Perfect for fans of You're Not Supposed to Die Tonight by Kaylnn Bayron, Murder Land is a fun YA thriller set in a theme park.

Set over the course of one wild opening night, we follow Billie on what should be the perfect night: she has the guy she hooked up with that is showing signs of wanting more, her best friend, and her best friend's girlfriend (there's tension there but it can be put aside for the night, right?) It is a perfect night until the first body drops. Then the next one drops. Chases and conspiracies abound as Billie and her friends try to survive the night and uncover the secrets that lay beneath the park.

This book was excellently paced and very atmospheric- I could practically smell the air of the theme park. I simultaneously want to visit Disney World and never set foot in an amusement park ever again. I really enjoyed Murder Land and highly recommend for anyone looking for a conspiracy-filled slasher.

From the cover and title I was excited to read this book but unfortunately I couldn’t get into it

Thank you NetGalley for letting me read this book

I was so excited for this book, as the premise of a murder mystery/thriller set in a quirky theme park with a diverse cast is so good! But the execution was just not there for me. The writing lacks the clarity that I need to get fully immersed in a story, and I found this particularly perplexing given that this is YA. I had to reread multiple parts and still couldn't fully picture what was happening on the page. The killer was very obvious from the beginning; I'm not sure how intentional that was.

Thanks to NetGalley for an eARC in exchange for my honest opinion! I thought Murder Land was an action-packed read and I liked the atmosphere a lot. However, the pacing seemed a bit off sometimes and I also correctly guessed the killer right away. Overall, Murder Land just felt too disjointed and off and even though I really liked the diversity of the characters, it was a miss for me.

Such a great book - twists and turns perfect for 8th through 10th grade students for sure! I can't wait for this to publish so I can add it to my classroom library; I already know of five kids who would love to read it!

This tale of a theme park in Southern California, with a new focus on true crime, is a perfect twist to what feels like a much-done story. I thought it would read like "Fantasticland" (which is a book I loved), and while it felt similar, it didn't feel like I'd heard the story before. I was shocked several times while reading, and know teens will love it just as much!

I worked at a theme park in high school. It was supposedly haunted, but thankfully no one died there that I know of! So, I was excited to read this book after seeing the premise! Sadly, it didn’t really live up to my expectations. It was a bit of a slog to get through. I never really connected to any of the characters and parts of the story became very repetitive.

I feel like the author tried to do to many things with this book. We are introduced to so many different areas in the park, that i felt like it started to take away from the actual mystery. So much focus on the different areas that didn’t really add anything to the story. I thought the killer was pretty obvious from the start. Though I still don’t fully understand the motivations. At the end of the book, I was still left with a lot of questions.

Overall, an interesting premise, but sadly this book was a miss for me.

Billed as a queer One of Us Is Lying set at a California theme park, I was immediately curious about the premise of this one! Thrill rides and murder??? I'm in! Billie has worked at California Land for two years and has earned a promotion as an operator for the new thrill ride on preview night. But when a test ride with her friends, her crush, and another park employee results in one of them dead, Billie is made to feel like she's about to lose her job. To prove her innocence, she starts to gather evidence with her friends. When another of the group tragically dies, Billie starts to realize they are all a part of something bigger--a commercial company that will stop at nothing to protect their brand at the expense of their employees.

While this was action-packed and a page turner, it was also somewhat disappointing, as Billie and her friends' choices often frustrated me as an adult reader. They were erratic and just plain dumb at times! I know that's a trope of teen slashers, but their actions and secrets just had me screaming to go get help instead of running all over doing dangerous things to find the killer. The mixed media format with the interviews of the history behind the park was at times distracting, but definitely made more sense as the book progressed and it did make the ending more satisfying with Billie getting her own form of justice. The killer was obvious early on even with a strong red herring late in the storyline. People who are into amusement park lore/history and urban exploring of rides will likely enjoy the format and storyline of this one.

Thanks to Netgalley and Sourcebooks Fire for the e-ARC. This one is out May 6, 2025!

Okay, I was actually excited about this one. And im having to DNF only a few chapters in because this writing is rough. Did you know that the MC no longer does anything bad anymore because now shes friends with Grace? Oh? Well she tells you 500 times. So dont worry.

ARC REVIEW, thank you so much to Carlyn Greenwald, Sourcebooks Fire, and NetGalley for this ARC. My review is not influenced by receiving an ARC. This is an honest review!

