#BookReview ‘Come Knocking’ by Mike Bockoven

About the book…

In a groundbreaking theatrical experience gone horribly wrong, a deadly night reveals the dark consequences of blurring the lines between performance and reality.

When Come Knocking came to Los Angeles, the interactive theater production that took over six floors of an abandoned building was met with raves, lines for tickets, and reviews calling it the “must-see experience of a generation”. After dozens of people were killed and hundreds injured during one bloody night of chaos during the show’s run, the nation was captured by one inescapable How could this happen?

As the dust settles, investigative reporter Adam Jakes is tasked with uncovering the truth behind the massacre. Through a series of gripping interviews with survivors, cast members, and witnesses, Jakes pieces together the chilling reality behind what was supposed to be the ultimate theatrical experience.

In Come Knocking, the enthralling and terrifying exploration of human nature under extreme conditions poses unsettling questions about the limits of immersive experiences and the true nature of reality.

It was genuinely thrilling to be approved to read ‘Come Knocking’ due to be published by Skyhorse Publishing in July 2025, I had listened to the audiobook of ‘Fantastic Land’ (review here)

This book serves as an allegory of the post truth world we live in, where masks are both real and socially constructed.

The narrative jumps from person to person, in sort of a ‘found footage’ technique that records individual testimony, interspersed with reddit threads, online comments and threads which together, piece a picture of the some what truth of what happened on March 14th at an immersive theatre event.

I say somewhat, as each perspective is subjective and personal by nature and we, as the readers, have come to this novel masquerading as a true life investigation into an event where nearly 100 people died.

What is so very clever, and which is similar to ‘Fantastic Land’ where the scene is, quite literally set, and by the time things go horribly, horribly wrong, you are emotionally attached to the characters and feel their loss keenly.

Here, an immersive theatre experience has moved from New York, to L.A , taken over a derelict building in an salubrious part of that city, depicting across the several floors of this building various visions of hell and heaven, taken from medieval literature.

Scenes are created by actors and dancers, with feedback from the technical crew really establishing just how select it was to get tickets and intricate details of just how certain visual effects are achieved.

Their control room which is in overall charge of high flying , flame and smoke effects is a locked room behind the bar on the ground floor, each experience is individual to that person as no two nights are the same. The dancers and actors act in response to those in the audience, and the energy generated by them, so apart from tickets being so hard to get hold of, the drive to go to ‘Come Knocking‘ is from this level of exclusivity.

Run by a company called ‘Dumb Willie’, and early foreshadowing of a disastrous tour ending event are given at the beginning of the book so as a reader, my heckles were rising before anything even happened.

As with a social movement which relies on social media and word of mouth to create demand, the actors and technicians describe in detail how they interact with the audience and the change in mood on moving from East Coast to West, their reflections on how rabid some of the fans are, and in response, the trolls which dog the production’s every move.

‘Who’s There‘ is the online response to ‘Come Knocking‘ who feel this ensemble represents every moral vacuum in modern society so when the final performance happens, you know that things are about to go catastrophically wrong. The aim of disruption of the performance goes from online trolling to in real life interference which when it kicks off, you have a performance troup on edge from weeks of microaggressions, and aggressors intent on bringing the curtain down.

And in between both camps, the 300 strong audience trapped in a building where truth and artifice overlap and are visually interrupted by the masks all attendees have to wear.

What you see and believe you see is part of a narrative which is bigger than yourself and even the evidence of your eyes is open to interpretation…just what on earth is going on?

The sense of panic and fear that is engendered in this reader is claustrophobic and all consuming, the story is intense and deeply disturbing in all the best ways where you cannot stop reading until you have finisihed the book.

And then, here comes the book hangover…

This is one hell of a journey that you feel completely immersed in, it is deeply impressive how Mike manages to create such a disarming, believable and heart breaking story that could be ripped from the headlines, it is all too authentic from the character perspectives which is where the real horror enters the room.

Highlym, highly recommended and not for the faint of heart, if you weren’t already a fan of Mike Bockoven this novel will make you one.

About the author…

About the author…

Mike Bockoven writes thrillers, horror and other stories while his kids are in gymnastics class or at piano lessons. He lives with his wife, Sarah, two daughters, Emaline and Tessa, and an exceptionally dumb wiener dog named Sherlock.

Links-https://mikebockoven.com/

Twitter @skyhorsepub @MikeBockoven

Instagram @skyhorsepub @mikebockoven