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The Sun Down Motel
AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER Something hasn't been right at the roadside Sun Down Motel for a very long time, and Carly Kirk is about to find out why in this chilling new novel from the New York Times bestselling and award-winning author of The Broken Girls. Upstate New York, 1982. Viv Delaney wants to move to New York City, and to help pay for it she takes a job as the night clerk at the Sun Down Motel in Fell, New York. But something isnʼt right at the motel, something haunting and scary. Upstate New York, 2017. Carly Kirk has never been able to let go of the story of her aunt Viv, who mysteriously disappeared from the Sun Down before she was born. She decides to move to Fell and visit the motel, where she quickly learns that nothing has changed since 1982. And she soon finds herself ensnared in the same mysteries that claimed her aunt.
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Community Reviews
Starts off slow but has a many plot twists!! 2 different story lines end up parallel to each other. Heavily women led and we loved!
It was definitely hard going back and forth between 1982 and 2017.
Iâd realize I was reading Vivs story when I thought I was reading about Carly.
But this is story was a good read, Iâd like the supernatural part of it all. The hunt for the possible killer or killers.
Iâd realize I was reading Vivs story when I thought I was reading about Carly.
But this is story was a good read, Iâd like the supernatural part of it all. The hunt for the possible killer or killers.
I've read one other book by this author and while I normally love mystery-thrillers, I don't really read a lot of stuff with actual ghosts that turn out to be real ghosts (as opposed to like just part of the bad person's plan). I was a little skeptical because I do like my mysteries to be set in "real life," but I ended up really liking it. It was just the right amount of creepy for me where I was like -_- but also not scary enough for me to actually freak out.
I also loved a lot of the side characters (more than the main characters) which happens a lot tbh. They all sounded so interesting and were pretty badass, and I wish they had been in the story more than they were. The main characters were actually a bit annoying lol. Val just sort of fixated on a guy as the supposed murderer and stalked him with no actual proof other than a fake name and her intuition. I mean, it obviously worked out, but I was just very much like :/ at her. Then again, I tend to feel that way about a lot of main characters because they are often very Gryffindor and I am not lol.
Loved the ghosts and all that backstory there. Loved the feminist vibes (which made me less interested in the romance - not that you can't be feminist while being in a romance of course, but there were parts where I felt like Carly depending on Nick too much). My critique is that there were too many extraneous characters. Like what was up with Callum? He just sort of stalked Carly a bit and then...died? And even Nick wasn't really necessary to the story other than fulfilling the requisite heterosexual romance tropes. I'm sure there were others, but I'm forgetting them right now.
The ending was sort of eh for me, I feel like it wrapped things up too neatly. I didn't like the very ~sweet ending; it conflicted the tone of the rest of the book for me. I don't know how I would have liked the ending to be, but I wasn't a fan of this one.
Anyway, I generally like this author's writing and I have another book by her that I got from the library, so I'll get to that soon!
I also loved a lot of the side characters (more than the main characters) which happens a lot tbh. They all sounded so interesting and were pretty badass, and I wish they had been in the story more than they were. The main characters were actually a bit annoying lol. Val just sort of fixated on a guy as the supposed murderer and stalked him with no actual proof other than a fake name and her intuition. I mean, it obviously worked out, but I was just very much like :/ at her. Then again, I tend to feel that way about a lot of main characters because they are often very Gryffindor and I am not lol.
Loved the ghosts and all that backstory there. Loved the feminist vibes (which made me less interested in the romance - not that you can't be feminist while being in a romance of course, but there were parts where I felt like Carly depending on Nick too much). My critique is that there were too many extraneous characters. Like what was up with Callum? He just sort of stalked Carly a bit and then...died? And even Nick wasn't really necessary to the story other than fulfilling the requisite heterosexual romance tropes. I'm sure there were others, but I'm forgetting them right now.