An amusement park with history soaked in conspiracy theories and now blood. A new world in this theme park is Murder Land, based on victims of real California murders. 

We follow Billie and her friend group on opening night. She allows her friends to ride on a new attraction. Once they get off, she notices one of her coworkers never left. It looks like a heart attack, but when she leaves to get help and comes back, his neck is snapped. She could've sworn it wasn't before. Now she has to clear her name.

I think this YA murder mystery was so well done. I love the literary device of mixing present moments and video essays. 

I think the pacing was off in the beginning, it got better as the book went on. 

I think the blurb saying it is like Holly Jackson's books is a fair comparison because at some points this book reminded me of both 'A Good Girl's Guide to Murder' by Holly Jackson and 'Sadie' by Courtney Summer. 

I adored the diversity in this book. For example, Billie is a Jewish bisexual.

This felt very disjointed to me. It was fast paced which I usually enjoy, but I think that added to the disjointed feeling of it and the characters made some bizarre decisions. I can get on board with a far fetched plot, but too much of this book relies on convenience for me (ie, the hotdogs)

I have read and enjoyed YA thrillers before but this didn’t hit the mark for me unfortunately

THOUGHTS

This book is exactly what you'd think a book called Murder Land will be. It did what it promised. It didn't underdeliver. It also didn't overdeliver. It just did what it said it would.


PROS
Bi Rep: Any time there's explicit bisexual representation on the page, it is a good thing. So many books dance around the word, the label, and that just contributes to a sort of bi erasure (even in, you know, bi representation). So it is refreshing to have a book where the main character calls herself bisexual, and where she's crushing on a boy and a girl in the same book. It's nice to see.

Theme Park Conspiracy: There's something inherently creepy about animatronics, and this book really plays into that. This is the perfect book for anyone who has fallen into a YouTube rabbit hole about abandoned places, behind-the-scenes theme parks, creepypastas, and corporate cover-ups. It's a lot of fun.

True Crime: You know what's crazy? Having a theme park designed around true crime. Like, cold cases and brutal murder as your attraction themes. That's a crazy idea... and I can see people being into that. I wish more of this book had dug into the newly-opened Murder Land part of this park, but the idea at least was there. Before, you know, the actual deaths started happening.


CONS
Quick Transitions: This book moves so quickly, in a bad way. Billie's just so quick to move on. To move on from people dying. To move on from one crush to the next. To forgive and forget (even when she hated someone at the beginning of the book). I don't know. Maybe you shouldn't be contemplating going out with someone before the body at your feet has even gone cold. Maybe try at the very least waiting for the police to arrive first.

Unclear Motivations: Billie really, really, really wants to keep this job, and I was really, really, really not sure why. It isn't that great a job. Sure, it's fun, but she's headed off to college in a few months anyway. She's already got it on her CV. She can't possibly be making much more than minimum wage. If she gets fired for getting tangled up in this onsite death, well, she can easily replace the money with something else that pays minimum wage for the summer. I just wasn't sure why she felt the need to independently investigate. She cited keeping the job, but... do you really need it? Do you really want it?

7 Stages?: Going through all the stages of grief to wind up in the acceptance phase by the end of the night is crazy. This timeline is so crunched, there's not really any time to adjust, to contemplate, to figure out who one might be now in this new reality. And there really isn't enough blood splatter to warrant needing to move on so quickly. Less than five people die in this book (which, frankly, is a bit of a letdown for a book titled Murder Land). Without all that bloodshed, there should be a bit more time to sit and think about what's happened instead of just giving up, moving on.


Rating

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
5/10
Fans of Kathryn Foxfield's Come Out, Come Out, Whatever You Are will like this new murderous amusement park. Those who enjoyed Eva V. Gibson's Frightmares will love following this new minimum-wage-worker-turned-witness as she investigates.

Murder Land plays on our fear that something might happen to us when we go to an amusement park. Billie, an employee of the park, decides to partake in a new ride with her coworkers while on duty and one coworker ends up dead. Billie and her friends spend rest of the book is spent trying to solve the murder, but more people end up dead. This is a pretty tame thriller aimed at YA readers. It does its job but might miss the mark for older readers who want more explanation for bad decisions.

