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inverarityIn the wake of a hurricane, theme park employees turn into murderous tribes.
Skyhorse Publishing, 2016, 272 pages
The premise is catchy and gripping — a massive hurricane strikes Florida, leaving an amusement park called "Fantasticland" (whose history and geography is built up over the course of the novel to explain this fictional third-place competitor to Disneyworld and Universal Studios) isolated out in the boonies. With no connection to the outside world for weeks, the stranded employees of the park form into warring tribes - the Pirates, the Deadpools, the Shopkeepers, the Moles, the Freaks, etc... and engage in a weeks-long bloodbath. If the idea of Battle Royale at Disneyworld with cutting edge (in 2017) pop culture references sounds like fun, you should read this.
A few things about the story couldn't bridge my suspension of disbelief. There are several contrived reasons to explain how Fantasticland gets cut off from all relief efforts for weeks, but the big one was that the author really wanted to make this a story about "How do a bunch of Facebook-addict young adult theme park employees turn into rampaging gangsta murderers in a matter of days?" And without even the pressure of survival, since it's stated several times that the park had plenty of food and water, all they had to do was wait for rescue.
One of the motivating factors, of course, is the "villain" of the story, a charismatic sociopath who forms the "Pirates" and begins the bloodletting, and he later tries to put his own spin on how he turned a bunch of kids into murderers by giving them "purpose." He (and the author) try to make it about the Millenial need for validation and affirmation on social media - cut off from their Facebook and Twitter feeds, no longer able to overshare ever detail of their mundane lives, they are driftless and purposeless and so.... it makes perfect sense to start killing each other? Somehow, it just didn't wash for me.
I'm also just not a huge fan of the "interview/media excerpt" style of storytelling. Fantasticland is written as a journalist's book about the event, including his interviews with various survivors. It's a valid narrative gimmick, just not one I really like.
It also felt like the author was pulling his punches by avoiding the elephant in the room: rape. You've got a bunch of violent young people turning into warring tribes with a complete breakdown of social boundaries, and yet rape is only ever hinted at. There are some instances of girls being "captured" by the Pirates, but it's almost a Peter Pan-like game — the Pirate leader (the sociopath who instigated the bloodshed in the first place) includes in his "Pirate Code" an implausible code of honor that includes treating women with respect. Which doesn't preclude killing them, mind — he just doesn't want relationship drama. So in the midst of this horrific survival thriller, we're just supposed to either ignore or infer what else would happen, because, presumably, the author doesn't want to be lit up on Twitter for writing another book about women getting raped. It just seems weird that you can write a book about kids torturing, butchering, and eating each other (yes, it's implied that there are instances of cannibalism), but rape is off-limits.
Fantasticland has its moments, from the joking references to survivalist girl archers to the inevitable "Which Tribe Are You?" Internet quizzes that pop up in the wake of the event, and of course, some gritty survival-horror that puts you in the situation and makes you think "What would you do?" The problem is I just never found it believable that I would be in this situation. So I'd call this an entertaining bit of Hollywood-style violence-porn, but nothing really genre-breaking as a novel.
My complete list of book reviews.
Skyhorse Publishing, 2016, 272 pages
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?
FantasticLand is a modern take on Lord of the Flies meets Battle Royale that probes the consequences of a social civilization built online.
The premise is catchy and gripping — a massive hurricane strikes Florida, leaving an amusement park called "Fantasticland" (whose history and geography is built up over the course of the novel to explain this fictional third-place competitor to Disneyworld and Universal Studios) isolated out in the boonies. With no connection to the outside world for weeks, the stranded employees of the park form into warring tribes - the Pirates, the Deadpools, the Shopkeepers, the Moles, the Freaks, etc... and engage in a weeks-long bloodbath. If the idea of Battle Royale at Disneyworld with cutting edge (in 2017) pop culture references sounds like fun, you should read this.
A few things about the story couldn't bridge my suspension of disbelief. There are several contrived reasons to explain how Fantasticland gets cut off from all relief efforts for weeks, but the big one was that the author really wanted to make this a story about "How do a bunch of Facebook-addict young adult theme park employees turn into rampaging gangsta murderers in a matter of days?" And without even the pressure of survival, since it's stated several times that the park had plenty of food and water, all they had to do was wait for rescue.
