Review: Wonderland by Jennfier Hillier

Author: Jennifer Hillier
Publisher: Pocket Star
Publication Date:  October 2015

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.

Wonderland is a wild ride. It involves creepy happenings at an amusement park, mutilated corpses, missing people that go back decades and a new police chief who is trying to figure it all out.  I really enjoyed this one.  There were a lot of twists and turns.  There were also some pretty horrific scenes.  That time in the tunnel toward the end was so creepy.

 

My only issue with the book were things that were a bit unrealistic for me.  Like the obvious signs of a creepy stalker.  I mean if you knew your daughter was very uncomfortable with a co-worker at her part time job, wouldn't you investigate it more?  That's just one example.  However, I was able to put those things aside and just go with it.  I do definitely recommend this one.