Wise
Corpse Rose by Terry Dowling
Hibbler’s Minions by Jeffrey Ford
Swan Song and Then Some by Dennis Danvers
The Lion Cage by Genevieve Valentine
Skullpocket by Nathan Ballingrud
◆ Scapegoats by N. Lee Wood
I dont what I was thinking reading this anthology. carnivals and traveling circuses are inherently ableist and racist and othering to the extreme. the very first story has rampant anti indian racism and sinophobic slurs. fuck this author specifically. no further cws for this story as I'm not finishing it.
The Firebrand by Priya Sharma
minor guns, child death, diseases, alcoholism,
major death, guns, clowns / clowning,
◆ Work, Hook, Shoot, Rip by Nick Mamatas
medium pedophilia / csa
major police, police abuse of power, racism and race faking, kkk, white supremicy,
confusing. I'm not sure where the horror is? This story is basically a circus puts
Spoiler
on a fake wrestling match except the kkk is there and they to beat up or try to beat up the Indian wrestler◆ And the Carnival Leaves Town by A C Wise
minor sexism, medium missionaries / colonization, minor ableism, birth defects, gore, animal gore, insects,
medium human skeletons, child death, clowns, body horror, gore, eye trauma, body horror, medical horror?,
◆ Corpse Rose by Terry Dowling
medium anti Rromani g slur,
◆ Last of the Fair by Joel Lane
I skipped this one because lmao if you a male author make me read a dumb jerking off scene straight off the bat I'm not taking anything you write seriously.
major NSFW in general
◆ A Small Part in the Pantomime by Glen Hirshberg
minor anti Rromani g slur, insects,
medium sexual harassment involving a Black woman
"Apropos of nothing, she thinks of her drunken mother—dead before Jalena even got the scholarship that freed her from the Piedmont—hanging sheets outside their glorified shack. Up on the splintering, nail-spiked wooden boards that pass for a porch sits Jalena’s drunken, unemployed ex-poet father, who will die in a drunken car wreck hours before he was meant to hop the train Jalena had paid for to come see her graduate magna cum laude. He’s clicking discarded oyster shells in time to the Jessie Mae Hemphill groove on his one-speaker boom box."
I'm legit not ok with a rich white cis man writing Black characters like this. yes, rich, as his father was head designer at Nissan and his mother is a psychologist. no further cws as I'm skipping.
◆ Hibbler’s Minions by Jeffrey Ford
minor ableism, misogyny, murder,
medium clowns, unsanitary, body horror, animal death, major insects,
major death
◆ Swan Song and Then Some by Dennis Danvers
major heights, gore, body horror,
◆ The Lion Cage by Genevieve Valentine
minor dogs, alchohol,
medium clowns,
major big cats (lions),
◆ The Darkest Part by Stephen Graham Jones
minor gore, arm trauma, guns, alcohol,
medium underage alcohol, child death, blood, emetophobia, torture scene,
major clowns, child abuse, pedophilia, csa, anal trauma, blood,
This was the worst. Imagine King's 'IT' but like an alternate universe fanfic.
◆ The Popping Fields by Robert Shearman
minor emetophobia,
medium claustrophobia, pregnancy and unsanitary,
major toxic masculinity?, sharps, minor blood, weird inflation porn????
◆ Skullpocket by Nathan Ballingrud
minor child death, ableist language
medium body horror, racism (anti black? the mermaid part), ableism (the entire freak show part),
Major insects, unsanitary, body horror, skeletons,
◆ The Mysteries by Livia Llewellyn
minor use of the q slur once,
medium (internalized) fatphobia,
major incest. no further cws as I'm not reading this shit
◆ Screaming Elk, MT by Laird Barron.
minor alcohol, serial killer, anti native racism , sharps,
medium sexism, violence, sexual harassment, NSFW sex scene, gore, ableist language,
major police,
tbh I'm not into noir of the misogyny category. no further cws as I'm not reading this. This is the second worst.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Pedophilia, Racism, Gore, Incest, Ableism, Death, and Body horror
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