Very reminiscent of my middle school horror loves-Christopher Pike and Fear Street/RL Stine. I was pretty excited about the theme park setting as well. It gets a little chaotic during the storytelling, there were definitely times I flipped back a few pages because I thought I missed something. Spoiler- I was just reading too fast🙃 Love the cover!

Thanks to Carolyn Greenwald and Sourcebooks Fire for the free advance copy to check out!

Murder Land is an amazing YA thriller. I honestly liked it way more than I thought I was going to. I was hooked from the beginning through the very end.

Billie is our FMC who works at Californialand theme park and just got a promotion to be a new ride operator at Murder Land. Billie’s ride breaks down and her friend Grace’s girlfriend, Sawyer reboots the ride. Upon rebooting, Billie asks her friends would they like to test out the ride with her which they do and someone else jumps on too. After the test run, Billie notices a co-worker of hers not moving and realizes he died on the ride. Billie is extremely frantic and begins calling for help and what happened/who is behind this. Billie and her friends signed up for WAY more than they could bargain for when they really find out the secrets Murder Land was holding. I, as the reader personally did not guess ANYTHING correctly.

Features:
-ya thriller
-queer mc’s
-theme park
-conspiracies
-murder mystery

Thank you to netgalley and Sourcebooks Fire for an early copy in exchange for my honest review!

Murder Land is a fast-paced murder mystery set in a theme park’s themed land, packed with twists and turns—including some you won’t see coming. Told in a mixed-media format, the story unfolds over just 24 hours, keeping the suspense high. The characters are relatable, making it easy to connect with their journey. With its gripping plot and an engaging title, this book will especially appeal to young readers. A decent read that’s hard to put down!

Murder Land was a gripping atmospheric thriller that I really enjoyed. It definitely was easy to get into, and I was immediately pulled into the story and felt like I had to know what happened.

Ya thriller
Amusement park locked room
Killer on the loose
Conspiracy theories

Tale about loss friendship murder and greed. But love and the truth wins in the end.

Murder Land follows Billie whose summer job is working at theme park. Billie is so excited about it. On opening night things start off great. But then one of her coworkers ends up dead. People think that Billie is responsible so she wants to prove that she is innocent. With the help of her friends they sneak around the park after hours, to find out the truth. But as the night goes on more people wind up dead. Billie needs to uncover the truth before someone ends up dead.

I thought this book was just okay. It started off very strong. I just didn’t really find that book that thrilling for a thriller. I found this book a little predictable. But I was entertained it’s just not a thriller that I think I will go back and reread. I just feel like this book was missing something. I was not a bad book and I would suggest if you are looking for a quick read. But this is nothing life changing.

Thank you, Carlyn Greenwald, Sourcebooks Fire, and NetGalley for the ARC of this book.

"Murder Land opens tonight. Not everyone will survive. Buckle up for a thriller that will have you on the edge of your seat."

I love a good murder mystery and this one proved to be a fast-paced, long night full of twists and turns I could not predict. I loved the descriptions of all the different areas within the Californialand theme park, and wish more were written in this kind of setting, since it lends to an eerie, underrated vibe.

Carlyn balanced the red herrings, reveals and character growth throughout the book really well, adding to the mystery of who the killer could be and why truly well. Billie was such an entertaining and introspective character. I did wish, at times, that she would have communicated better with her friends who were trying to help her though. But it shows a flawed, more realistic character, which I appreciated.

I loved the dynamic between Billie and Grace so much. And the potential relationship with Leon was also there.

This was definitely a great, fast read!

P.S. Thank you to both Netgalley and Sourcebooks Fire for the early copy to read and review!

The book kept my interest and did a good job of keeping me guessing throughout the story line. I suspected just about everyone other than the main character at some point or another. I think this was the first time I’ve encountered a love square rather than a love triangle. Some of the dialog and choices characters made were odd and detracted from being immersed at times, but who knows how we would act if we’d been a teenager accused of murder. I won’t go into detail any more than that because I don’t want to spoil it for anyone.

I do think fans of Holly Jackson would enjoy this one.

(I’ve posted short reviews on my Fable and Storygraph that don’t contain spoilers. This version is only for here.)

Ahhhhhhh, this book is not good. None of it makes any sense whatsoever and I’m going to do my best to explain in a way that is clear and concise.

I buy a big corporation doing murders to cover up more murders all for money. You don’t have to convince this Marxist. The problem is in the way they go about it.

For the first half to two-thirds of this book, things felt very disjointed, in ways that left me constantly feeling like I had just missed a paragraph or a scene or something. People made choices and leapt to conclusions and I was frequently at a loss as to how we got from point A to point B.

