This is a great, gripping page turner about an amusement park where a lot of gruesome secrets are hidden. First published eight years ago as only an ebook, the book was recently re-released as an excellent audiobook, which was gifted to me by Netgalley and MacMillan Audio in anticipation of the release of its sequel.

This is my third novel by Hillier, and all of her strong female leads find themselves facing danger and mystery and must figure out who dunnit. The women are heroines in their own stories, mothers who must face down violence and horror to protect their children or themselves, women with strong moral instincts and razor-sharp thinking. The women also often have liberating sex with hot men.

My only complaint is that SO MANY characters, even the supposed good ones, have murdered someone or helped someone cover up a murder in their past. I sure hope the world is not quite as dangerous as Hillier imagines it to be, but if you can accept that killing is more commonplace than you might have thought and that many people have a body or two in their closets, her books provide a delicious escape and a great woman to root for.

Vanessa Castro is the new deputy chief in Seaside, a small town in Washington known for its Wonderland amusement park. She and her family are looking for a fresh start after moving from Seattle, but she’s thrust immediately into a murder investigation at the park. This thrilling and surprising novel has everything a mystery novel should- detectives, murder, creepy clowns, and plot twists. Hillier will keep readers guessing whodunnit until the very end all while introducing a cast of characters that readers will route for. Narrator, Eunice Wong, brings the characters to life with distinct voices and personalities. There are several storylines converging, yet Wong gives distinct portrayals of all of them. This book deserves more than a five star rating; mystery readers everywhere need this book.

Welcome to Seaside, Washington, a small town that completely revolves around its amusement park, Wonderland. The park has a dark past, and in the present, dead bodies just won't stop piling up, starting with a decomposing corpse that shows up early one morning in the shadow of the iconic Wonder Wheel. Vanessa Castro is the new deputy chief of Seaside Police and her teenage daughter has been hired as a Wonder Worker for the summer. With the town's and the park's corruption deeply enmeshed with one another, Vanessa has her work cut out for her.

I mostly enjoyed this book! It is definitely more of a crime thriller than the "horror in a theme park" that I was hoping for. Some of the book's strongest and most haunting moments happen at the park, particularly in (and beneath) its totally creepy Clown Museum attraction. I wish we'd spent more time there, especially in the Dollhouse. However, most chapters are from Vanessa's perspective, and we're riding along with her doing her detective work and attempting to unravel the web of lies that led to current events. Overall, I give the story a 3.5, but the audiobook production elevated my experience to a 4!

Eunice Wong does a STELLAR job of performing this audiobook. She does an impressive range of voices for different characters (especially Sherry Hovey!), and she perfectly renders the tone of the story and emotion of the characters throughout. I most often listened to this audiobook at 1.25x speed, though I occasionally bumped it up to 1.5x, which I could handle as long as I was reading along. While I felt like the story dragged along a bit, Wong's performance kept me engaged and listening.

Jennifer Hillier originally published Wonderland in 2015. The book will be rereleased in April 2023, along with an all new audiobook. I listened to the upcoming audiobook, though I usually read along in the ebook, which is available on Kindle Unlimited. This audiobook (and I'm guessing the print rerelease as well) features an updated author's note at the end. Also, by my count, there are about a dozen small edits throughout the book, mainly updates to language to reflect evolved views on race and gender.

⚠️HEAVY content warnings⚠️ for sexual harassment and abuse (mentioned and described), as well as for suicidal ideation. Also, there are a few 🌶️spicy🌶️ moments that I honestly hadn't been expected, though the were well written.

Full review posted to Goodreads on 3/24/23: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/5404210877

Reviewed for NetGalley:

I listened to the upcoming narration release of the novel.

After a body is found at the local amusement park, Vanessa Castro, the new Deputy Chief of Police returns to her childhood place of employment to solve a whodunnit.

Some fun twists and turns and the narration was nicely done.

Vanessa Castro leaves Seattle and heads to Seaside, Washington, running from a little heartache and a lot of scandal. Her two kids aren't thrilled with the move, but Vanessa promises them they'll love Seaside's main attraction: Wonderland, a popular amusement park. The "settling in" period is nonexistent for Vanessa, working as the deputy chief, when a murdered and mutilated body is found at Wonderland on her first day. As she digs into the history of the town, the park, and the astonishingly high number of missing local persons, she wonders if Seaside is a bit more than she bargained for when leaving the city.

I really enjoyed this story! Jennifer Hillier's books are always solid, and Wonderland is no exception. The reveal of the killer was a surprise to me; I thought it was someone else the whole time. There are a few other little twists that made this thriller hard to put down, and I think the characters are really vivid and likable for such a short novel. I also love how Jennifer Hillier has characters from her other books pop up in tiny places in her other works, it's such a fun easter egg!

