Creepy Clowns in a Spooky Carnival

Empty Smiles by Katherine Arden

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This is the 4th book in a series that started with Small Spaces and it’s best if you read the whole series in order, so read the first 3 before you read this one. The first book in this series was beyond spooky and was pretty scary, and the other two were just as good and spooky, but this one, while it was spooky, wasn’t as good. I’m not sure what it was, but something was missing from the ending of this book for me. Other than it feeling like it was missing something, more explanation or background on The Smiling Man or something, it scared me but good this one with the clowns – Those clowns in this story are disturbing and somewhat terrifying even for me as an adult reading about these clowns in a Middle-Grade spooky read.
All in all, I enjoyed this book and would recommend checking it out if you’ve been following the series and want to know what happens with Ollie, Coco, Brian, and Phil and getting their chance to find and get Ollie back. Also, if you want a great spooky MG read for this time of year, it’s a good one. You know what would even be better is to start with the first book and read it all the way through all at once. It’s a great spooky fall read, and it also illustrates and shows how important families and friends are and communication, supporting, and helping each other out. It also talks about fears and overcoming them and such. If nothing else, I’d read it just for the spookiness of the carnival and a little bit of jump scares I had from reading about those clowns. I already hated clowns, so this made me hate them even more. Also, if you have a phobia of clowns, be aware of the creepy clowns in this book.
Thanks so much to NetGalley and Penguin Young Readers Group/G.P. Putnam’s Sons Books for Young Readers for letting me read and review this spooky story. All thoughts and opinions are my own.



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