Reviews tagging 'Murder'

The Paradox Hotel by Rob Hart

18 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

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

schnaucl's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional sad 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

4.0

I enjoyed it.   I like the characters, and I think the idea of setting it at the hotel where time travelers stay was a cool one.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Grief, Chronic illness, and Terminal illness

Minor: Racism, Violence, Suicide attempt, Blood, Homophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Gun violence, and Murder

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

twocents's review against another edition

dark mysterious fast-paced

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

3.0

January Cole is head of security at the Paradox Hotel, a place where the extremely wealthy can take tourist trips back in time. The hotel is run by the American government, but is badly losing money, prompting Congress to set-up an auction to privatize it. It's on the eve of this summit that a locked room murder occurs, setting the events of the story into motion.

It's an interesting story, but the most divisive element needs to be stated: January blows right past "smart-mouthed detective" and straight into cruel. She verbally, publicly, repeatedly demeans hotel staff until they are in tears; she inserts herself into situations that do not require security just to sneer at the clientele and make things more difficult for the customer service side of the hotel; she repeatedly assaults customers and staff.

The book is told from a first-person perspective, so you also come to understand that she is crippled by her grief over her (recently?) deceased girlfriend. It provides an explanation for her frankly abusive behavior that renders her pitiable to me, but based on the number of other reviews that DNF'd the book specifically because of her cruelty, it's worth mentioning that whether she's sympathetic in addition to unlikable is going to be very much a case of: your mileage may vary.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence and Murder

sequelmage's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious fast-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

There are a lot of reviews that mentioned that the protagonist, January Cole, is really mean and unlikable. 

This is true and she even knows that she is being unnecessarily mean. But still I kind of understand why she is like that. She had a bad childhood and her parents were neglectful. She is terminally ill, but the disease is going to cause her to lose her grip on reality until eventually putting her in a catatonic state, and finally the love of her life tragically died. 

But overall this was an entertaining read. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief

Moderate: Gun violence, Terminal illness, and Murder

Minor: Suicide attempt

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

mari_books's review

dark emotional mysterious sad fast-paced

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

2.0

It’s been so long since I have read a book this hard to follow. Really interesting concept with so much potential. Part of me wishes that this was a Netflix show instead. Clearly written by someone who has never worked in a hotel, entirely too many characters and like 6 different plot lines (which I know is the point) but many of the characters blended together Bc they were all adversarial to the narrator. I also found the narrator to be insufferable, and never learned.

Mena as a character with  all the Buddhist stuff just seemed like a crutch to January so that we could have things spelled out literally, partially explained without having to show anything. I also did not understand the ending and why the author chose that moment to cut to a boring future scene that gives us no resolution to all the problems they set up text

. This book almost feels like a fanfiction of a better book - I feel bad saying it! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Blood, Murder, Torture, and War