Book Review Genre: Thriller

Disclaimer: Reading is all about exploring new worlds, but this Book Review does not shy away from spoiling specific scenes as this is more of my free-flowing thoughts about a book.

The Analysis:

A book club pick that was pleasant to read. Unfortunately, it was not on my radar prior to its announcement. But, let’s book review it. First, follow me on Goodreads.

Here’s The Blurb:

Welcome to Wonderland. By day, it’s a magical place boasting a certain retro charm. Excited children, hands sticky with cotton candy, run frenetically from the Giant Octopus ride to the Spinning Sombrero, while the tinkling carnival music of the giant Wonder Wheel—the oldest Ferris wheel in the Pacific Northwest—fills the air. But before daybreak, an eerie feeling descends. Maybe it’s the Clown Museum, home to creepy wax replicas of movie stars and a massive collection of antique porcelain dolls. Or maybe it’s the terrifyingly real House of Horrors. Or…maybe it’s the dead, decaying body left in the midway for all the Wonder Workers to see.

Vanessa Castro’s first day as deputy police chief of Seaside, Washington, is off to a bang. The unidentifiable homeless man rotting inside the tiny town’s main tourist attraction is strange enough, but now a teenage employee—whose defiant picture at the top of the Wonder Wheel went viral that same morning—is missing. As the clues in those seemingly disparate crimes lead her down a mysterious shared path of missing persons that goes back decades, she suspects the seedy rumors surrounding the amusement park’s dark history might just be true. She moved to Seaside to escape her own scandalous past, but has she brought her family to the center of an insidious killer’s twisted game?

Cover Critique:

I like it. It’s definitely compelling. If it were in a bookstore, I could totally see myself picking it up and checking out the blurb. Is it a tad creepier than the story? Probably. But it is the setting of the novel and thus accurate. There is another cover of this book and I am not a fan of it. Much prefer the one pictured.

Now The Story:

Book Info:
Pages: 312
Author: Jennifer Hillier
Available: Google Play

Welcome to the theme park, Wonderland. Where all the workers are sleeping with each other and no one has a healthy relationship. Which did wonders for me trying to get to know all the characters in a story with multiple pov’s (sarcasm). But don’t worry it just takes a bit to get used to.

But, by the time I got to Ava’s point of view, all I wanted to know was, why? It was a lot of different points of view and I think I would have preferred for things to be more paired down.

What I never warmed to was Vanessa. She was picking young men out like they were new shoes to be bedwarmers. Which is a problem for a myriad of reasons. One is her huge abuse of power. Hiring and firing based on who she liked as well as showing favoritism. She may not have been guilty of murder, but I was going to enjoy seeing her as a suspect. Especially as more and more I began to see parallels between her and the former owner, a psycho and pedophile.

About halfway through, I began to suspect that the owner of Wonderland didn’t exist. It was all being ran by the CEO, his niece. I suspected way before the blowout fight with the assistant CEO because he had yet to make an appearance beyond letters. Even the most hands-off boss would need to get involved once things in the case were ramped up. Yet, he still hadn’t shown his face. That aspect was also interesting. When I learned he was murdered, I just nodded, knew it.

As far as her dalliances, her excuse was positively pitiful. The woman was getting back at a man, who broke her heart when she was almost seventeen. Like girl, you’re in your mid-thirties displaying predatory behavior with these young men. And the miscarriage aspect seemed tacked on for sympathy points. Or maybe she was just a psycho that cared for very little outside of herself. But it was at this juncture, that made me think the killer was probably some heartbroken man that was getting back at her myriad of replacements over the years.

If you exchange Wonderland for a theme park such as Disney World or even sixth flags, your sympathy meter might go down a peg. Especially with CEOs like Vanessa behind the scenes running everything for the top dollar and not the heart. A heart that should be a little sympathetic to a murder on the scene. However, I did feel bad for the larger town that relied on this place for tourism. It seemed like such a handicap. And my heart went out to all the real-life places dependent on tourism that are so easily affected by Covid, natural disasters, or in this case, man-made ones.

Now, there are hints of romance in this story. In the beginning, it was kinda distracting as I felt like I was waiting for the murder mystery to kick into high gear. However, by the midway point, I was rooting for them. I just couldn’t fully trust him knowing he wasn’t being totally honest about the park’s secrets. And then he proved that by cheating on her. Shrugs, such is life. Now, by no means is romance the focal point of this story. As it’s more about the myriad of characters in and around Wonderland.

Speaking of characters, Ava (a fourteen-year-old) shares her first kiss with an eighteen-year-old. Let’s not touch that subject with a ten-foot pole. Yet, I was surprisingly proud of her when she told him off for being a jerk and sleeping with an older woman while trying to kiss her. The fact that she told him off with a line from a movie was too cute and also showed off her youth.

This quick read made the murder mystery easy to follow. I particularly enjoyed that the missing boys were being hidden in plain sight underneath Wonderland.

Something that was interesting, but a tad unnecessary was the reveal that the cop had killed her husband. I would have preferred a reveal about the head CEO and one of her many secrets at that point.

The stereotype of the gay guy who likes to look at young boys ID’s was a little disappointing. Especially coupled with the description of his looks that were straight out of a pedo line-up shot. This story angle is why I wasn’t totally comfortable with the Mexican rapist reveal either.

But the ending gives you everything you need. It’s packed with surprises and I certainly didn’t guess everything. I also appreciated momma bear, juggling her job and her need to find her daughter.

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Book Review At A Glance:

Recommendation:  4 out of 5

Book Cover Appeal:

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Story & Narration:

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Romance:

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Heroine’s Personality:

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Hero’s Personality:

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Closure:

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