Reviews tagging 'Suicidal thoughts'

The Paradox Hotel by Rob Hart

13 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

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

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

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

bluejayreads's review against another edition

 My tolerance for characters making stupid decisions in books is very low. January, our protagonist, is rude, violent, and completely capable of exercising self-control (she actually does once to prove it) but simply chooses not to. It's like the whole book was designed to see how willing I am to tolerate characters being stupid to read about interesting ideas. Because the ideas are interesting. Set in a hotel that's basically the airport hotel of a time travel airport, this book sets up some very interesting plot hooks: January can see the future but can't remember what she saw. There's a murder victim only she can see. Someone is tampering with hotel security videos. All the clues point towards a literally invisible assassin trying to arrange their assassinations to look like accidents. And the entire concept of time seems to have stopped working. All extremely interesting ideas. And yet for all that setup, it's very slow. In the first 44%, we've set up a bunch of ideas but all January has done is piss everyone off, get on the bad side of some very important people by insisting on making bad decisions, and make an utter fool of herself in public multiple times. I'm interested in the plot and ideas, but utterly fed up with January. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief

Moderate: Death, Murder, and Suicidal thoughts

Unreality, romantic partner death

mar's review against another edition

adventurous 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

4.0

jaded asshole of a lady detective. lesbian angst. time travel shenanigans. a fucked up hotel. dinosaurs. snarky drone AI with googly eyes and a new zealand accent. what's not to love honestly. it gets a little too chaotic by the end but i had fun :)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Chronic illness, Death, Grief, Gun violence, and Murder

Moderate: Animal death, Drug abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Suicidal thoughts, and Vomit

Minor: Child abuse, Dysphoria, Lesbophobia, Suicide attempt, Transphobia, and Racism

librarycowboy's review

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad 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

4.0

A solid and emotional story about guilt, grief, and choosing to heal set in a mysterious time shifting hotel. Pacing gains ground throughout the book. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts

lilifane's review against another edition

adventurous 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

5.0

I LOVED IT!
I understand why people might not, but I did with all my heart. It was just the perfect book for me. Very wibbly wobbly, very timey wimey, very fast-paced and action packed, very funny, very VERY confusing. A lot of characters, and a lot of things happening at the same time on every single page (and when I say at the same time, I mean past, present and future). You don't really get a break to even catch a breath. It is super diverse and has lots of queer representation (lesbian, non-binary, trans).  The protagonist is not the nicest person, but you get to understand her better through the book. I really really liked her. (My favorite character was an AI drone, though.) 
You are not prepared for how wild this book is. But it also had some really good quotes in the second half, some deep, emotional and social commentary that I didn't expect. And I really liked the ending, it was very fitting. 

Since the plot takes place in a single building and is so complex and confusing, it gave me "The 7 deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle" and "Man in the empty suit" vibes. I'd definitely recommend it to people who like Steven Moffat's Doctor Who episodes. This reads like all of them... at once, have fun. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical content, Violence, Animal death, Blood, Grief, Gun violence, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, and Terminal illness

Minor: Drug use, Transphobia, Addiction, Confinement, Homophobia, Suicidal thoughts, and Vomit

eilisbooks's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious reflective fast-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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood and Suicidal thoughts

Moderate: Death