⭐️: 3.25
💬: "All these damn theme parks have dark secrets. Yet millions of people still visit the parks year after year."

∘₊✧──────✧₊∘

This was pitched as Bodies Bodies Bodies meets a queer One of Us Is Lying set at a pseudo-Disneyland, which immediately drew me in! It was a rollercoaster of a read (pun intended) full of twists, turns and heart-pounding moments.

💜 What I liked about it 💜
✨️ I find theme parks fascinating and haven’t seen many books set in a theme park, so a murder mystery taking place in one was such a cool concept! It was fun watching Billie and her friends sneak around behind the scenes and share some insights into what it must be like working for a theme park. I’d definitely be interested in reading more books with a similar setting
✨️ The mixed media element was a fun addition, as the chapters were interspersed with snippets from the ThemeParkConfidential channel. I liked learning about the shady history of the Californialand theme park, some of the conspiracies around it and the inspiration for the Murder Land section. I also appreciated how these events played a part in the shift-from-hell that poor Billie had to endure throughout the book
✨️ I loved the fact that this book is set over the course of a 24-hour period. It really upped the stakes as Billie and her friends tried to figure out what was actually going on in the park, while racing against the clock – and trying to avoid detection from security or management
✨️ Because of the time constraints, this was a fast-paced read full of twists that keep you hooked

Overall, this was an entertaining read, albeit there were some questionable decisions and interactions between characters, and it wasn’t a huge surprise for me when the killer was revealed at the end.

💫 Thank you to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Fire for providing an e-arc of this book in exchange for my honest review.

📅 Murder Land will be published on 6th May 2025

For fans of:
🎢 Theme park setting
🔪 YA murder mystery/thrillers
🏳️‍🌈 Queer friendships

Billie has been promoted to operate the new hot ride at the theme park she works at. On her first night a coworker mysteriously dies on her ride. As she and her friends try to figure out what happened, more wind up dead.

This one was twisty and turny and if you enjoy a theme park trope, you’ll love this one. The characters was great for a young adult read but her immaturity and decisions frustrated me as an adult reader. The action of this one keeps going and does not let up.

Murder Land comes out 5/6.

I was drawn to this book because the cover was so intriguing I couldn’t scroll past without clicking request! I love a murder mystery/ YA thriller and the premise of it being set in a theme park is very unique. The start did feel slower than the rest but it did pick up with a few good twists thrown in. The ending was very satisfying and I enjoyed our main character Billie too. She was very strong willed and determined to prove her innocence.

Thank you Netgalley and to the published for choosing me to read an ARC copy!

I wanted to love this, it started off good but then it dragged. I felt like somethings just didn’t make sense either and had me saying “what is going on”

Thanks NetGally for the copy

The book started off great. As the main characters are going all over the park hour after hour it began to become slow. I tried to continue to read through but I couldn't. That you Netgalley for an advanced copy for an honest review.

This was such a fun read! It was suspenseful, mysterious and exciting. Lot's of twists and turns. Some of Billie's internal dialogue became repetitive so I started to skim over those parts. I understand it adds to the emotions and grief she was experiencing. I also wasn't as shocked by the twists as I would have hoped for, but it was still an enjoyable read.
I always love an amusement park themed thriller and I was drawn by the cover since I grew up close to The Boardwalk.
I recommend checking this out!

A great murder mystery about a theme park and the hidden secrets hidden within. When a group of friends think they are just going to enjoy the opening of a new land, a deadly turn is taken and the friends must find out the answer, before more are killed along the way.

"It's more like I know exactly where the weights in my heart and body are, and I can shift my muscles so I can hold them better. I've seen the monster, and it's horrifying, but it won't kill me. I don't have to keep holding back this need to release my grief. At least next time, maybe it'll be less intense. Or maybe it won't, and that's okay too."

I thought this was such a good YA murder mystery. I loved the premise of an amusement park and the podcast elements intertwined in the story. The story follows 17-year-old Billie who feels like she's on the top of the world. She has a great best friend, time with her crush, and a promotion for a new buzzworthy attraction at her amusement park job. But then, the first night on her job, it takes a dramatic dark turn. A coworker mysteriously dies on her ride, which at first seems like a heart attack, but then with a closer look, looks like a broken neck. Billie recruits her friends to help figure out the mystery. But as the night continues on, Billie realizes she may not survive the night. And her friends know more than they are letting on.

I thought this book was so so good. I loved the mystery element and the creepy amusement park vibes. I also really enjoyed the romantic subplot.

