Normally I’m not a fan of constant pov changes – and when they’re in the same chapter – but I didn’t find that so annoying here? Plus they’re all first person pov and didn’t annoy me – which was another win as I often find them annoying. Big kudos to the two authors for managing to pull that off!

Of course when you have an ensemble group it could become difficult to differentiate between their voices and personalities but that didn’t seem to be the issues here. All the povs were in first person yet I never really got confused as to whose pov I was reading.

I already knew The Ghost Gang from the previous book but I liked how they took the events from it and made sure it affected them in this book. That they wouldn’t forget them (hard to, considering what they’d been through) and it’s a good reminder that trauma shows itself in many ways and it’s a difficult thing to navigate.

The characters improved in this book and I liked seeing that. Looking back at my review for the first book I said Chrissy was my favourite and Chase, my least. I liked Chase much better this turn around! I said in Horror Hotel that he felt like cared more about the fame and the group. And that I hoped that he would change that in the future. That definitely was the case here! He not only improved as a character (in my eyes); he cared more about the group than their fame (current and any they could get in the future). I liked him more for that. I think for this book Emma and Kiki also improved as characters for me. Actually for this book none of them stood out as a clear favourite? As I liked all of them really well.

I didn’t really like Billie, Kiki’s mom. Honestly, I didn’t really understand why she was on the ship with them. I warmed up to her late into the book but I could’ve done without her.

I didn’t like the whole subplot of the mummy. I thought it was just pushed in there when maybe the editors thought there wasn’t enough tension and another subplot needed to be added. We could’ve had another book with the cursed mummy plot instead of just shoving it into here and not giving it enough space to fully spread its wings.

I liked the other bits of the plots. A ghost haunting of the ship and “oh there’s a lady in white wandering the ship” – I loved that. I love haunting stories and they don’t get old to me – that is basically what Horror Hotel was too. The Ghost Gang made sure to be respectful to the story, which was good, and solving it was important not only for their Youtube channel.

Even though I didn’t like the Paranormal Patrol (also the name is stupid), I did like what they brought to the table. The difference between the two groups, what they both wanted from solving the mystery. How they treated the mystery – respect versus fame. Also how the internet/Hollywood wanted to see them. Like the Ghost Gang are teenagers, why would you push them to sex it up? They’re not on Riverdale or Euphoria (most certainly as those teens are played by near 30 year olds).

I have read the first book, Horror Hotel, where the ghost gang solves the horror mystery, and I knew I had to read this even though I am spooked easily. The cover of this one is stunning.

The Ghost Gang, a group of teen ghost hunters, are invited to record onboard the RMS Queen Anne, a transatlantic luxury cruise ship with a history of violent deaths.

They discover they've been sucked into a ghostly time warp, but Chrissy goes missing on the first night. Unbeknownst to the group, a passenger wants the Ghost Gang to know her untimely death was not an accident.

To begin with, I would recommend reading book 1 prior to this so you understand some parts of it, or you will feel like there is something missing that you don't know about.

This was horror mixed with mystery, done absolutely well. I was expecting more mystery revolving around the curse, though, as it seemed to be wrapped up without much mention.

The ghost gang had me hooked from the start. This is a great mix of people with different dynamics working immensely well. Each of them has their own POV, which I love, and it makes it more interesting.

The plot was unique and well written with easy scares and creepy vibes for a beginner, like, it is my view( for providing horror readers and watchers, this might be quick and easy and nothing). We have new people joining in this one, which makes me happy to have another book with these characters.

Without giving away much about this book and the evil boat, it was a quick and easy read, which I enjoyed and recommend to everyone.

Book Review

Title: Cursed Cruise by Victoria Fulton & Faith McClaren (Horror Hotel Book 2)

Genre: Young Adult, Horror

Rating: 4.75 Stars

After bingeing Horror Hotel and loving it, I honestly couldn’t wait to get into Cursed Cruise and see what The Ghost Gang were going to get involved with next. As the title suggests I have a feeling that this book is going to take place primarily on a cruise and there are going to be some seriously spooky things happening. The opening rejoins the gang a little while after the incident at Hearst and their channel has really picked up, but Chase wants to get into Hollywood, so they filmed a reel for Creep TV as a new paranormal show. However, they find out pretty early on that the look that the network want isn’t what they are willing to provide but another ghost hunting show is even though they are genuine frauds.

