Book Review: Dream Woods by Patrick Lacey

Follow your screams…

When Vince Carter takes a shortcut to work he notices a billboard that nearly sends him into an oncoming van. The ad is for Dream Woods, New England’s answer to Disney World. It closed decades ago, but now that it’s back in business, Vince is eager to take his whole family, hoping the magic he remembers will save his failing marriage.

His wife, Audra, isn’t so sure. She’s heard the rumors of why the place closed. Murder. Sacrifice. Torture. But those are just urban legends. Surely there’s nothing evil about a family tourist attraction. The Carters are about to discover that the park’s employees aren’t concerned with their guests’ enjoyment. They’re interested in something else. Something much more sinister.

Welcome to Scream Woods!

My Review:
Vince sees the billboard at the side of the road, advertising the Dream Woods theme park where he had a brilliant holiday as a child. It was closed down amid rumours of deaths and accidents, and gateways to Hell but Vince is delighted at the thought of being able to take his family to the newly opened park. His wife Audra is already on the verge of leaving Vince and this place with a terrible reputation is the last place she wants to go with their teenage boys. Andrew can barely stand being in the same room as diabetic brother Tim, jealous of all the attention that his sick brother gets, while Tim just yearns to be healthy again. Vince is the only one looking forward to the trip, certain it will be a great family holiday.

Things get off to a strange start with locals adamant that Dream Woods has not reopened when Vince talks to them about it. There is no sign of the place until it suddenly seems to appear out of nowhere and they enter to start their holiday. Audra instantly feels something is wrong, hearing screams of horror that Vince doesn't notice and she has an irrational fear that the reception desk woman is not human. Tim finds sugar filled items with horrible names in the vending machine which suddenly make him want to eat his way into a diabetic coma. Andrew becomes plagued with thoughts of how he can kill his brother and get back the attention of his parents. Only Vince is oblivious to the evil vibe around Dream Woods. Meanwhile, The Director sits on a throne of flesh, waiting for the moment when Dream Woods is full of former visitors who have been lured back to the park, waiting to drop the glamour and let his staff feed on the guests.  

I had really high hopes for how great this book sounded and I enjoyed the sample so I ordered the full book on Kindle. I loved the sound of the deadly theme park where people are going to die and I thought that the bear mascot Sebastian might be eating people personally like a real bear. I was mildly disappointed to find that Sebastian was a bear costume fused with the boy who used to work as the mascot until his untimely death so that wasn't the scary bear monster that I was hoping for! He just seemed to wander around waving at people and not doing anything scary, which was a pity. I did find it a little bit slow in places in the first half, as the guests got slight glimpses that all wasn't right with the park, lots of hallucinations and strange moments. It was more about being a bit weird than any real action or full on tension for me. It does shift into higher gear when the glamour drops and the staff start to feed but I felt a bit detached from it all as we saw glimpses through the eyes of the boys but for the most part the family were hiding through most of the death.

We switched to different viewpoints through the story as Vince, Audra, Andrew and Tim view the park in different ways. It was interesting in places to see what they were all doing and thinking. The down side is that a few of the characters attitudes annoyed me. Vince was so selfish on the trip, making it all about what he wanted, dragging his reluctant family there, then sulking every time he didn't get his own way. Having him in a mood because they had to feed the diabetic son rather than go to his favourite attraction was a bit pathetic. I didn't much like Andrew either with his attitude towards his brother. Audra was a selfish woman who seemed to resent her family for getting in the way of her previous punk lifestyle. I felt like yelling at her for being dumb enough to get pregnant if she didn't want a domesticated lifestyle! I didn't care that much about any of them really. We also get Regina's story, an ex-employee writing an expose on the park where her boyfriend died, and she is drawn back to try and close the park for good. Her story includes flashbacks to her time working at the park and how she escaped, along with her journey to get there in the future.

It was a decent little horror story but despite wanting to love it, I didn't. There was nothing wrong with it really but it just wasn't what I expected or wanted it to be. It's hard to put my finger on what didn't work for me. I think I was expecting a more drawn out horror tale with evil things stalking the guests, starting with disappearances, the odd accident and then groups of guests each with one of our heroes hiding on each ride as evil things stalk them and gradually kill them. Instead it was throw the switch, quickly kill pretty much everyone in a quick mass bloodbath and then focus on our heroes trying to hide. Having it all happen so fast reduced the impact of the slaughter and lacked the scare factor. It just didn't excite me or sweep me along the way similar books have in the past. I didn't care much for the characters and parts of the book were a little slow especially Vince and his drinking sessions and Audra's frequent run ins at reception. It just could have been so much more.

Overall it was decent enough to pass a couple of hours but it's not one I'd read again or buy in paperback for my collection.

Read June 2018.
3 stars.