Book Review: Monsterland

Book: Monsterland by Michael Phillip Cash

Source: Borrowed from Publisher/NetGalley for an honest review

Publication: Available now

Description:

Welcome to Monsterland – the scariest place on Earth. All guests can interact with real vampires in Vampire Village, be chased by an actual werewolf on the River Run, and walk among the dead in Zombieville. Wyatt Baldwin, a high school student and life-long movie buff is staring bleakly at a future of flipping burgers. Due to a fortuitous circumstance, Wyatt and his friends are invited to the star-studded opening of Monsterland. In a theme park full of real vampires, werewolves and zombies, what could possibly go wrong?



Rating: 3 stars

Review:

What do you get when you cross a theme park with monsters? Absolute Chaos.

Reading this felt like I was watching one of those syfy channel movies, if you're unfamiliar with them they range from unbelievably surprisingly good (which is very rare for that channel) to completely unwatchable (which is usually the standard). Monsterland would fit somewhere in the middle.

This was a fast paced story, it takes place some years after a virus had been discovered and it started to transform people around the world. Once the virus was contracted they would become zombies. They were not the only beings roaming the land, vampires and werewolves have unknowingly lived for centuries without being detected. That is until Dr. Vincent Conrad discovered them and realized they were dying out.

To restore the world's economy and to help find a cure for the virus, Dr. Conrad introduced a theme parked called Monsterland. Also featured would be the vampires and werewolves. The parks which would open around the world, would be a place where visitors could view the monsters in their natural habitat.

All over the world, Presidents, dignitaries, and regular citizens were clamoring to attend. And 18 years old Wyatt Baldwin and some of his friends and classmates were lucky enough to receive tickets. Wyatt idolized the doctor but his step father Carter White, a local police officer is very suspicious of the humanitarian.

With Wyatt, his younger brother Josh and Wyatt's friends attending Monsterland, Carter was actually glad that he and the rest of the local law enforcement were being forced to work during the park's opening day.

However, it didn't take long before everything went terribly wrong and people were being attacked by monsters. But is there more to the monster attacks? And can Wyatt and his friends escape the madness?

I found the writing to be fair, at times it could be a little flat. There were some good action scenes in this but the ending felt rushed and story wise it was a bit predictable. Although there was a twist, it was predictable and didn't work for the story, it just seemed like something the author added in at the last minute. As for characters, I thought there could have been more development for them because you find out the bare minimum about them and a majority of the time they're very forgettable. I was a little annoyed with the point of view abruptly changing from different characters from time to time.

This could have been better but it wasn't awful even if it did feel like a poorly crafted knock-off of Jurassic Park. Yet, the author did try to put his own spin on the concept. As I mentioned before, it is fast paced but it was surprisingly entertaining to read.