A nightmarish cosmic horror novella with creepy clowns, and a dad who wants to protect his son. 

• Entertainment factor: ★★★★★
• Creepy factor: ★★★★★
• Originality factor: ★★★★★
• Creepy clowns factor: ★★★★★
• Cosmic horror factor: ★★★★★
• Liminal horror factor: ★★★★★

I Found a Circus Tent in the Woods Behind my House is a novella that combines cosmic horrors with liminal horror. With strange beings, creepy clowns imaginative horrors and the unlimited love of a father for his son, this is a nail biting horror. This book is part of the “I Found Horror” book series in which comic horrors are combined with psychological and social themes.

It consists of 108 pages. 

Plot

Dave and his four-year-old son Jacob go outside to play in the woods behind their house, while his wife is away with their daughter Chrissy. It’s not a big forest and you’re never 200 yards away from a neighbor’s house. While they are out playing, they stumble upon something very strange. 

In the forest is a yellow and red striped circus tent. A voice is calling them from inside. First it beckons them, then it asks for help. When Dave doesn’t trust the situation and wants to leave, suddenly they are inside the tent. As if the tent enveloped them somehow. It’s dark and when Dave wants to try the flap it’s closed shut and the ground is littered with sharp glass so they can’t dig their way out either. 

But scariest of all, they are not alone. Inside a creepy clown wants them to perform. He wants them to compete and one of them has to stay, while the other can leave. Dave has none of it and with Jacob on his arm he tries to find a way out. 

They encounter more strange circus people, cut-out board clowns, ribbons that seem to hide shadowy monsters and a creepy thing hiding in the top. Dave desperately tries to find his way out. He cuts the tent which start to bleed only to find himself in another tent. They’re trapped inside this maze of circus tents in a never ending nightmare. 

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Short Review

I found this story not only very imaginative and original, but it was also very thrilling. The creepy clowns and other strange circus people are disturbing all the more because they are threatening, but don’t harm Dave or Jacob directly. They just want them to perform. The fact that they don’t take real action, except search for them and chase them, makes it all the more terrifying. Because you wonder, what comes after that performance. It feels like a nightmare in which you are being chased, try to hide, but don’t seem to create any distance.

But the main reason I believe why it’s so thrilling and nail biting is that Dave is holding Jacob in his arms the whole time. He never lets go. This action gives off a sense of danger. Just by trying to protect Jacob from seeing scary things or protect him from harms way, the situation feels all the more dire and dangerous. For Dave letting go means to have failed as a father, unable to protect him. It however also means Dave is restricted in his movements and makes it harder to protect Jacob. Luckily Jacob is very young and completely trusts his father. So Dave has to be brave, show no fear and keep it all a game for Jacob. 

I think that part is the most scary part. If it were just Dave alone, it would be a whole other story, but having to protect a young boy is far more scarier and that is very tangible. The fear Dave has, that something would happen to Jacob, is stronger than the fear of the clowns and that jumps off the pages. 

While the whole novella is about the nightmarish scares, the search for a way out and protecting Jacob, the ending isn’t only very surprising, but is also the core of the story. In the acknowledgments the author states that they did a lot of volunteer work, but after the kids were born, they’d focus on their kids instead. It’s not that they didn’t want to volunteer anymore, but it just happens. The disturbing cosmic ending is therefore very symbolic.

Read more reviews of books by Ben Farthing:

• I Found a Lost Mall in a Dying Mall (2024) review
• I Found Christmas Lights Slithering Up My Street (2023) review
• I Found Puppets Living in My Apartment Walls (2023) review