FantasticLand

Fascinating!

(rounded up from 4.5 stars)

This was a fascinating read. I heard the audio version and was really engaging. The documentary format is quite effective in audio format, with all the different voices describing their account of what happened.

To make an idea of what really may have happened by piecing together the different versions people describe of a single event is part of the journey. It was interesting to see the decay of the situation (even if the reasons why it happens are still a stretch), some characters we root for, some we don't, but they mostly feel very human. It had a few fun twists that came from some characters ideas to survive the situation, and a lot of maybe unnecessary but unnerving escalations for the same reason.

I take half a star because towards the end, the format changes when they interview the big bad, and i don't think it worked, felt the story drag from that. Also to choose the last interview to be the person they did took some momentum from the whole story. Still, it wasn't what I expected from a book that was free with the audible subscription. It was a really fun read overall!