Are you looking for a book that will make you nostalgic for McDonald’s Playlands and arcade games? I should probably mention that there are some run-ins with some huge spiders and other creepy, nightmarish things that thankfully don’t exist outside the pages of this book, but that just adds to the fun of this new middle-grade book, in my opinion.

Krazyland has long been a place that kids love to gather and play for hours, and Nathan is finally old enough not to be scared of some of the more realistic games that he used to avoid. Now he realizes that though some of the games might seem realistic, everything inside the building is just for fun and perfectly safe. But what if there’s a side to Krazyland that even the owner doesn’t know about? Unfortunately, Nathan becomes acquainted with this alternate reality version of the entertainment center when kids start to disappear.

Nathan and a few young employees get roped into helping search for the missing kid, and though they search in the ball pit and the huge slides, they don’t find anything and while they’re looking, Nathan loses his phone in the ball pit. After a brief search for his phone, he concludes that it sunk to the bottom of the pit. That’s when things start to get really weird, exposing a side of Krazyland scarier than he’d imagined.

Krazyland is a really fun book that is full of twists and turns and will appeal to a wide range of readers. Reading this book as an adult, I did feel like there was a lot of detail that could have been added to make this story feel a little more complete but it’s an entertaining read nonetheless! 

Review of a Digital Advance Reading Copy from Random House Children’s Books

Content Analysis:

Profanity/Language: 9 religious exclamations.

Violence/Gore: Kids are reported to be going missing; kids are chased by a huge spider in a brief scene; a man claims he is dead and informs some young children that they may be dead as well; balloon animal giraffe “dies” and deflates after it is bitten by a balloon bear and lion; a brief scene occurs where a boy stabs an alternate version of himself with a sharp piece of plastic, some blood is mentioned; people are chased down and eaten by a huge doll in several brief scenes.

Sex/Nudity: Sexual identity is mentioned in a brief scene.

Mature Subject Matter:

Death; fears and phobias.

Drugs/Alcohol:

None