Despite this they are heading about the revamped RMS Queen Anne, the sister ship of the Titanic in order to film for their new episode and have a mini vacation although it isn’t going to feel like that for Chrissy as we can see from the second she lays eyes on the ship. From the beginning she feels a magnetic pull to the ship and when she steps onboard for the first time, she has a vision but its different to ones she has had in the past as it feels like she was literally thrown through time but to everyone else it looked like she fainted. We also get an interlude from the ship itself, it seems that personifying the ship brought it to life in some way and it was influenced by the hatred of a particular passenger onboard and their emotions were stronger than everyone else’s and I am curious as to how this is going to play out over the course of the book.

Before the ship even sets sail there are a bunch of omnious things happening, from Chrissy’s attack and getting seemingly sucked into the past by the Lady in White to Emma’s hallucinations, Kiki seeing a ghost girl and Chase seeing things in the footage that definitely weren’t there when they were filming. Meanwhile, they are dealing with Kiki’s mother who doesn’t want to believe in the paranormal as well as whispers that the ship might be cursed not haunted which are two separate beasts. Also aboard the ship are the Paranormal Patrol, the team that is going to be on Creep TV who are picking fights with them any chance they get, flaunting their better equipment and talent at commanding the audience but they don’t have the authenticity that Chrissy does because she actually sees things that aren’t there.

Over dinner one night, a lady named Ruby springs the idea that the curse can be broken by returning the Pharoh to his homeland as that is what started this curse. This is all but confirmed by the Queen Anne, itself as the Pharoh’s power seems to feed it and in return she consumes or binds the souls of the people that die aboard the ship and she isn’t going to let the Ghost Gang stop her, especially since it is Chrissy’s soul she wants to consume next and Chrissy knows she is in danger. She finally caves and tells Chase but not Emma or Kiki since she wants them to have a good time, not realising that they are already seeing things that aren’t there and are aware that something isn’t right with their friend. This kind of reads like a cross between The Mummy and Ghost Ship which I am definitely vibing with but we are halfway through and nothing remotely creepy has happened apart from a few sightings so I am hoping that is kicking in soon.

As the group spend more time on the Queen Anne, the clearer the curse is becoming as Chrissy is seemingly possessed by Elizabeth Walker, bouncing back and forth through time. Through this she learns that Elizabeth didn’t want to marry her fiancé because he was abusive and was having an affair with a bartender on the ship. Eventually she was caught by her soon to be husband and thrown off the side by him. However, we do see clearly that the ship was guiding his action feeding the rage inside him as it has done with most of the deaths onboard, including the little girl currently attached to Kiki. The question of whether Bram is real or not still remains, since Chrissy saw him at the end of book one implying he was a ghost attached to her and yet seems to be haunting Emma or this could just be PTSD induced hallucinations.

This ship seems aware that the group are trying to break the curse and is doing everything it can in order to stop them. It has sent the little girl to Kiki trapped in a time loop on deck 7, it has possessed the men of the Paranormal Patrol to essentially kidnap Emma on floor 3, Chase’s location in unknown and Billie is with the semi-conscious Chrissy breaking the cardinal rule about staying together but this might work out for the better in the end. The ending and the reveal of how the curse breaks and what it means for all involved not just the Ghost Gang was actually a really emotional ending that made me tear up. I could tell this story was heavily influenced by the story of the Titanic but it didn’t feel like a carbon copy of the same story.

Overall, I ended up loving this more than Horror Hotel for entirely different reasons. Horror Hotel definitely had the creep factor and didn’t shy away from the gorier elements of the horror genre which I appreciated especially in a young adult novel. However, Cursed Cruise was more about the emotional bonds between the gang and the idea of those bonds being severed when we die leaving us alone. It really delved into the idea of loneliness and what lies beyond which we see through Chrissy and the others.

