So many missed opportunities.
I went into this knowing what all the reviews have been saying about the ending. I knew it would be rushed and that it would end almost out of nowhere. I knew that for the most part that the plot fit in with the rest of the series, maybe even just a tad bit scarier because, seriously, clowns are the worst.
And then I got to that ending. *sigh*
First question off the top of my head, what happens to the dolls that the kids win at the carnival games? Tim won a doll, didn't he? Back at the start of the book? Which made me wonder what happened to it. Do they get out of the carnival and go back to normal? Do they have no chance of returning to their lives if they leave as a doll? Do they mark the kid that won them as the new prey for the clowns to hunt?
Next question: why make it that Mr. Adler was ready to believe Coco, willing to listen and try to understand, but then have him and the rest of the adults forget everything?
What's the deal with Ollie's watch? Did the Smiling Man have something to do with her Mom's past and in turn, she was able to stick around to help her daughter because of what she knew or a deal she'd made when she was a kid?
Why make the last season location a carnival? Everywhere else was a solid, spooky setting. This one takes place on a train where Ollie couldn't keep track of where she was or how much time had passed. Carnivals can be scary. There are so many things that can be used to make this setting work. Maybe every time Ollie left her room, the carnival could have been filled with people from different time periods, to show how long it's been around to terrorize children that get lost in its labyrinth. Maybe instead of traveling on a train, the carnival gates just open to a new town without needing to do anything else. It haunts actual traveling carnivals and hijacks their gates so it can hunt children without anyone figuring out its secrets.
Where did the clowns come from? Why did the Smiling Man do what he did? Where did he, in turn, come from? How long has he been scaring children? Was he a victim first? Or was he just the embodiment of all fears, some universal concept that uses the power he gets from children to make him real and since all kids are afraid of something, he never loses power and always exists somewhere, in some shape or form? And his power is so great, he can affect adults just as easy, but only children can see the boogeyman, which makes everything worse for the kids the Smiling Man targets.
I know this series wrapped up with four books, one for each season, but I say there could be a fifth book. One that encompasses a year of seaons and focuses on answering some of the questions about the Smiling Man. Also, I wasn't so much a fan of book 3. I just feel like Phil was dropped in out of nowhere and readers don't have enough time to form an attachment to him, which is why book 4 didn't focus on him and it just revolved around the original three characters. A fifth book could focus on Phil and show how he adds to the group with a knack for maybe figuring out connections, finding answers in research, which he uses to track the Smiling Man down in time, maybe showing where he came from or how he really came to exist in that form.
It's wishful thinking, I know, but the series feels incomplete and in the back of my head, I'll always look for the next installment of this in the hopes that the REAL ending is still out there waiting for readers to find it and cheer.
Rating: 2 Stars
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