
The Game at Carousel
The Bystander
Rob M. Lastrel(Author)
Bantam Press
Will be published approx. on 15. October 2026
Book
Hardback
304 pages
978-1-911754-53-4 (ISBN)
Description
DO YOU LIKE SCARY MOVIES?
When horror fanatic Riley Lawrence arrives in the eerie town of Carousel for a local festival, he expects awkward tourists and maybe a disappointing haunted house.
Instead, he and his friends are drafted into a deadly horror-movie game run by an all-knowing theatre system that assigns each player a trope-based role.
Riley gets the worst one.
FILM BUFF: Knows the killer's identity. Dies first anyway.
Now the group must survive slasher flicks, cursed creature features, and increasingly deranged nightmare scenarios by exploiting horror tropes like RPG abilities. But the deeper they get into the game, the clearer it becomes:
Carousel isn't testing whether they know horror movies.
It's testing whether they can survive one.
The Game at Carousel is the horror LitRPG you never knew you needed - perfect for fans of Dungeon Crawler Carl, Scream, and meta-horror with sharp humour, brutal deaths and characters who know exactly how doomed they are.
When horror fanatic Riley Lawrence arrives in the eerie town of Carousel for a local festival, he expects awkward tourists and maybe a disappointing haunted house.
Instead, he and his friends are drafted into a deadly horror-movie game run by an all-knowing theatre system that assigns each player a trope-based role.
Riley gets the worst one.
FILM BUFF: Knows the killer's identity. Dies first anyway.
Now the group must survive slasher flicks, cursed creature features, and increasingly deranged nightmare scenarios by exploiting horror tropes like RPG abilities. But the deeper they get into the game, the clearer it becomes:
Carousel isn't testing whether they know horror movies.
It's testing whether they can survive one.
The Game at Carousel is the horror LitRPG you never knew you needed - perfect for fans of Dungeon Crawler Carl, Scream, and meta-horror with sharp humour, brutal deaths and characters who know exactly how doomed they are.
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Transworld Publishers Ltd
Dimensions
Height: 240 mm
Width: 156 mm
Thickness: 40 mm
Weight
750 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-911754-53-4 (9781911754534)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

E-Book
approx. 10/2026
Transworld Digital
€14.99
Not yet available
Person
Rob M. Lastrel is the author of the Game at Carousel series, originally released on Royal Road. Fascinated by the eerie and unknown, he writes weird, other-worldly escapism. When he isn't writing, Lastrel spends his time hiking and hopes to one day visit every national park in the United States.