“When my dad died, there was just a shoebox full of his old stuff. His wallet, his razor, his comb. Little things that my mom wasn’t ready to part with. That was all he left behind… I never wanted to hurt anybody… I just wanted to leave a bigger box.”

I have been obsessed with theme parks lately (more than usual) so this story really helped scratch that itch for me! The man that built Nanoland was such a combo of Walt Disney and Jim Harrison, both of whom I recently have watched plenty of YouTube videos about, so that was pretty cool. The park itself feels like a mix of Walt Disney World (extremely obviously) and Jurassic Park (events wise).

Alicia is at her job in the park playing Princess Dee, taking pictures with guests and saying the same lines she’s said for 10 years. Ethan and his little sister Maddie are left at the park by themselves while their dad takes their sick sister back on the mainland. The new CEO is visiting the park.

All of these interconnecting storylines come together when all hell breaks loose in the park. The nanotechnology that has been used to bring the characters and rides to life since the 80s is going haywire… guests flee to the ships that will get them off the island and the park is shutdown for the first time in decades.

A few staff members and guests are left behind to fend for themselves against things like a sentient roller coaster, a 12 foot killer statue of Mermaid Monica, and the nanomatronic version of Princess Dee that doesn’t take kindly to her actress counterpart. If they want to survive, the unlikely group must work together to escape the park.

Thank you to Gorilla House and NetGalley for an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review. ✍🏻

This was a fun read. I really liked the storyline but there were parts that weren't needed, too much technical stuff about the park.

Nanoland was an enjoyable book about a place like Disneyland which goes completely crazy. I thought it was a fun idea but some parts of the story got a little too technical for me.

A huge theme park, Nanoland is Frank Nano’s vision come to life. Alicia, who plays a nano princess, longs for more. When the attractions begin attacking guests, Alicia and a small band of survivors work together to flee the park and uncover the mystery of what is happening.

This book can be summed up in a few words - Mickey mouse meets Jurassic Park. The fact that out of control technology was beloved children’s toys added a fun and twisted element. The characters themselves were a bit stereotypical, I really wanted more from them. However, I enjoyed the story. Overall, 4 out of 5.

In an alternate present Nano technology was developed in the sixties, and used by Frank Nano, a prominent movie maker and puppeteer, to make an amazing amusement park, Nanoland (hard from Gorilla House). As Jack McGuigan tells it, on the same day that the head of the corporation visits the island, the park goes wild trapping longtime cast member Alicia Amandi, some tourist kids and the head of the corporation in a nightmare filled with mermaids and frog puppets. It is definitely Jurassic Park on LSD. While there is a secret underlying the problems, it’s a lot of fun following the survival of the best people. Lots of fun

I love weird, haunted, scary theme park books but this one is in a class by itself. 80s technology gone rogue sentient killing people... hmmm

A lot of people have said this is a riff on Disney and the Muppets and I fully agree. I also wondered why the author did not tweak it to be so patently obvious.

I also don't think Walt Disney was an egomaniacal psycho in the same thread as Frank Nano, the owner and founder of Nanoland. You'll have to read the book for more context.

Not something I'd read again but I enjoyed the few hours it took to read.

My thanks to Gorilla House and Netgalley for this ARC. My opinions are my own.

Nanoland by Jack McGuigan provides an action and adventure story embedded in a twisted fantasy/sci fi parody of Walt Disney World—with frogs (and princesses).

Instead of a mouse named Mickey, this Florida theme park centers around a Kermit-the-Frog like character named Frank.

The story is told by one of the park’s princess face-characters, Dee, who is played by a woman named Alicia.

In addition to the human beings that play costume characters, princesses and such, the park is full of other characters and features that use nano-technology. After many years, the tech is starting to glitch and the outcome could prove disastrous.

I enjoyed the story being told through Alicia’s perspective, as well as the book’s descriptions of the ins and outs of working in an amusement park. By the end of the book I felt like I had been part of an incredible story and adventure.

Published by Gorilla House.

Started with cool looking art for the map and opening comic. Everything went down hill from there and just could only remember multiple other books that were better than this one.