Product Description

Years after leaving the carnival, her hated first husband, and the child she could never love, Ellen has a new life, a new husband, and two beautiful children, but now the carnival is coming back to town, and Ellen is going to have to pay for her sins. Reprint.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2563647 in Books
• Published on: 1999-10
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: School & Library Binding
• 333 pages

About the Author
Dean Koontz was born into a very poor family and learned early on to escape into fiction. His novels have sold over 200 million copies worldwide and more than thirty have appeared on national and international bestseller lists. He lives in southern California with his wife, Gerda and a vivid imagination.

Customer Reviews

What's with all the bad reviews?
Just another great Dean Koontz book as far as I'm concerned. A woman named Ellen gives birth to a deformed, monstrous child with claws and she kills it, even though her husband, who's a barker at a carnival, loves it and doesn't understand how dangerous it is. He nearly kills her when he finds out and tosses her out of the house. Fast forward several years and Ellen has two new children of her own and a new life. But she's turned into a religious fanatic, like Carrie's mother from Stephen King's first novel, and her children, espescially her son, are afraid of her. And now her old husband Conrad is tracking down her children in an effort to destroy them as revenge. Ellen's 17 year old daughter Amy and a few other dope-smoking rebels head out to the carnival for some fun and when they enter the Funhouse, where Conrad works, they get more than they bargained for. Much more.

Not bad - not excellent
The Funhouse was my 9th Koontz book - and as usual, I started reading with high expectations. However, those expectations were cooled a bit when I read in the preface that this was "not quite the best o' the best".

After having read it, I felt as always when reading Koontz: good, thrilled... and not disappointed. But: in some way, there WAS something missing. The usual breathtaking Koontz-style wasn't quite there in the degree, I'm used to. The book was good, but it's hard to point a finger at what was wrong...

Yes, I enjoyed the book - and yes, I was a bit dissapointed. THe book was worth reading though, and if we think about the fact that The Funhouse was one of his first, it's not so bad at all. I know, I wouldn't even come close after a lifetime of writing!

In my oppinion, this book fully deserves a 7 - which is three below my rating for all other Koontz books I've read - which isn't that bad at all, don't you think!

Not a good representation of Koontz!
This is one of about 10 of his books I have read. I have greatly enjoyed his other books but this one seemed very shallow. Normally he writes extremely well thought characters - on both sides. But with this book you couldn't understand anyone except maybe the little boy. Don't read this as a first time Koontz. He states he wanted to show the reality of the carnival life - he does that okay but fails with the people.