I was really interested in the concept of Murder Land. A death at a theme park where the protagonist seems to be getting set up tot take the fall? I was there. However, Murder Land, unfortunately, missed the mark. I did like the mystery of the missing Gooseberry animatronic, as it reminded me of the mystery of the missing Buzzy animatronic from Disney, which the author does also say this in the acknowledgements of the book. However, I do think the author really liked that idea, but to the point that it doesn’t totally make sense in context. Unfortunately, it would be heavy spoilers to explain what I mean.

One of my major issues with Murder Land is that everything happens very conveniently. Characters end up in the right rooms or with the right information because of happenstance a lot of the time and this keeps happening to the very end. I often didn’t fully understand why a character would do things or go places and then the plot would continue to happen and I realized that the moving the plot forward was the reason.

The killer’s plans for one of the deaths made no sense. The book even goes “Well it sure was luck no one else got caught up in that plot” even though the odds of at least one other person dying from the situation were astronomically large. What the killer did wasn’t even guaranteed to kill the person they wanted to kill for multiple reasons.

They try to lure the killer at one point and it doesn’t make sense how they do it, because of the timeline of events that had happened. Billie thinks about how grabbing the killer’s knife would leave fingerprints, so she gets a glass statue and breaks it to get glass shards, but they don’t wrap the glass in anything to make a hilt, so they basically are just bleeding anytime they touch the shards. There clues given for the killer weren’t great. They were kind of too vague to fully get anyone there on the killer, although I did figure out who it was early because of process of elimination.

Ultimately. Murder Land feels too much like an early draft. Hopefully this is just because it was an ARC, but there were a few times where only a few chapters later, something would be different. There were a lot of consistency problems. At the end even there feels like a retroactive thing that happens that we would have seen happen because we were with the characters the entire time. It only is there because the plot needs to be wrapped up and it made absolutely no sense no how Billie acquired the item.

Welcome to Murder Land, where the plot is as twisty as the roller coaster Billie probably should’ve stayed far away from. This book gave me whiplash—and not in the OMG, I didn’t see that twist coming! way, but more like Wait, WHAT is happening now?

Billie’s decision-making ranged from eh, okay to Why are you like this? Her friends? A little too sketchy to be trusted, but honestly, by halfway through, who wasn’t suspicious? And the big villain reveal? Less mind-blowing twist and more That make sense, I guess.

The dialogue tries to be clever, but every now and then, it swerves straight into awkward town. Case in point:
“To think that I got what I always wanted from you tonight. Your attention.”
I find myself smiling. “No one’s ever wanted my attention that badly.”

Read the room! Her best friend (and your girlfriend, might I add) just died—maybe save the poetry for literally any other moment? If I were the best friend, I’d be floating over thier shoulder with the most epic ghostly side-eye imaginable.

Overall, Murder Land is like a theme park ride that looks thrilling from afar but leaves you stuck at the top of the loop-de-loop wondering how you got here. Would I recommend it? Only if you’re in the mood for a chaotic fever dream. But hey, at least it’s a ride you won’t forget anytime soon!

I wanted to love this book but it just dragged on for me and it was tough to finish.

Thank you, NetGalley, for the opportunity to read and review Murder Land!

A mystery thriller following Seventeen year old Billie, a ride operator at Murder Land a brand new attraction at Californialand, After a coworker is found dead on her ride.

I’m usuallly so easy to please when it comes to murder mystery’s and thrillers, I love the genre but don’t read much of it as I find it can be easy to start guessing the plot twists. I will say I didn’t find the plot twists easy to guess at all during the story, I was hooked and one reveal after the other I was eager to keep reading to unravel the truth right alongside Billie.

Firstly I love a diverse story that doesn't feel like it's pushing diversity in your face just to prove it's diverse to the reader.
This book has a natural feeling queer representation that talks about real issues, like toxic relationships, stigmas around being friends with the same sex you're attracted to, discovering yourself.

Billie’s character is strong willed and willingly to do anything to prove she’s innocent. She feels realistic to the reader with her actions and thoughts. The side characters felt far superior to me and I would’ve loved to see their POV during the story. I loved how the side cast balanced each other out during the story in a way that made the plot feel more feasible.

I think something that let this book down for me was the age of the characters, high school/collage age kids running around after a murderer and talking about sex and toxic relationships and crushes on each other just didn’t feel right in the story, it was distracting. If the characters had been aged up it could have added a lot more depth to the story.

The writing was okay, it reads well and fast while describing the theme park very intricately to the reader to add to the atmosphere. It could be confusing at times to try and imagine all the nitty gritty details about rides and attractions but it was fun to read.