One of the motivating factors, of course, is the "villain" of the story, a charismatic sociopath who forms the "Pirates" and begins the bloodletting, and he later tries to put his own spin on how he turned a bunch of kids into murderers by giving them "purpose." He (and the author) try to make it about the Millenial need for validation and affirmation on social media - cut off from their Facebook and Twitter feeds, no longer able to overshare ever detail of their mundane lives, they are driftless and purposeless and so.... it makes perfect sense to start killing each other? Somehow, it just didn't wash for me.
I'm also just not a huge fan of the "interview/media excerpt" style of storytelling. Fantasticland is written as a journalist's book about the event, including his interviews with various survivors. It's a valid narrative gimmick, just not one I really like.
It also felt like the author was pulling his punches by avoiding the elephant in the room: rape. You've got a bunch of violent young people turning into warring tribes with a complete breakdown of social boundaries, and yet rape is only ever hinted at. There are some instances of girls being "captured" by the Pirates, but it's almost a Peter Pan-like game — the Pirate leader (the sociopath who instigated the bloodshed in the first place) includes in his "Pirate Code" an implausible code of honor that includes treating women with respect. Which doesn't preclude killing them, mind — he just doesn't want relationship drama. So in the midst of this horrific survival thriller, we're just supposed to either ignore or infer what else would happen, because, presumably, the author doesn't want to be lit up on Twitter for writing another book about women getting raped. It just seems weird that you can write a book about kids torturing, butchering, and eating each other (yes, it's implied that there are instances of cannibalism), but rape is off-limits.
Fantasticland has its moments, from the joking references to survivalist girl archers to the inevitable "Which Tribe Are You?" Internet quizzes that pop up in the wake of the event, and of course, some gritty survival-horror that puts you in the situation and makes you think "What would you do?" The problem is I just never found it believable that I would be in this situation. So I'd call this an entertaining bit of Hollywood-style violence-porn, but nothing really genre-breaking as a novel.
My complete list of book reviews.
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Date: 2018-05-26 08:20 pm (UTC)It shouldn't.
I've been following you for quite a few years and while I think we're of similar age group, we have slightly different political attitudes: and that's alright! The world would be a very scary and dull place if everyone felt the same way about everything, wouldn't it?
But this thing.
There have been a lot of 'social media' movements over the last few years. Where groups of people get together then flood social media with images and memes meant to support their ideology and make it seem like there are more of 'them' than there really are.
The political ones are pretty obvious these days, but... I've noticed a massive trend of posts targeting millenials. Like they are a empty headed group of social media addicts who don't know how to work, or socialize, all 100% narcissistic idiots who are murdering Industry X.
And y'know, some of it's not wrong? Kids are young and dumb and idealistic, because that's what kids have been from one end of time to the other. But right now, kids have all of these 'whacky' ideas like gender equality, gay rights, transgender rights, universal health care, and increased minimum wage... and generally speaking, the other end of the voter spectrum doesn't like those things... and thus begins a quiet subtle campaign to discredit 'young people' and their priorities and opinions. After all, if they're silly in one place, they can't have points in any other places, right?
Anyway, this isn't really about starting a post about politics... but simply to say: No. This shouldn't wash for you because it's utterly unrealistic. Yeah, college kids like their social media-- but I see my aunts and uncles posting more than my cousins and nieces and nephews. I've got one niece who's obsessed with becoming a youtuber one day, but that tends to result more in her practicing her public speaking skills while performing skits with her toys than anything else.
So this survival horror situation with no survival and just horror? I don't buy that they'd break down in just a few weeks. Have some funny ideas, sure, but so would any living adult: especially the ones who were of an age to appreciate the flood of post-apocalyptic media that came out post-9/11.
Anyway, sorry to get up on my high horse. I just hate this. most of the younger people I know are kinder more compassionate people than most "older people" are. Has it always been this way? beats me. But I don't like it.
Those Millenials and their avocado toast
Date: 2018-05-26 11:25 pm (UTC)Fantasticland isn't that deep, of course. I don't think the author intended it as a Millenial-bashing book. Rather, he was trying to make a point about social media addiction and the lack of direction so many young people have. But his point, I think, was lost because unlike Lord of the Flies, he didn't develop the characters' behavior realistically, but just had them pretty much start flipping out as soon as things went south.