Sisters of the East End: A 1950s Nurse and Midwife
Book
Heart-warming tales of nursing and midwifery from the Sisters who worked with Jennifer Worth. "A...
The Ballad of John Latouche: An American Lyricist's Life and Work
Book
Born into a poor Virginian family, John Treville Latouche (1914-56), in his short life, made a...
Grow Your Investments with the Best Mutual Funds and ETF's: Making Long-Term Investment Decisions with the Best Funds Today
Book
Take control of your financial security today by managing those who manage your money Grow Your...
William Morris and Red House: A Collaboration Between Architect and Owner
Book
Red House occupies an extraordinary place in British architectural history. It was the first and...
Great Sacrifice: The Old Boys of Barnsley Holgate Grammar School in the First World War
Book
Jane Ainsworth's Memorial Book tells the stories of the 76 Old Boys of Barnsley Holgate Grammar...
The Arran Malt: An Island Whisky Renaissance
Book
Despite being only 21 years old, Lochranza Distillery on the Isle of Arran is the latest in a long...
Fighting for General Lee: Confederate General Rufus Barringer and the North Carolina Cavalry Brigade
Book
Rufus Barringer fought on horseback during the Civil War with General Lee's Army of Northern...
Jesters_folly (230 KP) rated The Funhouse in Books
Nov 11, 2020
I found the Funhouse to be a little disappointing, the majority of the book spends it's time building up to a big confrontation between Conrad, the main antagonist and Amy. Over 200 something pages we switch between finding out how Conrad is searching for Amy and what he will do to her to get revenge on her mother and how the past has already affected Amy's mother only for the final confrontation to take around 10 pages, most of which Conrad is not involved in the action and, when he does show up he's dealt with in a couple of sentences.
In the edition I read there is an afterword by Dean Koontz where he explains the history of the book, it was to be a book based on a film and, he had hoped that it would be the fist of many which is why it was written under the pseudonym Owen West. One thing the author says is that, because he had to work form a film script there wasn't much in the way of character building and so he had to spend time working on the back story. And I think that's part of the problem, the book shows us how events in Amy's mother's past have affected her mothers out look on life and her children and we see how the same events led Conrad down his path of revenge but the book ends with Amy and her brother leaving the fun house after escaping Conrad, which is probably the films end, the protagonist deals with the bad guy, walks away and cut to credits. However, with all the time spent on the character building I felt like we, the reader could have done with a bit more, probably only one more chapter but I would have liked to know how Amy's mother would have reacted when she found out what Conrad had done (As the book ended she didn't even know Conrad was around) and how it would have changed her outlook on her family. Would she have found the peace and forgiveness she was looking for? and would she stop treating her own children as monsters?
Over all 'The Funhouse' had it's moments but the felt like a let down with its quick ending.
His Final Battle: The Last Months of Franklin Roosevelt
Book
“By far the most enigmatic leading figure” of World War II. That’s how the British military...
Biography history politics
