yvo_about_books's review against another edition
3.75
Finished reading: November 3rd 2023
“To think our young people are capable of what we saw chills the blood for a very long time.”
It's true that I don't tend to read a lot of proper horror titles, but I saw Fantasticland mentioned and I couldn't resist adding it to my TBR. I have a weak spot for an amusement park setting, and there was just something about this premise that sounded both terrifying and absolutely fascinating. I have to say this before I continue though: this book isn't for everyone and you definitely have to suspend your disbelief to be able to get a positive reading experience. If you are able to do that, make sure to brace yourself for a extremely twisted ride! Seriously, this basically reads like Lord Of The Flies on acid, but set in an amusement park after a hurricane hits. I wasn't expecting the non fiction vibe of this story though; Fantasticland is written in a way that makes you feel like you are reading the result of an investigation by a journalist. This journalist helps narrate the story, although the plot mainly consists in first-person accounts of people present at the park. The interviews are presented in a way that slowly reveals just how bad things got before they were finally rescued... And boy, things get properly twisted and graphic long before that final page. Torture, mutilation and even cannibalism; nothing is too much in this story. What I did find a bit lacking was the explanation of how things escalated so quickly after the hurricane hit... I was expecting something more elaborated, or at least more of an answer to that question. That said, I can't deny that this was a perfect Halloween read.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Mental illness, Alcohol, Blood, Body horror, Confinement, Cursing, Drug use, Gore, Child death, Gun violence, Sexual assault, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, Death, Stalking, Violence, Physical abuse, Rape, Cannibalism, Abandonment, Bullying, Kidnapping, Sexual violence, Toxic friendship, War, Excrement, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Murder, and Torture
bickleyhouse's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
FantasticLand is a fictional amusement park in Florida, near Daytona Beach. In 2017, Hurrican Sadie (also fictional) became the first hurricane in fifty years to hit that area of Florida. While there were no more customers in the park, most of the employees were still there, and, due to flooding, were stuck in the park for several weeks. There were safety protocols in place, and plenty of food, but when the power went out, everything went to heck.
The employees that stayed around (many bailed before it got too bad to leave), banded together into "tribes," which ultimately began fighting one another. Things got brutal pretty quickly.
If Lord of the Flies and Nuka-World (from Fallout 4) had a love-child, it would be this novel. In fact, the whole time I was reading this, I couldn't help thinking of Nuka-World. Fallout 4 is and probably always will be my all-time favorite video game, and I bought the "Far Harbor" and "Nuka-World" DLC for the game. In that game, Nuka-World was an amusement park that was abandoned because of "the bomb" that hit and wiped everything out. Many buildings and rides were still standing. But the park had been taken over by raiders; there were at least three different tribes of raiders and they all hated each other, so there was plenty of fighting. There was also one area of the park that had been taken over by a horrible hybrid of crocodile and T-Rex. There were no raiders in that part.
But I shan't continue raving about Fallout, because this is a book review. The book is presented in the form of a number of interviews by fictional news reporter Adam Jakes. He interviews many different people, from management to survivors to someone from the Florida National Guard who finally came in to rescue the survivors. At the end, he interviews the son of the man who came up with the FantasticLand idea, in the first place.
This book is not for the faint of heart. It's bloody, it's violent, it involves bullying, terror, bombing, arrows, guns, and many other things. There are allegations of rape, but we never hear of any that actually happened, only gossip about it.
Ultimately, I did really enjoy the book. It was slow starting, but each interview carries the story a little bit further, and once it got to interviews of people who were actually there during all of the fighting and dying, it picked up the pace and got more interesting.
Are our children (most of the employees who went through all of this were college age or younger) really capable of things like this? Many of us read Lord of the Flies in high school. Those were younger children than these. Fear, abandonment, and hopelessness does strange things to people, and that seems to be what all of the FantasticLand employees went through. Because it seemed as though they would never be rescued. The final fight scene is pretty mind-numbing. As is the interview with the leader of the toughest tribe in the park, the Pirates, Brock Hockney. A psychopath if there ever was one.
