Author: Mike Bockoven
Publisher: Skyhorse Publishing
FantasticLand is now one of my favorite books of all time and there’s no doubt in my mind that it’ll be a frequent re-read for me in the years to come. I picked it up as part of my project to read as many books set in amusement parks/carnivals as I can find and the setting was the only thing I knew about the plot of Fantasticland. I’ll try to be vague in this review because I believe one of the many reasons why I loved this was that I went into it blind.
My favorite aspect of this novel is that it’s a “mockumentary,” presented as a true-crime book about the tragedy in the amusement park Fantasticland during the aftermath of Hurricane Sadie. Bockoven even made sure to create an author for said book, the journalist Adam James, and include an author’s note and an Afterword by said author in order to make it even more realistic. Instead of being divided into chapters, we have 23 interviews with some key players who were involved in the tragedy: several park workers, first responders, attorneys, and Fantasticland’s management team. It’s explained by “Adam James” in the author’s note that he opted to remove the questions he asked and streamline the stories, so each interview reads as a first-person narrative. This means that Mike Bockoven wrote from the point of view of 23 different characters (including Adam James) and each one of them felt like a real person. They had distinct personalities, different ways of ‘speaking,’ different opinions regarding what went down at the park, and who had distinct reactions to/during the tragedy.
It’s remarkable that Bockoven accomplished that considering the sheer number of main characters he was dealing with. Furthermore, he lined up the interviews in a somewhat linear chronology, so the tension grows as the readers discover the real extent of what happened in the park, going in a crescendo as the narratives get progressively more brutal and gory. During the second half of the book, I had to take breaks between interviews because they were ramping up my anxiety to a level that almost no book ever has. Although the gore level isn’t that high, Bockoven knows how to build up tension and atmosphere incredibly well. When you add that to the informal language and the easy flow of speech, I truly felt like I was listening to those characters telling me about their experiences.
I will say that some readers might be frustrated at times because the multitude of POVs and secondary characters can get a bit confusing, making it necessary to go back to certain interviews to check names and events. However, I believe that it was something done intentionally, as to mimic the chaos and confusion experienced by the people in the park. To me, the plot was absolutely incredible, and, again, the author was able to capture the atmosphere of the amusement park really well. I felt as if I was exploring Fantasticland as the story progressed, going from one sector to another and getting to know the layout and the hidden places. This book will also make you work a little to decide what you believe to be true, after all, all of the park employees interviewed were unreliable narrators. Because it’s all told from a first-person view, no single character knows about everything that was happening in the park, seeing as they had no communication devices and also saw (and told) what they did know through their own bias.
Not only that but, as they were being interviewed by a reporter, and aware that what they said would be featured in his book. They had their personal interests at stake: whether because they feared legal consequences or simply a desire to create a public persona, some of them aren’t completely honest in their recollections of events. As you read through the interviews you’ll be able to catch more than one character in a lie and you’ll also find out the answers to some of the mysteries that were plaguing them inside the park. However, there will be just as many questions left unanswered and I have a feeling that a second or third read might uncover details that I missed the first time.
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