So, now you're asking..."Who is Owen West?" It's Dean Koontz. He used West as a pen name to break a "new author" into the horror-suspense genre, at the request of Jove publishing company. Based on a screenplay, The Funhouse was expected to launch a wonderful career for West.
The Funhouse
Leaving home at 18, Ellen Giavenetto was trying to escape a controlling, religion obsessed mother and an apathetic father. What she found was worse abuse at the hands of her husband, carnival funhouse owner, Conrad Straker. While married to Conrad, Ellen gave birth to a child that was so hideous she killed it. Conrad, enraged, beat Ellen and threw her out of his carnie home. He swears to find any future children Ellen has and kill them as she has killed his.
Twenty-five years later, Ellen is re-married with two children. She has, also, become her mother. Ellen is a religious fanatic, in a permanent fog from the alcohol she uses to help her forget. Her 17 year old daughter Amy and 10 year old son Joey don't know what's wrong with mom... but they do know the carnival is coming to town.
This book is in the top 3...
worst Koontz books I've read and I've read 30+ of his books. It reminds me of a B slasher movie...which the script The Funhouse is based on may have been. Promiscuous teen age sex, alcohol & drug abuse, rape and rip'em apart murders without a good storyline makes this a book that just didn't need to be written.
The characters are annoying, not interesting. I couldn't even work up an anger at Ellen and the way she treated her children. The only one I could find any empathy for was Joey. What kid hasn't dreamt of running away with the carnival?
I have no clue as to why some of them were even written in. An albino carnie is mentioned several times as working for Conrad, but in the end has no other purpose than filler for the story.
I hate to say it Mr. Koontz but you should have let this book die tragically, trampled by musk oxen in Burma as you stated in the afterword of The Funhouse about the dear departed Owen West.
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