Reviews with content warning for Blood - Fantasticland

To start off, I fully expected this book to have some supernatural elements to it. Why? I'm not sure. So when I began reading and the format became more "True Crime Documentary" I was a little disappointed. This caused me to take a big gap in reading, which I think influenced my view.

I will say, this book is not bad by any metric. The characters were very believable and well written even if some of the characters interviewed felt a little similar. Furthermore, each interview/chapter led into the next one very well. There was always some connection between interview, like putting together a puzzle. And the puzzle pieces kept getting darker and more serious each time, exploring another twisted aspect of the story. In that regard it was a very well executed format.

However that's where my problem lies. There really isnt much plot in the book. Now, do I view the book this way because I wasnt expecting a True Crime Documentary style? Possibly, and I'd be remiss to ignore my own biases. But I genuinely do believe there isn't much plot to be written about. The story consists of retellings of what happened in the park, however by the halfway mark you know pretty much everything. Each interview just adds another tragedy or tragic death but nothing substantial. There are exceptions, however,

mostly regarding the Council of Pieces. This event felt the most like a turning point, especially in terms of Brock and his ability to be seen as anything other than a monster

. But Besides that, there really isn't much.

The closest thing I can think of is the story of

Brock and how his brother's death in the tunnel possibly influenced his horrible actions as leader of the Pirates

, which I do think was executed very well. But in reality

there wasn't much regarding that story besides the initial death, the mention of his brother at the Council of Pieces, and then at the end during his interview

. Besides that, the story felt kind of meandering and I had trouble picking the book up and keeping the pages open, which is unfortunate.

Despite my critiques and whining, I did really enjoy this work and would heavily suggest it to anyone who likes True Crime, psychology, or horror in an amusement park.

Content Warnings

dewey_decimater's review

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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alexis1415's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious 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

4.0

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cococorycollins's review

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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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megliz's review

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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

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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

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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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