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ladytabletop 's review for:
The Sun Down Motel
by Simone St. James
I received a Kindle copy of this book as part of a Goodreads giveaway.
SPOILERS AHEAD
Did this book scare the living bejeezus out of me? Yes.
Is that because I started reading it at midnight on a stormy night? Possibly, but I can confidently say that finishing it the following morning (overcast and chilly) was no less scary.
I wasn't 100% sure what to expect from this book. It turned out to be part ghost story, part true crime, and part revenge thriller. As someone who has a love/hate relationship with true crime and who is currently extremely fatigued by it, this book grabbed my attention and held it.
The alternating voices of Viv and Carly, 35 years apart, created an interesting narrative as their experiences started as parallels and eventually split. At times I found the repetition of knowledge gained from Viv's chapters in Carly's chapters as she discovered them to be annoying, but mostly it didn't detract from the experience.
I appreciated the characters' acceptance of ghosts as real almost immediately, as I tend to stay away from ghost stories where the bulk of the story is characters saying, "oh this can't be a ghost". So thank you for that, Ms. St. James.
I found the characters to be vivid and likeable, and even the villainous ones were intriguing.
The 11th hour twist was (thankfully!) not the discovery that someone besides Simon Hess was the killer! I hate when books do that - it isn't misdirection, it isn't clever or good writing, and it's a waste of foreshadowing - so I enjoyed the follow-through after we spent the whole book suspecting Simon.
What I didn't expect was Callum's relationship to Simon. It isn't often I'm surprised by a book, so this was a real treat. I felt as though something was off about Callum but couldn't pinpoint what it was.
Last thing, a minor quibble, did anyone else think Nick's dad must have been the amazing lawyer that reopened Tracy and Victoria's cases??? That murder was tragic and a red herring that didn't quite fire for me, so I kept looking for a way to connect Nick and his family to the missing girls.
Overall, a fantastic read for spooky season!
SPOILERS AHEAD
Did this book scare the living bejeezus out of me? Yes.
Is that because I started reading it at midnight on a stormy night? Possibly, but I can confidently say that finishing it the following morning (overcast and chilly) was no less scary.
I wasn't 100% sure what to expect from this book. It turned out to be part ghost story, part true crime, and part revenge thriller. As someone who has a love/hate relationship with true crime and who is currently extremely fatigued by it, this book grabbed my attention and held it.
The alternating voices of Viv and Carly, 35 years apart, created an interesting narrative as their experiences started as parallels and eventually split. At times I found the repetition of knowledge gained from Viv's chapters in Carly's chapters as she discovered them to be annoying, but mostly it didn't detract from the experience.
I appreciated the characters' acceptance of ghosts as real almost immediately, as I tend to stay away from ghost stories where the bulk of the story is characters saying, "oh this can't be a ghost". So thank you for that, Ms. St. James.
I found the characters to be vivid and likeable, and even the villainous ones were intriguing.
The 11th hour twist was (thankfully!) not the discovery that someone besides Simon Hess was the killer! I hate when books do that - it isn't misdirection, it isn't clever or good writing, and it's a waste of foreshadowing - so I enjoyed the follow-through after we spent the whole book suspecting Simon.
What I didn't expect was Callum's relationship to Simon. It isn't often I'm surprised by a book, so this was a real treat. I felt as though something was off about Callum but couldn't pinpoint what it was.
Last thing, a minor quibble, did anyone else think Nick's dad must have been the amazing lawyer that reopened Tracy and Victoria's cases??? That murder was tragic and a red herring that didn't quite fire for me, so I kept looking for a way to connect Nick and his family to the missing girls.
Overall, a fantastic read for spooky season!