The cover of Cursed Cruise is absolutely stunning! It’s what initially drew me in to this series.

I did end up enjoying this one way more than the first, but overall it was definitely not one of my favorite books 😅

I really enjoyed the idea of a haunted cruise. I thought that setting and the idea of being trapped with something bad happening made for an interesting and tense story.

I often found myself wondering why the Ghost Gang made so many poor decisions??? Especially after the first book. You’d think they’d learn 🙃

This one had quite a few storylines happening, which I found complicated the book. The haunted cruise was a good premise, but making it cursed by an Egyptian pharaoh was a weird choice.

First, thank you netgalley for my e-ARC of this book! Before I get into any opinions on the actual book, I have to say the cover is absolutely stunning and is what initially caught my attention. I didn’t read the first book but don’t think you need to in order to read this one. It just felt more young reader than young adult which I wasn’t a fan of. The concept of an Egyptian Sarcophagus hidden on a boat really just threw me off and like an unnecessary detail. The ship itself being a haunted vessel with ghosts would have been just fine for a plot. Overall it wasn’t my cup of tea.

This was a great addition to the Horror Hotel series! I love the friendships between the Gang! With the multiple points of views you really get to know all of the characters which I really enjoyed! The book has a good plot with an interesting mystery with the setting adding the creepy feeling you really get a good young adult horror book! I hope there will be more of the Ghost Gang, it will be interesting to see where their adventures take them next! Thank you Tbr and Beyond Tours, Victoria Fulton, Faith McClaren and Underlined for sharing this book with me!

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Victoria Fulton and Faith McClaren for providing me with a complimentary digital ARC for Cursed Cruise coming out March 19, 2024. The honest opinions expressed in this review are my own..

I loved the first book in this series. I love haunted hotels, so I was definitely excited to receive the second book. The premise of a cursed cruise sounded really fun. I enjoyed most of the plot. It was a quick read. I feel like there could’ve been a little more character development. Some of the characters felt different than the last book. I guess a lot of it was their struggles from their previous experience. I think the first half was a little slow for me, but I loved the second half of the book. I don’t think it was as scary as I thought it would be.

I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys supernatural location stories!

3.5⭐️

I actually didn't read the first one but it was really ok. It didn't take away from my overall enjoyment of the book. I felt like this book does a great job in beginning summarizing what happened in the first.

There is something about YA horror that I just find to be fun and campy. I enjoyed this one. I really liked the isolated feeling of being on a cruise ship with ghosts. It wasn't perfect but a really solid just fun time book.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Children's, Underlined for this advanced reader copy. My review is voluntarily my own.

So, full disclosure: I did not read the previous book in the series. However, I honestly don't think readers will need to in order to enjoy this story. Yes, there is some backstory and what sounds like a nail-biting experience from the previous book, but the authors do a great job of filling readers in on prior events in little tidbits throughout the first several chapters of the story without regurgitating it all or making it seem forced. I really liked each of the main characters, and while they are distinctly different they also mesh really well together -- like a 21st century Scooby Gang without the slapstick humor. As an adult, I also appreciated how the authors realistically incorporated Kiki's mom without making her seem like an awful adult figure (as typical in some YA novels). The supernatural haunting scenes were written so vividly and I enjoyed the inclusion of an otherworldly POV. I'd recommend this for grades 9+, and honestly, I could even justify this for 8th graders, as well -- the two relationships are very PG and the few curse words thrown around are done sporadically and are nothing even close to what I hear in a typical middle school hallway on a Wednesday morning.

