Yeah it was ok. I was hoping for a bit more but it was decent enough. Well written but a bit montonal.

I didn't connect with the story like I normally would but I did finish it and would recommend if you like literary fiction but I don't think I would recommend if you are just looking for horror.

A darkly atmospheric story of the legacy of the Korean war, this was an absorbing but elusive book, I have to admit. It didn't quite hold up to its billing as 'gothic horror' for me, but in its own way it held my attention.

Yewon works in a convenience store, and lives in the small village of her mother, who ritually washes the bones of the dead in her bathtub. Yewon also suffers from recurring dreams of a hotel, with lots of rooms and keys, so clearly there is something troubling her. Her family life is fractured, her brother is in the army and stationed on the border, and then there is a North Korean woman who asks Yewon for help in driving her to visit her brother in prison.

I'm not sure I quite grasped all of the threads, I have to be honest. I felt like something more was going to happen, so maybe I just felt a little confused. Certainly well--written, with lots going on beneath the surface, but it just didn't quite grip me enough. Probably 3.5 stars, but I can't quite round it up.

(With thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for an ARC of this title.)

(I received this book from the editor and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review)

This is one of those (not so) rare occasions in which I find myself speechless after reading a novel, but I will try to make sense of my thoughts: The Invisible Hotel, by Yeji Y. Ham, is said to be part of the gothic tradition, but I feel like ‘gothic’ is not precise enough to convey the eeriness that, similar to a dense fog, swallows the reader in its words, thoughts and, above all, feelings.
There is something about the way the author writes that reminds me of watching something through a blurry filter; you kind of see what is going on, but you cannot be sure whether everything is real or your brain is completing the blank spots with something it already knows (or thinks it knows).
Thus, the pages come and go and the rooms of the hotel open widely, but for most of the time the blur is all that stays. Sadly.

"The Invisible Hotel" is a haunting and evocative work of literary horror that delves into the depths of trauma, memory, and the collective psyche of a nation.

This story is now scratched into my soul and its ghostly presence will linger on for a while. This book is billed as horror, and while things are quite horrific, the reader will not have the same tense sleep-with-the-lights-on energy while reading this book. The imagery presented in the pages is both haunting and sad, it takes generational trauma and manifests it into a physical presence. This is the story of Yewon. Yewon dreams of an abandoned hotel filled with closed doors, a deteriorating and destroyed interior and a pool straight out of a nightmare. In her waking life she is falling apart. The sudden death of her father, the closing of her workplace and the desire to move away from home leaves her adrift. Her brother is away for his mandatory military service and her sister is acting distant and closed off. Her mother spends all her days caring for the bones of their ancestors in the houses only bathtub. Every house has these bones that they care for as reminders of all that was lost. War is a many tentacled beast that refuses to let go of its prey and the entire peninsula of Korea is in its grasp. They fight as hard as they can to forget the duty of the bones but the threat of war looms constantly over their heads as north Korea is still partitioned off and frequently causes concern with missile launches. Through all this chaos in her life she continues to dream of the hotel… This is a very dark coming of age story that is complex, deep and littered with symbolism.

My thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

I feel as though marketing this as suspense or gothic fiction isn’t doing the story justice. I’d describe it as some sort of speculative historical fiction/ literary fiction. Even as someone who has almost no working knowledge of the Korean War - the emotional impact of this book still definitely landed. This book is a very nuanced and beautiful exploration of generational trauma.

If you are interested in any of these things - I think you’ll love this book. It is very much outside of what I usually read, and therefore I’m not sure that I was the ideal audience for this story.

What begins as an interesting premise quickly becomes boring and I found myself not caring about where it was going before I even reached the halfway mark.

This book is haunting. There is a level of creepy and eerie throughout the entirety of this novel that the author nailed perfectly. That being said I felt the story itself left something to be desired.

This novel was vey haunting.

