Murder Land by Carlyn Greenwald

✦ BLURB ✦

Seventeen-year-old Billie feels like she is on top of the world. She gets to spend the summer with her best friend, sparks are flying with her crush, and she has received a promotion to ride operator for one of the most buzzworthy new attractions in the theme park she works at. But the first night on the new job takes a dark turn when her creepy coworker mysteriously dies…on her ride, when she isn’t authorized to be running it.

At first, it seems like he died by heart attack, but by the time she returns to the body with help, it looks like a broken neck. Had she just imagined him sitting upright a few minutes ago? It’s as if someone is trying to pin his death on her, and she has one night to figure out who is really responsible before she is blamed.

Billie recruits the help of her friends to sneak around the park after-hours and search for the truth. But as the night stretches on and more people wind up dead, Billie realizes she may not make it out of Murder Land alive. And her friends may know more than they’re letting on.

---

---

✶ PRE-READING ✶

This sounds like it's going to be a thriller, maybe a bit claustrophobic, set in a Definitely Not Disney theme park at night. I'm hoping for some spooky moments, some jump scares, a surprise or two.

---

✶ POST-READING ✶

As I thought, it is set in Definitely Not Disney, but the narration makes a point of how it's Not Disney and this ride is Not The Disney Ride and that area is Not the Disney Area. There is a map provided early on, but I found it difficult to follow the protagonist's moves (partly because, in my ebook ARC, the map was spread over four pages and didn't line up right; in the actual book I think it will be easier. I was right about the villain, and right about which teen was going to end up dead. 

It surprised me by... how horny the teens were. Our main character started out best friends with one, FWB with another, and tolerating her best friend's girlfriend. By the end of the book (no spoilers!) there was a certain amount of switching around. I understand the adrenaline and the 'oh shit we're going to die' but it seemed an odd time for some of the declarations we got!

---

✦ RECOMMENDATIONS ✦

Book Recommendation: Hide by Kiersten White is also set in a theme park - though a deserted one in her case. Mack, the main character, finds herself caught in a game of cat and mouse and must rely on her wits to survive.

Movie Recommendation: Zombieland. Ok, it's just for the scene at Pacific Playland near the end, but the characters do have to keep their wits about them at all times, and there's a lot of sneaking around and hiding!

---

✧ VIBE CHECK ✧

A soundtrack: Tense and urgent.

A scent: Metal and cold.

---

★ TAROT CARD PULLED ★

The Tower.(Tarot of the Divine) Billie's whole world implodes and she has to try and pull the pieces back together into a new shape - not quite the same as the old one, but still a world, and still hers.