The Sun Down Motel review

 Hello Interwebs!

Apologies for the long absence but we're back with more book reviews! To continue with books I've read in October/November, next up is The Sun Down Motel by Simone St. James. I read this book from October 13-15th and gave it a 4.5 star rating on Goodreads. This is a book that straddles the line between horror and thriller and meshes elements of a classic haunted house story with the elements of thrillers. 

This book is told in dual timelines but primarily focuses on a a young woman in the present time named Carly. Carly is left directionless after the death of her mother and her subsequent decision to take some time off school so she travels to upstate New York and the titular Sun Down Motel where her Aunt Viv disappeared without a trace in 1982. Upon her arrival, Carly is drawn into the mystery not only of her aunt's disappearance but also of the motel and its many ghosts. The other timeline in the book follows Viv in the past as she arrives at the motel by chance on her way to New York City and decides to stay and work night shifts at the motel. 

This book was surprisingly amazing. Not only were the ghost stories surrounding the motel well fleshed out and spooky but the thriller was also well fleshed out and engaging. It's been quite a while since I enjoyed a thriller as much as this one, especially one that had a legitimate haunting as part of the plot. It was a solid thriller and one that I might reread again, unlike most of the thrillers I read. 

As always, spoilers exist after the cover photo. 

The thing I liked about this book was that while the haunting was connected to the disappearance of Viv, not all of them were. You have the main ghost, Betty, who was a victim of the killer at the heart of the story but then you have the little boy who died after an accident in the motel's pool and the night clerk who died in the office. Betty is the most important ghost and the most active, but the other ghosts have nothing to do with the disappearance of Viv and the case she's investigating. I liked that Betty's ghost was the catalyst in both Viv and Carly's investigations at the motel. I also enjoyed the fact that when the primary antagonist in the novel appears in Carly's timeline, he's a ghost like the others at the motel but you don't realize that until much later in the book when his body is discovered. It's after his body is discovered and identified that you realize that the characters you meet in Viv's timeline, ones who help her with her investigations but are so unhelpful to Carly, the cop and the photographer, are all covering for Viv and the death of the salesman. It all comes to a head with Carly and her not-quite boyfriend are confronted by her timeline's antagonist, the grandson of the original antagonist. At the climax the ghosts come to defend the motel and Carly against this man, and you discover that Viv is alive and has been in hiding all these years after she killed the salesman who kicked off the hauntings and the original killings. Viv rescues Carly as the ghosts destroy the hotel and get their vengeance on the antagonist's grandson. At the end fo the book, Carly remains in town to attend the local college, dates the guy from the motel, and is besties from the girl she roomed with in the apartment her aunt had rented back in the day. 

All in all I loved how everything worked together and how the ghosts were all connected even though they had little in common save for the motel. I was kept guessing until the very end about how everything would play out and it is one of my favorite thrillers of all time as well as one of my favorite reads from 2021's spooky season. 

All in all this is a solid 4.5 star read and one that is quite close to perfect. I highly recommend this one to anyone wanting a spooky thrilling quick read. 

Happy Reading!

Richelle