Reviews - The Sun Down Motel

8.96k reviews for:

The Sun Down Motel

Simone St. James

3.98 AVERAGE

cdcnesbit's review against another edition

4.0

adventurous dark mysterious fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Content Warnings

alexaandracyr's review against another edition

5.0

4.5/5, excellente intrigue, mais aussi spooky/paranormal ! Assez différent de mes thrillers habituels, mais j’ai beaucoup aimé l’atmosphère de motel creepy

alicegriff7's review against another edition

4.0

adventurous dark mysterious sad tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

amyjayexo's review against another edition

4.0

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

swankysammi's review against another edition

4.25

dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: N/A

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

blondiesbooksgr's review against another edition

3.0

I love that we have the POV of Viv, who vanished in 1982 and then her niece, Carly's, POV many, many years later trying to find her aunt to figure out what happened to her. She then decides to work her aunt's night shift at the exact same motel, Sun Down Motel. I like the paranormal twist with the mystery. I wanted to love this so much, but the book dragged on and on and got repetitive. I did enjoy reading it though, regardless.

thepaigeturner's review against another edition

3.0

"Being with people was easy, but being alone was hard. Especially being alone in the dark. The person who could be truly alone, in the company of no one, but oneself, and ones own thoughts -- that person was stronger than anyone else." Simone St. James, "The Sun Down Motel"

3 stars is being generous. How is this book rating so highly? I have mixed thoughts on this. I picked this as my January BOTM and was so eager to get it because I've had it on my TBR for months! I was so disappointed and wanted so much more out of this book. It did have a good underlying mystery (hello, it was dedicated to murderinos, SSDGM), but the ghost story element of it was juvenile, yet it scared me to be reading it at home alone.

In 1982, Viv Delaney leaves her midwestern home to go to NYC, but stops in Fell to make some money and takes a job at The Sun Down Motel. The motel is most definitely haunted, so she takes it upon herself to figure out what happened. Enter Simon Hess, a traveling salesman who checks in under different names (red flag much?). Viv becomes an armchair detective, which is really the best kind, and solves the murders of various young women in town. She meets a cop, Alma Trent, and gets her involved on the case, along with a PI, Marnie. During this, Viv disappears. Flash forward 35 years to present day, Carly Kirk, niece of Viv has never been able to get the mysterious disappearance of her aunt out of her head and her mother has recently died. She takes a break from college to travel to Fell, NY and ends up with a job at the motel (what are the odds?) and it is still haunted. The parallels between the two lives of Viv and her niece Carly are the theme of this book. They encounter so many similar things, despite having never actually met each other. Carly ends up solving the mystery her aunt originally set out to solve, 35 years later.

The problem I had with this book was the ending. There was so much buildup and background story and maybe ten pages devoted to the conclusion. The reunion between characters are the end was lacking. It read like young adult. I won't be recommending this one to anyone, but I did enjoy the serial killer story line.