The Sun Down Motel

I must confess I do not understand all of these great reviews: This story is a mess! As a supernatural horror story it does not work. Nothing is really explained and characters are just left hanging for no reason. As a true crime thriller it does not work. The who what and why are told to you with in a few chapters and then you spend the rest of the time all but yelling at the characters to stop dealing with there own emotional garbage. Also the characters are not well developed or defined. At the end of the book we are told what happened to a pivotal character except we had already been given a completely different ending for her. And then there is the love story. Main character is a virginal young girl who finds love with a dark broody man who is borderline age interoperate. Barf! Do not waste your time or your money. However, if this review does not dissuade you then please get it from your local library and do not give this writer a single dime of your money.

A tantalizing premise that fell flat for me., so I don’t understand the rave reviews. I didn’t find this book “spine chilling” or “spooky”. I had to suspend belief to keep reading.
Carly Kirk has always been obsessed with her long lost Aunt Viv. Vivian vanished 35 years prior, in 1982, from the shabby Sun Down Motel in upstate Fell, NY. Once Carly’s mother dies, Carly becomes unanchored and leaves her life in suburban Illinois behind. She drops out of college and travels to Fell.
Carly is quite the sleuth. She ends up being hired on as the night clerk @ the Sun Down, just like her Aunt Viv. She immediately finds a sympatico roommate, all in record time.
There were several unexpected plot twists. However, I found this book amateurishly written. The conclusion was incredulous and absolutely unbelievable.

This is the way a book should be! Spooky and entertaining to the max!

I love everything about The Sun Down Motel. I could see it in my head happening like a movie. A movie which I probably would be too scared to watch.

The book begins in 1982 with the disappearance of Viv Delaney, a young woman from Chicago who has stopped at the Sun Down Motel while she was on her way to NYC. Viv decides to take a job as the night clerk for the motel but she soon realizes that something very wrong is happening at this place. The doors of the rooms open on their own accord, she can smell smoke when there’s no one smoking, noises and voices are heard in the middle of the night. Then, she learns Fell is a town full of secrets. Multiple women have died and Viv starts believing their deaths might all be related.

In 2017, Carly Kirk is a college student who recently has lost her mother. She decides to take a trip to Fell, NY. She is in search of clues as to what happened to her aunt at The Sun Down Motel in 1982. When she gets to Fell, she finds a roommate, Heather. Heather is a night owl who likes true crime, just like Carly does. In order to investigate her aunt’s disappearance, Carly decides to take the job her aunt once had, as the night clerk for The Sun Down motel. Not long after, eerie things start happening to her. Carly with the help of Heather, and a stranger, Nick Harness, knows she must find out the truth of what happened at the motel the night Viv disappeared.

Such a good book. Great story with great writing. Excellent plot and characterization. I was completely immersed in this novel. I highly recommend it.

Cliffhanger: No

5/5 Fangs

This book reads like a YA novel with some profanity thrown in to make it R rated. Characters look at each other “speculatively,” and their voices are often “throaty.” The book might have made an okay police procedural if it had more substance and detail on the crimes. The supernatural angle doesn’t work at all. The serial killer dumped one of his victims at the motel when it was under construction, and he likes to check in to be near her ghost, even though the ghost hates him. Whatever. The other ghosts–everyone who has died in the motel–serve no purpose other than to smoke cigarettes, run around in unseasonable clothes, and look suitably creepy. Lights flicker and doors open mysteriously, as in a Scooby Doo episode. The twist, if you can call it that, is apparent at the 2/3 mark. You’ve been warned.

I was really disappointed with this book. When I was half way through, I realised that the book could disappear and I wouldn’t feel the need to get another copy and finish it. I wasn’t dying to get back to it or to know what happens at any point in this book. I found it too predictable.
This book gets better on page 241. Before that, I seriously considered not bothering to finish it. The only reason I did continue was because I know this book has so many positive reviews. From page 241 onwards the book became more exciting. Though, none of the revelations were a surprise.
I picked this book up because of the promise of ghosts. I was disappointed on that front too. The ghosts were not involved enough for me and when they were, it wasn’t scary or even creepy. Then, finally, towards the end, things with the ghosts are getting good… And Carly leaves to have a chat with another character! She returns to the motel after the ghost showdown! I was so mad, it would have been brilliant to see that!
What annoyed me the most about the book was the amount of sloppy editing. I know, I shouldn’t let it annoy me so much, but firstly, someone is paid to make sure this does not happen! And secondly, every one pulled me out of the movie that plays in my head while I read. I had to go back and read it again to make sure I had read the mistake correctly and it ruins the moment for me. On page 163 Carly describes being lead through a house to the kitchen… Twice.
‘… following her down the front corridor and into her kitchen,’ then a paragraph later ‘she led me through her cozy house into the small kitchen.’ This isn’t just a spelling mistake, it’s a continuity error that ruins the flow. Another silly mistake on page 249 meant that I had to read the paragraph a few times to make sure I wasn’t the one making the mistake.
‘”I think she works here,” he said to Hess.’ But Hess is the one that spoke! He’s not speaking to himself! On page 261 ‘his’ is used when it should have been ‘her.’ Three, or maybe more, mistakes in a professionally published book is bad. They need a new editor.
This book was not for me, but I wanted it for the horror aspect and it just wasn’t there. Someone more into crime novels might enjoy it more, but it is very predictable. I have to wonder if I’d have liked it more if I hadn’t read so many sparkling reviews for the book first. My hopes were high going into it and I was quickly disappointed.