Reviews with content warning for Cannibalism - Fantasticland

The back cover blurb made me buy it, and as soon as I started the book, I didn't put it down. This was genuinely a fun time. I love the way it was written. It's a book about in the form of a book written by a different author in the forms of interviews. I just loved that it was just a different style instead of a straight kind of narration.

I'm not gonna sit here and argue if it was believable or not. It's a book. It's fiction.
However, most of the MC in this book are teenagers or early 20 somethings, and they are morons on their best days. So I just allowed that to just take me through the book. And I got to enjoy reading it without contemplating some bigger picture, like if it could happen or if it was ridiculous or not.

The only part of this book that fails is characterization. Cause it's written in the interview style, you don't really get to dive deep into any particular character. Brock pops up the most, and he is the main boogeyman. There's just no great character arch for anyone in the book, which is the only thing it falls flat on. However, I think the plot, the setting, the grittiness, and the horror/gore make up for it.

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alatarmaia's review against another edition

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emotional mysterious medium-paced

4.0

I enjoyed this book. It's a really well-done example of "document" media, sort of a cousin to "found footage" horror. My one main gripe is that the idea that "those teens are on their phones too much" is what caused this seemed frankly...shoehorned. the adults kept bringing it up in the retrospectives, but the teens themselves barely mention it. Every time it came up it felt like the author had remembered it was supposed to be part of the story and threw in a reference really quick without bothering to build the necessary foundation.

There's no content warning option for it but this book is, naturally, filled with explicit description of a natural disaster and its aftereffects.

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tsannes's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

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arianna333's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional reflective sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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poirot's review against another edition

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dark tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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effaly's review against another edition

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dark sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

Overall it's a good story, but unfortunately, the style in which it was written makes it a pain to read sometimes.

The story is revealed through interviews with several people who were there after Sadie hit Fantasticland. At first, I really liked the idea. It made it all feel so much more personal to hear from the characters directly what it was like and what each and everyone saw, thought and felt. However, it became very quickly very repetitive. There are events and people that were described over and over again, to the point where they lost their "punch". When you read some stuff the first time, it's shocking. But after the fifth time, you just want to hear about something else.

And then there's the misogynistic tone in almost every chapter. 😒

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purdygurly's review against another edition

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dark reflective tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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arijas's review against another edition

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3.75

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