Wonderland by Jennifer Hillier is gritty and truly horrific. I’m an avid reader of disturbing thrillers and this one is packed full of unredeemable characters. I’m saying this upfront because I know some people are already thinking “interesting, go on” and others are more “hard pass.”

For the “go on” crew, you probably already know that Hillier pushes it with her characters and her crimes. I used to think Jar of Hearts was the most graphic and disturbing, so this one being worse kinda snuck up on me. The story takes place at Wonderland theme park when an unidentifiable unalive body is found, sparking a chain of events and a detective investigation that reveals increasingly horrific things. There is one scene in particular where I just couldn’t… **shudder**

This was a tough read that I couldn’t put down. She’s an auto-read author for a reason, her stories pull me in and don’t let me go. Be prepared for an unapologetic and twisted read.

Thank you to Macmillan Audio for sharing an advanced listening copy with me in exchange for my honest thoughts. I appreciate you! The print edition of this book was originally published in 2015 and the audio edition will be available in April 2023 – I highly recommend audio, the narration from Eunice Wong was on point. I had to check to see if there were multiple narrators because she differentiated the characters so well.

Content warnings: Death, adult/Minor relationship, Pedophilia, Kidnapping, Confinement, Sexual assault, Child abuse, Self-harm

Jennifer Hillier pulled me again with another dark and creepy thriller. I instantly got hooked on the premise involving a creepy amusement park and people disappearing. Wonderland was originally first published in 2015. Eight years later, I was invited to listen to the book as an audiobook.

Vanessa and her two children moved to Seaside, Washington because Vanessa got hired as the new deputy chief of police. Her start started with a bang when the town’s popular amusement park, Wonderland, may be connected to an unidentifiable homeless man who was murdered and a missing teenage employee. Wonderland is a well known amusement park in Seaside where many people enjoy their summer. The park is magical by day, but at night things go eerie, and people go missing.

The story's ambiance was perfect—nothing like an eerie amusement park setting filled with nighttime secrets. I loved how Wonderland is depicted as a wholesome and fun summertime experience that plenty of tourists go to, but also, nothing appears as it seems. It was easy to picture both sides, and I loved the eerie feel of the Clown Room scene at night.

This book also got me so hooked that I thought I knew who the murderer was early on. I started to fixate on that assumption so much that I missed all of the hints of who was the actual murderer. I feel like that is the best part about a book when an author steers you in the wrong direction because when the moment you find yourself figuring everything out, the surprise is more shocking. Hillier did a great job doing that during the entire book.

The audiobook was great to listen to. The narrator, Eunice Wong, did a great job enchanting the atmospheric feel of the story.

Thank you to NetGallery and to Macmillan Audio for giving me a copy of the audiobook.

A creepy amusement park. Missing teenage boys. New Chief Detective Vanessa Castro has her hands full with her rebellious teenage daughter and a one night stand that becomes a questionable person in her investigation.
I couldn’t stop listening to this fast paced thriller.
Thank you to Drew Kilman at Macmillan Audio for sending me an advance widget of the audio book.
Also thank you NetGalley.

Summary: Deputy Police Chief Vanessa Castro is having a rough first day on the job when a body is discovered at the local amusement park. As each of the clues lead them down the paths to additional unsolved cases, she begins to suspect the rumors surrounding the park might be true.

Thoughts: While I love Jennifer Hillier and her dark and twisty psychological thrillers, this one was a bit of a miss for me.

Let’s start with what I loved. Hillier is amazing at setting the mood and tone of a book, and she did that tenfold here. From page one, you can clearly envision this eerie and very creepy theme park, including the “wonder wheel.” She successfully creates this really dark, gritty, and cold atmosphere perfect for this type of story. I also loved the nuance of our MC, Vanessa, and how she was a very flawed, messy character, not just your typical heroine.

Told from one perspective (an omniscient third person narrator), the large cast of characters mixed with this style of narration made it harder for me to connect to the characters. I felt I wasn’t invested in the story or the outcome which is obviously problematic in a thriller. If this is one you’ve been wanting to read, I would still give it a try as I’ve seen some great reviews out there for it.

I listened to this on audio and will say that the narrator did a fantastic job narrating such a large and diverse set of characters. My recommendation would be to listen to this one on audio to further immerse yourself in the creepy atmosphere.

Read if you like:
•amusement park setting
•serial killer plot lines
•third person narration
•large cast of characters
•moody and atmospheric reads

Thank you to Macmillan Audio for my gifted audiobook in exchange for my honest review.

I thought this was a new Jennifer Hillier book but I guess this was published on 2015 and this was the only time they had an audiobook for this one. It was an easy read/listen. I think most of her books are very easy-read-thrillers. The plot was not as intricate as any action packed novels but nonetheless, gave me a "what the hell is going on?" type of feeling.
I enjoyed it and the narrator did an amazing job.

