NOVEL REVIEW - Bennytown by Matt Carter

Bennytown by Matt Carter
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Come for the rides, stay for the horror...
This novel really surprised me, it starts out with some coming-of-age vibes with a young man getting his first job in an amusement park and slowly builds up the weird factor as it goes along.
The entire story is at at times almost too on the nose with its Disneyland references, an amusement park with themed "lands" built around colorful cartoon characters and the artificial sense of childhood innocence that parks like these seek to emulate. But as always, there are dark secrets and urban legends around that our young protagonist soon finds are sometimes not even close to the truth. There's even a Walt Disney-type park mentor called Dorian Fletcher whose spirit, both figurative and literal permeates the park alongside his main character Benny the Bunny.
Some reviews have likened this novel to the movie Thirteen Ghosts, and I can certainly see the resemblance, especially when the story takes a full turn into the supernatural. Can't say more about the plot without spoiling it so I'll just say that it's a worthy horror read and if you like the theme park setting, even better.

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