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Book Review: Fantasticland, By Mike Bockoven




Introduction

Since the 1970s, FantasticLand has been the theme park where “Fun is Guaranteed!” But when a hurricane ravages the Florida coast and isolates the park, the employees find it anything but fun. Five weeks later, the authorities who rescue the survivors encounter a scene of horror. Photos soon emerge online of heads on spikes outside of rides and viscera and human bones littering the gift shops, breaking records for hits, views, likes, clicks, and shares. How could a group of survivors, mostly teenagers, commit such terrible acts?


Presented as a fact-finding investigation and a series of first-person interviews, FantasticLand pieces together the grisly series of events. Park policy was that the mostly college-aged employees surrender their electronic devices to preserve the authenticity of the FantasticLand experience. Cut off from the world and left on their own, the teenagers soon form rival tribes who viciously compete for food, medicine, social dominance, and even human flesh. This new social network divides the ravaged dreamland into territories ruled by the Pirates, the ShopGirls, the Freaks, and the Mole People. If meticulously curated online personas can replace private identities, what takes over when those constructs are lost?


Review

Fantasticland is a unique novel written in interview excerpt form in order to convey the struggles the young works go through in the park. From the perspectives of several different employees of the park you begin to see an overall picture of the terror that the kids struggle through in their 5 weeks cut off in the park.

What I love about this book is it is easy to place yourself in each individual's perspective. You think, if placed in the same situation, you would react one way but this book makes you look into the human condition and how easily changed people can become given their surroundings.

I personally have read through this book at least once per year since 2018. My favorite character interview is from the perspective of the resourceful Jason Card who spent his time in Fantasticland hiding out from really sadistic individuals who are attempting to hunt him down in one of the park’s most expensive resorts.

This novel highlights that all people are different and handle trauma and fear differently. There will be people who’s entire goal is to help and there are people who will see the disaster of a hurricane as a chance to get away with evil. In between there are groups of people whose only goal is to survive no matter what it takes.

I highly recommend this book, this is my favorite horror story that takes place in an amusement park. The aesthetic and writing in the book paints a very clear picture of the park and its individual attractions creating an immersive story to snuggle in with.

Additional Information

This novel is graphic and not intended for younger readers. There are graphic depictions of violent deaths. Do not let the theme park setting fool you; this is not a happy story. My personal age recommendation for this novel is 16+


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