‘Dance Of The King In Yellow’ By Sean Casey – Book Review

I always love an opportunity to read “new to me” authors. That’s one of the cool things I get to do here at PopHorror. We now live in a world where I believe our TBR lists are heavily influenced by social platforms, such as Instagram and Tik Tok. I do miss simply peeking at a book cover, reading the synopsis and deciding to give it a go.

That’s exactly what I did when I was offered the opportunity to read and review Sean Casey’s latest book, Dance of the King in Yellow. Read the synopsis, peeked at the cover and agreed to give this book a go. What did I think of this book? Read on for my spoiler-free review.

Synopsis:

Bobby Hester is a student in the small town of Dairy, Iowa. This year, the high school is performing Dance of the King in Yellow, a brand-new play! When a series of murders shock the town, Bobby realizes sinister forces are at work. The play is about to raise hell, unless someone can stop it.

My Thoughts:

Dance of the King in Yellow by Sean Casey is such a fun read! Don’t misunderstand my definition of “fun.” There are some definite gore and horrifying moments as well. This book is a quick read that won’t disappoint. It’s a young adult oriented in story, set in a high school with all the good and maybe not so good trials and tribulations of teenage life. Our main character, Bobby Hester, is about to learn much more than just your average teenage coming-of-age moments.

Without giving too much of the plot away, Bobby is the son of the Sheriff of Dairy and is living a “normal” teenage life. He feels that he is missing out on things and is sitting on the sidelines as life passes him by. Of course, there is a girl involved that he would love to get to know more. Bobby is about to be thrown into a fight for not only his life, but the entire town.

Murders begin to happen in the town and Bobby ends up being in the center of trying to figure out what exactly is happening in Dairy. Something not of this Earth has a hold on the town and for some reason Bobby is the only one who can see that something is wrong. It seems the whole town is brainwashed and unaware of the evil that now is residing in Dairy. It seems to be somehow related to the new school play production of the Dance of the King in Yellow. If it’s not stopped, it will be trouble for the people of Dairy. Can Bobby stop this evil? You have to read the book to find out!

The book is well written. The character development is solid, which isn’t always easy with shorter stories due to the length. I enjoyed the quotes that are included in each chapter as they introduce the chapter in a unique way. The pacing, though. The pacing is near perfect in this story. Compelling storytelling set at a pace that makes you want to turn the page. There are some gore and scary happenings that add to the page turning. The ending, I won’t spoil it, of course, but I honestly didn’t see it coming. It had me wondering about the whole story I just read.

My Final Thoughts:

Dance of the King in Yellow is definitely going to make my top ten this year. I am a big fan of stories of evil literally coming to your town. This story was action packed and perfectly paced, which made it a compelling read.

You may check out Sean Casey’s other work on his website.