Horror + Mystery Book Recommendation: The Sun Down Motel!

Posted On August 12, 2022

Hi Readers! After a long time of spending time with this book, I finally finished it last weekend. When Goodreads was hyping up The Sun Down Motel few months ago, I fell for it & decided I had to read it. Finally, it was on discount on Amazon. So, voila! I bought it. I like the book, but I did not get the hype at all. Here’s the brief review!

~~GOODREADS DESCRIPTION~~

The secrets lurking in a rundown roadside motel ensnare a young woman, just as they did her aunt thirty-five years before, in this new atmospheric suspense novel from the national bestselling and award-winning author of The Broken Girls.
Upstate NY, 1982. Every small town like Fell, New York, has a place like the Sun Down Motel. Some customers are from out of town, passing through on their way to someplace better. Some are locals, trying to hide their secrets. Viv Delaney works as the night clerk to pay for her move to New York City. But something isn’t right at the Sun Down, and before long she’s determined to uncover all of the secrets hidden… 

~~THOUGHTS~~

Multiple ghosts. Multiple dead bodies. One creepy motel unchanged in over 30 years. Young women stationed as the night shift clerks to deal with it all. The premise of this book was strong. Horror & mystery in one novel was also strong. But, you know what happens when the premise is so strong. It fails to deliver. This book came quite close to being good. Even though there was a lot happening, it wasn’t a strain to read through it. But, when I finished the book, I wasn’t satisfied. I found the book to be slightly above average.

~~THE HORROR ANGLE~~

I had only read one horror book earlier; The Whisper Man by Alex North. I was not impressed by it. So, when I decided to pick up The Sun Down Motel, I had high expectations. Not only because of the hype, but also because of the premise of the book. I loved how the book started brewing horror. I even enjoyed being spooked, because I read it when I was home alone. But, when the ghosts were humanized, it became just like a normal haunted scene playing in the background. The initial 30% of the book could be termed as horror and the remaining 70% of it was more of a mystery.

I quite liked the horror angle & some more of it would have added more intrigue to the overall plot.

~~THE MYSTERY ANGLE~~

The disappearance of Viv was intriguing right from the first chapter. That combined with the murders of Betty Graham, Cathy Caldwell & Victoria Lee gave the reader a much higher sense of intrigue. There were more mysteries than one.

Why did Viv disappear?

Was she murdered?

If yes, where was the body?

If not, where did she go?

Is her disappearance connected to the murders of the other women murdered in Fell?

Is it a serial killer or are there multiple killers out lose in the town?

 Add to this, the parallels of Viv & Carly. Two women, working the night shift at the Sun Down Motel. Viv in 1982 and Carly in 2020. When there are so many similarities between two people, I always start to wonder if it’s actually the same person. Because what can be more mind-boggling than that? But, there’s nothing of that sort here. It’s just both of them solving the murders of three women in their own timelines & coming to the same conclusions. I felt that their stories were too similar & kind of made an injustice to the mystery genre.

Also, we identify the murderer very early in the novel. There are no twists & turns or any shocking moments. The murderer doesn’t change until the end. So, that was a bit disappointing.

~~TO READ OR NOT TO READ~~

If you are triggered by murder, rape, physical abuse, sexual assault, violence & drug use, then you might want to stay away from this book. These are the trigger warnings of The Sun Down Motel. If you are either a mystery or a horror reader, then give this book a try. It won’t be the best you have read, but you might enjoy yourself. If you are a picky reader who wants to read ‘the perfect mystery’ novel, then you shouldn’t read it. If you enjoy reading about spooky motels riddled with ghosts & murders, then you should read this.

I have rated The Sun Down Motel by Simone St. James at 3/5 stars.

Until next time,