Several years ago, I read Fantasticland by Mike Bockoven with a different horror book club, and we all loved it. The story is told via interviews with people who experienced what happened when a hurricane hit a theme park (definitely not Disneyland *wink*), and the different themed areas gathered their employees like rogue gangs and took action that led to mass chaos and murder. Sort of like a Lord of the Flies for theme parks, I suppose, all in interviews. You may have read one of the most popular fictional journalistic horror novels out there, World War Z by Max Brooks and enjoyed it. So, now you’re thinking, heck, why not Come Knocking by Bockoven?

The same fictitious reporter from Fantasticland is back to interview people who were there on March 14th, THE night in Mike Bockoven’s latest novel, Come Knocking. I’m guessing it’s the same reporter so Bockoven can justify using the same format, but other than that, there is no connection. After a production company in New York City successfully rolled out an interactive theatrical performance called Come Knocking that had themes of death and for which every audience member wore the same mask (so you can’t tell who’s who when the killing starts, of course), they packed up and took the show to Los Angeles. This isn’t your typical stage show; Come Knocking is six floors through which ticketholders can travel around, are encouraged to split from other members of their group, follow character actors, watch dances, etc.

Our reporter describes the Come Knocking performance as “many things, all of them hard to describe. It’s an interactive theater experience, a massive creative and technological undertaking, a show with a powerful and vocal fan base…” However, brewing on the internet is a group called Who’s There? that hates Come Knocking for mostly unclear reasons. They’re on their own subReddit and have a Discord group. On the night of March 14th, this internet group infiltrates Come Knocking mid-performance, and rioting and carnage follow.

While the interview format worked successfully in Fantasticland, it hurts Bockoven’s newest novel. All the characters sound the same, regardless of age, gender, sexuality, or income. Two characters are notably different for the wrong reasons. One person’s first language is Spanish and calls March 14th “the bad night” instead of “March 14.” It felt… like Bockoven shouldn’t try to write characters from other countries. The other was British, and he sounded like all the other characters, too, with a random “mate” thrown in here and there. I can understand some readers may feel that having every audience member wear the same mask and making the point that people are anonymous online suggests we all sound the same due to hive mind, but I don’t agree. The point is the reporter is doing live interviews during which the interviewee cannot hide behind masks, the internet, etc.

Essentially, almost every characters sounds like an edgy early twenty-something in 2003 rather than young people today. There is little to no modern slang or phrasing, and we’re talking about young dancers and actors in a novel set today. It’s hard to tell in general who is older or younger, male or female, etc. Thus, Come Knocking as a novel lacks that feeling of authenticity in the interviews, which is further exacerbated when the reporter collecting all the information to turn into a book pulls information from Reddit posts as Bockoven imagines them. Those passages lack the traditional terminology from Reddit, such as OP for “original poster,” people ribbing each other for hilarious typos, and the edits at the end explaining any changes to the post, especially for added information.

What would have saved Bockoven’s novel? A limited number of narrators, fewer viewpoints that cover the same kinds of violence (several interviewees discuss the active shooter on one floor of the performance venue), and a forward momentum. Yes, we learn that Come Knocking was the hottest show in town, but I couldn’t fully picture why other than some of the dancers were topless or fully naked. When those same dancers go full-on Rambo on March 14th, I didn’t know enough about them to understand their quick pivot to violence. Partially, Bockoven relied on stereotypes to tell us what to think in shorthand. For example, one interviewee says, “My dad was a deadbeat asshole, and my mom had a revolving door of guys who would pump her and dump her.” Someone will have to convince me this is the language of an early-twenties woman and that I’m supposed to assume her ubiquitous childhood made her murderous.

Overall, a rather disappointing read.