Reviews with content warning for Violence - Fantasticland

Reviews tagging 'Violence'

Fantasticland by Mike Bockoven

142 reviews

katyinscrubs's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

3.75

Pretty interesting and easy to keep on in the background. I’m not Sure it lived up to all the hype. I feel like the author could’ve done more to tie everything together at the end, but still a good read overall.

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nerdybooklady's review against another edition

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challenging dark tense fast-paced

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

5.0

Wow I loved this book! The format is amazing, the story was dystopian and shocking and so gripping I read the whole thing in a day!!!!

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cococorycollins's review against another edition

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dark mysterious medium-paced

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

2.5

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meganemarshall's review against another edition

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dark tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

4.0

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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cscharfway's review against another edition

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dark emotional tense fast-paced

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

4.75

This book is really dark, but is a very fascinating look at human nature. It’s an updated telling of Lord of the Flies, except it takes place in a theme park, not a desert island. I like the format of telling the events through interviews, making it seem more shocking as layer-by-layer is added. However, it’s not a format that allows the reader to really bond with the characters or experience their fear deeply so I was a little bit disappointed there. I still don’t quite understand how the character of Brock was led to commit the acts he did and I wish it showed his descent into evil a little more clearly. It’s still a very disturbing book, and the way it was presented felt like this type of event could actually happen, which made it all the more frightening.

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laurx92's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

Told through interviews, this tells the story of amusement park employees who resort to violence a la "Lord of the Flies" after a hurricane strands them in the park for over a month.

While this book is very gory and intense and totally out of my realm of reading, it was really well written and I kept wanting to find out more. Definitely recommend (but check trigger warnings first!)

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