Funhouse by Owen West (a pseudonym of Dean Koontz) takes the bright lights and laughter of a carnival and twists them into something menacing. At its center is Ellen, a woman scarred by a dark past, who returns to the seaside amusement park where her nightmares began. The carnival is alive with noise and color, but beneath the surface lurks something monstrous, tied to Ellen’s abusive mother and a grotesque sideshow secret that refuses to stay buried. As her son becomes entangled in the carnival’s grip, Ellen is forced to confront not only her past but the evil that thrives behind the painted smiles and rattling rides. Koontz builds the tension with a steady hand, turning a place of wonder into a claustrophobic trap, where survival means facing horrors both human and inhuman.