The ending was sort of eh for me, I feel like it wrapped things up too neatly. I didn't like the very ~sweet ending; it conflicted the tone of the rest of the book for me. I don't know how I would have liked the ending to be, but I wasn't a fan of this one.
Anyway, I generally like this author's writing and I have another book by her that I got from the library, so I'll get to that soon!
Author Simone St. James penned the stunningly spooky mystery, The Broken Girls, set in a boarding school for troubled or outcast girls. She has followed up that impressive foray into supernatural suspense with The Sun Down Motel.
The story is related through two narratives. One is the third-person recitation of Viv Delaney's experiences in 1982, culminating on the night in November when she vanished and was never heard from again. The other is Carly Kirk's 2017 first-person description of her quest to learn what happened to her aunt Viv.
Carly's mother never recovered from the loss of her sister. Fourteen months after her mother's death from cancer at the age of 51, twenty-year-old Carly has left college, taken her modest inheritance and, over the objections of her brother, Graham, traveled to Fell, New York. Carly has been stumbling through life in a fog of grief since her mother's death. Grieving her mother has caused her to "rethink everything" in her life. Carly has always been a self-described "nerd" -- the kid who read books about murders and disappearances, and has been obsessed her whole life with the disappearance of Viv, an event her mother hated to think or speak about.
Viv is presumed to have been murdered, although her body was never found. Now Carly is determined to see the place where it happened and understand why Viv was "allowed to vanish into nothingness with barely a ripple." Upon her arrival in Fell, Carly learns that there have been several murders of young women in the depressing little town. She finds Viv's old apartment, now occupied by the eccentric Heather, a student at local Fell College. Heather offers to let Carly move in and is eager to assist with Carly's investigation into Viv's disappearance.
In 1982, Viv takes a job at the night clerk at the rundown, sketchy Sun Down Motel on the outskirts of town. Alone in the motel's front office, strange things occur during the night. The smell of cigarette smoke wafts into the office, even though no one is smoking in the vicinity. She hears heavy footsteps, even though there is no one else there. Doors open and close on their own, the lights go out, and she hears a voice telling her, "Run," after she is shoved backward by an unseen force. From time to time rowdy guests prompt Viv to summon the local police. Officer Alma Trent, the only female cop in Fell, responds and advises Viv about the motel's history -- the deaths of a young boy who hit his head on the side of the pool and an employee who suffered a fatal heart attack in the office are not the worst things to have happened at the Sun Down, according to Alma. Viv's curiosity leads her to investigate what else transpired at the motel and why the strange occurrences seem to coincide with a particular traveling salesman checking in.
Like Viv, Carly ends up working at the Sun Down at night. The motel is essentially frozen in time. The rooms haven't changed, the pool remains empty and fenced off, the wifi reception is sporadic, and the telephone system is antiquated. And Carly experiences the same strange events that Viv did. The lights go out sequentially, she hears noises, there are strange smells . . . and she sees people that she shouldn't be seeing.
St. James skillfully details Carly and Viv's journeys of discovery, 35 years apart. Both young women are intelligent, analytical, and devoted. They are also both likable and empathetic, lost in their own ways and determined not to let circumstances or obstacles deter them from uncovering the truth. They are both fueled by an innate sense of right of right and wrong, and motivated by a desire to see justice carried out. Neither is dissuaded by the ghostly, frightening occurrences at the motel or the eclectic cast of supporting characters who move about the motel.
St. James masterfully ramps up the tension gradually as each woman inches toward discovering exactly what happened at the motel prior to her arrival . . . and increasingly finds herself in danger from people and forces who will stop at nothing to prevent the truth from being revealed. The Sun Down Motel is a darkly atmospheric tale in which the motel features as a prominent, creepy character, exploding menacingly at expertly-timed intervals. St. James effortlessly merges the dueling narratives as the motel erupts with the shocking truth.
