[3] The novel was first mentioned in passing in Neil Gaiman's interview with Stephen King for The Sunday Times, published on April 8, 2012,[4] and was officially announced on May 30, 2012.

[6] In his interview on NPR's Fresh Air on May 28, 2013, King revealed that the novel grew from a single image he had for 20 years of a boy in a wheelchair flying a Jesus kite on a beach.

Each iteration features cover art by Robert McGinnis, different from the paperback edition, as well as a map of the Joyland amusement park, created by Susan Hunt Yule.

Devin is told by local fortune teller Rozzie that he will meet two children that summer: a girl with a red hat and a boy with a dog.

Devin secures lodging for the summer at a rooming house owned by Mrs. Shoplaw, a woman who knows a great deal of Joyland's history and employees.

Devin, Tom, and Erin learn that several years earlier, a girl named Linda Gray was murdered in the park's only dark ride, Horror House, and that her ghost still haunts it.

Erin researches the murder while back at school and plans a return visit to Joyland with Tom to present her findings to Devin.

[9] Walter Kirn at The New York Times compared the novel to "a plump wad of cotton candy; it fills the mouth with fluffy sweetness that quickly dissolves when the reader starts to chew.

"[10] The Los Angeles Review of Books noted the novel's ephemeralness but acknowledged its deeper appeal thanks to smaller flourishes, such as characters that are well-drawn despite their familiarity, and the surprising level of attention paid to "carnie patois", in-group slang: "There is an almost delirious pleasure in reading the words, savoring them, and, after a certain point, getting used to them.

More a coming-of-age mystery than a horror-filled thriller, it's closer to the tone of King's short story 'The Body' ... than it is to the author's real forays into horror.