Once things started to unravel in the plot it all really kind of went off the rails. In this chain of events, for the sake of getting to the crux of the issue, I will give you the first death and cover-up for free. I don’t think if there was an accidental death a company would bury the body right on the spot, but sure. I can work with one silly assertion. However, the company would not claim that he quit and ran off. Same with the guy who found the body, even more damning because this was a modern-day homicide when people should be a little more savvy at this point. They didn’t even clear out his locker?! Don’t tell the family he quit and vanished! Say you have no idea, he left work like usual! Why would you draw even more attention to your company with such a fabrication? He left like normal, the end! And clear out his locker!

Hiring your middle manager to eliminate people getting close to the truth is like… you have Real Money. Hire a professional, someone who’s not going to break immediately, or you know, make a huge mess like this guy did. And even if you make the deaths look like accidents, whyyyy oh whyyyy would you do it AT THE PARK? Once again you are bringing more attention to yourselves! Parks don’t want deaths on their grounds, are you kidding me? And ACCIDENTS? That just makes your park look like a death trap!

Let’s talk about the death traps themselves. The hot dog is the worst one. So he just… contaminated every single hot dog in the park? How did he know she was even going to eat a hot dog? It was something someone ELSE just picked up for her on a whim. And what are the odds that not one other person at the park also had a peanut allergy, drawing attention to the contamination even sooner? You could have even had a scene where he GAVE her the hot dog! He was right there! Yes, it would have made him suspicious, but there are ways to throw people off the scent! And with the guy who died on the ride, how did you know he was going to get on that ride at that time? It was a completely spontaneous decision by the friends, doing something they shouldn’t have been, and he just happened to be there and happened to tag along. How did this middle manager who is also a ninja I guess get there, do the poison, and get out without being seen, and then gone back AGAIN to do the murder better?

And why did the park say all three deaths were accidents? Especially when at some point he just gave up entirely and started shooting people. Hate it when I go to a theme park and accidentally end up with a bullet from a real gun in my torso. As unbelievable as it sounds, it makes more sense for them to say he was just one lone guy acting on his own for reasons completely unfathomable. He is a perfect scapegoat. Otherwise, again, your family friendly park just looks like a death trap. “White guy who was ‘just having a bad day’” is practically an accepted defense in this country.

I guess I buy that our teenage sleuths would think that the park would hire a literal CHILD to do their dirty work, because they are also literal children, but the thing with the body spray was just silly, since it was made to be deliberate obfuscation and not just oh they wear the same product. And why would he need obfuscation anyway when he was shoving her in a freezer to die! It’s like how people who intend to kill while committing other crimes don’t cover their face, they don’t NEED to.

The ending dragged. It felt like watching the end of Return of the King but bad. Most of that was unnecessary.

The writing is fine except for a lot of repetition. Like the same word used with the same sentence or paragraph in a way that’s clearly not meant to be a stylistic choice.

Please keep the part where it says, “He was killed. Killed in cold blood in the GooseBeary’s Sunny Jamboree Room.” It’s one of the funniest things I’ve ever read. The line about Jennifer’s Body is also good.

Thank you for the chance to read this ARC. It’s not a good book but I didn’t hate my time with it at least.

Edit: sorry, one last thing. The bear that kicked it all off. They were like, we can’t destroy it people will notice it, let’s just clean it, oh wait no one is noticing, stick it in a box? That also doesn’t make any sense. Even if you think they wouldn’t have just destroyed it (which they would have). And then it just magically gets clean in an eye blink at the end? Anyway because that discovery was important to the plot I wanted to include a note about it as well.

"Murderland" grabbed me from the first page with its darkly atmospheric setting – a murder-themed amusement park! Carlyn Greenwald has created a truly creepy and compelling backdrop for this YA mystery. I was immediately drawn to Billie, the protagonist, who's thrown into a dangerous investigation when a coworker dies mysteriously on her ride. The plot twists and turns kept me guessing until the very end, and I appreciated the way Greenwald explored themes of friendship and betrayal amidst the suspense. The park itself felt like a character, with its own secrets and hidden corners, adding to the overall sense of unease. While I occasionally found some of the characters' decisions a bit frustrating (typical YA, right?), I was so invested in the mystery that it didn't detract from my enjoyment. If you're a fan of thrillers with a touch of horror and a unique setting, "Murderland" is definitely worth checking out. I devoured it in a couple of sittings and would recommend it to anyone looking for a fast-paced and engaging read. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to review this book!

