Do you know how many abandoned amusement parks there are around the world? Surprisingly many and they provide lots of photographs and inspiration. When this book was starting to develop in my head it was always set in an abandoned amusement park because what could be a better place to find all kinds of cool equipment, images, spooky settings, and everything else for an adventure. One of the most tragic amusement park stories is in Chernobyl, more specifically in the town of Pripyat that used to be home to 50,000 people. The story goes that the amusement park opened on the day of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, 2 miles away, melted down in 1986. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pripyat_amusement_park
This video is amazing, no wonder the images inspired a bit of the storyline. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oNV5Sq28Mp4 Check out how the trees have been taking over the city, even growing on the tops of buildings where the birds have dropped the seeds. This location is very dark because millions of people have died from this disaster. Here is the trailer for the HBO special https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s9APLXM9Ei8 Another interesting news story here, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=le7QcC9RBRo
So they had just finished constructing this entire amusement park with new rides, concession stands, tickets, everything, and then walked away, or rather, ran away from it as the nuclear contamination wiped out the region. Now that the contamination levels have been dropping and high quality drones are more available, there are some great photos that are coming out of the area. The entire city is abandoned, just like everyone vanished in the middle of an average day.
Most other abandoned amusement parks are the result of much more subtle demise, usually shifting economic situations. Often, a better, newer park was built nearby and the attendance sought that which is pretty and new. I used stories and photos from ones in Japan, Germany’s Spree Park, US East Coast, and New Orleans.