Recommended Age:
13
+
Great for confident read-aloud listeners or independent readers who enjoy suspenseful, atmospheric, and character-driven narratives.
About the Book
When a sinister traveling carnival arrives in a small Illinois town one October, two thirteen-year-old boys—Will Halloway and Jim Nightshade—discover the carnival's dark power to grant wishes at a terrible cost, and must find the courage to stop its evil ringmaster Mr. Dark. A literary dark fantasy that explores the shadow side of desire and growing up.
Content Ratings
💡
Intense Themes
The novel explores the terror of dark desire, the loss of innocence, the fear of aging and death, and the temptation to bargain with evil; Will and Jim must confront the darkness within themselves and others; themes are philosophically and emotionally complex and genuinely unsettling.
⚔️
Moderate Violence
The carnival preys on desires and transforms people; villain is frightening; violence is literary and atmospheric rather than graphic.
Engagement:
Genre:
Horror
Published:
1962
Page Count:
293
Where to Buy:
