Let me tell you straight off that this isn’t necessarily a book for adults. If you’re looking for the next Joe Hill novel, this isn’t the book for you. This is a book aimed at a younger crowd, particularly the tween age-set. This is a great, scary-but-not-too-scary story to read with your kids. It’s with this mindset that I write this review.

Reading Dan Graffeo’s Halloween Night Fever series already feels like something of a tradition for me. Last year I reviewed End of the Long Walk, the third book in the series. This year I read and enjoyed the prequel, The Cir-cuss Comes to Town.

Don’t let the word “prequel” fool you. You’ll be incredibly confused if you haven’t read End of the Long Walk first. That book builds the world of Sleepy Owl, where a select group of teenagers, the Pniese, spend their Halloween policing the dark things that go bump in the night.

The Cir-cuss Comes to Town seemed darker than the last one, and I felt like it was written for a slightly older age group. Cindy, a member of the Pniese, spends her time making out with her popular quarterback boyfriend instead of honing her archery and fighting skills in preparation for Halloween. While the group deals with the normal underworldly antics, such as a cyclops who loses a contact, this year is different because a demonic clown has raised an undead circus with the intent of wiping out the teenage Pniese, and he especially has his eye on Cindy.

While I enjoyed the humor in this book, which is one of Graffeo’s strengths, I was impressed by the description of the decayed and rotting circus. The grizzly bear with no eyes, a stiltwalker with blades embedded into his stilts, and an undead elephant with his ribs showing were just a few of the memorable characters. There are plenty of broken bones and flying teeth in this story, and I felt the climax under the Big Top was exciting and creative.

I stumbled a few times over awkward phrasing and unusual use of italics and capitalization, but I doubt the younger intended audience would be bothered by this. It was a spooky, fun book with enough excitement to keep the tween set interested throughout.