The motivations for the killer are a little "meh" to me, but I don't think this detracted overly much from the book as a whole. I wish we had spent more time in the clown museum, because it was such a disturbing concept (everyone is freaked out by clowns and dolls) and the visuals we did get were so creepy!

Thank you to Jennifer Hillier, Macmillan Audio, and NetGalley for my advance audio copy.

Jennifer Hillier did it again. This book was originally an ebook, and was re-released as an audiobook, thank you so much!

I have enjoyed every book of hers so far, so naturally I chose this book to read. It was fantastic. There are many naturally creepy things to amusement parks if you ask me, then throw a hush hush town that has an entire police force catering to the amusing park simply because it employs the town and generates revenue? You have the workings of major dirty dealings.

This took me less than a day to listen to, I couldn't yet enough.

#Wonderland #NetGalley

3.5 rating
Interesting thriller with an amusement park as the background. Loved the dif povs and the main character cop lady. I did the audio and the narrator did amazing with all the voices. Male and female.

Excellent book. Omg I have being wanting to read this book for so long and was extremely glad to see that it was finally an audible book. I was so excited and enjoyed this book from beginning to end, It pulls you in from the beginning and keeps you guessing throughout the entire book. Definitely a 5 star read. I just love this author’s style of writing. I have read several books and enjoyed them all. Thank you for this opportunity to hear this audiobook.

A famous amusement park in this small town is a major tourist attraction. When a body is found at the park after hours, this cause negative attention. At the same time a disgruntled employee posted a picture of himself standing at the top of the Wonder Wheel has gone missing. The new deputy chief of police, new in town, is assigned to the case. During the investigation, she discovered several young male employees have gone missing for years. This small town has been keeping secrets to protect the park. There has always been dark creepy rumors about the amusement park’s history and the investigation proves the rumors to be factual. The top mission for the deputy chief is to find the missing kids and catch the killer before it’s too late.

First I’d like to say thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for the chance to listen to Wonder Land in exchange for my honest review.

I won’t lie, the cover and description had me a little unsure about this book. I don’t do clowns. But I have enjoyed other Jennifer Hillier books so I figured I would give it a shot. And boy am I glad I did! I loved it! I did not see where things were going and was shocked by the end! Oh no creepy clowns haha!

This book is my worst nightmare come true. An amusement park with a Clown Museum (shudder) a Doll House (shudder again) and secret tunnels underneath. No thank you very much!

Wonderland is an amusement park in a small down in Washington. The park is the heart of this town. It brings in all the money and everyone relies on and almost idolizes it.

There's an added bonus as the book begins - a dead body decaying on the midway.

Vanessa Castro is starting over - new job, new town - and it is her first day as Deputy Police Chief. And what a day it is with the body at Wonderland. Eventually the body is identified as a former Worderland worker who disappeared a few years ago.

Vanessa starts to investigate and realizes many young, attractive, light haired men who worked at Wonderland have disappeared through the years. But no one on the police department seems concerned and the files have long since been delegated to the closed cases in the basement.

There are several creepy characters who are suspects. And all of them made my spine tingle.

There were several twists and turns. I thought I had it all figured out, but the killer did take me by surprise!

Many thanks to NetGalley and MacMillan audio for an ALC in exchange for my honest review.

This was the only Jennifer Hillier book I hadn't read, so I was super excited when I saw they were making it into an audiobook. I have loved all of her other books, which set the bar high for this one. Unfortunately, this was fell flat for me. The plot didn't really reach a crescendo, and I grew bored of the plotline. It was nice to be reunited with a familiar character from Creep/Freak, but overall I walked away from this feeling underwhelmed. This will certainly not discourage me from reading any future books Hillier publishes, as the rest are all winners.

I love Hillier did with this novel! I don’t do theme parks. They freak me out, especially ones with haunted houses and dolls. The audiobook was fantastic. I think the twist was good, however I did kinda have idea, but it didn’t take away from the overall enjoyment of the book. I loved the detective side of the story. Overall I really enjoyed it.

This book had a good plot and Hillier is a good writer. This was my first introduction to Jennifer Hillier's writing. I enjoyed reading this book and loved listening to the narration of Eunice Wong; her narration was incredible! She bought every character to life! She is very talented! I don't think I would have had the same experience without Wong's wonderful narration! Truly impeccable!
There are a few things I would have changed or added, but overall, a good book although it did drag a bit toward the ending chapters. I also found Vanessa a bit annoying and favored Bianca over her. I found Vanessa very unprofessional and would have loved to see her face some consequences for her actions. I would love to know what happened to some of these characters in the future. I will definitely be reading more from this author..

Thank you to #NetGalley for the ARC audiobook of this previously published novel.

