Reviews with content warning for Body horror - Fantasticland

An interview or documentary style horror about a large group of mostly young people left in an amusement park after a natural disaster. Very Lord of the Flies.

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helenastinks's review against another edition

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dark 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? N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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datewithathriller's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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ramalam98's review

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dark tense fast-paced

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

4.5

I'm so glad I decided to listen to the audiobook version of this as I really don't think it would have hit the same if I was just reading it. The two (!!) narrators do an amazing job of bringing about 20 different people to life in unique ways. The interview-style format is also particularly well-suited to an audiobook.

This book is Lord of the Flies on steroids, brutal, gory, and a tough listen at times. The author has done a fantastic job with the writing and the way the interview style can reveal information slowly while also showing you events from different perspectives. I can't talk about much without spoilers but I really recommend it if you think you can stomach it.

Some spoiler discussion under the cut.

Spoiler

One aspect I loved was the whole unreliable narrator thing which becomes more and more clear as you get further through the book, and towards the end you truly realise that there is no way of knowing what actually happened. On the one hand, people may (intentionally or otherwise) exaggerate what they saw and especially heard, but on the other, these are traumatised people who committed crimes and may not want to be fully honest about what they did.

I would have liked another interview from a Pirate, as I feel the stupid kid didn't quite provide enough information about what was going on, and couldn't possibly be a complete representation of every member. However, I still think the author did a great job especially with the interview with the Pirate leader (I've forgotten his name lol) in portraying how groupthink and cultish behaviour can happen very quickly under dramatic circumstances.

My main criticisms are minor but: (1) I feel like extreme violence occured a bit too soon, (2) the (male) author tried to dance around the subject of rape (which would have been widespread had these events actually occured) with some throwaway lines about why it wasn't happening (though, again, unreliable narrators), and (3) there was a bit of a 'phones bad' thing going on which wasn't explored beyond that. Yes, 'phones bad', but there is more to it than that and you need to explore it for me to enjoy it as a narrative trope.

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delekelll's review against another edition

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4.0

Really quite good. Disturbing. Gory. Unsettling, if you're into that sort of thing. These teenagers act in enraging ways. I guess if I was there I would have to suck it up. I wonder what this author thinks about Lord of the Flies

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swalk's review

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adventurous dark reflective 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

4.25

A compelling tale laying out the events that occur at a theme park, whose staff get flooded-in and the factions that come out of the utter chaos. Each chapter is a new interview with someone who lived with the carnage that came from the remnants of Fantasticland, after hurricane Sadie blew through and trapped people there for weeks. Things soon escalated out of all proportion leading to tribal warfare, death, destruction and even cannibalism if you believe the rumours.

A truly original concept excellently executed, I enjoyed the structure of having each chapter from the viewpoint of a different resident and the way in which they were ordered to build the story chronologically. This is a really great horror/ gore novel and would be perfect for someone who is into zombie books.

The narrators were all great and I really appreciated the use of different voices for each interviewee, making it easy to imagine each character in the setting of the park .

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magical_mads's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious reflective sad 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

5.0

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chloseencounter's review against another edition

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adventurous tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
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

This book was laid out in a super unique way that kept me pretty drawn in consistently. Even though this is not a story I’d usually gravitate to, this novel deserves 4⭐️ just for being so well put together and different. I found it to be super interesting that despite this isn’t exactly a chronological story, you are able to begin putting everything together using different eye witness accounts of the same events.

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