There were a couple of interesting quotes that I got from the book. In one of the interviews, Clara Ann Clark, the leader of the ShopGirls, says she hates people. She doesn't mean individual people. She means people when they get in groups. She says that "a person gets stupid when they become people." I find that I kind of agree with her.
Then there was a shoutout to Tom Petty, at one point, when one of the interviews said, "Then we waited. A wise man once said it's the hardest part."
Fiction, but is it as far-fetched as it seems? Hopefully we never find out.
The employees that stayed around (many bailed before it got too bad to leave), banded together into "tribes," which ultimately began fighting one another. Things got brutal pretty quickly.
If Lord of the Flies and Nuka-World (from Fallout 4) had a love-child, it would be this novel. In fact, the whole time I was reading this, I couldn't help thinking of Nuka-World. Fallout 4 is and probably always will be my all-time favorite video game, and I bought the "Far Harbor" and "Nuka-World" DLC for the game. In that game, Nuka-World was an amusement park that was abandoned because of "the bomb" that hit and wiped everything out. Many buildings and rides were still standing. But the park had been taken over by raiders; there were at least three different tribes of raiders and they all hated each other, so there was plenty of fighting. There was also one area of the park that had been taken over by a horrible hybrid of crocodile and T-Rex. There were no raiders in that part.
But I shan't continue raving about Fallout, because this is a book review. The book is presented in the form of a number of interviews by fictional news reporter Adam Jakes. He interviews many different people, from management to survivors to someone from the Florida National Guard who finally came in to rescue the survivors. At the end, he interviews the son of the man who came up with the FantasticLand idea, in the first place.
This book is not for the faint of heart. It's bloody, it's violent, it involves bullying, terror, bombing, arrows, guns, and many other things. There are allegations of rape, but we never hear of any that actually happened, only gossip about it.
Ultimately, I did really enjoy the book. It was slow starting, but each interview carries the story a little bit further, and once it got to interviews of people who were actually there during all of the fighting and dying, it picked up the pace and got more interesting.
Are our children (most of the employees who went through all of this were college age or younger) really capable of things like this? Many of us read Lord of the Flies in high school. Those were younger children than these. Fear, abandonment, and hopelessness does strange things to people, and that seems to be what all of the FantasticLand employees went through. Because it seemed as though they would never be rescued. The final fight scene is pretty mind-numbing. As is the interview with the leader of the toughest tribe in the park, the Pirates, Brock Hockney. A psychopath if there ever was one.
There were a couple of interesting quotes that I got from the book. In one of the interviews, Clara Ann Clark, the leader of the ShopGirls, says she hates people. She doesn't mean individual people. She means people when they get in groups. She says that "a person gets stupid when they become people." I find that I kind of agree with her.
Then there was a shoutout to Tom Petty, at one point, when one of the interviews said, "Then we waited. A wise man once said it's the hardest part."
Fiction, but is it as far-fetched as it seems? Hopefully we never find out.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Bullying, Violence, and Blood
achay91's review
dark
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Torture, Death, Bullying, Gore, Cursing, Murder, Blood, and Grief
Moderate: Sexual content
Minor: Rape, Gun violence, and Alcohol
that_cow_girl's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
mysterious
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
This book is fucking CRAZY! I didn’t think I’d be a fan of the format but it was very easy to pick up and read. The author was amazing with all of the different characters and SO MUCH HAPPENING!! my jaw dropped at certain points and I was thoroughly invested. I couldn’t stop reading.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Gore, Physical abuse, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Murder, War, Violence, Cursing, Child death, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, Child abuse, and Bullying
Moderate: Misogyny, Fire/Fire injury, Kidnapping, Alcohol, and Cannibalism
sharkysheets's review against another edition
dark
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Lord of the flies in an amusement park during a hurricane
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Sexual harassment, Gore, Grief, Gun violence, Torture, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Blood, Bullying, Cursing, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Murder, Physical abuse, and Violence
marslotus's review against another edition
dark
informative
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
This is a very interesting book that I heavily enjoyed, my only main problem being the open-endedness of the end. Instead of feeling like a reflective story on society, the quick ending leaves a few too many questions in my head to be able to ponder the meaning. Rather, I'm wondering things like "What was the point of the Warthogs," or "Why did the interviewer give a handful of names at the beginning with no mention of them again in the novel?" Maybe that's the point, but it was heavy enough on my mind to mention. I truly could not put this book down and had a great time reading it!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Death, Gore, Murder, and Torture
Moderate: Gun violence, Mass/school shootings, and Blood
Minor: Alcohol, Bullying, Cursing, Fire/Fire injury, Kidnapping, Panic attacks/disorders, Cannibalism, and Rape
gssll_lpz's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Confinement, Murder, Blood, Gore, Death, Violence, Torture, Injury/Injury detail, Child death, and Bullying
Moderate: Fire/Fire injury, Physical abuse, Misogyny, Blood, and Kidnapping
Minor: Sexual harassment
horrorghoul's review against another edition
dark
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.0
*****SPOILERS*****
About the book: 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?