The Sun Down Motel proves again that St. James is a uniquely creative writer as she effortlessly melds a mystery -- Viv's disappearance so many years ago -- with a keep-the-light-on-while-you're-reading ghost story that will haunt readers long after all of the Sun Down Motel's unseemly secrets are revealed.
Thanks to NetGalley for an Advance Reader's Copy of the book.
The story is related through two narratives. One is the third-person recitation of Viv Delaney's experiences in 1982, culminating on the night in November when she vanished and was never heard from again. The other is Carly Kirk's 2017 first-person description of her quest to learn what happened to her aunt Viv.
Carly's mother never recovered from the loss of her sister. Fourteen months after her mother's death from cancer at the age of 51, twenty-year-old Carly has left college, taken her modest inheritance and, over the objections of her brother, Graham, traveled to Fell, New York. Carly has been stumbling through life in a fog of grief since her mother's death. Grieving her mother has caused her to "rethink everything" in her life. Carly has always been a self-described "nerd" -- the kid who read books about murders and disappearances, and has been obsessed her whole life with the disappearance of Viv, an event her mother hated to think or speak about.
Viv is presumed to have been murdered, although her body was never found. Now Carly is determined to see the place where it happened and understand why Viv was "allowed to vanish into nothingness with barely a ripple." Upon her arrival in Fell, Carly learns that there have been several murders of young women in the depressing little town. She finds Viv's old apartment, now occupied by the eccentric Heather, a student at local Fell College. Heather offers to let Carly move in and is eager to assist with Carly's investigation into Viv's disappearance.
In 1982, Viv takes a job at the night clerk at the rundown, sketchy Sun Down Motel on the outskirts of town. Alone in the motel's front office, strange things occur during the night. The smell of cigarette smoke wafts into the office, even though no one is smoking in the vicinity. She hears heavy footsteps, even though there is no one else there. Doors open and close on their own, the lights go out, and she hears a voice telling her, "Run," after she is shoved backward by an unseen force. From time to time rowdy guests prompt Viv to summon the local police. Officer Alma Trent, the only female cop in Fell, responds and advises Viv about the motel's history -- the deaths of a young boy who hit his head on the side of the pool and an employee who suffered a fatal heart attack in the office are not the worst things to have happened at the Sun Down, according to Alma. Viv's curiosity leads her to investigate what else transpired at the motel and why the strange occurrences seem to coincide with a particular traveling salesman checking in.
Like Viv, Carly ends up working at the Sun Down at night. The motel is essentially frozen in time. The rooms haven't changed, the pool remains empty and fenced off, the wifi reception is sporadic, and the telephone system is antiquated. And Carly experiences the same strange events that Viv did. The lights go out sequentially, she hears noises, there are strange smells . . . and she sees people that she shouldn't be seeing.
St. James skillfully details Carly and Viv's journeys of discovery, 35 years apart. Both young women are intelligent, analytical, and devoted. They are also both likable and empathetic, lost in their own ways and determined not to let circumstances or obstacles deter them from uncovering the truth. They are both fueled by an innate sense of right of right and wrong, and motivated by a desire to see justice carried out. Neither is dissuaded by the ghostly, frightening occurrences at the motel or the eclectic cast of supporting characters who move about the motel.
St. James masterfully ramps up the tension gradually as each woman inches toward discovering exactly what happened at the motel prior to her arrival . . . and increasingly finds herself in danger from people and forces who will stop at nothing to prevent the truth from being revealed. The Sun Down Motel is a darkly atmospheric tale in which the motel features as a prominent, creepy character, exploding menacingly at expertly-timed intervals. St. James effortlessly merges the dueling narratives as the motel erupts with the shocking truth.
The Sun Down Motel proves again that St. James is a uniquely creative writer as she effortlessly melds a mystery -- Viv's disappearance so many years ago -- with a keep-the-light-on-while-you're-reading ghost story that will haunt readers long after all of the Sun Down Motel's unseemly secrets are revealed.
Thanks to NetGalley for an Advance Reader's Copy of the book.
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