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katvou's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Slavery, Violence, Grief, Murder, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child death, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Blood, Medical content, Dementia, Death of parent, and Alcohol
camiandkitread's review
adventurous
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Emily J. Taylor’s YA fantasy debut, “Hotel Magnifique,“ is a rich YA fantasy about being careful what you wish for.
Seventeen year old Jani is barely able to care for herself and her younger sister Zosa. That changes when the infamous Hotel Magnifique appears in their town. The hotel is legendary for all of its enchantments and ability to travel to a new destination every morning.
The sisters decide to interview for staff positions and are whisked away on a magical adventure. But once inside the hotel, Jani learns that the staff contracts are unbreakable and the hotel harbors sinister secrets that she needs to reveal.
Allied with the handsome but frustrating doorman Bel, Jani searches for answers on how to break the staff contracts to save her sister—and all the staff—from the hotel and the ruthless maître d’hôtel. Jani will have to risk everything for a chance at success, but failure would mean a fate worse than not returning home with her sister.
Taylor crafted an amazing world in “Hotel Magnifique” and gave beautiful descriptions of each new location that the hotel traveled to. She also introduced an interesting magic system that is reminiscent of Leigh Bardugo’s Grisha and Small Science.
Taylor’s characters were on the bland side, which I was not particularly surprised by since this is her debut novel. There isn’t anything necessarily “wrong” with them, but they make all the decisions you expect them to make, which doesn’t leave a lot of room for the reader to be surprised.
“Hotel Magnifique” is a great debut novel, with lush descriptions and a fascinating concept. It’s too bad that “Hotel Magnifique” appears to be a standalone novel. I would love to see more stories set in the world that Taylor created!
Content Warnings
Minor: Body horror, Confinement, Blood, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail
spookily's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.75
Lovable characters: "It's complicated" because, while some of the side characters are arguably lovable, the MC is intolerable. She spends the entire novel jumping to conclusions, acting impulsively, and excusing her own behavior by claiming that her stubbornness is a virtue, even when it puts her and her sister in greater danger. She's rude, self-centered, and extremely difficult to sympathize with or root for.
Diverse characters: "It's complicated" because the author has a weird obsession with showing off how many colors she can list for skin tones. Every single unnamed side character is described by some inane set of words like "the copper-skinned boy," "mocha" "olive" "porcelain" etc. etc.. It essentially feels like she is just filling the room with as many "diverse" looking characters as possible without having to put in the work to incorporate an actual sense of diversity into the story.
Diverse characters: "It's complicated" because the author has a weird obsession with showing off how many colors she can list for skin tones. Every single unnamed side character is described by some inane set of words like "the copper-skinned boy," "mocha" "olive" "porcelain" etc. etc.. It essentially feels like she is just filling the room with as many "diverse" looking characters as possible without having to put in the work to incorporate an actual sense of diversity into the story.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, Physical abuse, Torture, Violence, Blood, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Animal cruelty, Vomit, and Gaslighting
Minor: Confinement, Cursing, Sexual content, Excrement, Kidnapping, Death of parent, Alcohol, and Classism
lettigirl101's review
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Body horror, Child abuse, Death, Blood, and Classism
Moderate: Torture, Violence, Vomit, Medical content, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Ableism, Death of parent, and Abandonment
shinypurplepants's review
mysterious
tense
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.75
This was an okay debut. Some bits were formulaic and I was able to see many, many of the twists coming but overall it was an interesting premise kinda like howl's moving castle minus the whimsy and with a lot of "horror" elements added via gross visuals. The romantic subplot was my least favorite part. I didn't find the two leads supposed chemistry at all believable even before the age gap of human minor + immortal that looks young started bothering me.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Death, Emotional abuse, Self harm, Torture, Violence, Vomit, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail
monniebiloney's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
relaxing
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Pros:
has a wonderful setting
I liked the horror elements, especially at the beginning of the book
The ending was satisfying
cons:
The ramance fell flat. They were trying to go for some kind of enemies to lovers like tension but Idk if I just hate Enemies to lovers, or this book make it real really boring.
The main character also felt very entitled to other people's lives which bothered me. Like you are NOT owed the secrets of your aquantenses, let alone your friends. The amount of times he got mad at Bel, who wasn't even her boyfriend yet, for not telling her stuff like, was kidn go anoying.
The fact the MC also was clumbsy, but only clbsy when the plot called for it was also quite anoying.
