Book Microreview: Amusement Park Arcana by Jennifer R. Donohue

A contemporary horror/dark fantasy novella with a strong grounding in its setting

Riley is a Jersey Girl. She lives near the Shore, and has a season badge at Asbury Park. She has been drifting since before she graduated from high school, because her best friend Tara disappeared months ago. The last place she was seen was Thrill Park, a family-owned amusement park. And Riley is determined to find out what happened to her. Even if she has to become part of the staff of Thrill Park to do it.

This is Amusement Park Arcana by Jennifer R. Donohue.

One of the book’s strongest points is the voice. We get a first-person point of view from Riley, full of her opinions, determinations, fears and doubts. She has been devastated by losing Tara, and trying to find her is what keeps her going. Even as strange things happen to her at the park, she keeps that drive, that internal voice, that forward momentum going. Riley feels authentic, and we get to understand her deal in a short space thanks to the author’s writing. It shows just how broken a person Riley has become since Tara’s disappearance.

Another strength is the grounded worldbuilding. The book is set in coastal New Jersey and expertly captures the feel of a place I didn’t grow up in, but visited often enough to find the sense of place to be in accord with my memories. There are a couple of comparisons and allusions to an infamous amusement park, Action Park. Having been to Action Park several times growing up in the area, this was an excellent reference point for me to really get a sense of how Thrill Park compares, or doesn’t. The horror and real life dangers of Action Park are different from the more supernatural ones of Thrill Park, although there is an attraction in the fictional Thrill Park that definitively evoked its Action Park counterpart.

That handling of the mundane elements is strong, perhaps almost too dominant a flavor in the novella. I think I would have liked more of the supernatural elements, which were applied with a lighter touch than most of the fantasy fiction I read. But perhaps that is part of the point this story. The mundanity of Riley coming to terms with Tara’s fate and processing her feelings about it has more narrative weight.

That said, I was darkly amused by what was for me the central supernatural element, that the penumbra of mundane space coincidentally leans into a hot topic in horror and fantasy: liminal spaces. And of course, the recent movie Backrooms. The worker and employee spaces in an amusement park are a backrooms-like liminal space if someone not of that public (or someone new to it, like Riley) should stumble into it. It’s a space that we don’t normally see, but logically they exist.¹

And that brings me to the title of the book and what the author focuses on, and what I focused on. The title of the book is Amusement Park Arcana, and there is a tarot reading as a centerpiece and a station on the Riley’s path to find out what happened to Tara. At the point it happens we’ve already had a weird/fantastic note. And the tarot reading leads Riley to get into the liminal space where she finds out what really happened to Tara. That reading, given the title, is a big sign.

Perhaps it’s because of my lack of real knowledge of the tarot that I didn’t focus on the details when I was reading it, but looking back now, my focus on the liminal space, dictated by recent media, led me to not realizing that the tarot reading is the real focus of this story. Riley’s reading has her embody the card she represents: the Knight of Swords. This card, I am given to understand, is an energetic, driven figure, who wants to accomplish their goals at any and all costs. That certainly is Riley, who has responded to her best friend disappearing at an amusement park by charging in and signing up to be hired by the park so that she can investigate it herself. Rushing in where angels fear to tread is this archetype.

That, indeed, is Riley. Rushing and determined. Sort of like the story itself, come to think of it.

Thus, Amusement Park Arcana rushes by, in a similar manner, quickly. I am not sure about the ending; it felt a little underwhelming to me. But the story up to that part, for its relative balance of mundane versus supernatural, is solid. It flows well and quickly, and as I think about it in retrospect a week later, especially as noted above with the tarot implications, my initial hard feelings about the ending have softened. It’s not as much of a resolution as I might have liked, but for other readers, it might be enough.

Highlights:

• Great sense of place in New Jersey
• Good use of tarot as magic and central theme
• Strong first-person POV protagonist

Reference: Donohue, Jennifer R. Amusement Park Arcana [self-published, 2026].

