FUNLAND
Reviews
Funland is written in the true Richard Laymon spirit and if you enjoyed
Blood Games and The Stake you have to pick this one up. It seems that
with all Richard Laymons books you can always get more out of it than
what is just on the surface. In Funland it is easy to become so involved
with what the characters are doing that you begin to feel as though you
know them. Funland is centred around a beach side town in America which
main attraction is a Fun Park built on a board walk. At night, however,
this park turns into a hang out for bums who are filthy and and foul
mouthed. A local group of teenagers decide to fight back against the
bums violently and have the support of the general public. The book
contains a 100 page climax that will keep you turning the pages like
lightning.
Funland was a good read right from the start. It does not contain any
boring bits and jumps into the story straight away. Richard Laymon has
once again added alot more than just the main story line in this book
and some of the relationships between the characters will really get you
hooked on this book. An excellent story.
Reviewed by Chris Martin
A gggggoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooodddddd read.
The best. REALLY GOOD. - Reviewed by "Macka"
This book is mind boggling, finger tingling, heart in your mouth edge of the seat writing, from cover to cover.
If you want value for money buy this book, but, buy another one as well because as soon as you start to read this one you won't want to put it down. Even to make a cup of tea!
Reviewed by Ian Aston
Funland is an entertaining novel set in a small American town which plays host
to a carnival known as Funland. Funland portrays the darker elements of such an
attraction such as Jasper’s oddities, a freak show of the weird and wacky. Funland
also plays host to a field of underground degenerates known as Trolls, the primary
focus of the novel. The action centres around a group of characters which form
the group of Trollers, a bunch of characters introduced by Laymon that teach the
Trolls a lesson for there daily antics and beggings.
The characters are introduced in typical Laymon style as they blend together
to form the plot and some great twists in the character development. The
aspect of Laymon’s novels that really gets me in is his ability to write
great characters, and Funland is no exception.
I'm sure your all aware of the ‘mind movies’ you play when reading a good novel.
Its like the author is the director but you’re the casting agent and cinematographer.
For every novel I've read (well just the good ones that allow you to do this well)
I have a mental movie of the book. I think this is what I really enjoy from novels,
and the way Laymon writes his stories and characters allows me to play them out
in full detail.
My criticism lies at the end of the novel. It just seemed to drop off too
quick without drawing on a resolution to the plot. The last 100 pages have a
great climax, but I felt that the end was rushed. I think an extra 20-30
pages to broaden the final plot would have helped as the end scene with
Jeremy feels tacked on and unreasonable. The main character goes mad (with a
single reference to this conclusion previously where he screams with a
‘manical laughter’) and becomes a bum himself, well hmm, that’s ok I
suppose, but I was a bit surprised as to how the plot just sailed off a
cliff all of a sudden. Well, I guess it had to end somewhere…
Overall, a good read, from a great author. 8.5/10
Reviewed by Mark Waring
