Wonderland

Books | Fiction / Fantasy / General

4.3

(82)

Jennifer Hillier

"Top of the line thriller writing...You better call in sick, because you're not going anywhere until you finish reading it. Oh, and you might want to lock the door, too. Just to be safe." --#1 bestselling author Jeffery Deaver Fans of Chelsea Cain and Lisa Gardner will devour this edgy thriller about the gruesome secrets hidden beneath a small-town amusement park. From the author of "Creep, Freak, "and "The Butcher, "Jennifer Hillier's "fine knack for creating hideous killers" ("Booklist") is vividly on display. "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? Acclaimed author Jennifer Hillier's bone-chilling thriller is masterful and fast-paced, hurtling toward a shocking, bloody conclusion.

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More Details:

Author

Jennifer Hillier

Pages

432

Publisher

Simon and Schuster

Published Date

2016-08-27

ISBN

1501157507 9781501157509

Community ReviewsSee all

"⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️1/4 Jennifer Hillier has risen to top of my favorite thriller author list up there with Gillian Flynn. I never would have read this book because of the cover (hate clowns HATE them 🤡😳😂) but her name was on it so I had too. It’s not her best..but not her best is still better than most! "

Sher Free✌️

"Wonderland is the perfect book for summer with its eerie carnival setting in the fictional town of Seaside, Washington. Gutsy Police Officer Vanessa is looking to escape her past with her two children, 14-year-old Ava and 7-year-old son John-John. Ava, however, has plenty thoughts of her own regarding being forced to leave Seattle and her friends. Though, she, like many others before her, eventually becomes enthralled by the prospect of working a summer job at Seaside’s one and only alluring attraction that brings all the tourists to town en masse: Wonderland amusement park. But, Wonderland, past its artificially wholesome, All-American image, is nothing like what it seems. There are an exceeding amount of cover-ups going on, especially from the inside, with images and reputations on the line in a small town where gossip travels like wildfire. Tragedy seems to strike just as fast as Blake, a self-proclaimed urban free-climber, climbs the Wonder Wheel at night, eventually tripping and falling, after-hours to boast to his followers the best aesthetic shot and spite the park and its current CEO. The next day he goes missing in action as spotty, antiquated security footage doesn’t reveal much about his whereabouts or where another additional dead man came from who is found lying on the freeway inside the park. The book only builds from here as the chapters are action-based and punchy. The characters felt damaged, deeply flawed, and cosmically real. I loved spending time with them in this corrupt town with its severely tainted set of politics. No one is to be trusted and everyone knows a different piece of the puzzle, that they may not be revealing right away, for fear of what its impact could have on their future in the town and among its people. Juicy tidbits are only revealed sparingly and at just the right pace as many seek to save face. The ambience of the setting was my favorite and I loved just intuitively connecting to this story! "

Gabrielle Grosbety

"⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2"

Angelica Ashley

"Jennifer Hillier is one of the best thriller authors of our time, however, she doesn’t have the notoriety as other authors. Her novel Wonderland was originally released in 2015 as a kindle book and finally it’s being re-released as an audiobook 8 years later. “Welcome to Wonderland! Or as we like to call it, Funderland! There’s something here for everyone…” A small corrupt town with a huge amusement park, that was previously shut down due to the owners philandering with his employees reopened with a new local owner. Everything is great until a new Deputy Detective comes into town and is thrown into a political mess as someone is found dead at the park. The twists and turns keep coming increasing in suspense, which led me to listen to this in one sitting! The audiobook production was amazing and it’s going to be a HUGE summer blockbuster! Thank you @macmillianaudio for my ALC of this smash hit!"

Jodie L

"This book was super creepy and had a decent amount of affairs, but very interesting and suspenseful. A little boring about 2/3 of the way through - kind of long over 400 pages, but the ending made it all worth it!!"

Giovanna Castrignano

"Good, creepy summer read"

A J

Andrea Jaffray

"It was creepy and suspenseful especially the ending. "

Randi Bartl

"Good book. It kept my interest and I loved the characters and their development. I wanted to know more about John John. Many twist and turns which were surprising and gave answers to unanswered questions. Thought I had the antagonist figured out and thought “hmm that was easy, a little too easy”. But there is a surprise twist at the end that no one sees coming."

Karlee Mazzaferri

"Welcome to Wonderland. By day, it’s a magical amusement park boasting a certain retro charm. But before in the dark, an eerie feeling descends between the Creepy Clown Museum and the rumors of the underground tunnel. Vanessa Castro’s first day as deputy police chief of Seaside, Washington, is off to a bang when the unidentifiable dead man appears in Wonderland and a teenage employee goes missing on the same day. As the clues in cases gather, she suspects the 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. I wasn't sure what to expect from this book since I was let down from Jennifer Hillierother book I read, but I was sucked into this one from the start! I loved Vanessa and her two children (mainly her daughter, as she plays a bigger role in the story) and the dynamic workers at Wonderland, all of which have their own secrets. There were multiple twists in this book, none of which I saw coming until a page or two before they happened, or at the time the twist was explicitly put in front of me. I had some suspensions about what characters may or may not have done based on their personalities, but I did not see the last two surprises at the end of the book coming at all! This was an audio book, and the narrator did a great job of telling this story and was clear while reading, which is great because I like to listen to my audio books at 1.5x the speed. The clearer the speaker, the easier it is to set a fast pace for the book! I rated this book with 5"

Melanie Dutka

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