**Thank you, NetGalley and publishers, for a DRC in exchange for an honest review.**

The Ghost Gang are back!!!! And I adore them!!!! Book 1 was amazing, I loved it so much and I had a feeling I would like this one. Now I will say this book was CRAZY from beginning to end. We are getting into the Queen Anne, the sister boat to the TITANIC!!!!!!! And the ghost gang are set to sail in this beauty and record a pilot for an amazing opportunity, but of course there is another paranormal group who will try to rain on their parade, but the things that happen while at sea? OMGGGGGGGGG! I spook easily so I couldn’t read this book at night, lol. But you are telling me that aside from the ghosts that we will be encountering, the freaking boat is CURSED as well!!!! The things they all experience, especially Chrissy. This boat is doing things to their passengers and has been doing it for YEARS. There is a mystery to be solved on top of everything, and the end!!!! I BALLED, meaning I cried. Totally worth the read…

The acknowledgment that the authors added in the end of this ARC, the first few sentences had me laughing so hard. Thank you Netgalley and the publishers for giving me the opportunity to read this book.

Short and Sweet Review
After their stay at the Hearst Hotel the ghost gang has been invited to set sail on the RMS Queen Anne. The ship has a history of passengers dying violent deaths. While on board it’s Chrissy who realizes the ship isn’t just haunted it is being cursed.
The ghost gang is back and after their last video went viral they’ve gained a lot of subscribers. Now they’re going on the RMS Queen Anne to shoot another video for their channel and maybe even score a TV gig. It doesn’t take long for Chrissy to realize something is different about the hauntings on the ship compared to what she has dealt with before. In the book Chrissy ends up being possessed by one of the passengers who was previously on the ship who was murdered, and she won’t stop her haunting until the truth about her death is revealed. We see Chase, Emma, and Kiki try to learn more about the ship and the passengers who are currently ghost. Emma and Kiki are now an item in this book but they don’t really spend a lot of time together because they have bigger things to worry about. Same with Chase and Chrissy not spending a lot of time together but also Chrissy isn’t herself for most of the book. I did like that this book took place on a ship it had a Titanic feel to it and honestly I could say some of the undead passengers remind me of certain characters from the movie. The book started off a little slow but it really did pick up and I did enjoy following the each of the characters. Its a very quick read and once you get to the hauntings you won’t want to put the book down.
Cursed Cruise, was a good book. I was happy to see that Horror Hotel got a sequel and this book was just as good as the first. I’m hoping there’s going to be another installment in this series! I would recommend this book if you like reading about true stories but with a paranormal ghost twist to them!

Thanks to NetGalley for my ARC

This was fine. It felt like Scooby-Doo on a cruise ship. I enjoy a good spooky story on the water, but this was a bit too cheesy for me. I rolled my eyes many times, usually due to a super convenient thing happening at just the right time. I didn't really relate to anyone, probably because I'm so much older than these 18 year old characters. I think if you like cozy horror and you want a lighter story this could work for you. I don't recommend for anyone looking for serious or scary horror.

This was a fun quick read. The Ghost Gang is back for a Cursed Cruise less than a year after what they dealt with at the Hearst Hotel in California. I feel like the paranormal activity was ramped up in this one and I liked seeing how Kiki, Emma, Chrissy and Chase dealt with it in their own ways. Mama Billie is great! I would. It kind a book 3 with this same group of friends, perhaps even a little longer?

⭐3.75

As a YA novel, I stand behind my previous assessment that this series skews towards a younger audience. And that’s fine! It’s just not what I expected from reading the synopsis. I also find the 4 first person POV to be a little confusing; it changes too quickly for me to remember who's voice I'm following. But with that being said, I still really liked the story.


The Ghost Gang is celebrating their summer with a trip on the newly renovated Queen Anne. But of course this isn’t just a vacation. They plan on filming an episode of their YouTube channel, and maybe, hopefully, land a deal for a TV show.

Guess what? The ship isn’t just haunted, it’s cursed! Out of hundreds of deaths that have occurred on the Queen Anne, the most famous is The Lady in White. She's the spirit of Elizabeth Walker, a young bride-to-be who jumped to her death. Legend says that the sarcophagus of King Ramses VIII lives deep in the bowels of the ship causing all the chaos. The Ghost Gang and the rest of the guests are in major, paranormal danger.


