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pey333's review
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-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
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Death, and Grief
Moderate: Homophobia, Death of parent, Suicide, Fire/Fire injury, and Car accident
Minor: Forced institutionalization and Stalking
dundiesbooks's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-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
4.5
Obwohl es nicht ganz mein Genre ist, hat mir die Geschichte größtenteils gefallen. Vor allem, weil die Charaktere das Herz des ganzen bilden und real und nachvollziehbar wirken. Genau die richtige Mischung aus Herz mystery und minimalem Gruselfaktor. Ich mochte die Stimmen, obwohl die beiden Mädels recht ähnlich klangen und ich manchmal nicht sicher war, welche Person gerade erzählt. Ansonsten fand ich die verschiedenen Blickwinkel gut. + + + SPOILER + + +Nur der vom Raum hat nicht wirklich viel beigetragen und die super kurzen Abschnitte haben manchmal eher verwirrt. + + + SPOILER ENDE + + +
Ich würde gerne eine spin-off story von Layla und Mira hören, die keine Horrorelemente beinhaltet.
Ich würde gerne eine spin-off story von Layla und Mira hören, die keine Horrorelemente beinhaltet.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Grief, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, Fire/Fire injury, and Death
Moderate: Blood, Homophobia, Car accident, Body horror, Mental illness, Suicide, Religious bigotry, and Biphobia
theromanticace's review
dark
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Suicide and Death
Minor: Forced institutionalization and Homophobia
cboddie's review against another edition
dark
emotional
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
2.5
8th & up
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Suicide, and Grief
Moderate: Homophobia
anna_23's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Death, and Grief
Moderate: Fire/Fire injury, Blood, Violence, Suicide, and Homophobia
Minor: Stalking
avidreaderandgeekgirl's review against another edition
emotional
mysterious
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
I received an audio review copy from the publisher through Netgalley all opinions are my own.
I enjoyed this book a lot. However, I found Layla a bit difficult to like at times. She frustrated me in certain situations with her reactions. I had mixed feelings about the ending, since what was the cause of the problems in the room was never entirely clear, which was a bit frustrating, but the final part was also very good. I liked the diverse characters and the thoughts on immigrant parents and how they kind of get stuck in time. The romantic element was predictable. I wish the book had been longer, which is rarely a feeling I have in these types of books. Overall, a pretty good book!
The narration was excellent.
I enjoyed this book a lot. However, I found Layla a bit difficult to like at times. She frustrated me in certain situations with her reactions. I had mixed feelings about the ending, since what was the cause of the problems in the room was never entirely clear, which was a bit frustrating, but the final part was also very good. I liked the diverse characters and the thoughts on immigrant parents and how they kind of get stuck in time. The romantic element was predictable. I wish the book had been longer, which is rarely a feeling I have in these types of books. Overall, a pretty good book!
The narration was excellent.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death and Grief
Moderate: Car accident, Suicide, Fire/Fire injury, and Homophobia
bookishmillennial's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-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
disclaimer if you’ve read other reviews by me and are noticing a pattern: You’re correct that I don’t really give starred reviews, I feel like a peasant and don’t like leaving them and most often, I will only leave them if I vehemently despised a book. Thus, no stars doesn’t indicate that the book wasn’t worthy of any starred system. It just means I enjoy most books for what they are, & I extract lessons from them all. Everyone’s reading experiences are subjective, so I hope my reviews provide enough information to let you know if a book is for you or not. Happy reading! Find me on Instagram: @bookish.millennial or tiktok: @bookishmillennial
Premise:
Mira & Layla are two besties who go on a road trip (they're from Michigan & were on their way to Chicago to check out colleges) when their car suddenly breaks down. They check into a motel into room number 9 one night and immediately notice that the room feels dark and creepy, especially Mira. Mira lost her younger brother Khalil about a year ago and her entire family is still deep in their grief.
Mira is bisexual and out, and Layla is also queer but is not out yet because she is sure that her Muslim parents won't accept her, even though Mira's parents are also Muslim and were "pretty chill" (Mira's description verbatim lol) about her coming out. Also, these two are in love with each other and it's really cute how they don't see it yet hahaha. I'm not usually a friends-to-lovers girly but this was beautiful.
