Audiobook Review – FantasticLand by Mike Bockoven, Narrated by Angela Dawe, Luke Daniels (5/5 stars)
Reading Level: Adult
Genre: Horror/Science Fiction
Length: 10 hours and 1 minute
Publisher: Brilliance Audio
Release Date: January 01, 2017
ASIN: B074PBM7LY
Stand Alone or Series: Stand Alone
Source: Borrowed Audiobook through Audible Plus
Rating: 5/5 stars
“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?”
Series Info/Source: This is a stand alone book. I borrowed this audiobook through Audible Plus.
Audiobook Quality (5/5): This was incredibly well done as an audiobook. The interviews sound genuine and the two narrators do an amazing job. I would definitely recommend listening to this if you can rather than reading in paper format.
Story (5/5): This book has a super campy sounding premise but was really, really well done. The horrible events that happen in this theme park are revealed to the reader through a series of interviews. This is kind of like watching a train-wreck…you just can’t look away. There are also some interesting themes that comment on social media, the state of society, how people react in a crisis, and young adults in the world today. Then there is a super creepy mystery within the larger mystery.
Characters (5/5): Although this isn’t really a character driven story, I really loved all the different characters we hear interviews from in this book. They all seem completely real and the psychological effects of what they’ve been through are intriguing. The abrupt descent of these teens and young adults from normal members of society into violence and chaos is just mesmerizing.
Setting (5/5): This has got to be one of the creepiest and campiest settings for a book I have ever read. These kids are literally trapped in a place that is built to feel like its own world. I mean a ravaged and abandoned amusement park is pretty creepy no matter what, but this was just really engrossing. You can picture what these characters went through perfectly through their interviews.
Writing Style (5/5): This was creatively put together and pretty much perfect. The interviews we read slowly reveal the progression of events in FantasticLand and the different perspectives of similar events are intriguing. Just when you think you are starting to think you have things maybe, kind of, figured out…the mystery of the two people in warthog masks is thrown in. Man, let me tell you I am still creeped out by those parts of the book even though I know it’s just a story…I think.
My Summary (5/5): Overall I just loved this little book, it was weird, different, incredibly engaging and left me just a bit freaked out. If you are looking for something creepy and different (and don’t mind a bit of explicit violence) I would definitely recommend. This is one of those strange little gems that I won’t soon forget. I had trouble stopping listening to this and just remain absolutely fascinated by this story.
