Reviews with content warning for Kidnapping - The Sun Down Motel

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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raavi's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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emilylovesgoodbooks's review

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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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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lbaclian's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense medium-paced

5.0

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thecriticalreader's review

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mysterious medium-paced

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

The Sun Down Motel by Simone St. James is one of the worst books I’ve ever read. I bought it because I’ve seen quite a few people give it rave reviews, but I have to seriously disagree with their opinions.

The book is split between two perspectives: the first is Viv, a twenty-year-old who relocates to Fell, NY in 1982 and mysteriously vanishes that same year. The second is Carly, Viv’s niece who moves to Fell thirty-five years later to investigate her aunt’s life and disappearance. I kept mixing up whose point of view I was reading because they both lack a distinct voice or personality. They are practically indistinguishable, as their only distinguishing trait is that they like true crime. Carly makes it known that she’s “not like other girls,” because she likes to read and learn about true crime. Any depth they have to them is filled to the brim with pure stupidity. They practically beg to get arrested, attacked, murdered, etc. as they wander about “investigating” murders with a wanton disregard for safety (of themselves and others) and the law. They justify their misinformed and risky “investigations” by claiming that they are trying to bring justice to overlooked murdered women, which is the pathetic excuse thriller authors use to distract the readers from the fact that their protagonists have neither the right nor reason to irresponsibly play amateur detective.

The only reason Viv and Carly get anywhere in their endeavors is that the author sets up every possible plot convenience for them, most of them so ludicrously implausible that my eyes got stuck in the back of my head from rolling them so hard. I could go into specifics, but I’m afraid I would lose brain cells from recalling such stupidity.

If you have any respect for yourself or real murder victims, don’t read this book.

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