Welcome to Hotel Hell!

The Cecil Hotel is one of the most haunted hotels on this planet. People from around the world travel to Skid Row in CA just to get a glimpse of this infamous hotel. Terrible things have happened inside of that hotel and people are curious. It has been closed for renovations for the past couple of years but that doesn’t stop people from breaking in. Ghost enthusiasts want to experience the horror that is that hotel.

What really put that hotel in the public eye again was a recent documentary about that hotel and the death of one of its residents, Elisa Lam. It’s called Crime Scene: The Vanishing at the Cecil Hotel. You can currently find it on Netflix. Elisa’s case has swept the nation and amateur sleuths are still investigating her case. There’s something fishy about her passing and I highly suggest watching that documentary.

I know for a fact that these two authors watched that because this book is that show. They switched a few things around and added a mini mystery within but it was too similar. I went into this excited because not many have ventured to use that hotel as their location before. So I figured we would get something unique and hair-raising. What we get is a copycat story of a popular show.

What I did enjoy was the horrifying cover. I love it. I also enjoyed the fact that they used the hotel as the main location. (They did change the name of the hotel in this story but we know what they were making a reference to.) Who doesn’t love an old creepy hotel with a deadly history? And I also liked that the main character was a psychic. This character could read minds and see and communicate with spirits. It was interesting.

The story as a whole was not unique and I’m surprised that they could get away with stealing a story from a popular show on the worlds largest streaming service. They didn’t change enough of the story for this to be an original story. Yes, the authors did dedicate this story to Elisa and I appreciated that but this still felt a bit sleazy to me.

Horror Hotel wasn’t worth my time and bored me. If you know about about that infamous hotel then this isn’t worth reading. Readers who don’t know what I’m talking about will enjoy this because it’ll be something new and creepy for them. This was a huge no from me and it definitely gave me trust issues again for paperbacks from Underlined.

Ghost Hunters, youtube subscribers, a psychic girl, and some teen romance thrown in: Horror Hotel was a fun read for YA. It's got all the necessary ingredients for a good horror story, with lots of modern day media thrown in to be engaging and relevant to readers. The four teen characters are very distinct from one another so when the story changes point of view it's not difficult to keep track of who's talking. Chrissy can see ghosts and fills the pages with plenty of scary details to drive reader's interest around the teen sleuthing.

However, with the references to Youtube and Instagram, I have the feeling this could be very popular with current readers but become very dated quickly.

Predictable plotline, but campy so it was fun.

The story is loosely based on the actual mystery and online investigation of Elisa Lam's death in the Cecil Hotel. The dedication of the book is written to her. I would've loved to get an even more behind the scenes understanding of why that case was used in the acknowledgments of the authors, but they don't mention her there. Stylistically, some parts of the books are written as online journal entries (also based on Elisa's tumblr account which aided the investigation), and then the chapters jump around between the four teens' points of view.

The beginning moved a little slow for me and I thought there were unnecessary POV changes that played into that, but toward the middle and the end, especially when the characters are split up, it worked and involved less overlap in storytelling. The plot was predictable and easy to identify who the murderer was. While some other suspects were thrown in there, one was eliminated so quickly they didn't really carry enough weight to their possibility. There were definitely some far fetched storylines and things seemed to fall into place too easily, but part of the fun of the book was how campy it came across. I could easily see it all play out like a 90s teen horror flick, except in this case the teens were YouTubers, TikTokers, and had sponsorships with camera brands.

If you're looking for an escapist fictional story with teens, ghosts, and based on true crimes, then you'll enjoy this book. The cover art is exquisite.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

I loved the Ghost Gang! Girl gangs in novels are my absolute favorite. Paper Girls, Babysitter's Coven. Yes please! This one was so much fun, and I loved all four girls. They're all so different, and together it was great to have such a variety of really well-rounded characters. It was great for October, lots of great spooky chapters. Loved!

First and foremost: look at that cover!!! The colors are stunning and the art is beautiful, but most importantly the cover does a perfect job of encapsulating the feeling that the book invokes while reading.

Horror Hotel follows a group of four teenagers (the “Ghost Gang”) as they travel to a haunted hostel in LA called the Hearst Hotel in order to film a video for their YouTube channel during Halloween weekend. The Hearst is famous for the death of one of its occupants, Eileen Warren, a grad student who dealt with intense loneliness, isolation, and apparent psychic visions in the weeks leading up to her death. The Ghost Gang’s plan is to spend a night filming around the hostel and trying to get in contact with Eileen Warren’s spirit in order to finally reach a million YouTube subscribers. But the Gang soon realize that the Hearst has more in store for them than they originally planned. As the night goes on, the mystery of the tragic death of Eileen Warren becomes secondary to the real-life horror they begin to experience.

At its core the group of four friends consists of a rich kid paranormal enthusiast (Chase), a psychic empath (Chrissy), an influencer who is sunshine personified (Kiki), and the token unemotional skeptic science-freak (Emma). But they’re all so much more than that. Although this book follows four characters that are each in the same age range, all of them feel very distinct and personable. I enjoyed and was entertained by each point of view and didn’t find myself bored or rushing through one character’s POV to get to the next POV.

This book is a ton of fun and kept me hooked from the very beginning. It doesn’t take itself too seriously but it also occasionally touches on some serious subject matter, which was a pleasant surprise. Some of the scenes were super spooky and atmospheric, especially Chrissy’s scenes inside of the Hearst.

Even though I did really enjoy the majority of this book, there were parts that definitely showcased that I’m not the target audience for it. There were a couple of scenes that felt overly juvenile and kept me from being totally immersed in whatever was happening on the page. I know for a fact that if I had read this book in High School those things wouldn’t have stood out as much to me as they do now though, so I can’t knock it too hard.

Overall, this was a fast and engaging read, definitely one to check out when it’s published in February of next year!

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Children’s Underlined for providing me with a digital review copy in exchange for my honest review.

I absolutely adored this blend of horror, true crime, and social media! What a fun ride! I remember the first time I saw the Elisa Lam elevator footage and thinking what a great story that would be to read. This book nailed that eerie sense of unease beautifully!

What first caught my attention with Horror Hotel was the cover. It’s so beautiful and spooky at the same time! This was a great Young Adult horror novel based around the true events of the Cecil Hotel. I really enjoyed it!