The bones is a metaphor - in a way - to the loss of those who were close to us, and the rebirth of a new life. This story takes you to the lows of war and he affects it has on those living in it. Our main character goes through a lot of inner turmoil and is trying to discover herself within her family and her home town.

The author does a fantastic job at distinguishing between reality and the hotel. I get chills reading about it and what it all means.

Overall, a great novel, there are a few parts here and there that could just more explanation, but that does not deter from the story.

In this claustrophobic novel it's not a "ghost" ghost haunting Yewon, but the ghost of a country ripped apart by war. This novel's blurbs call it gothic horror - I wouldn't put it in this category. It's war history, it's family trauma, bleak, with a sliver of hope.

Yewon is a young woman in a tiny village in South Korea, a village pillaged by war, a war the elders seem to relive every day. The bones of the village ancestors live in Yewon's bathtub, her mother washes them, the women in the family give birth on them. The novel was abstract and terrifying, with Yewon going in and out of her nightmare of being in the hotel. I couldn't tell if the bones were real or a metaphor. The abrupt changes and odd settings made this one hard to follow and disorienting,

My thanks to NetGalley and Zando Projects for the ARC.

I think the marketing was a little off the mark on this one; the genre is listed as horror, but I think that will confuse people's expectations. There's a lot of stuff that is very horrific - it's a book about war, family, and generational trauma at its core after all, but I don't think the storytelling style or writing or even plot are what anyone will expect when picking up a book marked as 'horror'.

That all said, I really enjoyed this. The writing is dreamlike and emotional, and the story is surreal if maybe a little slow. We follow a small main group of characters that consist of the immediate members of a family, with the main focus being on/from one of the daughters, Yewon. She's dealing with a lot, and is struggling emotionally with all of it. The anxieties and traumas and issues she's internalizing due to what's happening around her - things ranging from the recent death of her father to a precarious political climate - end up manifesting as a super creepy hotel in Yewon's dreams, and even in her waking hours.

I don't want to say too much more because I think the story is more impactful knowing less, but I would recommend this if you're open to 'horror' that's written as an examination of grief and trauma moreso than in an effort to scare you or overwhelm you with blood & guts.

The affects of the Korean War and the separation of North and South is a deep undercurrent affecting cultural identity. Yeji Y Ham brilliantly explores this through her character Yewon. It is a tale of inherited and generational trauma and the long arm of war and it's subtle affects on the psyche of a nation through the lens of an individual.

Highly recommend.

Was really excited about the description of this book, but unfortunately hat to DNF :( Shouldn’t have been marketed as a horror in my opinion.

Unfortunately a DNF for me around 25%. Although the literary horror concept intrigued me, the writing style felt very sparse and cold. I was hoping to feel immersed and unsettled, but wasn’t getting there for me personally.

This book was truly a wild ride and I don't know how I can even summarize it well. Billed as a horror novel, I don't think that's accurate. It is hugely atmospheric, however. There's a pervasive sense of dread, or creepiness, or a haunting feeling throughout it all, but I wouldn't say it's horror. I felt for large parts of the book I wasn't completely clear on what was going on, and what was reality and what was conjured in a dream-like state. I think that's part of the appeal, however. Even though I couldn't figure out things like the bones -- are they really washing bones? what is this? -- the hotel -- what is this a metaphor for? -- I couldn't put the book down. I'm sure there's some deeper symbolism in all of this, and my understanding only scratched the surface. The main character, Yewon, sort of drifts through life in a dream-like state, not super clear on her direction in life, and obviously dealing with some deep (generational?) trauma. I think that's ultimately what the book is about -- this shared trauma and unresolved history of the Korean war, but again, much of the symbolism maybe went over my head. All in all, though, I did enjoy it. It was like nothing I've ever read and it was compelling in it's creepiness and ambiguity.

