When eighteen-year-old Laura Fitzpatrick decides to attend a Halloween party, she thinks the scariest thing she will have to face is admitting her feelings to her crush. When she is dared to retrieve a souvenir from an abandoned carnival ground, the night takes a horrifying turn. Carousel by Sarah McKnight is a spine-tingling horror novel that will have you holding your breath from the very first chapter.

The characters are very well written and reflect the eras they came from, adding layers of intrigue to the story. I felt the author used the relationships between characters very well, making the reader invested in their stories. Using characters from different eras also helped to emphasise the horror and hopelessness of the situation. As a reader, I felt invested in the stories of each character and what would happen to them. Using the characters to further the story and having them explain the situation using their understanding of it added to the haunting and distressing feeling of disorientation. I enjoyed learning more about the setting from the perspectives of different characters throughout the story, instead of having one set explanation from the beginning. This helped to emphasise that none of the characters understood what was happening, and they were just trying their best to survive in the terrifying place they had unknowingly wandered into.

The pacing is great, the book is fast-paced without feeling rushed, and the use of news stories and reports from outside the carnival grounds added a stark contrast of time passing while our characters were suspended in time. The writing style also added to the mystery, making this book frightening, creepy, and, at times, utterly devastating. The overall feeling of the book, including the uncertain and macabre nature, made me feel as though I was experiencing the events alongside the characters, which is what made it such a (horrifying) joy to read.

I also appreciated the inclusion of content warnings at the beginning of the book and felt that these accurately reflected the content of the story, especially content and themes that could be distressing.

Overall, I highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys horror, mystery, intrigue, and suspenseful stories and doesn’t mind a bit of gore. The story was very well written; I didn’t want to put this book down and finished it in less than a day. I enjoyed the book and look forward to reading more from this author.

I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.