Le sigh.
I hate tearing into the work of a writer I normally enjoy. I’m going to do a non-spoiler one and include a spoiler below. While the spoiler does indeed reveal a major plot point (though not an essential one to the mystery of the murders), I do encourage you to read it as it deals with a trope that is common and very painful for a large group of people. It’s one I see repeated time-and-time again and I’m just tired of it.
Non-spoiler…
Simone St. James writes really good isolationist stories. A night shift operator at a haunted hotel. A woman doing research on an abandoned All Girls school. As many of us who have worked in similar gigs know: our minds play tricks on us. St. James brings those tricks to life and does a really good job doing it.
Unfortunately, her two leads here are so isolated as to be removed from reality. They barely exist as humans, having never seemed to leave their homes. And not because they’re agoraphobic, rather because of innate trauma which…fine. I just would have appreciated a better way to connect with them. It made the otherwise interesting story fall flat. Someone open a window.
And the spoiler. Which again, I please encourage you to read anyway because it really needs to stop…
Please please please enough with the evil orphan. The evil adoptee. The evil foster child. As someone who has adopted a kid, I’m aware of the trauma adoptees face. The suicide rates for adoptees are high. The foster system in the United States is a broken mess of neglect and abuse. The constant need to turn these poor children into villains because of their cold, unfeeling background adds to the notion that unparented or sparsely parented kids grow up to become nefarious evildoers. Please stop this. Please. Like today.
