This book was so much damn fun to read. I was a little apprehensive at first because I saw reviews that said it was creepy, and I scare very easily. For that reason (and wanting to avoid nightmares), I usually avoid creepy/scary books these days (I used to love them!). But I dove in and I'm so glad I did. While it WAS creepy, it was also engaging. Like "stay up late into the night to read/finish the book" kind of engaging. I liked that the chapters weren't too short or overly long -- it kept me wanting to see what happened next. So I just kept turning pages and turning pages and I'd take my head out of the book an hour or so later and feel disoriented. The atmosphere was so good. It was written so well that I felt like I was right there. I could see it. I had the whole image in my head for how the town looked, and the girls' apartment, and definitely the Sun Down. And the barn. When I came out of the book, I felt like I was stuck in between two worlds: the real one, and the one in the book.

I also liked that the story wove two timelines together: the first of Viv, who disappeared from her night shift at the Sun Down Motel in 1982; the second of Carly, her niece who comes to Fell, NY, in 2017 and specifically to the Sun Down to find out what happened to her aunt. Their stories end up being very similar, but Carly needs to do something before she ends up missing like Viv did.

And then there are the ghosts. The smoking man. The little boy. Betty. Oh, Betty. The source of so much creepiness. It was so much fun to find out how those ghosts got to the Sun Down and what their stories were when they were alive.

The book reminded me a little of when I read Winter People by Jennifer McMahon. It was creepy without being terrifying. I noticed at the beginning that the book is dedicated to, among others, the Murderinos, and I thought it was the perfect kind of book for someone who likes true crime podcasts. The atmosphere was so rich. It was a perfect way to start my 2021 reading challenge.