I really enjoyed this book. It is the story about a young girl who is working at an amusement park, Californialand, when someone dies on a ride she shouldn’t have been operating at the time. She then enlists the help of her 3 friends to help her clear her name and figure out what happened.

I liked how this book bounced between the night as it occurs hour by hour and a social media recap of the events in the future. The characters are definitely younger and therefore decisions made are not always the wisest but for me it did not distract from the story, but rather fit the characters ages and personalities. This was a very enjoyable YA thriller that keeps you turn page after page to see who done it and what will happen next. Definitely one to add to your TBR if you are a lover of all things theme park, murder mystery and YA books!

Thank you to Sourcebooks Fire and NetGalley for the ARC for review!!

This book was a very easy read for me to get through. I love theme parks and even as an adult I still love ya books so it was right up my alley.

I will say some of the decisions the characters were making were very unbelievable and almost too far fetched but then again they are teenagers so it’s to be expected.

Overall I really enjoyed this book!

Thank you NetGalley for the copy!

Murder Land – Eine brillante Idee, die sich im Labyrinth verliert

Als ich das Cover von Murder Land gesehen habe, war ich sofort begeistert. Die düstere Ästhetik, kombiniert mit dem vielversprechenden Klappentext – ein Freizeitpark, der Mordopfern gewidmet ist? Makaber, aber eine unglaublich spannende Idee! Doch leider hat mich die Umsetzung nicht überzeugen können.

Die Geschichte folgt Billie, die im besagten Themenpark arbeitet. Eines Abends lässt sie ihre Freunde eine Attraktion ausprobieren – doch dann stirbt ein Besucher. Ein Schockmoment, der realistischer kaum sein könnte. Doch anstatt einer packenden Ermittlung folgen seltsame Entscheidungen: Die Polizei zeigt kaum Interesse, obwohl ein Zeuge verschwunden ist, der Park bleibt unbeirrt geöffnet, und Billie beschließt, die Wahrheit herauszufinden – indem sie nach einem Animatronic sucht? Hier fing ich an, den Faden zu verlieren.

Ich liebe Murder Mysterys, und die Kulisse eines Vergnügungsparks bot so viel Potenzial für eine spannende, atmosphärische Geschichte. Doch je weiter die Handlung voranschritt, desto weniger konnte ich ihr folgen. Einige Entwicklungen wirkten konstruiert und nicht wirklich durchdacht, sodass ich mich oft fragte: Was passiert hier eigentlich gerade?

Nach knapp der Hälfte habe ich das Buch schließlich abgebrochen – und das kommt bei mir wirklich selten vor. Die Grundidee ist genial, das Setting hätte für Nervenkitzel sorgen können, aber die Umsetzung fühlte sich unausgereift an. Letztlich blieb ich enttäuscht zurück. Vielleicht könnte eine Überarbeitung der Handlung die Geschichte retten – denn das Potenzial ist da, es wurde nur nicht voll ausgeschöpft.

DNF at 40%.

I'm sorry. I hate giving bad reviews. I just did not like this book. I didn't like the pacing nor the unrealistic events taking place (I'm all for some unrealistic things...but not this many) nor the sense of urgency with no gripping motive behind it.

Billie works at a theme park, she lets her friends get on a ride, a guy dies, and that's as realistic as it got. Everything afterwards seemed off...no one around but yet the park is packed full of people? A guy dies and the cops don't care that the witness isn't around? The park stays open? She tries to "solve" who murdered the guy by...looking for an animatronic? She instantly suspects a guy because his file...was in the place of the dead guys file?

Once the second death happened (I wont spoil who) and Billie is just suddenly showering...I was out.

I love murder mysteries and I adore the cover and the idea of an amusement park setting, but I think this one could use some rewrites. I'm so sorry.

I won't post this review anywhere other than here because again, I don't like leaving bad reviews on someone else's hard work just because I personally didn't love it.

As someone who loves theme parks, I was really excited to read this queer YA theme park thriller book!! I will say I just don't think that YA thrillers are for me just as an adult reader- obviously the characters are young adults so they might make frustrating decisions and be a bit more immature, which makes sense if that's the audience that's reading the book- but as an adult, it was just kind of frustrating🥲😅 too much teenage relationship drama for me!

The premise of this was really fun and unique though- on the opening night of one of the new attractions in the California theme, park the ride our FMC operates ends up malfunctioning, and after a few of them go on the ride one of them is found dead. Our FMC and her friends end up having to race against the clock to figure out if this was a murder or an accident.

Thank you to NetGalley and Sourcebooks Fire for providing an eARC in exchange for my honest review.

⭐️: 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.