Reviews with content warning for Gore - The Sun Down Motel

Reviews tagging 'Gore'

The Sun Down Motel by Simone St. James

7 reviews

librarymouse's review

dark funny 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? It's complicated

4.5

Overall, I really enjoyed this book! The setting, in particular, was really strong and the transitions between 1982 and 2017 were really tangible. Some of the characters were so pleasantly strange in a very human way. The juxtaposing of Nick, the former delinquent Carly meets as an under the table resident of a run down motel with Callum, the library volunteer who's way too invested in her search for what happened to her aunt is really well done.

This book was really fucking weird in a highly consumable way.

there was some things that felt like compulsory heterosexuality on my first read through, but to be honest, I think I've just been reading a lot of queer stuff recently, and all this book did was clearly characterize Carly as straight. Vic's cancer coming back at the end of the book, so close to her saying she's cancer free and learning her sister also died of cancer felt a bit out of place to me, but it's also real life and real life issues that do happen being presented within the frame of a thriller. I'm not a fan of the pro-cop rhetoric, but at the same time, I did like Alma as a character.

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redefiningrachel's review against another edition

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dark emotional tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.5

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slintangel's review

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challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

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lydiavsbooks's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix

3.25

An enjoyable fun mystery that spans two timeliness, which I always like: leading up to the dissappearance of one woman, and years later another woman investigating the disappearance. A really fun combination of horror and thriller, it won't scare you but it does have a good amount of spooky ghosts alongside a thrilling mystery.

The main thing that I think prevented me from enjoying this more than I did was that I found the 2 perspectives really hard to differentiate between. We follow 2 main characters from 2 different timeliness but both had the same tone and way of thinking and talking which made it really confusing to keep up with who did what. To some extent I think that happened woth most of the characters, there was no distinguishable tone or voice for any of the characters. I also can't say I found either main character overly likeable, I don't know if its just me but there was definitely a 'not like other girls' vibe about both of them which I got a bit sick of reading. There was also a comment made about gay men, which I understand was written within the 1980s perspective but I'm not sure it was needed and it was a tad uncomfortable.

The plot, although it didn't shock me or blow me away definitely kept my attention, I was intrigued throughout and satisfied by the ending. The Stephen King references could've easily felt kinda gimmicky but I actually enjoyed the little nods to classics of the genre.

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