The Cut is a fun creature feature horror novel! We follow our FMC Sadie, and her toddler daughter Izzy, as they try to start over after escaping from her abusive ex-fiancée. Sadie and Izzy end up at L’arpin hotel in north western Ohio, just on the shore of the lake. At first Sadie thinks this is a place where they’ll be safe and able to start new lives, until odd things start to happen.

I enjoyed reading this book, especially with my book besties as we discussed live with our buddy read. However, there were a few things that knocked it down from 4 or 5 stars. I had a hard time with how the relationship between Sadie and Izzy was written, albeit I acknowledge it was probably written that way on purpose. I also didn’t care for how the book ended. Ultimately I would recommend this to anyone who wants to read a fun and quick creature horror!

This paranormal horror mash-up with a touch of domestic thriller is set in a historic hotel in a small town along the Lake Erie shoreline. Pregnant and fleeing from her abusive fiancé, Sadie seeks refuge with her toddler and secures a job in housekeeping, along with temporary housing in one of the hotel rooms. But from the very first night, something feels off. The hotel is unnervingly eerie, with unsettling interactions from the staff, inexplicable paranormal occurrences, missing guests and employees, and sinister, slithering creatures lurking within the walls and drains. The atmosphere is hauntingly creepy, and the suspense had me on the edge of my seat more than once. I thoroughly enjoyed this chilling read.

Creepy, haunting, eerie from the very start. I loved the nods to 'The Shining.' It was intriguing but it was also quite slow. A faster pace with more suspense would have put this book in the five-star range for sure.

Special thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a free, electronic ARC of this novel received in exchange for an honest review.
Expected publication date: Apr. 8, 2025
Sadie Miles is on the run- leaving her abusive fiancée and their life together behind in hopes of starting over with her young daughter and with a new baby on the way. She finds herself working as a housekeeper at L’Arpin Hotel and when the manager lets her stay in one of the empty rooms, Sadie hopes to have some time to regroup. But things start to happen around the hotel that Sadie can’t explain and, when she tries to explain it to the hotel manager or other hotel staff, they leave Sadie feeling confused and, even worse, crazy. But Sadie knows what she saw and after what she went through with her partner, she is not about to doubt herself again. Especially now, when the lives of her children are at risk. So, Sadie decides to run but it isn’t long until she finds out- Hotel L’Arpin doesn’t want her to leave.
C.J. Dotson’s new horror novel, “The Cut” is a terrifying, addicting and downright compulsive read. Dark, hypnotic and gripping, the Hotel L’Arpin has an Overlook Hotel feel about it, with its run-down structure and things-that-go-bump (or rather, splash)-in-the-night. Sadie, for obvious reasons, doesn’t know who to trust and is just the right amount of desperate to take crazy risks that leave the rest of us shaking our heads.
Dotson’ “creatures” are absolutely horrifying and I loved every spooky tentacle. They are unique and goosebump-inducing, and Dotson’s clever writing brings them to life on the pages. It isn’t hard to guess that something is up at the hotel from the beginning but Dotson brings the terror to the next level.
The novel is told, for the most part, in the modern day with Sadie as a narrator. There is one portion of the plot which touches on a brief period in Sadie’s past when she was still in the abusive relationship, but it is clearly identified and serves a valid purpose. There are some memories that Sadie retells that feature both emotional and physical abuse so, although it isn’t rampant through the whole novel, those who are easily triggered by such topics should tread lightly.
I knew who was involved, but not how or why, but by the end, Dotson had revealed it all, tying it together in a satisfying way. I thoroughly enjoy monster books and “The Cut” had all of the elements I look for- a great protagonist, scary and creative monsters and a suspenseful and haunting plotline.

I though this book was good, but I didn't get as much out of it as I thought I would. I felt that the premise and the setting were really good. There seems to be a common them currently with nods to The Shining and the Overlook Hotel. I don't mind that in stories at all, I love when an author includes some of their favorite horror novels from the past. My real issue with this story was that it was just a bit slow for my liking. I like a horror novel to keep me on the edge of my seat and anticipate the turn of every page. I felt that when I got to the end of this book, I was ready for it to be over. Still, I think the author has great potential in the horror genre and will look forward to more books by C. J. Dotson.

Thank you Netgalley, the publishers, and CJ Dotson for an ARC in exchange for my honest review. Some readers may find the content upsetting. Contains spoilers.



Sadie Miles takes her toddler and runs from her abusive fiance, finding herself in a sleepy lake side town in Ohio, looking for a fresh start. In order for her to start her new life, she needs a job. This is where she finds herself a house keeping job at the L'Arpin hotel. From the first night she starts noticing strange things happening at the hotel. Guests mysteriously disappearing, co workers disappearing, and strange tentacle creatures that come from the water. No one believes anything Sadie claims she has seen. Writing it off as paranoia due to her pregnancy. But the truth is, they are all hiding something sinister. This includes Gertie, the kind old lady who took care of her daughter for her while she worked. Sadie finds herself in the fight of her life against the hotel, the tentacle creatures, and her abusive ex Sam(but don't worry, he gets what's coming to him).