A big thank you to NetGalley and SOURCEBOOKS Fire for this amazing ARC!! I loved everything about this book!! The tension, the nervous feeling I had while reading it, the adrenaline I got while reading it!! There were some parts of the book where I was terrified at what would happen next, and I can’t believe that I actually figured out the villain in the story!! I was 100% right!! I was usually always wrong when it comes to books like this. This book had me reading it so late into the night I did not want to stop. I wish there was a Murder Land 2 sequel in the works!! Because I would definitely be reading that too!! This book just flew by because of how fast I read it!! I’m like, 246 pages were not enough!! I gobbled this book up and loved the creepy amusement park vibes!! Especially at night!!

I really thought this would be a book I'd enjoy a lot. A theme park based on true crime stuff where someone gets murdered and now we get to spend all night trying to solve it? It sounds like a lot of fun, in a scary, thriller kind of way, right?

First of all for being "Murder Land" there wasn't a whole long of murder going on. There was a couple PG bloody bits but it all felt very off camera like. Even though the deaths happened in front of the main character, it felt very disconnected still. All the characters were odd, not rational from the very first page to the very last one. The first death was just a random co-worker, these kids could've just gone home and all been fine. It doesn't make sense that the main character had to investigate, and really doesn't make sense to drag her friends along. There was lots of traveling around the theme park, to all the different areas, and it was hard to keep track of where we were and where we had to go and for what. The only really detailed thing was all the compilated feelings of the characters. They're teenagers so yeah, they feel things hard, but these kids were all over the place and it really took me out of the actual story. The killer reveal wasn't much of a surprise, the book had been talking about how bad everything at been at the park since before it was even built.

Overall, this wasn't a horrible idea of a book, just could've been a lot short with a lot of extra nonsense cut out. I don't know who I'd recommend me this for. It was a quick read, even though it was really drawn out. The dialogue isn't great but has some humorous quips (again, angsty teens 🤷‍♀️). Maybe it's just a YA book that doesn't translate so well to actual adults. If you're looking for creepy, whodunnit thriller, this isn't it, sorry.

I don’t necessarily think that I am the target audience for this book, but there were still elements of it that I enjoyed. The premise and set up a really fascinating – a murderer themed theme-park, an amusement park that has a dark and mysterious history, and a series of murders, unfolding slowly over the course of one night. There was a sense of tension and doom that grew throughout the story, and there were some genuinely surprising twists. All in all it was a solid, fast paced, quick read.

Thank you to Netgalley for the arc. This book was crazy. It had so many twists and turns and had me confused at first then had me very entertained and at the edge of my seat. I highly recommend reading this one.

‘Murderland’ is told by Billie who works at a theme park and basically has the worst night of her life after one of her co-worker suddenly dies and things just go from bad to worse. I was very into the premise of this book and kind of expected a take on the 90’s slasher genre all based within a theme park but it ended up being more of a mystery than a horror. I didn’t mind though because Greenwald has created an interesting cast of suspects and Billie is a really engaging narrator. I did guess the culprit early on but the twists were totally unforeseen and I enjoyed the story because I was kept engaged and invested from beginning to end.

This book starts off slow, but give it a minute and it will have your attention. I stayed up way too late because I had to have answers!!

Thank you to Netgalley for providing me with an ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.
I was extremely excited when I found out about this book, seeing as I am a HUGE theme park enthusiast as well as a thriller book lover. And I do think that the history behind the fictional theme park in this book was intriguing to read about. However, there were some flaws with the book.
Firstly, the book was predictable. I immediately figured out who the killer was after the first death, and I pretty much spent the rest of the book waiting for Billie to figure it out too. I also was not a fan of the relationship that comes about later in the book, although I cannot describe that without spoiling one of the deaths. On a brighter note, I liked Billie as a character, and I found the mystery surrounding the theme park to be super interesting. The book was also very easy to read, despite the writing being a little bit repetitive. Overall, l'd give this book a 3.5 star rating.

Murderland follows Billie, who has been given her dream job as a ride operator at Murderland, a true crime- themed section of a larger park. However, when a joyride goes bad, Billie finds her job in danger… and eventually her life.

I really wanted to enjoy this book, and I was really invested for the first few chapters. But the premise took a few hard to swallow turns and Billie made so many hard to understand decisions. Although I didn’t have all the details, I did figure out who the killer was pretty early on as well, then found myself kind of finishing the book just to finish it. That being said, a few of the side characters are likable, and the book is very atmospheric- it’s also a fairly quick read. I’m sure this will appeal to many people, even if it wasn’t for me.