They research the dark history of room 9 with Ellis, the boy who works at the motel with his mom, along with Ellis' friend/coworker Izzy and a mysterious man named Devlin, who has shown interest with the room too. There are black and white photographs (that I believe the author also took!) interspersed throughout the book, with inexplicable distortions on them, that the group catches onto later.
CW: death, grief, blood, loss of a loved one, homophobia, suicide
Thoughts:
Wow, I can't believe this is the author's debut - this was creepy, dark, and devastating! It is more of a quiet buildup towards the room's jump scares but the menacing tension and the fear that crept up, especially in Mira, sent chills down my spine. I don't want to give anything away plot-wise but I think that Meriam unraveled the story perfectly that it was mysterious enough to keep the reader wanting more. Personally, I zoomed through this because I had to know what our group would find out next, and how this would all end. Meriam fleshed out each of the characters slowly but thoroughly that even though I was well aware that there *may* be losses (hi, it's a horror novel, I'm not spoiling anything) and held that cognitive dissonance, I still ended up caring for and rooting for all of them to make it out.
I think people who say they "aren't into horror" or make fun of the genre need to give the genre one more chance, with a book like this! One of the many beauties of horror is the pull towards a renewed sense of hope and a reignited fight to take back your life, whether that's the literal or figurative. Meriam does this so masterfully in the way she presents Mira's journey especially. Horror stories pull nefarious, unnerving truths to the surface, and force our "final girls" to confront them in order to overcome whatever supernatural force threatens to harm them. This operates as a metaphor for overcoming our own fears, guilts, and perceived missteps. This book and these characters embody everything I love about this genre, and when people say, "it's not that deep," I'm like excuse me how dare you?! YES IT IS! EVEN THO *I* CAN BE FAKE DEEP, HORROR IS NOT, OKAY?!
Anyway, this book pulled at my heart strings, had me yelling "JUST KISS ALREADY!!" and made me cry. I am so impressed by Meriam and will absolutely read more from the author in the future!
Quotations that stood out to me:
Premise:
Mira & Layla are two besties who go on a road trip (they're from Michigan & were on their way to Chicago to check out colleges) when their car suddenly breaks down. They check into a motel into room number 9 one night and immediately notice that the room feels dark and creepy, especially Mira. Mira lost her younger brother Khalil about a year ago and her entire family is still deep in their grief.
Mira is bisexual and out, and Layla is also queer but is not out yet because she is sure that her Muslim parents won't accept her, even though Mira's parents are also Muslim and were "pretty chill" (Mira's description verbatim lol) about her coming out. Also, these two are in love with each other and it's really cute how they don't see it yet hahaha. I'm not usually a friends-to-lovers girly but this was beautiful.
They research the dark history of room 9 with Ellis, the boy who works at the motel with his mom, along with Ellis' friend/coworker Izzy and a mysterious man named Devlin, who has shown interest with the room too. There are black and white photographs (that I believe the author also took!) interspersed throughout the book, with inexplicable distortions on them, that the group catches onto later.
CW: death, grief, blood, loss of a loved one, homophobia, suicide
Thoughts:
Wow, I can't believe this is the author's debut - this was creepy, dark, and devastating! It is more of a quiet buildup towards the room's jump scares but the menacing tension and the fear that crept up, especially in Mira, sent chills down my spine. I don't want to give anything away plot-wise but I think that Meriam unraveled the story perfectly that it was mysterious enough to keep the reader wanting more. Personally, I zoomed through this because I had to know what our group would find out next, and how this would all end. Meriam fleshed out each of the characters slowly but thoroughly that even though I was well aware that there *may* be losses (hi, it's a horror novel, I'm not spoiling anything) and held that cognitive dissonance, I still ended up caring for and rooting for all of them to make it out.
I think people who say they "aren't into horror" or make fun of the genre need to give the genre one more chance, with a book like this! One of the many beauties of horror is the pull towards a renewed sense of hope and a reignited fight to take back your life, whether that's the literal or figurative. Meriam does this so masterfully in the way she presents Mira's journey especially. Horror stories pull nefarious, unnerving truths to the surface, and force our "final girls" to confront them in order to overcome whatever supernatural force threatens to harm them. This operates as a metaphor for overcoming our own fears, guilts, and perceived missteps. This book and these characters embody everything I love about this genre, and when people say, "it's not that deep," I'm like excuse me how dare you?! YES IT IS! EVEN THO *I* CAN BE FAKE DEEP, HORROR IS NOT, OKAY?!
