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A review by dreamsngr
The Sun Down Motel by Simone St. James
4.0
Been rolling the review for this one around in my head a bit. I'm not a huge mystery reader but the Goodreads 2020 nomination intrigued me. This book gave me hard early season Supernatural vibes. The Sun Down is totally the motel the Winchester boys would have picked.
The story is split between two characters.
1982 - Viv decides to run to NYC to escape her mom but lack of funds land her in upstate NY taking the night shift at the already broken-down Sun Down Motel. Multiple ghosts make themselves known and Viv trips over a strange coincidence...this town has an extremely high occurrence of murdered girls for a tiny town. What's a bored girl to do but start sleuthing?
2017 - Carley's aunt Viv disappeared in 1982 and Carley has been obsessed about this dark family secret. She goes to the last place her aunt was seen, the Sun Down Motel. It was supposed to be a quick trip but Carley finds herself taking the same shift her aunt had at the motel and even staying in her aunt's old apartment with a true-crime obsessed roommate. From the broken candy machine to the ghostly visitors, the owner lets Carley know that nothing has changed at the Sun Down since the 80s.
The two stories progress with the dual narrators uncovering the town and the motel's secrets. Occasionally I got confused which girl I was following, but that was due to my late-night audiobooking and not the author's writing.
The side characters are perfectly unusual and as well-written as the main characters. The story never seemed to lag. It was easy to get fully immersed in the book and lose track of everything but the ghostly motel.
If you're on the fence, pick this up.
The story is split between two characters.
1982 - Viv decides to run to NYC to escape her mom but lack of funds land her in upstate NY taking the night shift at the already broken-down Sun Down Motel. Multiple ghosts make themselves known and Viv trips over a strange coincidence...this town has an extremely high occurrence of murdered girls for a tiny town. What's a bored girl to do but start sleuthing?
2017 - Carley's aunt Viv disappeared in 1982 and Carley has been obsessed about this dark family secret. She goes to the last place her aunt was seen, the Sun Down Motel. It was supposed to be a quick trip but Carley finds herself taking the same shift her aunt had at the motel and even staying in her aunt's old apartment with a true-crime obsessed roommate. From the broken candy machine to the ghostly visitors, the owner lets Carley know that nothing has changed at the Sun Down since the 80s.
The two stories progress with the dual narrators uncovering the town and the motel's secrets. Occasionally I got confused which girl I was following, but that was due to my late-night audiobooking and not the author's writing.
The side characters are perfectly unusual and as well-written as the main characters. The story never seemed to lag. It was easy to get fully immersed in the book and lose track of everything but the ghostly motel.
If you're on the fence, pick this up.