Lost in a fantasy realm.

 I am participating in the 52 books in 52 weeks challenge on goodreads. So for my first book I read A map of days by Ransom Riggs. 
I absolutely loved the first trilogy for Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children. This one just felt so....flat and boring. What happens? Well not much.

Like Ransom Riggs,  I grew up in South florida in Fort Myers. (1 hour from Englewood or so) I .would have loved them to stay in florida for the whole book, but for some reason, part of the book takes place in New York. Which is not an issue in itself but the scenes with our tourist traps were a huge fail for me.   Couldn't they, like, go to Tampa or Miami?

The speed trap part near Starke was hilarious. Everyone who went through the town of waldo (near Starke) prior to 2014 knows how horrible the speed trap was. My mom got a ticket there once and I remember seeing someone else get stopped while the officer was writing the ticket. Waldo actually voted to disband the police force due to corruption and the high speeding ticket quotas. 

The "mermaid fantasyland" was a major disappointment. I mean, isn't that supposed to be Weekie Watchee springs? There should have been more to it than just a few tents and someone carrying a clown with fins around. Our tourist traps are silly and kitchy, but not trashy and boring.Who in south florida wouldn't love to see Enoch get a hold of that taxidermy collection at The Shell Factory? Sure, they aren't disney, but they still are run by people trying to make a living. I remember in the other books stories about peculiars performing side shows for normals, so I would have liked for the twist to be that  Mermaid Fantasyland was actually a tourist trap run by peculiars trying to make a living.