Reviews with content warning for Blood - Horror Hotel

This YA (?) horror follows a groups of ghost hunters calling themselves the Ghost Gang, who decide to investigate a haunted hotel and then get caught up in some murders.

I think if you're going to enjoy this book there's quite a lot of stuff you're going to have to get past. First, this book is heavily inspired by the case of Eliza Lam, called Eileen Warner here, and in this book this character is psychic and that is the reasoning behind her behavior, which honestly feels disgusting. The characters in this book are written to be teenagers in the worst ways, in that they are vapid, impulsive and have awful internal dialogue. I think this book absolutely takes the cake for the most mind boggling reactions to finding a murder I have ever read. Also the plot is predictable and the romance is shoe horned in at the worst times plot-wise, but compared to everything else that is almost a non-issue. This book only gets a point five up from worst because the message is good, I guess, and it surrounded the character Chrissy whose sections were at least the most bearable to read.

I don't honestly recommend this book to anyone. I'm really struggling to say something positive here at the end, but maybe I'll say that the plot had some potential and I can see the authors maybe making stories in the future where I might like them more, but if I'm going to be frank I don't think, when I have more choices of authors who I've actually enjoyed, that I would be picking up another book by Victoria Fulton and Faith McClaren.

Edit: thought about it actually zero stars, I still feel gross about all of it. Go support a mental health crisis centre instead of buying this book.

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clarethajoanne's review

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adventurous funny mysterious tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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laurenvoice's review

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dark medium-paced

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

1.0

The premise for Horror Hotel looked good, a fictionalised version of the Cecil Hotel that sounds like a fun read. However, the execution of this story was terrible.

The characters were unlikeable and did many questionable things - why would anyone go off with a strange man they have just met in the world's most violent hotel?, which is just one of the many terrible decisions these characters made. Plus, the characters lacked personality; every POV sounded like the same character.

Nonetheless, I enjoyed Eileen's blog/journal entries, but this plot point had gotten lost and added nothing to the story; this was greatly disappointing. It felt like the entire plot for Hearst Hotel got lost and just ended up being a setting to add spookiness for the reader.

Horror Hotel was a painful read. It had so much potential but shamefully was missed due to them writing this purely to make something that was "commercial and consumable" for the YA market instead of something that would have been enjoyable to read.

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nytefall_library's review against another edition

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adventurous dark 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? It's complicated

4.5

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thebookaddict's review

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adventurous challenging emotional mysterious 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

🇳🇱: ik heb genoten van dit boek. In het begin kon in er moeilijk inkomen en heb ik hem een tijdje aan de kant gelegt. Ik vond de inleiding gewoon iets minder boeiend maar vanaf het moment dat ze bij het hotel aankwamen veranderde dit. Ik werd echt in het verhaal gezogen en heb hem dan ook heel snel uitgelezen. Het plot zag ik aankomen ( ik lees dan ook veel crime boeken) maar dat maakte het niet minder leuk. Het hele verhaallijn klopte en ik heb op sommige momenten echt op de punt van mijn stoel gezeten. Het einde vond ik ook heel leuk, echt een eind goed al goed einde!

🇬🇧: I really enjoyed this book. I had a hard time getting into it and I did put it away for a while. After that I was sucked into the story and I had a hard time putting it away. The intro was a bit boring and hard to understand but after they reached the hotel that changed really fast!. I did discover the plot before I got there (I read a lot of crime books) but that didn't make it less fun. They whole storyline is just perfect and I was really excited at some points. The end was also very good it was a typical it will be alright in the end ending!

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sharron_joy_reads's review

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adventurous mysterious fast-paced

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

3.75

They call themselves The Ghost Gang, exploring haunted locations on their You Tube channel. Chrissy is the psychic plagued by her abilities, Chase is the director, focused and ambitious, Emmaline is the tech, sceptical and an IT whizz, Kiki is the host, charming and intelligent.

They decide to visit the Hearst Hotel in LA, it has a dark history and is supposedly the most haunted hotel in the US. It’s Halloween and the dead and living are out for blood.

This is a YA horror, it is a fast paced easy read. Each chapter is told from the main character’s point of view. The story was a little fractured and jumped around a lot but this was a fun couple of hours. There is mild horror but nothing extreme and I enjoyed it.

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