The Land of Laughs

Jonathan Carroll's first novel is a very accomplished mix of fantasy and horror, laced with dark humour. The story of Thomas Abbey, son of dead Hollywood actor Stephen Abbey, who makes a living as an English teacher while harbouring a deep resentment towards his famous father. A chance meeting at a bookstore leads him to a woman named Saxony and the possibility of writing a biography of dead children's author Marshall France, a figure of obsession for both Thomas and Sax.

Seeking permission for the book from France's daughter Anna, Thomas and Sax, by now lovers, wash up in Galen, hometown of Marshall. And slowly things begin to get weird. The town seems preserved in Amber, it's citizens reacting strangely to tragedies. Anna and Thomas become lovers, the biography progresses and slowly Galen's secrets are revealed to Thomas.

Carroll's prose is very easy to read and the spiral down into strangeness and horror is very well handled. The characters are well drawn and a creeping sense of horror pervades the latter stages of the novel. The ending is surreal and disturbing.

Superb storytelling and a great introduction to the work of Mr Carroll. Recommended.

Fanboy meets fangirl
he lets her do the grunt work
lord knows she can't cook.

I wasn't too drawn in by any of the characters including (particularly) the protagonist, but the prose and interesting plot kept me invested. I loved the amount of care that went into creating a fictional author and his body of work; the process of writing a biography was pretty fascinating to follow, too. This novel really reminded me of the Inkheart trilogy by Cornelia Funke, which I'm a big fan of, not only with its premise but also its ruminations on the nature of free will and existence.