This is the second work of Jennifer Hillier I have read/listened to. I am not sure that her style is for me. While "fine," I found the storyline to be rather anti-climactic. I did find the small-town politics to be rather accurate. I do live in a rather small area where one of the main draws is an amusement park (King's Island). So, I did find that the town's willingness to protect the cash cow at all costs was on point. The personal backstory of Vanessa also seemed a little out of place with the rest of the storyline.

Wonderland by Jennifer Hillier is a rerelease written earlier in the authors career- but definitely worth checking out! I loved the atmospheric quality of the seedy Wonderland amusement park, though most of the novel focuses on getting to know the town of Seaside and its residents as new deputy police chief works hard to solve a murder (and uncovers a long history of missing kids). Highly recommend!

95% of Jennifer Hillier’s Wonderland was predictably unpredictable. I thought I had it all figured out, but Hillier threw in one more twist, and I had it all wrong. While an amusement park isn’t a totally unique setting for a thriller/horror story, peak season definitely is! I would have given Wonderland 4/5 stars for creepy thriller plot. The pacing was fair, and the story was just believable enough. This is exactly what I want from my thrillers. As someone who prides herself in “imagining the worst about people,” Jennifer was successful. Speaking of imagining the worst in people, are we supposed to like Oscar at the end? Believe me, I love an unreliable dislikable character as much as the next guy, but two pages of uncharacteristic transphobia in the last 2/3 of the book really took me out.
My other major complaint with <i>Wonderland</i> was the tone. I think if you put a paragraph from Vanessa’s perspective next to a paragraph from Ava’s perspective, you wouldn’t be able to tell who was who immediately. I definitely shouldn’t be mistaking a 14-year-old girl for her police chief mother.
Overall, I look forward to reading some of Hillier’s newer material and hope to see growth! I see lots of potential.
Thank you, NetGalley and Macmillan Audio, for sending this book for review consideration. All opinions are my own.

When Macmillan audio reached out and said Wonderland was being made into audio, I was ecstatic. I have had this on my TBR for way too long and knew this was the perfect opportunity to push me to read it! I am a huge fan of Jennifer Hillier and her books and have been trying to get to her backlist books. Wonderland was released in 2015, with an amazing cover 🤡, is available on kindle unlimited and after much anticipation, the audiobook will be available April 11th. Eunice Wong does an amazing job with this narration, creating a dark and creepy atmosphere and voicing the multiple characters throughout. Highly recommend this one in every form!

Vanessa Castro is the new police chief in the small town of Seaside, moving her two children there for her job hoping for a fresh start. On her first day, a dead body is found in the amusement park and she begins a thorough investigation, turning up multiple missing males. While previously, Wonderland’s problems have been dismissed because of their revenue for the town, Vanessa is determined to find out what is going on in the small town!

I will say this one was well worth the wait! Amusement park, serial killer, a creepy clown museum… need I say more? This was a fast-paced thriller that kept me guessing up until the end! I had no idea who to trust and who was covering for themselves and others. It was definitely not a cut and dry police procedural. There were multiple layers in this story, which I greatly appreciated!

Serial killers and amusement parks? Yes Please!

I have been wanting to read this one for a while so when it was released as an audiobook I knew I had to pick it up. From the first Wonderland memo I was hooked. This had a great pace to it which I always appreciate in a thriller. Wonderland was definitely more of a police procedural read with thrilling aspects. I loved the small town vibes with secrets and drama and corruption. I couldn’t get enough and was trying to piece together who the killer was since everyone in town was covering for each other. I love a thriller that has me second guessing everyone! I think this would make an amazing mini series….totally binge worthy.

This story does deal with some heavy topics and contains more cursing then I personally like. So make sure you look up content and trigger warnings before picking this one up!

Thanks for the arc NetGalley and MacMillan Audio for a copy for an honest review.

Thank you @macmillan.audio for ALC of this book. Hillier is the queen of thrillers and takes you on a wild ride. This story is set at a small town amusement park with all the creepiness. The book is tense, fast paced and so many twists and turns. The narrator kept me interested and I did not want to stop listening.

I am a huge Jennifer hillier fan. I was ecstatic when someone from the publishing team reached out and offered me this audio book. I liked the narrator a lot except for when she did one of the male "suspects" voice. That part kinda drove me bonkers.. interesting premise. Can't say I've ever read a thriller based around an amusement park. Was totally creepy like most of Hilliers books are!
A book whose main character is the head detective. She thought she was escaping all of her troubles only to be catapulted right into the middle of a huge murder fest at the Towns main attraction "Wonderland". Can she figure out where all the missing boys have gone? Who killed them? And why do they all look so similar??
Ithe main character was bery likeable! I loved how I was totally misdirected and how floored when I finally found out who the real killer was. I give this book a 3.5 star rating.