Genre: Realistic Fiction Thriller
Basic Plot: Novel written in interview format about a amusement park in Florida that was devastated by a hurricane, Sadie. Young adults who work for the park are left to their own devices for nearly a month, and even with the surplus of available supplies, blood shed begins. It is a take on the modern technology mindset and what happens when they become disconnected and left to their own devices.
Fantasticland was, well, fantastic. I want it noted that because the author was so well written, this book was actually dull in the beginning. I really felt like I was reading interviews from the rescue workers perspective, or a management standpoint, at first. Then he delves into the tribes, the set ups and he does it all with such finess, that you could believe this was a true story. It was sick and dark and give me the brutality I crave from a novel like this. But it’s done so skillfully that you find yourself feeling bad for certain people and hating others strongly. This book will make you take a look at how our society could realistically breed a situation like this. It makes you think about what kind of people are really out there, working with you every day, and if a crisis of that magnitude were to come our way, who could you trust?
This had such a strong sense of the depravity of human nature and what it can lead us individuals to do. He’ll make you see things from a murderers perspective and then flip it again so you never know, who was really a victim here? It was a wonderful read. I loved the themes and how strongly they were introduced and by seemingly every day people.
I gave it 4.5 out of 5 stars purely for the slow, but necessary startup. This one is quotable and horrifying at the same time. It’s everything I’d want to see in a novel and nothing I’d want to happen to any real person.