Release Date: 10/11/2016
Genre: Horror
Pages: 272
Rating:**
What I Liked:
• Creepy abandoned theme park
• Crazy kids murdering one another
What I Didn't Like:
• I hated Lord of the Flies
• That books/media keep saying teens use Facebook; they don't
• There are a lot of typos in the book
• Felt repetitive
Overall Thoughts: This book started slow for me. I kicked around back and force if I even wanted to continue reading past the first few pages.
I read this book while listening to storm sounds. It really added to the atmosphere.
Book gets pretty boring by the 100th page you've pretty much heard the same story already. It just keeps repeating with different characters, but they're all saying the same things.
Maybe I don't like this book because I hated lord of the Flies. I know this is a retelling of that book with a theme park setting. Honestly, I'd rather reread Lord of the Flies again than try to finish this book. Nothing feels like it happens. Maybe things get different as you go on but I'll never know. Oh well.
Final Thoughts: I dnfed this book on page 127. I just couldn't read anymore. Every new chapter just felt so repetitive; meet a new person, talk about themselves, and what happened to them. It just felt lackluster to me and so boring. Some parts of the book had some omg moments that were pretty gory but for the most part, I was BORED.
About the book: 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?
Release Date: 10/11/2016
Genre: Horror
Pages: 272
Rating:**
What I Liked:
• Creepy abandoned theme park
• Crazy kids murdering one another
What I Didn't Like:
• I hated Lord of the Flies
• That books/media keep saying teens use Facebook; they don't
• There are a lot of typos in the book
• Felt repetitive
Overall Thoughts: This book started slow for me. I kicked around back and force if I even wanted to continue reading past the first few pages.
I read this book while listening to storm sounds. It really added to the atmosphere.
Book gets pretty boring by the 100th page you've pretty much heard the same story already. It just keeps repeating with different characters, but they're all saying the same things.
Maybe I don't like this book because I hated lord of the Flies. I know this is a retelling of that book with a theme park setting. Honestly, I'd rather reread Lord of the Flies again than try to finish this book. Nothing feels like it happens. Maybe things get different as you go on but I'll never know. Oh well.
Final Thoughts: I dnfed this book on page 127. I just couldn't read anymore. Every new chapter just felt so repetitive; meet a new person, talk about themselves, and what happened to them. It just felt lackluster to me and so boring. Some parts of the book had some omg moments that were pretty gory but for the most part, I was BORED.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cannibalism, Blood, Bullying, Death, Body horror, Cursing, Gore, Rape, Sexual assault, and Suicide
finleyfrogreads's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gore, Violence, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Blood, Body horror, Child death, and Gun violence
Moderate: Bullying, Cursing, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Suicidal thoughts, Medical content, Abandonment, Alcohol, Drug use, Sexual harassment, Stalking, Terminal illness, Confinement, Kidnapping, Rape, Sexual assault, and Sexual content
madisonhh666's review against another edition
dark
emotional
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder, Physical abuse, Violence, War, Blood, Bullying, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Torture, and Toxic friendship