spookyooky7 's review for:

The Haunting of Room 904 by Erika T. Wurth

2.25

mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

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The plot was cluttered, clunky and filled with so many parts. Horror is about vibes, not about just having spooky things happen around the main characters. It's about tension, building dread, building suspense, developing a strong setting and eerie atmosphere to match it. There needed to be a sense of space and slowness to allow those vibes to steep and develop. This just served everything up on a plate one after the other, and the characters were so accepting of it all that the result as a reader was "Oh, okay, while this spooky stuff sounds cool, I'm totally ambivalent about it."  The plot was convoluted, the twists weren't twisting, I kept forgetting who was who. When elements of the mystery need to the solved the main character goes looking for an answer, and then finds someone (a ghost?) who just hands them an answer. 

The frustrating this is that the premise for this story is so good! The writing isn't weak, or poor by any means - the manuscript needed more finessing.