TITLE: MG
GENRE: SECRET
Simon didn’t like breaking the law, but exploring an abandoned theme park was just too exciting turn down.
To be fair, Simon hadn’t set out with the intentions of trespassing. He’d been at Mrs. Drew’s finishing his homework, when he’d run out of pages to read. Bored and with his elderly babysitter snoring in front of her TV, Simon went to leave a note saying he was going for a walk, as any good twelve-year-old should.
Something giggled from the kitchen shelf.
Simon jumped. Perched next to her black, plastic shoes, an ancient doll bobbled with laughter, her eyes faded and wide. Simon bolted halfway down the street before the screen door had a chance to creek shut.
Whack!
“Owww.” Simon rubbed his forehead. He took a few steps back to get a better view of the paint-chipped “Welcome” sign. The bottom half, which faintly read “to Midway”, was covered with wild vines.
Miss Snark's First Victim
Fantasy.
ReplyDeleteSomething about the ancient giggling doll and the closed amusement park with a welcome sign half covered with wild vines read creepy to me. I'm expecting a ghost, or dragon or magician to appear next.
Horror
ReplyDeleteThe doll. And the foreboding about the amusement park.
Paranormal?
ReplyDeleteThe doll and amusement park made seemed less gory than traditional horror, so I went with paranormal.
fantasy or horror
ReplyDeletethe giggling doll
Fantasy
ReplyDeleteGiggling doll and creepy amusement park.
Mystery
ReplyDeleteAn abandoned theme park reminds me of Scooby-Doo
HORROR
ReplyDeleteGiggling dolls and an abandoned amusement park makes me think horror.
Fantasy
ReplyDeleteparanormal
ReplyDeleteThe giggling doll and the amusement park make me think of possession/ghosts.
Horror
ReplyDeleteBut maybe just a creepy magic realism?
I'm leaning toward fantasy.
ReplyDeleteA giggling doll doesn't sound scary, just not normal.
I'm going with paranormal. Dolls creep me out, but the tone seems lighter than horror.
ReplyDeleteParanormal fantasy, if that's a category. Paranormal first.
ReplyDeleteHorror
ReplyDeleteMostly because of the doll, and the theme park seems like it would be a good horror setting.
Fantasy
ReplyDeleteParanormal or Urban Fantasy. The giggling doll gave it away, because I was going to go with Contemporary until then.
Horror.
ReplyDeleteAnimated dolls.
CONTEMPORARY FANTASY
ReplyDeleteI was going to say contemporary until you got to inanimate objects giggling on shelves. That seems pretty clearly fantasy.
Fantasy, because of the talking doll. I was confused about what was talking since there was the reference to something talking beside her shoes. Whose shoes and who's talking? Good luck, Sarah
ReplyDeleteCan't Tell
ReplyDeleteThe TV and the homework sound like Contemporary. The doll didn't do anything sinister enough to suggest Horror. Paranormal maybe? I wasn't clear on the plastic shoes.
Fantasy
ReplyDeleteThe giggling doll at the dilapidated old lady house gives it a fairy-tale vibe.
Paranormal, because of the creepy doll, and abandoned amusement parks always have something supernatural going on, right?
ReplyDeleteFantasy - the giggling doll
ReplyDeletePARANORMAL
ReplyDeleteThe giggling doll did it, but because there was no immediate explanation of Simon's reaction, it had me wondering if the "doll" was just some leftover bit of the theme park that he freaked out about.
Then again, even if it was, I'd expect it to be foreshadowing for other strange things.
Adventure w/paranormal elements
ReplyDeleteThe doll of course, but I don't feel this is going totally paranormal or fantasy, feels more contemporary with a little fun!
Horror.
ReplyDeleteAbandoned theme park, creepy doll laughing on its own, a vine-chocked sign... seems like it's trying to set a scary mood.
Location sort of jumps around, though, so I'm not sure where everything is taking place.
Contemp or Speculative.
ReplyDeleteEverything here screams contemporary fiction (mention of TV and other modern words, no mention of magic or technologies from the future). But the setup feels like Something Is Going To Happen in the theme park, and I could see it being a slip-into-an-alternate-world kind of adventure (a la The Phantom Tollbooth).
Horror
ReplyDeleteThe giggling doll made me think fantasy, but abandoned amusement parks are classic horror locations. And he just ran scared from the doll. He didn't go back to check it out or talk to it or see what it was. So I'm thinking of something along the lines of 'Something Wicked This Way Comes.'
Urban Fantasy.
ReplyDeleteTelevision points to modern urban life. Creepy giggling dolls foreshadow magical elements at the already atmospheric abandoned amusement park.
The genre is Fantasy!
ReplyDeleteCongratulations to everyone who got it correct!