A review by connorjdaley
Hotel Fen by Meri Benson

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I won an audible code for this, I believe from the narrator, so I gave it a listen. 

This book meshes hotel horror with Norse mythology. It starts with Victor arriving at the hotel after receiving a free trip from a radio show he can’t seem to remember participating in. When he meets Silje, the woman staying in the room next to him, he can’t help but feel as if he’s known her for a long time. It is from there that things get a little… strange. 

It mixes magic, eternal and fated lovers, action, suspense, and expansive knowledge of Norse mythology. It handles the pacing pretty well while only feature a handful of characters. But it does miss the mark of atmospheric horror for me, which I believe had to do with length. The blurb mentions The Shining, but this has a shorter opening, so I didn’t get that eerie back-of-the-neck creeping feeling. 

Personally a 4/5* for me. I look forward to checking out more by the authors.