The Sun Down Motel by Simone St. James
All right, I know that is not a legit Twilight Zone quote, but it is the perfect intro to this book. This was a ride. Great mystery and ghosts, how can you go wrong? Young Viv Delaney, on her way from Illinois to New York City, ends up at a rundown motel, just off the main road, in Fell, New York. You know the kind of motel, mid-century, pull your car up to the door of your room, and the power tends to dramatically […]
The Sun Down Motel by Simone St. James
Years ago, I worked a late night shift at a security desk. The human body is simply not built for such work. Try as I might, I never really adjusted. I kept hearing noises and thinking there was a looming presence nearby. I gave my ghosts names. I learned to lean into the creepiness, even though I thought disaster was looming at every turn. It’s the typical paranoia induced by a lack of sleep and company. Night shift fiction often takes me back to those […]
The Broken Girls by Simone St. James
After the Sun Down Motel, I went in search of Simone St. James’s other books. The Broken Girls had the best reviews, but I wasn’t sure I wanted to read about teenage girls whose families had abandoned them. I’m glad I checked it out! It wasn’t quite as breathtaking as the Sun Down Motel, but it is really good. 2014: Twenty years ago, Fiona’s older sister, Deb, was murdered by her boyfriend and her body dumped on the grounds of a former boarding school named […]
The Sun Down Motel by Simone St. James
The Sun Down Motel hooked me from the start. I loved it that first night of reading. But when I picked it up the second night, I was filled with dread. I wasn’t sure I wanted to continue. I chalked it up to being tired and read on. I’m glad I did because it’s an amazing book. But it is a tense book, absolutely gripping and nerve-wracking. I had a headache yesterday evening from clenching my jaw while reading this. I didn’t even realize I […]
The Sun Down Motel by Simone St. James
I don’t normally do ghost stories, but I recently joined Book of the Month, and this was the only one of January’s books that seemed like something I might really like, so I ordered it. Plus it was also being touted as a mystery and a thriller, it fit well with my January theme of reading books by and about badass ladies (double check on that here) and with my run of books about shitty men doing bad things to women and girls. Also it’s […]
The Sun Down Motel by Simone St. James
Set in a creepy hotel where no one wants to be, not even the owners, a young woman sets out to find out what happened to her aunt, who disappeared 30-odd years before. The point of view switches between the young woman in the current day and her aunt in the early 80s. This back and forth allows the reader to see the two main characters experience similar phenomena in parallel; we also get to see a few secondary characters in both the past and […]