I think the covers are really awesome, both for Cursed Cruise and Haunted Hotel. Honestly, it's what made me take a look at the synopsis initially. ALSO, although you don't need to read #1 to follow this story, if you think you're interested in reading Horror Hotel, be sure to do that first because there are major spoilers throughout Cursed Cruise.


Top5 reasons to read Cursed Cruise 👻
1. The ship has its own (short) POV chapters
2. Major Scooby Doo vibes with paranormal time travel
3. Prominent LGBTQIAP+ characters
4. It's a ghost story that doesn't take itself too seriously
5. The Queen Anne is based off of the historic (and probably definitely haunted) Queen Mary

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for my e-ARC of Cursed Cruise!

𝐅𝐈𝐕𝐄 𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐒𝐎𝐍𝐒 𝐓𝐎 𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐃 𝐂𝐔𝐑𝐒𝐄𝐃 𝐂𝐑𝐔𝐈𝐒𝐄

1. If you’re a fan of all things ghost, this one is definitely for you!
2. Have you ever wanted to travel aboard a cruise ship? This one is a little scary, but fully stocked with delicious food and drinks!
3. Cursed Cruise is full of diverse characters and backgrounds.
4. Young adult fans will gobble this mystery right up, especially if you enjoy a bit of gore thrown in!
5. There are even a few pages from the evil Queen Anne’s POV. A talking ghost ship? Count me in!

• 𝐖𝐇𝐀𝐓 𝐈𝐓’𝐒 𝐀𝐁𝐎𝐔𝐓

After their fateful stay at the Hearst Hotel, the Ghost Gang is back with more spooks and more subscribers. They’ve been invited to record onboard the RMS Queen Anne, a transatlantic luxury ocean liner with a colorful past of violent deaths of hundreds of passengers—souls that bought a one-way ticket to the afterlife (and never disembarked).

When Chrissy, Chase, Kiki, and Emma board the ship, they have a funny feeling they’ve been sucked into a ghostly time warp—a theory that takes a frightening turn when Chrissy goes missing on the first night.

Unbeknownst to the rest of the group, Chrissy has been sucked into another time by a passenger who wants the Ghost Gang to know her untimely death was not an accident and the perpetrator is still alive—and on board this ship.

Thank you to Random House Children's and NetGalley for providing me with a digital copy of "Cursed Cruise" by Victoria Fulton and Faith McClaren in exchange for an honest review.

Following the events of "Horror Hotel" the Ghost Gang has returned to investigate another wildly haunted place, the cruise ship The Queen Anne. The Queen Anne is famous for hundreds of onboard deaths since it was first launched, including the highly publicized "suicide" of an heiress in the 1980s. The heiress, Elizabeth, is now said to haunt the Queen Anne as a Woman in White type ghost. Naturally the Ghost Gang has signed up to join the ship's relaunch following (a supposedly thorough) retrofit in drydock.

Joining them on this trip is Kiki's mother, Billie, who clearly has complicated feelings about how Kiki is managing her life at the moment, and a rival gang of ghost hunters, the Paranormal Patrol. The Paranormal Patrol are the Ghost Gang's exact opposites in every way, so much so that they are basically the GG's evil twin, stopping just short of sporting goatees. At first, it seems like the PP will be important plot component but apart from some possession late in the book, they are really nonentities.

The first thing to know is that the Ghost Gang, made of Chrissy, Emma, Kiki, and Chase, has learned very little from their near fatal experience at the Hearst Hotel. They withhold vital information from one another, they split up to follow ghosts around (predictably nearly dying in doing so), and they make very rash decisions. This silly behavior fuels the plot, kinda, but also makes you wonder how these the people have survived this long.

For so short a story, it packs in a great deal of absurdity. Without too many serious spoilers, the ship is sentient, there may or may not be an Egyptian curse on it because of a mummy that may or may not be stashed onboard (which, if so, the workers mysteriously overlooked during the retrofit.) One of the tragic deaths onboard involved the former ship's chef, who was cooked alive in the ship's walk-in oven by his kitchen staff. There's a little girl ghost who drowned in a pool, and for some reason, ghost of the captain of the Titanic, Captain Edward Smith, is also onboard. He doesn't actually do much apart from leaning on the railing to look for icebergs. (The fictional Queen Anne is supposed to have been built by the same company that built the Titanic. That's all the explanation you get for his presence.) There may be more to Elizabeth's death than authorities previously believed, and the ship makes it very clear that it does not approve the Ghost Gang interfering with any of it.