I have to say I love this book. I got an uneasy feeling from the beginning, in the best way possible. And what I thought would be a haunted house story, changed into a monster story, leaving me pleasantly surprised. CJ Dotson did a wonderful job referencing domestic violence without being graphic. Proving you can tackle sensitive subject matter respectfully. I would have liked more character development with Sadie, but I suppose can't fault her for not growing, given her situation. Maybe more of an explanation about the lake and the creatures. With that being said, I really did enjoy this book and would read again.



4/5

I hate when I get a book from netgalley and then I end up having to give a bad review but honesty is important.

This book was a very good concept with a perfectly creepy cover, however the delivery was unsatisfactory. The beginning was painfully slow and the dialogue was very repetitive, especially between the mom and daughter.
The horror of the monsters was pretty fun but I thought the random extra antagonist wasn’t very entertaining and then the ending…my god the ending was really bad. I know endings are really hard to pull off, especially for horror books. If you give closure then people prefer that it was open ended and vice versa. This ending attempted to give closure but it was just too easy and fast. No monster book or movie ever ends that way and realistically it wouldn’t either. Super disappointing book that had promise to it.

Sadie is running away with her daughter from her abusive partner ended up at the L’Arpin hotel, where she found a job and a free stay until they can afford an apartment. Sadie starts to hear and see things at the hotel. The staff at the hotel are acting strange, people and things are going missing. What is it that she keeps seeing slithering around the hotel?

This creature feature was a little slow going at first but then picked up. What caught my attention was the synopsis of this book as well as the cover. I just wish the first half of the book was as action packed as the second half.

Thank you NetGalley and St.Martins Press for the ARC

The story and creepy crawlies were an interesting concept. I wish there had been more exposition on how they're there and why, even just more background or a flashback chapter from the main baddie would've made that ending much more interesting.

I didn't care for the main characters at all. Sadie and Izzy grated on my nerves constantly. Everyone else felt aggressive for no other reason than to make Sadie sympathetic because of her situation.

Deliciously creepy. Had me listening for weird sounds in my house while reading it! This made fantastic use of real world horror and supernatural horror, as well as the places where they intersect.

Having a wet, damp hotel is already creepy enough. Mold and mildew might be in dark corners, or maybe it's slithering little tentacles waiting to turn you into some monster straight out of The Strain. The Cut is giving vibes of Cuckoo, Slither, and mostly A Cure for Wellness. While I enjoyed the novel overall, it left me with questions, from plot to character development. One big one was the author seemed afraid of abortion. Not once was it ever even conceived as a option, even to immediately dismiss it. No money, no home, already have one kid, and to top it off: it's the baby of your abuser?

Another was the lack of connection to the water. How was it discovered? Why hasn't it expanded if the little monsters are in a lake as big as Lake Erie? What do mayflies have anything to do with it? I think that could've definitely been expanded upon since it feels so uneven.

I wanted this one to really creep me out - creatures and all. But instead I found myself exasperated with the main character and completely done with the toddler. There were a few plot points that kept circling around for no apparent reason. Maybe they were meant to convince the reader that Sadie deserves rooting for…maybe. I simply could not connect. All in all, I kept thinking about The Simpson’s Movie and the creatures in there…

Thank you NetGalley, St Martin’s Press, and author CJ Dotson for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Checking into L’Arpin Hotel is not recommended. Not because the people are strange (they are). Not because the amenities are lacking (they are). Not even because the carpets have seen things no carpet should ever see (oh, they have). The horror in C.J. Dotson’s “The Cut,” is relentless and undeterred by a do not disturb sign or sock on the door knob. Full of unease, devoid of trust, this novel is insidious and sticky, and has a cover that should be considered a warning. “The Shining,” meets “Rose Madder,” meets The NoSleep subreddit meets acid in this paranoia-steeped, atmosphere-stifling slice of hotel horror. Thank you St Martin’s Press for my ARC, this one is available for check-in from April 8th, and will have you exhausted for long after check-out.

We follow Sadie who has decided to take her daughter, and get them far away from her abusive ex Sam. The vacancy at L’Arpin Hotel is perfect. It’s a suitable distance away from Sam, straight-forward enough work, and, at least until she can save up enough to rent an apartment, she can live there for free. You’d think her life, having been derailed, would finally be back on track, and for a matter of hours it is. But. Something is not right about L’Arpin hotel. Missing colleagues, a lying supervisor, distorted CCTV. What was initially a fresh start quickly reveals itself to be a fresh hell.

Personally, I’m not sure that I gelled entirely with Sadie as a protagonist. Whilst her relationship with her daughter was well written, and I sympathised with her throughout, I did find myself on occasion questioning her logic. Having said that, I still deem “The Cut,” to have some of the best character work I’ve read in a good long while. I was immediately drawn to the character of Gertie, who provides a level of comic relief throughout and sharply juxtaposes the nature of some of the other folk Sadie encounters. She is a breath of fresh air in a hotel that really doesn’t seem like it’s been aired out for ages.

