A review by whaydengilbert
The Black Carousel by Charles L. Grant
3.0
If you enjoy reading, don’t ever become a teacher…as it will *zap* your will to read in your free time. As a matter of fact, just heed the advice of everyone in your life and just don’t become a teacher, period.
Charles Grant is great. Despite the 3/5 ratings I’ve given a few of his books, I love spending time in them. They are truly a pleasure. He was clearly inspired by Ray Bradbury, which is more evident in his Oxrun Station books, and even more evident in The Black Carousel—both the last of four novella collections that take place in the town, and the final book in the series overall.
I love the bookend chapters, where we are introduced to a couple of charming adult friends showing the new sheriff in town the ropes of the Station, spinning a few yarns to tell him what he’s in for. I don’t really know how well it works, since these 4 stories seem odd in that context (why would he care about some of these things, which we find out later, didn’t even have as dramatic of endings as their ambiguous final lines led us to believe? Why is a carnival so important to Oxrun Station all of a sudden? What even happens at this dang carnival?), but I digress. It’s pure Bradbury.
The stories inside are a little bit of a mixed bag, all well written, but some muddled and confusing thematic material. “Penny Tunes for a Gold Lion” is the first. It concerns a sad mailman who just feels stuck in a rut, hates his humdrum existence, doesn’t even notice the cute, timid teacher who’s got a crush on him, and who’s only solace in his miserable day-to-day are his flowers. That is, until he meets a hot, spunky redhead carny who whisks him away on airs begs him to come back to the carnival on its last night. Does this all sound like a lot? It kinda is. And I’m still not entirely sure what the point of the mysterious death of his garden has to do with anything.
The next is “Won’t You Be Mine?” From the looks of the few reviews I’ve scoured on GoodReads, this appears to be the favorite. I’m guessing that’s because the protagonist is a young kid, and everyone loves kid protagonists in horror stories. It probably is the best, too. It totally stands on its own, has a spooky twist, and overall feels like the best Goosebumps book never written. Kinda awesome. But the carnival is completely tangential to the story, and had me wondering if Grant did a little rejiggering to a story he already had just to include it and fill out the four-novella page count.
Thirdly is “Lost in Amber Light”. This one is really uneven to me, because it hit me the hardest as a man who struggled to feel independent throughout his young adulthood. But this is another one where the thematic dressing is just…odd. There’s a whole running thing with a cat that I just don’t get. I admit to getting a bit bored by the surreal, quasi-dream sequences throughout the latter half of the story, and I wanted to beat this kid senseless for not just marrying his friend. (Kids, just marry your best friend) for its faults, the ending hits hard, and I was left with a cold chill in my veins.
The final story, before the lovely final bookend, is “The Rain is Filled With Ghosts Tonight.” And I just want anyone who happens to read this review to pause, and just appreciate that title. Like, holy crap. Perhaps the “cellar door” of horror titles. Bravo, Charlie. The story it is attributed to is very sad, about an old man suffering from dementia, who cannot tell the different between what is real, what are memories, and what might perhaps be something else altogether. The major hurdle I had to cross for this one was that Grant’s writing usually makes you feel like you’re starting a few yards behind from the get-go. It takes a while for me to get my bearings when I start a story by him. That, on top of the surreality of the unreliable narrator we’re with throughout this story, I’ll admit I was completely lost for a lot of it and had to reread most of it. I felt real dumb, because in the end, it’s exactly what you think it will be.
I’ll always curse GoodReads for not allowing .5 stars on the rating. I can’t in all honestly go a full 4, but it is better than a 3, for sure.
Charles Grant is great. Despite the 3/5 ratings I’ve given a few of his books, I love spending time in them. They are truly a pleasure. He was clearly inspired by Ray Bradbury, which is more evident in his Oxrun Station books, and even more evident in The Black Carousel—both the last of four novella collections that take place in the town, and the final book in the series overall.
I love the bookend chapters, where we are introduced to a couple of charming adult friends showing the new sheriff in town the ropes of the Station, spinning a few yarns to tell him what he’s in for. I don’t really know how well it works, since these 4 stories seem odd in that context (why would he care about some of these things, which we find out later, didn’t even have as dramatic of endings as their ambiguous final lines led us to believe? Why is a carnival so important to Oxrun Station all of a sudden? What even happens at this dang carnival?), but I digress. It’s pure Bradbury.
The stories inside are a little bit of a mixed bag, all well written, but some muddled and confusing thematic material. “Penny Tunes for a Gold Lion” is the first. It concerns a sad mailman who just feels stuck in a rut, hates his humdrum existence, doesn’t even notice the cute, timid teacher who’s got a crush on him, and who’s only solace in his miserable day-to-day are his flowers. That is, until he meets a hot, spunky redhead carny who whisks him away on airs begs him to come back to the carnival on its last night. Does this all sound like a lot? It kinda is. And I’m still not entirely sure what the point of the mysterious death of his garden has to do with anything.
The next is “Won’t You Be Mine?” From the looks of the few reviews I’ve scoured on GoodReads, this appears to be the favorite. I’m guessing that’s because the protagonist is a young kid, and everyone loves kid protagonists in horror stories. It probably is the best, too. It totally stands on its own, has a spooky twist, and overall feels like the best Goosebumps book never written. Kinda awesome. But the carnival is completely tangential to the story, and had me wondering if Grant did a little rejiggering to a story he already had just to include it and fill out the four-novella page count.
Thirdly is “Lost in Amber Light”. This one is really uneven to me, because it hit me the hardest as a man who struggled to feel independent throughout his young adulthood. But this is another one where the thematic dressing is just…odd. There’s a whole running thing with a cat that I just don’t get. I admit to getting a bit bored by the surreal, quasi-dream sequences throughout the latter half of the story, and I wanted to beat this kid senseless for not just marrying his friend. (Kids, just marry your best friend) for its faults, the ending hits hard, and I was left with a cold chill in my veins.
The final story, before the lovely final bookend, is “The Rain is Filled With Ghosts Tonight.” And I just want anyone who happens to read this review to pause, and just appreciate that title. Like, holy crap. Perhaps the “cellar door” of horror titles. Bravo, Charlie. The story it is attributed to is very sad, about an old man suffering from dementia, who cannot tell the different between what is real, what are memories, and what might perhaps be something else altogether. The major hurdle I had to cross for this one was that Grant’s writing usually makes you feel like you’re starting a few yards behind from the get-go. It takes a while for me to get my bearings when I start a story by him. That, on top of the surreality of the unreliable narrator we’re with throughout this story, I’ll admit I was completely lost for a lot of it and had to reread most of it. I felt real dumb, because in the end, it’s exactly what you think it will be.
I’ll always curse GoodReads for not allowing .5 stars on the rating. I can’t in all honestly go a full 4, but it is better than a 3, for sure.