Reviews tagging 'Death'

The Paradox Hotel by Rob Hart

23 reviews

yvo_about_books's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious tense medium-paced

Finished reading: April 1st 2024
DNF at 34% (134 pages)

"Whatever Allyn's reports are telling him, the odds that timeline radiation isn't to blame here are roughly equal to me getting through the day without punching someone in the face. It's going to happen."

I know that science fiction isn't my typical genre, but I do love a good locked room thriller. Both the time travel element and the hotel setting intrigued me, so I was actually excited when my TBR jar thought it was about time I read The Paradox Hotel. The premise itself is fantastic, and it's probably the main reason I even made it this far. The fact is... This book and me REALLY didn't get along. While I loved the idea behind The Paradox Hotel, the execution was somehow completely off for me. The main character January was one of the most enfuriating and simply exhausting characters I've had to deal with in recent years, and I was SO over her bad attitude and aggression. Since we see everything through her eyes, despising having to spend time with her made continuing basically impossible. This wasn't my only issue though. It seemed like the author was trying to be woke by incorporating diversity, but he did so without substance and it ended up having the complete opposite effect instead. There were way too many stereotypes, and why do all the rich white characters have to be assholes and racists?! There were WAY too many characters in general, and it was very hard to keep them apart. The plot itself was both confusing and extremely boring at the same time, and not even the escaped dinosaurs could liven up things for me. I tried looking past my issues, but in the end I just couldn't find the motivation to continue knowing I had double the amount of pages left than I already read... And I decided to throw in the towel and DNF instead. Looks like my TBR jar wasn't right this time around! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Blood, Classism, Mental illness, Murder, Racism, Transphobia, Gun violence, Death, Terminal illness, Drug use, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Self harm, Violence, Sexism, and Suicidal thoughts

growintogardens's review

adventurous medium-paced

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

2.5

It was ok, but it was never able to really pull me into the world and the characters. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief

Moderate: Chronic illness, Blood, Death, Violence, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

tigger89's review against another edition

emotional funny mysterious tense 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

4.5

This was a wonderful, heartbreaking book that wasn't at all about what I thought it would be! I didn't like it in the early chapters, but as the protective layers started to peel off our seemingly hard-boiled protagonist I realized that I was looking at the book all wrong. Rather than being a convenient plot device to raise the tension, her medical condition and why she continued to allow it to worsen were really the heart of the book. And I can't tell you why without spoiling things.

The tone — from the social chaos of planning the buyers' summit to the frenetic race to contain rampaging creatures and the emotional gut-wrench of the final pages — is very unique, but for me it hit the exact same chord that Connie Willis's series about the time traveling historians did. It's chaotic and funny but also you're going to cry at the end, right? Because this isn't a mystery novel, it's a novel about how humans deal with loss, both experienced and potential.

Something I didn't know going in was that this book had quite a bit of queer representation. There's transgender and nonbinary characters, as well as a sapphic relationship. Overall the characters were fine, but one thing that struck me as odd was that the way some themes — gender and race come to mind — were described in the narration brought me out of the future and straight back into 2023. It wasn't that there was anything that was a problem, it just broke my immersion because it didn't feel like how I imagined people would interact with those things in the future. Still, that's a fairly small quibble. Overall I enjoyed it.

Did the creatures die? I can't even write that sentence properly without spoilers, so into the tag we go.

There are raptors running around the hotel through much of the plot. It makes sense in context, I promise. At least one of them is killed in the course of attempting to contain them.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief and Terminal illness

Moderate: Death, Animal death, Blood, and Violence

thrabenvaliant's review against another edition

emotional mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Time travel and quantum shenanigans are extremely hard to write well. This author does excellent at the genre. I'm still unsure of the ending, but I can't think of a better one, given the cast of players. I loved the FMC. She's strong, and she's also fighting the universe as she just tries to keep her family safe.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Grief, Panic attacks/disorders, and Death

chondritesandchondrites's review

adventurous emotional mysterious reflective medium-paced

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

5.0

This was a delightful fusion of sci-fi, crime fiction, and murder mystery. While the main character wasn’t necessarily likeable, I loved seeing her put the puzzle pieces together and grow as a person. I found the use of time travel really unique in this book, and I would love to see more stories like this one. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Grief

Minor: Death, Drug use, Gore, Murder, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide attempt

Added context for content warnings: Gore:

the worst two instances are where a character is killed via dinosaur bite and the wound is described. There is an instance where a gun death is described. And another instance where a fatal knife wound is described.)

Murder/ death:

there are several deaths that occur in the book. Some are accidental and others are intentional. Given that this is a sci-fi murder mystery book— the murders that occurred felt (at least to me) to be what’s expected of the genre

Suicide attempt:

near the end of the book a character views a suicide attempt they had had a child. The child attempt suicide via pills. Taking the pills is described, but the following scene is not.

Suicidal thoughts:

the main character experiences suicidal thoughts throughout the book. These thoughts seem to stem from grief. She makes no attempts on her own life, but she does allow (and even lean into) her unrelated medical condition worsening.

Drug use:

the main character takes a (fictional) medication to help with her (fictional) condition. She is not careful with the number of pills she takes per day. (See suicidal thoughts) another character is described as having candies with something in them. I believe it was alluded to be cannabis

Grief:

the main character is sapphic and before the events of the book her girlfriend dies. Many of the main character’s actions stem from her grief, causing her to be irritable and often mean to the people she is around. Ultimately, her character development through the book is, in part, accepting her grief and learning how to deal with it

MAJOR SPOILER (typical content warning in fanfic spaces, but not bookish spaces):

cw: main character death

unboxedjack's review against another edition

challenging emotional funny reflective 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

2.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Blood, Grief, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Suicide

leaflit's review against another edition

adventurous funny mysterious 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

Enjoyed it but the ending felt rushed. Lots of queer rep: wlw, trans woman, non-binary character

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fire/Fire injury, Gun violence, Blood, and Terminal illness

Moderate: Animal death, Death, Transphobia, Grief, Murder, Racism, Cultural appropriation, and Classism

Minor: War, Child abuse, Suicide attempt, Confinement, and Dysphoria

andloveistoolong's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Murder, Grief, Chronic illness, Classism, Death, Dementia, Terminal illness, and Violence

Moderate: Blood, Alcohol, Dysphoria, Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Suicidal thoughts, Cursing, Animal death, Child abuse, Gun violence, Medical content, Panic attacks/disorders, Self harm, Suicide attempt, and Transphobia

Minor: Gore, War, Antisemitism, Misogyny, Cultural appropriation, and Racism

readingrainbeau's review

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

5.0

The decision to replace the role of the young ingeue with a questionably sentient robot is just one of the ways that this book manages to delightfully surprise the reader. 

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Content Warnings

Minor: Death, Medical content, Terminal illness, Alcohol, and Gaslighting

The concept and depiction of those unstuck by time has associated symptoms similar to chronic conditions with cognitive deterioration

obviousthings's review

adventurous emotional mysterious medium-paced

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

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Gun violence, Mental illness, Violence, Death, and Grief

Moderate: Medical content, Transphobia, Suicide attempt, Suicidal thoughts, Drug use, Murder, and Racism

Minor: Vomit, Confinement, Dysphoria, Cultural appropriation, Antisemitism, and War