The DARK CAROUSEL series is a heart-stopping saga, a mix of the chill of American Horror Story and the fantastical elements of Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children.
A dark presence is collecting girls, deep in the forest. Two girls have vanished, and now a third. Cassie and her friends desperately search the forest for their friend, who went missing on a hike. When they find vintage dolls hanging from strings on branches, they should have turned back.
But they didn't.
The dolls lead to a crumbling mansion. Beneath the mansion lies a macabre, life-sized dollhouse that is controlled by a terrifying being. In the dollhouse, you must dance until your feet bleed, sit on the toy shelf if you're bad, and if you've been very bad, you are sent to the toy box - a pitch-dark cavern that contains beings beyond nightmares.
And now there is no escape.
I originally read this book in 2014, but after trying to read the sequel, I decided to refresh my memory by rereading the first book. (Note: I found out later that this book had been updated. I reread the original version) The first time I read this book it got 4 stars, but I dropped it to 3.5 stars the second time. It's still a pretty good gothic/horror story.
When Cassie's friend Aisha goes missing, Aisha's boyfriend Ethan is the one people blame for her disappearance. Cassie knows that Ethan had nothing to do with it (although, she admittedly has a crush on him), so she decides to help clear his name. She, along with Ethan and another friend, Lacey, go back to the last place they saw her: In the woods, by a creepy, old mansion. They see no sign of her until they find a secret entrance leading underneath the mansion. They find a cavern full of circus memorabilia-- a carousel, life-size dolls, a wheel of death--and the further they go, the creepier it gets, and there's no return.
The suspense in this book in fantastic. You know from the get-go that nothing good happened to Aisha and you know that Cassie isn't safe. The further the book gets, the creepier the story becomes. I wanted to know what happened to Aisha, then I wanted to know why the circus stuff was there, and then I wanted to know how everyone would get out of this mess. I know I'm being a bit vague, but I want the Dollhouse to surprise you. Let's just say that the book goes from mystery to gothic/paranormal slowly throughout the book. Anya Allyn also does a great job describing the scenes, sometimes that was where the fear came in.
The beginning was a little bumpy for me, though. I didn't quite understand why Aisha left the group in the beginning. Maybe it's fixed in the updated version, but Cassie seems to think that it's her fault Aisha disappeared because they were fighting about Ethan, but that didn't happen. Sure, I think Aisha picked up on the fact that Cassie liked Ethan, but there was no confrontation. Once the characters are in the Dollhouse, the pacing does slow a bit, which I have seen reviews complain about, but that didn't bother me. It added to the odd sense of time in the Dollhouse, how the characters couldn't tell if they were there for days, weeks, or months.
There is a little bit of a romance in this book. Like I said, Cassie has a crush on Ethan, and there is a little bit of a romance between them, but it doesn't get far, and it is a very small part of the book. I didn't really care about Ethan. He's okay, I guess, but he was not a very active character in this book, and I couldn't see why he was worth breaking a friendship over. By the way, Cassie's feelings for Ethan did bother me a bit, mainly because she did not act like a good friend at the beginning of the book. Some of her inner-comments about Aisha weren't comments you would make about a friend either. I did worry that this would make a negative girl dynamic in this book, but thankfully, the girls helped one another.
IN CONCLUSION
Overall, I did like this book, even if I didn't enjoy it as much the first time. It is a creepy, suspenseful read, and not like any other books I've come across. It does end in a pretty big cliffhanger. I've since read the rest of the books in the series, and while the series has really interesting ideas, this is the best book in the series, and I wish this book could've stood by itself.
I hereby give this book
3.5 Stars
Meaning: I liked it, but it wasn't quite amazing.
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