All in all, I was planning on rathong the book 3 stars, but I felt the ending was satisfying enough to bump it up to 3.75. If Bel and the Main character weren't a couple and instead they focused more time on Beatrice, I probably would have rather the book 4.75.
has a wonderful setting
I liked the horror elements, especially at the beginning of the book
The ending was satisfying
cons:
The ramance fell flat. They were trying to go for some kind of enemies to lovers like tension but Idk if I just hate Enemies to lovers, or this book make it real really boring.
The main character also felt very entitled to other people's lives which bothered me. Like you are NOT owed the secrets of your aquantenses, let alone your friends. The amount of times he got mad at Bel, who wasn't even her boyfriend yet, for not telling her stuff like, was kidn go anoying.
The fact the MC also was clumbsy, but only clbsy when the plot called for it was also quite anoying.
All in all, I was planning on rathong the book 3 stars, but I felt the ending was satisfying enough to bump it up to 3.75. If Bel and the Main character weren't a couple and instead they focused more time on Beatrice, I probably would have rather the book 4.75.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Vomit, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Alcohol, and Classism
amyalwaysbooked's review
adventurous
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.0
Unpopular Opinion Time with Amy!
Books keep trying to convince me that they will live up to my expectations from The Night Circus and they never live up to it. Sadly, this is the case with Hotel Magnifique. This book was a mediocre debut with lots of little things that added up over my reading to land it squarely in the middle of my rating score. It wasn't BAD, but it wasn't good either. Everything fell flat which was incredibly frustrating because it could have been so much more!
The main characters were all incredibly bland. The main character, Jani constantly makes TERRIBLE decisions and gets away with them because of a deus ex machina macguffin she didn't know about. There was a lot telling me that she was close with her sister, but I never felt it. The same is true with her relationship with Bel, the equally bland love interest. The major antagonist could have been incredibly terrifying and threatening, and yet the story never gave him the full impact. His threats never felt impactful and the stakes Jani goes up against didn't hold weight. Honestly, there were side characters I was more interested in if they could have been fleshed out more.
There were other nitpicky things that bothered me. If I had to see the phrase not-milk one more time I might have flipped. Just give the concoction a name and be done with it! I also wish the story gave a better grasp of time. I get that part of the hotel's mystery is the unusual passing of time but I honestly had no idea how long the entire series of events took place. Was it weeks? Months? Years? Sometimes it felt like days, but then a character would say something that made it feel much longer. Maybe this doesn't bother everyone, but it took me out of the story.
When it comes down to it I wasn't taken in by the beauty and spectacle of Hotel Magnifique and the chipping away to the darkness underneath felt dull and cheap.
Books keep trying to convince me that they will live up to my expectations from The Night Circus and they never live up to it. Sadly, this is the case with Hotel Magnifique. This book was a mediocre debut with lots of little things that added up over my reading to land it squarely in the middle of my rating score. It wasn't BAD, but it wasn't good either. Everything fell flat which was incredibly frustrating because it could have been so much more!
The main characters were all incredibly bland. The main character, Jani constantly makes TERRIBLE decisions and gets away with them because of a deus ex machina macguffin she didn't know about. There was a lot telling me that she was close with her sister, but I never felt it. The same is true with her relationship with Bel, the equally bland love interest. The major antagonist could have been incredibly terrifying and threatening, and yet the story never gave him the full impact. His threats never felt impactful and the stakes Jani goes up against didn't hold weight. Honestly, there were side characters I was more interested in if they could have been fleshed out more.
There were other nitpicky things that bothered me. If I had to see the phrase not-milk one more time I might have flipped. Just give the concoction a name and be done with it! I also wish the story gave a better grasp of time. I get that part of the hotel's mystery is the unusual passing of time but I honestly had no idea how long the entire series of events took place. Was it weeks? Months? Years? Sometimes it felt like days, but then a character would say something that made it feel much longer. Maybe this doesn't bother everyone, but it took me out of the story.
When it comes down to it I wasn't taken in by the beauty and spectacle of Hotel Magnifique and the chipping away to the darkness underneath felt dull and cheap.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Body horror
foldingthepage_kayleigh's review
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
This one reminded me of Caraval and I’m not mad about it.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Confinement, Death, Violence, Death of parent, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Grief
marla_leonce's review against another edition
adventurous
lighthearted
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
Content Warnings
Minor: Body horror, Gore, and Vomit