What a ride this story was!

A free climber goes missing at an amusement park….a body is found.

A deputy chief relocates her family to amusement park town in the Pacific Northwest and slowly learns that all is not what it seems.

This story twisted and turned so many times it was hard to predict what would happen next, who our red herrings were, and to fully divide good from evil.

Masterfully crafted. Very good.

Thank you to #NetGalley and #MacmillanAudio for allowing me an ARC of this title to review in exchange for my honest opinion.

I found this to be subpar. A little underwhelming for a Hillier. This will be the third I've read from her and this being the furthest within her backlist, I wasn't super impressed. I'll most likely pick up her books once more but this was just 3 stars.

Hillier’s books have become a reliable go-to for me. They’re fast-paced and easy to read without a lot of “confessions” and monologues.

This is my least favorite of the titles I’ve read, but at the same time, I kept reading it and had trouble putting it down. the narrator really helped. I’m a little sad the deputy isn’t getting her own series. I had a little trouble believing Bianca had such sway over every man in town. The sex can’t be that good lol

Another note:

I’ve read a couple of books that take place in an amusement park and was worried that would would make this book feel too stale but this story was fresh feeling despite that. I loved tbt the identity reveal at the end.

Thank you to Macmillan Audio for providing an advanced copy of this audiobook for review! I have never read Wonderland but when I received the option to listen to the audio, I jumped on it.

I really enjoyed this book. It didn't have as much of the creepy atmosphere as I expected, but was a good thriller all the same. Good character development.

The narrator, Eunice Wong, did a great job. If you're an audiobook fan, look for it on April 11, 2023. Definitely recommend!

Wonderland was my third Jennifer Hillier novel and oh my word!!! She is for sure an auto buy! I love the way she plays with geography. As a PNWer I love her setting of a small coastal town known for its theme park. This one definitely gave off eerie vibes with clown museums and a porcelain doll room called the Dollhouse. For the mystery plot I can never peg the person in question… with this one I had a feeling but kept saying… No… what’s the why?!! Which kept me guessing throughout. Thrillers are very easy entertainment for me and this was one I really enjoyed. I do want to give a listen to Creep and Freak because there is a character tie also I want to finish her backlist! It also seems like I need to pick up Little Secrets now to see what some of the characters are up to!

Thank you publishers for this gifted copy

Another Hillier book I completely devoured. I listened to the new audio and finished it before I even left work for the day! Vanessa is the new deputy chief for the Seaside, Washington police department. Her husbands death and a public scandal forces her to relocate from Seattle with her 2 children. Seaside is an idyllic beach town famous for it's amusement park, Wonderland. On Vanessa's first day on the job a body is found at the bottom of the Ferris Wheel of the park, and another boy is missing. The further Vanessa digs into the town and the amusement park the more missing boys she finds. As she unravels all the dark secrets behind the gates of Wonderland she finds there is more than just creepy dolls in the Clown Museum. This is a super dark and twisty thriller that I would absolutely recommend to anyone that has previously enjoyed her books. The book narrator was great. Thank you to @macmillan.audio and @netgalley for my ALC.

I originally read this a couple of years ago and absolutely loved all the twists and turns so when the publisher sent me an email asking if I’d like a copy of the soon to be released audiobook, I was like yes! And man I am so glad I had a chance to listen to it! It was just as good as I remembered, and having the story brought to life while in a whole new format was fantastic. The narrator did a great job of differentiating the characters and keeping the story engaging and entertaining. This is a must listen for thriller audiobook fans.
Wonderland is a huge amusement park facing some big issues. Attendance isn’t what it was, and now one of its employees has posted a photo of himself shooting the bird while hanging off the Wonder Wheel. When Bianca, the CEO of the park finds out, she loses it. After all, that makes her park look bad. And on a personal level, she’s mad because she’s been sleeping with him despite the fact that he’s only 18.
Vanessa is the new deputy police chief who has left Seattle and her husbands suicide along with some other troubles in her past and hopes to start fresh In Seaside. Then her first week on the job the boy from the Wonder Wheel goes missing and a rotting corpse is found in the park as well. What evil is lurking beneath the amusement park’s happy facade?
Thanks to Macmillan Audio and NetGalley for this advanced copy of the audiobook in exchange for my thoughts.

Jennifer Hillier is definitely working her way up to be one of my favorite authors. Wonderland is a work of art that I have been looking for and many other books and nobody has nailed it the same way that she has.

Wonderland is just that a place full of wonder and awe. Nestled between Seattle and Portland is wonderland a place where families have come for years to play and get away. It’s the center of the town, and it brings in the most profit for the small town of Seaside. When a boy is found in the center of the park with his face mauled off and dead the town is shocked. There seems to be a trend of young teenage workers from Wonderland going missing.