Anyway, this book pulled at my heart strings, had me yelling "JUST KISS ALREADY!!" and made me cry. I am so impressed by Meriam and will absolutely read more from the author in the future!
Quotations that stood out to me:
Room Nine’s history was dark and rotten and had a way of sinking into its guests. Their deaths within it were unfortunate in the same way. They all came too close to the flame, and when that happens, the fire takes care of the rest. Tonight is no different.
Both times, Mira quickly quelled the tide of panic that threatened to flood over. I was a little in love with the way she laughed at the punchline of every joke I made before I made it because she knew exactly what I was thinking. God, I loved her laugh. I loved making her laugh. What a fleeting high it was to hear it.
True darkness. The kind that makes you doubt if your body has ever existed. Have you always been a voice suspended in nothing? Little by little, pieces take shape.
Maybe this charged quiet was of my own making.
I barely understood it, what it meant, what it made me. But the second I started to consider telling them about whatever it was I was feeling, things would change. They were good people. I loved my parents. They loved me. But their love wasn’t unconditional, no matter how much they wanted it to be.
Beneath the noise of their presence, the marks they’ve made in this room, there is a pulse, a tone, a tremor in the air. Something is building, simmering just out of reach.
"The ocean is moody and temperamental and can swallow you up whole if it wants to. We’re nothing to the ocean.”
I moved to the desk near the bathroom door, studying the small stack of books that Layla had left there. I was surprised to see that one was about two brown girls falling in love, a YA sapphic romance with a pink cover and two hands with intricate henna designs reaching for each other. Not that it meant anything. Layla read widely. I wouldn’t read into this. I wouldn’t.
I did *NOT* expect a Henna Wars by Adiba Jaigirdar cameo in here, YASSSSSS
Mine were different. Old and new ideas mixed like two seas. The divide would always exist. Mine would be convinced it was a passing phase brought on by too much Western culture. As if this didn’t exist back home in Egypt. As if this were special to America. I couldn’t hate them for it. Generations of bias and ideology are hard to do away with, with one queer daughter. And who was I kidding.
I never did tell her. I texted her about my parents and swallowed back everything else I wanted to say, let it live in the pit of my stomach, let it bloom in that space until it grew vines inside every inch of me, wanting, pleading to be let out.
“Don’t let anyone tell you the only tattoos you should get are the ones that mean something. It’s bullshit. We’re all skin bags walking toward death.”
All I knew was that something I couldn’t explain was happening to me and knowing that it probably happened to countless other people did not feel reassuring. It only scared me.
My parents weren’t conservative. If anything, they were progressive. They were self-proclaimed feminists. They attended protests. They believed in free health care and gun reform. But voting for Obama twice wasn’t a get-out-of-jail-free card. They were kind and accepting and loved me and my sisters. But their love had limits.
"It’s the only perspective they’ve known. You spend your whole life being told something is wrong, filling it with shame and secrecy. Most everyone back in Egypt validates the very thing they’re telling you by shunning anyone that identifies as anything LGBTQIA adjacent. It’s like a self-fulfilling prophecy of hate. It would take a lot to fight against that.”
“Maybe you coming out to them could be that.”
I wanted to believe her, but I knew better.
I told Ellis how the ocean dipped. It wasn’t this consistent decline that got deeper and deeper. There were sinkholes and shifts and trenches and God knows what else. The ocean floor was its own beast, its topography dark and as temperamental as the water’s surface.
It didn’t feel better to share it, that wasn’t it. But I didn’t feel worse for telling him. Maybe only for bringing it all back to the surface for the first time since it happened. Like I was getting a taste of what it would feel like not to have to hide this all the time. Like maybe I was beginning to face what I had done.
Maybe all I did was look for the bad, the dark, the shadows. I would only find what I searched for.
Guilt lives best in secret, and here was mine for the world to see.
I am more than a thing you can burn.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Suicide, Death, Grief, and Blood
Minor: Homophobia
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