A hypnotic and haunting debut that submerses you into the less obvious horrors of war- the struggle to live in a turbulent world knowing everything could disappear in an instant? How do you go on about your life with that fear? Or have children knowing that it's a part of their inheritance? The book's narrator Yewon wants answers to these questions. She's trapped in her hometown it's macabre traditions and her familial obligations while awake and in sleep is stuck in the titular 'invisible hotel'. She explores it's halls and encounters the living ghosts trapped in an unending nightmare that seeps more and more into her waking life. This is a lyrical psychological horror that I'm going to need to sit with for a while before I fully come to terms with it but it will definitely stay with me.

4.5/5

This book was absolutely haunting. Scary at time, definitely a bit creepy or eerie, but I think I would stay away from classifying it as “horror.” I kept waiting for the borrow elements to come out, and I am still waiting. I don’t think that’s at all a flaw of the book - I actually think veering into gothic horror would detract from it - just a flaw of the marketing or labeling.

This book deals with generational trauma in such a literal way, it’s impossible to overlook it. The constant refrain of the bones haunted me when I put the book down, and I’m still left thinking about them. This is a phenomenal debut book, and the writing is really wonderful given that fact.

The characters and setting were also very well executed, with our main character falling into her hotel nightmares/dreams with me barely realizing she had. I think I was lost a little on the exact details of that part, but I think that’s okay. I don’t have to understand the technicals perfectly to understand it.

Thanks to netgalley & Zando for the advanced copy!

I feel like I should be upfront that this book has been marketed as a ‘literary gothic horror’ but I feel it’s actually a literary fiction novel about generational trauma and war. There are absolutely horror adjacent themes, the atmosphere is quite chilling at times and there are eerier moments, and of course war in itself is horrifying, but to promote it as a horror novel feels slightly incorrect. I feel like this book, the way it’s currently being marketed, is going to appeal to an audience that are then not necessarily going to read the book that they're expecting… and to be honest that kind of happened with me, but I think once I got to a certain point in the story I was able to readjust my expectations and I did end up enjoying this!⁠
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It's a debut that I thought this was beautifully written. I didn't know much about the Korean War before going in, but I feel like it described the collective conscience of the war and how it has deeply marked and affected the people who experienced the brunt of it and how it continues to affect generations going forward, in a really interesting way that was disorientating to read but got also managed to get the message across well. ⁠
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I think if I had gone into this novel with the correct expectations of it, it could have been a new favourite, but that being said, I did like this. I thought it was a unique way to get across the brutal repercussions of long-term war on a countries people. If you’re someone who likes to read these kinds of stories, it’s one to add to your tbr!

A hauntingly beautiful read that navigates the complexities of generational trauma and the long lasting effects of war on humanity. A sombre, reflective telling that there are some traumas and some hurts that go so deep, we can never really escape them.

This book grew on me the more I read, I felt utterly consumed as I read page after page. If you have generational trauma within your own family, you will relate to this story. Ham does a really incredible job creating a truly haunting atmosphere. Despite not being traditionally “scary” per se, this was all consuming. Like a thick fog, you don’t know what’s ahead but you desperately want to find out all the while the feeling dread grows ever so slowly into your psyche.

This is really something special for a debut. I will be keeping my eyes on what this author may have in store for us in the future.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC!

This book is absolutely a slow burn, but it is a wonderful breakdown and examination of inter-generational trauma. The characters are developed out perfectly, and there are so many poignant but creeping moments throughout this book that sink into your brain as you go through it. There's a focus on the ways that the characters manage their families and the literal piles of bones that futures can be built on that you can never really get rid of.

This book in particular has such a laser focus on the things that we don't think about that often with war, particularly the Korean war. With the recent adaptation of the West to South Korea and the approach of the internet to North Korea, it can be easy to forget the reality of what people have dealt with and are still dealing with in both countries.

The thing that makes this book a five star for me is absolutely the voice in it. I haven't been able to get it out of my head, and I found it such a haunting way to approach the subject matter. It really is written with such maturity and sensitivity that it's remarkable. A very rare five star from me!