But fear not, everything gets resolved in a... mostly good way?

The only way to enjoy this story is to really just lean into the ridiculousness. The scares are cheap, there's no real build up of tension, and it's very hard to take seriously any story that invokes an ancient Egyptian curse. So this is recommended for readers that want a quick and easy ghost story that doesn't make you work too hard and for readers that will embrace the "it's so bad, it's good" humor in the story.

#CursedCruise for a small book really packs a punch. I love ghost stories especially when the book takes its inspiration from something factual as this did with the ship being named Queen Ann but being modeled after the real ship the Queen Mary.
Not only do you get all the ghosties but The Titanic is minorly involved as well and come on lets be honest most of us are somewhat curious about what happened there.
The Ghost Gang which consists of Chrissy, Emma, Kiki, and Chase have been invited to film on The Queen Mary's first departure from shore in over a decade, but it is claimed that she is very haunted mainly by a ghost called The Lady in White. Chrissy is a tried and true medium and as soon as she steps fully onto the ship she knows they are in trouble. This ship isn't just haunted its something else entirely and its hungry.
The team is forced to confront some of their worst fears and when this cruise is over if they all survive will be true believers.
If you have ever seen the old movie Ghost Ship then reading this book is a must. If you haven't seen it watch it and no matter what read this book!!!!!!


I want to thank #Netgalley and #RandomHouseBooks for the chance to read an eArc of the hauntingly amazing #CursedCruise by #Victoria#Fulton and #Faith#McClaren in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Cursed Cruise is my first book by this author duo. I somehow went into this book not realizing it was a sequel but the book explained a lot of what happened in the first book so I didn't feel like I was missing out on a lot by not reading the first in the series, Horror Hotel. The book was definitely spooky- I really like that we have a character that is a medium and that played a huge role in the book.

I wish the book was a bit longer- it didn't feel like there was enough buildup before everything started happening. Even just 20-30 more pages would've made a huge difference. I do also wish the haunting aspect had been explored more- I feel like it didn't get quite spooky enough for me.

Books that take place in one- or mainly one- location are becoming a fast favorite of mine. The cruise ship setting was fun and I really liked our 4 main characters (and Kiki's mom!). I would definitely read another book by this duo following these characters- with even spookier things happening!

A young adult group of ghost hunters goes on a cruise aboard the RMS Queen Anne. The ship is cursed somehow, so some people believe. We follow the group as they uncover the mystery of the ship and its inhabitants. We get to see the group grow closer together and grow stronger individually. We get multipe pov of all the members as well as a pov of the ship itself. There is also a sort of time travel that happens between the present and past of the ship and its inhabitants. This was a quick read. Though this is the second book in the Horror Hotel collection, they can be read as stand alones.


•multiple pov
•ghost stories
•lgbtq+ rep


Triggers
•murder
•ghost
•serial killer

Thank you @tbrbeyondtours & @victoriaxfaith for the chance to read this book and share my Top 5 Reasons to Read and my mood board!
Book Info:
Cursed Cruise (Horror Hotel #2) by Victoria Fulton and Faith McClaren
Genre: Young Adult Horror
Publishing Date: March 19, 2024
The Ghost Gang! A group of paranormal researcher with the ability to connect to the afterlife that gets to investigate all of the cool haunts!
A haunting tale of the Lady in White who met an untimely death on the high seas whose soul now roams the Queen Anne.
The maiden voyage of a restored ship that quickly turns into a waking nightmare and a haunting unlike anything the gang has every experienced.
Blurred lines between the past and present and woven through looks a curse…
An absolutely terrifying read that you will not want to out down!!!

Will be posted 3/21 on scheduled date with tbr and beyond tours.