¹ Now thinking back to my days of working in a supermarket, and not really realizing at the time how I was often in spaces that we would now consider liminal. I know the backrooms of Pathmark (rest in peace) and can walk them in my mind to this day. But a stranger thrust into that space would be at sea.

POSTED BY: Paul Weimer. Ubiquitous in Shadow, but I'm just this guy, you know? @princejvstin.

6 Books with David Towsey

David Towsey is a graduate of the Creative Writing programmes at Bath Spa University and Aberystwyth University. Born in Dorset, he now lives in Cardiff with his girlfriend and their growing board game collection. Together, they write under the pseudonym of D.K. Fields.

Today he tells us about his Six Books:

1. What book are you currently reading?

Right now I’m reading The Gamekeeper by Barry Hines, who also wrote A Kestrel for a Knave that was filmed as Kes. The Gamekeeper is a pretty detailed and vivid account of life as a gamekeeper on an English country estate. I’m toying with the idea of setting a book on such an estate, so I’ve picked up a few reference texts – both fiction and non-fiction – to get a feel for it. Hines really captures the working relationship between people and animals, which at times can seem coldly functional (even cruel) but at other points feels so caring and sensitive. I’m also learning a lot about the breeding and maintaining of pheasants, which is something I never thought I’d say…







2. What upcoming book are you really excited about?

This is perhaps a cheeky answer, but I’m really excited for people to read Shauna Lawless’ debut novel, The Children of Gods and Fighting Men. I got a chance to read an advance copy, and absolutely loved the mix of Irish mythology, history, fantasy, and political intrigue. It’s the first in a trilogy, so I can’t wait for the next one!












3. Is there a book you’re currently itching to re-read?

Oh, that’s a great question. In interviews and events for Equinox, I’ve been mentioning Jeff Vandermeer’s The Southern Reach trilogy as an inspiration, and it’s been a while since I read those fantastic books. The trilogy tells such a beguiling story. I remember when I first read it, I felt like I was trying to catch smoke in my hands – just when I thought I had a grip on it, something in the story would shift and the whole thing slipped through my fingers. A lesser writer might make that a frustrating reading experience, but I think Vandermeer handles it masterfully. I’d love to re-read it this summer!




4 A book that you love and wish that you yourself had written.

Yikes, it’s hard to pick just one book – there are so many novels I love and wish I’d written. But if pushed to choose only one, it would have to be Richard Matheson’s I Am Legend. Not only is it a brilliant story, with such a great ending – something I think is one of the most challenging parts of writing a novel – it’s been hugely influential in the SF/F and horror genres. I can only dream of one of my texts having such a long-lasting legacy.










5. What’s one book, which you read as a child or a young adult, that has had a lasting influence on your writing?

I came quite late to reading as a kid. The book that really hooked me was, like so many children, The Hobbit. It opened up the world of fantasy for me, and I then read most of the mainstream titles around in the 90s and 00s. I think of all those genre staples I devoured as a kid, Assassin’s Apprentice by Robin Hobb probably had the biggest influence on my writing. Until I read that book, I’d mainly experienced high fantasy or sword and sorcery – usually through big series like The Wheel of Time, or David Gemmell’s many works. But reading Assassin’s Apprentice was the first time I felt the emotions of the main character were just as important as the worldbuilding, the magic, and all the action.

      

6. And speaking of that, what’s your latest book, and why is it awesome?

 My latest book, Equinox, is a dark fantasy novel all about a witch hunt. The big twist in this world is that every physical body has two people in it – one that lives during the day, the other during the night. This, understandably, changes a lot about how people behave, how they manage their lives and relationships, and how they keep their secrets. Special Inspector Christophor Morden is sent to a remote village to find a witch. As his investigation uncovers the darker elements of this close community, his day-brother, Alexsander, falls in love with one of the prime suspects. Like the awesome cover for the book (thanks to Head of Zeus for that), there’s more than meets the eye to this world full of doubles and dualities.

Thank you, David!

POSTED BY: Paul Weimer. Ubiquitous in Shadow, but I’m just this guy, you know? @princejvstin