Kathryn Meyer Griffith - Night Carnival

Tuesday, March 10, 2015

10. Night Carnival by Kathryn Meyer Griffith (2014)
Length: 14 pages
Genre: Short Story
Started/Finished: 10 March 2015
Where did it come from? From Amazon
How long has it been on my TBR pile? Since 2 February 2015
Why do I have it? I like short stories and I have read and enjoyed several books by this author in the past.

Angela is still grieving the losses of her mother and husband - which have both happened within the space of a month - and she feels somewhat disconnected from her life. However, she can never remember a time in her life when there has ever been such a mysterious looking carnival that has come into town. Angela has been to many carnivals in her life, certainly, but she has never seen one that came into town with so little fanfare - almost none, in fact.

Late one evening, feeling especially lonely and depressed, Angela decides to get out of her house and go for a walk. While she isn't specifically heading for the carnival, that's exactly where she's drawn - drawn by the eerie calliope music and tattered tents. Walking among the variety of skill-game booths, Angela is mesmerized by the inhabitants of a carnival the likes of which she has never seen before: demonic steeds flashing their hooves and neighing silently to the moon - a living carousel being spun by phantom hands, wraithlike luminescent creatures lurking in the shadows along the midway and the Ferris wheel, aglow with twinkling lights, moves without human hands to control it.

The animals in the center ring are perhaps the strangest of all: the lions, tigers, and elephants have no human trainers, they are monstrous and gigantic - so much larger than normal, and they seem to float. The sad-faced clowns have the ability to manipulate the crowds with only their glittering eyes and thoughts. Angela soon learns the truth of the carnival - the clowns and other carnies are all vampires.

Their leader, Dominic, has been searching for centuries...for Angela. He's an ancient and powerful being who offers her something she's never had before...Love. A soulmate. A place to call home...forever.

Yet, is Angela willing to give up her humanity for this creature of the night? Is she willing to join herself to him - spending eternity among the vampires, shape shifters and ghosts of the traveling carnival? Could Angela truly be happy as one of them? Would she willingly die for him?

I must say that I really enjoyed reading this story; the characters were well-developed for the length of the story, and were quite likable for vampires. I actually wanted to read this story much earlier then I did. I downloaded a free copy of this ebook from Amazon during Ms. Griffith's four-day sale in February. I never expected that it would take me just under a month to read such a short story - lol!! I would give this story an A!

A! - (90-95%) 

May you read well and often

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