Overall I think this book is a great starter into murder mystery/thrillers if you’re wanting to venture into the genre or if you were a teenager I think you would enjoy this story more.

Thank you to both #NetGalley and Sourcebooks Fire for providing me an advance copy of Carlyn Greenwald's #YAThriller, Murder Land, in exchange for an honest review.

#MurderLand is a fast-paced #mysterythriller that involves four teen colleagues and is primarily set over the course of one night at a theme park during the grand opening of the eponymous attraction, Murder Land. The chapters are divided by the time, interspersed with snippets from a video transcript for a YouTube channel, which allude to two mystery subplots that may or may not be connected to the main plot.

Its the summer before college and what better way to spend a summer night than visiting your friend who works at Californialand and can score you free passes to a brand-new ride? ...Or, so I thought. I bet some of those friends are wishing they stayed home after their ironically (or not?) terrifying experience at Murder Land, for which live murders were not advertised.

After two harrowing summers of working a corn dog cart, Billie just received a promotion to become a ride operator with an acting role. Sure, the role is for the part of a murder victim, but at least she won't come home smelling like grease.

Billie's three "friends" (using the term loosely), who either currently or have previously worked at the theme park, meet up with her to take a spin right as the ride short circuits. When tech whiz and frenemy, Sawyer, volunteers to fix the control panel, the four collectively decide to test the ride before re-opening the attraction to the eagerly awaiting public.

Before Billie can start the ride, however, her older co-worker Randy appears and blackmails her into letting him join the fun. Unfortunately, for Randy, he exits the ride in a different condition than he was in when they entered, which becomes the catalyst for the remainder of the night. Through some hijinks and sleuthing reminiscent of the CW's Nancy Drew, the four musketeers battle everything from a real life murderer to corporate evil deeds.

This is the first novel I have read by the author, and it certainly will not be the last. I normally do not read #YANovels, but the story was so entertaining that it has me reconsidering the genre. A whopping four stars!

P.S. Whole-heartedly agree with the note in the Author's Acknowledgements regarding the major twist. Perfectly, devastating, yet necessary.

This book was such a thrilling and fun ride. I love books set in or around theme parks, especially the ones that have a horror or mystery aspect so I was super excited to read this one. It was a fast paced read and I enjoyed my time with it.

I selected this book because I loved the premise of a thriller set in a theme park. I love theme parks and any conspiracy or lore that they may be involved in and seeing that brought to life through a story was really really fun. I enjoyed the mentions of the other two main theme parks in the area. Also a fun touch. I did struggle a little in reading this, especially at the start. The story felt a little disjointed and wordy. I think that it really came together at the end. The twist was unexpected and overall I felt satisfied with the conclusion.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

I wasn't sure when I started this book. I stopped reading it quickly. After a while I decided to persevere and it was worth it!! A book full of suspense and twists, an absolute must read !!

Really enjoyed the story, the mystery, the characters and so many twists and turns that meant the ending was unexpected. However I did at times struggle with the amount of description used, it caused me to skip bits because it was just too much explaining and describing. Never the less i enjoyed it.

A thrilling ride!

An hour after opening, Murder Land’s newest ride is shut down. Someone has died and it’s up to four teens to figure out why. It might mean the difference between Billie keeping or losing her job. However, the teens get more than they bargained for and soon, the accident doesn’t seem like an accident anymore. They’re racing against the clock before one of them is next.

I loved the premise for this and jumped at the chance to read it! Sadly, it started out kind of slow for me and I felt like I was missing something. Unfortunately, that feeling kept up throughout the book. In the last 60 pages or so it really picked up and I enjoyed it!

Overall, I felt like this had the bones and promise, but didn’t quite hit the mark for me.

I read it in one sitting, it was short and interesting, although I saw the reveal coming. Maybe I've read too much books with this kind of premise, but I loved all the queer representation.

Thank you for this e- ARC in exchange for my honest review.
3.5 stars 🌟
I was first drawn in by the title and plot, who doesn’t love a theme park murder mystery.
This book is fast paced and the main character Billie finds herself entangled in a web of lies and conspiracies.
Murder land is an attraction in the theme park of Californialand. This book shows us After getting a promotion Billie finds herself fighting to solve this mystery, and what ties these 5 deaths together both past and present.
I really enjoyed this book, I did find myself confused at the start but pushed through and ended up enjoying this book way more than I thought. Murder land is a quick and easy read and I would recommend this book as it is unlike anything I have read.