Let me also mention that for such high stakes, the problem was easily solved, which threw me off. I have been creating an attachment to these characters for 3 books and yet felt NOTHING when they managed to get themselves to safety and reunite with the people they loved, which saddens me to no end. Why did he want Ollie to stay at the Carnival so badly? Why did he seem worried about her, or somewhat happy when our main characters managed to get the gate open? Why was he so afraid of the funhouse? What would he have seen in those mirrors? There are so many questions left unanswered, and I feel like it would've made the book better if we had gotten the answers we were looking for. I was so excited about the fact that we were getting to see more of the smiling man, especially since it sounded like there was a man behind the monster, yet we never really got answers in the end. I absolutely adore Katherine Arden's writing and have loved every book in this series, but this one just didn't do it for me. The summer nights are short, and Ollie, Coco, Brian, and Phil have only until sunrise to beat him once and for all-or it’s game over for everyone. This time the smiling man is playing for keeps.

Brian, Coco and Phil will risk everything to rescue Ollie-but they all soon realize this game is much more dangerous than the ones before. Meanwhile, Ollie is trapped in the world behind the mist, learning the horrifying secrets of the smiling man's carnival, trying everything to help her friends find her. The traveling carnival is coming to Evansburg. Now it’s Coco, Brian, and Phil’s turn to make theirs. Game on! The smiling man has finally made his move.

How the man agreed to let him go on one condition: that he deliver a message. He tells anyone who'll listen about the mysterious man who took him. A boy who went missing at a nearby traveling carnival appears at the town swimming hole, terrified and rambling. The smiling man promised Coco, Brian and Phil, that they’d have a chance to save her, but as time goes by, they begin to worry that the smiling man has lied to them and Ollie is gone forever. It’s been three months since Ollie made a daring deal with the smiling man to save those she loved, and then vanished without a trace. New York Times bestselling author Katherine thrills once again in the finale to the critically acclaimed, spook-tacular quartet that began with Small Spaces.

Empty smiles katherine arden