To say I am obsessed with this book is an understatement. Murder Land is perfect for anyone who is obsessed with dark Disney history or creepy theme park lore. The park was a character itself and I wish it were real (minus the murdering part). The mystery was twisty and suspenseful, and I genuinely didn't see some of the twists coming. This is such a unique entry to YA horror/thrillers!

Thank you, SOURCEBOOKS Fire for providing the copy of Murder Land by Carlyn Greenwald. What an engaging book! I loved the theme park setting and the shenanigans the staff get up to after hours. The first death wasn’t as interesting as learning about Murder Land, but as the murders continued the story got more intriguing. The characters were great and I can see how teens would love and possibly relate to them. I liked the writing style, but a couple of times I had to reread sentences to understand them. I had a feeling who the villain was early on but I loved being right and the final confrontation was well-paced. This is a fun book and even though the causes of the deaths weren’t explained very well, it was a wonderful read. 4.5 stars rounded up to 5.

This mystery/thriller is incredibly enjoyable and entertaining. If you're a fan of theme parks, I highly suggest you check it out! It's a great read that combines excitement with a captivating plot.

Murder Land follows young theme park worker Billie over the course of one night trying to solve a mysterious death that happened on a ride she operates. I really enjoyed this story. The author’s passion for Los Angeles history shines through and she created fun and interesting lore throughout the world-building. The pacing was fast and the young heroine sometimes made very questionable choices that brought the YA feel of the novel to life. After one of the major twists, I could not put the book down. I had to know whodunit.

Thank you to NetGalley and Sourcebooks for providing me with an Advanced Reader Copy of this book.

Enjoyable fast-paced YA Thriller, I binged this book cover to cover in one reading session.

I think this book would be a great fit for anyone who enjoyed reading Fear Street or R.L. Stine growing up, between the atmospheric Theme Park setting and locked room mystery it definitely gave me that vibe.

I'd recommend checking this one out!

Thank you Carlyn Greenwald, Net Galley and Sourcebooks Fire for providing me with an ARC of this book.

Billie has worked at the same theme park for the past few summers, so this year she is excited to get started. She's secured a promotion, the girl she has a crush on is paying attention, and she plans to spend all summer hanging out with her best friend.
However, on the first night of the season, things go horribly wrong. Billie has been given the job of ride operator at the new and exciting ride all guests are dying to ride, but her first night ends in disaster when one of her coworkers dies riding her ride....before she was even given permission to start.
Now Billie and her friends need to figure out what happened while also trying to make sure they don't end up dead as well.

Seventeen-year-old Billie works at Californialand and received a promotion to be ride operator for one of the most buzzworthy new rollercoasters, Mulholland Mayhem. The theme park is holding a preview night for its newest attraction, Murder Land, but things takes a dark turn when Billie's creepy coworker mysteriously dies…on her ride, with her friends, when she isn't authorized to be running it.

Murder Land took me on ride with many ups and downs, some good, some bad. I thought it started off strong, but as the characters ran around the park to different areas and attractions, it got confusing. Maybe I just missed some of the reasonings for the changes in location??? However, there were definitely a couple of times where I needed to flip back pages and reread a section because I had no idea what was going on. With Grace's death, for example, I did not notice her suffering from an allergic reaction, thinking she only misstepped and fell into the water. This added to the story feeling slow and disjointed.

Billie. Girl, what is wrong with you? Her decisions and reasoning were so incredibly flawed. I don't even know if I could call it stupidity—there was simply no justification that I could see to be investigating the original death.

I think I was expecting something more like the movie Hell Fest, where a masked serial killer turns a horror-themed amusement park into his own personal playground, terrorizing a group of friends while the rest of the patrons believe that it is all part of the show. This, was not that. It needed more blood. It needed more suspense. Quite frankly, it needed more death.

I have an incredibly soft spot for our (best) supporting character Sawyer—moody misunderstood girls are my kryptonite, but she also made me want to slap her when she said, “To think that I got what I always wanted from you tonight. Your attention.” to Billie AFTER HER GIRLFRIEND DIES. And while I feel for her, this is not the time to express how you really liked her best friend more. Just, why? Why? WHY? Ignoring this one ick moment, she was my absolute fave.

Murder Land having a queer Jewish protagonist is why I was so excited for this young adult thriller. For readers who may be doing the same, the representation is very slim on the Judaism side with two very quick comments from the main character that touch on the ethnoreligion.

I appreciate a mixed-media element, but am I crazy thinking the transcript portion would've been better with more details at the beginning or being included in full at the end? That said, I LOVED the side mystery of ThemeParkConfidential and thought the conclusion we got there was beautiful. Probably one of my favourite things about Murder Land.

This was such a delightful, fast-paced, creepy thriller from Greenwald—atmospheric, full of twists and turns, and page-turning! It will keep readers on the edge of their seats—so excited for Greenwald's thriller era!

What's not to love about a theme park slasher? The characters are relatable, the setting is fantastic, and the slasher plot is a ton of fun.

As someone born and raised by a theme park (and potentially the theme park that inspired this book), I am always excited to read theme park-based thrillers and horror. This was thrilling, spooky, and exactly what you want out of a summer thriller. Murder Land kept me guessing until the end. It also made me excited to read any other thriller Carlyn Greenwald puts out.

This book was good for suspense but for something that could be a horror novel, there was a lot of touchy-feely stuff going on and it seemed wildly out of place.

Billie has recently been promoted to ride operator of the newly opened Murder Land in a theme park in California known as "Californialand' (and no it is not the one owned by the mouse). She is thrilled to be working the brand new ride, Mullholland Mayhem, a thrill ride rollercoaster through old-time Hollywood. When she and her friends take the ride for a private spin after it goes down, someone winds up dead and Billie is being blamed for it. Fearing her future is going down in flames, she embarks with three friends to investigate on her own and prove her innocence that this person died from natural causes.

This was another book that suffers from the fate of being too long and I started to lose interest. The plot is a good idea but the execution suffers. Guessing whodunit wasn't too difficult.

I would say this book was OK but given several other books set in theme parks with the murder theme, it wasn't the best.

Thank you to Sourcebooks Fire and Netgalley for this ARC.

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.