When writing fantasy, building a world that is extraordinary and vivid is often the heart of the tale, and it usually determines how successful the story turns out . The stranger that fantastical world is, the more important it becomes for the author to create a reality that readers can not only understand but somehow be relatable enough to make them feel part of it. Throw horror into the equation and now the writer must add a visceral component into the mix, making the task even more difficult. When it comes to horror, Hell is often the realm chosen for world building, and to be frank, most authors get it wrong; they pay too much attention to the physical horrors and not enough to the emotional and psychological plight of their characters. In Carousel, Janet Joyce Holden not only gets it right, she does so superbly.
In Carousel, we meet Luke, a struggling artist who is exhibiting his painting in an art gallery while accompanied by his girlfriend, Emma. To his surprise, a stranger purchases one of his paintings, and then offers to put Luke on retainer. The stranger, Elliot, wants Luke to refurbish and repaint his collection of a menagerie of carousel animals. Luke, stunned by the amount of money offered, agrees. Both Luke and Emma are wary of Elliot, he is presumptuous, arrogant, and both do not care for his attraction to Emma. But Luke needs the money, and when he starts on the first piece, he finds himself pouring everything he has into the job. Then, unexpectedly, Luke’s brother, John, comes to pay a visit.
John is the only family Luke has but their relationship is strained. Emma takes an immediate dislike to the man and John makes no attempt to get into her good graces. What Luke and Emma don’t know is that John is a protector of sorts, for the world. Readers learn that there are gates that open up in our world, into a realm that may or may not be hell, and John is one of a small army of people that shuts these gates down. When they open, denizens of that hellish world attempt to slip into ours, and there is always violence and death when John and his companions close those gates. It seems that John believes that Luke may be one of the people that can open these gates, and he’s arrived to insure that Luke is not unwittingly doing so.
Luke doesn’t realize it, but Elliot is using him to rebuild the carousel in order to open one of these gates, and we learn quickly that Elliot is not what he appears to be. Complicating matters, the work Luke is doing on the carousel is straining the relationship between he and Emma. Eventually, John comes clean to Emma on what he does and the danger Luke is facing, and after the discussion, Emma discovers that she has a role to play in all of this; she has been seeing ghosts and has some kind of stain growing on her body. Making matters worse, John finds himself becoming attracted to her. All of this culminates in a trip to hell, and holy cow, what a trip that is.
As mentioned earlier, Holden proves herself a talent when it comes to world building. Holden’s vision of hell isn’t the sort of fire and brimstone scenes that we have come to expect in these types of tales. It is different, and all the more remarkable because of it. I won’t spoil the plot by describing it, but I will say that Holden’s version of hell is a mixture of hallucinogenic and sexual nightmares. Which brings me to another talent that Holden possesses, her sex scenes.
For those that are constant readers, sex scenes in novels tend to feel repetitive and can become quite boring. That’s not to say that a few of the sex scenes in Carousel aren’t ordinary, they are, but thankfully those are few and short in length. But Holden does have a few in this novel that are bizarre and passionate enough that even the most jaded reader will find themselves enthralled. I have a tendency to skim over sex scenes or skip them altogether, but there were a few in this story where I not only read every word, I went back and read them again. Which bring us to Holden’s characterization.
Another talent that Holden possesses is the ability to get readers into her characters head. She does this quite well, mostly through the use of internal dialog, which is best achieved when the story has a limited amount of characters, which Carousel has. Holden strikes the right balance between action, plot advancement, and introspection in Carousel, and the story never drags.
I believe this is Holden’s first published novel, and damn if she doesn’t do everything right with it. Carousel is not only well plotted, well written, and entertaining, it is also weirdly sexy and often terrifying. If the follow-ups to Carousel are as good this one, the author is going to have a great career ahead of her. Carousel is highly recommended.
- Inflictions - April 11, 2015
- The Equinox - April 2, 2015
- The Nightmare Girl - March 9, 2015
- Intruder - February 12, 2015
- The Only Red Is Blood - February 12, 2015
- Insanity Tales - February 3, 2015
- Qualia Nous - January 28, 2015
- Once Upon An Apocalypse - November 25, 2014
- The Janus Demon - November 17, 2014
- Case White - November 7, 2014