We get to follow multiple points of you in the story we follow a detective we follow the detectives, daughter, we follow chapters from underneath the cloud exhibit you don’t know exactly who’s speaking in those chapters. We follow chapters from the CEO of the park. We really do get a lot of perspectives in this book, and I think it adds to the intrigue being able to see multiple people in this town, and how this crime is affecting them, and how everybody is more tangled together than they want to admit.

Again, like I said before I love this book and I have been in search of a Disney world type book that gives me thriller horror vibes but I’ve been looking for one that I actually enjoy and this is the first one that I feel did everything I wanted it to.

Thank you to netgalley, and the publisher for granting me a copy of the audiobook. It’s personally my favorite way to digest a story, and I love the narrator and thought that she did a very good job of bringing the story to life.

Thanks to NetGalley for an advanced audiobook copy.

I had read this book a few years back and was excited to see there is finally an audiobook for it. I am a big fan of Jennifer Hiller and this book still stays fresh in my mind after the years of reading it. The audiobook was great!

This was mostly good. It has those gratuitous sex scenes that certain books, movies, authors like to add in but in this case most make sense but it would have been just as good without them. That said, the book itself is very interesting.
Homicide detective Vanessa Castro has been dealing with a personal tragedy and has transferred from Seattle to a job in Seaside, Washington. She is determined to make a brand new fresh start for herself and for her family. The town is known for one thing; the Wonderland amusement park, and it seems like the perfect place for her to raise a teenage daughter and young son.
As the town’s new Deputy of Police, she soon realizes that starting over isn’t going to be a catwalk. When a dead body turns up at the park the very first day she is on the job it becomes apparent she’s in for a whole lot of work. Then, soon after, a teenage Wonderland worker goes missing. Vanessa finds that her investigation is being met with a whole lot of resistance. The park is the largest amusement park in the Pacific Northwest and attracts tourists from all over the country so it provides jobs for a lot of locals. As you can see a lot could be impacted by the scandals and a scandal like a missing worker or two could really mess it all up. The mystery deepens and things about the park's past come to light and maybe, just maybe, Wonderland’s dark past is more factual than anyone ever suspected.
This is good. If you are a fan of this author you definitely don’t want to miss this book. It’s fast paced, involved, flows nicely, and wraps up well.
I received a copy of the audio version of this book courtesy of NetGalley and I definitely recommend this if you are into audiobooks. The narrator is very good and brings a different element to the story. Very good.

4.5 !

The new audio for this was highly enjoyable! I loved the setting of a creepy theme park with the “clown exhibit” being the main creepy area of the book.

There were quite a few characters in the story both young/teen and adult, so at times was a little confusing especially near the end trying to remember who was all who, but everything came together quite well. I was definitely surprised who the killer was, which is always a bonus and I loved all the added in drama.

This book brought back memories of going to “scream fest” as a teen and going through the haunted houses where real people were dressed up all scary like and would jump out at you. It was such a fun Murder mystery and I’d definitely recommend, especially to all the Hillier fans out there !

Thank you so very much for an ARC copy in exchange for an honest review!

Jennifer Hillier has quickly become one of my favs to read. This one was written well and the narrator was fantastic. She was pleasant to listen to and really captured the moments.

I enjoyed this story, but it did seem to fizzle out a lot earlier than the end for me. I found it really predictable. Still enjoyable! But not my favorite of hers!

I was so excited to have the opportunity to review this audiobook- I’ve read another book by this author, that I really enjoyed, and had this (as well as other books by her) on my wishlist for awhile.

The plot of the book almost gives off dystopian vibes, and I was pleasantly surprised with the setting and narrative. I wasn't a huge fan of some of the unexpected plot points (e.g., grooming, child SA) because it felt disjointed & a bit random, but overall it was an entertaining, atmospheric, eerie & unsettling, detective thriller with tons of twists that had me hooked about halfway through. I really enjoyed the narrator as well.

Special thank you to Macmillan Audio, Jennifer Hillier and NetGalley for an ALC of this book in exchange for an honest review!

Thank you so much for this advance widget Macmillan and Netgalley! I jumped right into the audiobook without looking too much into it given my fondness for the author's other books. Well, just a few minutes into the audiobook I realized I purchased the ebook back in 2021! I was able to listen to the audiobook while reading the ebook and I think that made the story better.

Now I know I need to read a few of the authors earlier works based on some mentions in this book. There are some sexual encounters in the book that caught me off guard when I was listening via external speakers.

I really liked the circus music because it set the stage for creepiness.

I loved the MC in this story. I love detective books but this one was different. It wasn’t your standard detective book. I loved that the main character had depth and she was a bad ass too. I think she seemed realistic and relatable.

This had a lot of dark elements. And a lot of bodies… not too graphic. But some things had me raising my eyebrows. Like wow ok… 😳

I thought i had this one figured out but there was some surprises.

It was a dark and atmospheric read and i enjoyed it. I thought the narration was well done as well.