Two characters had the complete opposite effect- Mr. Drye, a human-shaped raincloud, and Bill Viago, who is fueled exclusively by rage and bad intentions. Dotson more than compensates for any weaknesses in Sadie by surrounding her with a cast of characters that are deeply strange, deeply untrustworthy, and thus, deeply compelling. That distrust is baked into the very fabric of the novel. The mystery element is strong, and I’ll admit the “who” and the “what” absolutely took me by surprise. It’s a slow burn at times, but where the plot eases off the gas, the paranoia, the unease, and the existential dread go pedal to metal. This book had me looking over my shoulder and trusting nobody- it is not to be read, under any circumstances, in a hotel.

The absolute star of the show is of course, unforgettably, unequivocally the creature feature, but I’m saying nothing about that, you’ll just have to find out for yourself I’m afraid.

Would I stay at L’Arpin Hotel? Fuck no. Wouldn’t book a room. Wouldn’t walk into the lobby. Would probably avoid using their parking. I did, however, very much enjoy my brief, allegedly safe literary visit. If you like your horror atmospheric, immersive, and full of dread, you should pick up “The Cut.” That being said, if you value sleeping soundly, trusting your surroundings, or you currently enjoy frequenting hotels without googling whether anyone has died there, perhaps not.

Yikes. This one was not good. The characters were all painfully annoying (why was everyone constantly gaslighting each other?), the dialogue was repetitive and choppy, and I couldn't deal with the toddler. It was almost comical how bad of a read this was. I couldn't stand the overuse of the word stinker. Just a silly and weird read overall.

Woof. Okay. So I really wasn’t a fan of this one. If you’re ready for a super honest review, buckle up.
This book gave 2000’s D list movie on Sy-Fy with maybe a $1,000 budget. The creature feature aspect didn’t really make sense. It was incredibly hard to visualize anything about the setting, the hotel, or the creatures…. Speaking of which, does anyone remember the movie Flubber? Because that’s all I could imagine, except with extra ‘appendages’☠️
The overuse of the nickname ‘stinker’ and said stinker’s response ‘opay’ was tiring. The dynamic between our FMC & her daughter in general was a lot.
The story itself had so much potential. I think the buildup took far too long and then the ending was incredibly rushed. There was too much being revealed while also having an obscene amount of dialogue and action all going on at once.
Every single character felt like they were gaslighting each other. Normally I love gaslighting 😂 but the way it was done here was again, too much.
I feel like if A LOT of the dialogue had been scaled back and more was put into the actual setting, creatures, storyline, etc. I would have been able to rate this higher. The redundancies of so many unimportant pieces made this drag for me.
Thank you, Netgalley for this ebook in exchange for an honest review!

Well, now I'm never staying in anything other than a brand new chain hotel ever again.

While I felt that The Cut drags a bit, particularly with exposition, it has a relentlessly creepy vibe that I liked! There's an immediate sense of wrongness about the L'Arpin Hotel, but not something so telegraphed that you figure it out long before the story is over. The plot kept me coming back - I had to know what was happening in this weird, wet hotel. A hotel should never be wet, and that alone was creepy, but the way the details wove together and you're not sure what information is real throughout made it really frightening.

I also found Sadie to be a realistic and relatable protagonist - while I'm quickly tiring of the "anxious single mom" stock character that has inundated modern horror, Sadie's anxieties are both entirely justified by her backstory and entwined with the narrative in a way that makes her more real than a lot of other similar characters I've encountered. Further, she is depicted as being realistically hindered by her pregnancy and doesn't immediately become a smoothly practiced killing machine when threatened, both of which give her major points from me.

Overall, this was a read that lived up to its spectacularly creepy cover art.

Sadie starts working (and hiding) at L’Arpin Hotel to escape her abusive fiancé. With her young daughter in tow and a baby on the way, her nerves are raw wires. Maybe that's why everything at L’Arpin seems strange. The dark hallways. The missing guests. And the constant drip, drip, dripping of water. The longer she stays, the more paranoid she becomes. Is there a reason to be, or is it all in her mind?

I loved this book! There were some serious Overlook Hotel vibes. The hotel is full of eccentric characters. And the constant damp and dripping water was unnerving, even as a reader. Maybe that's why I got so sucked into Sadie's paranoia. Everything was a little off, but not in a way that is easily recognizable. At times, I was truly terrified for Sadie.

This is solid 5-star cosmic horror read for me, and I will definitely be getting the audiobook upon release.

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Escaping an abusive relationship, a pregnant Sadie runs away with her young daughter and accepts a job as part of the housekeeping staff of an old hotel. Not only will the job provide her with money to start over, but it also gives her and her daughter a place to live while she gets back on her feet. It seems perfect, until strange things start happening at the hotel, and Sade realizes she may have made a mistake.

I loved this book! It’s genuinely creepy and the author does a great job with making you feel the slow dread that is settling on Sadie. The writing is descriptive enough to help you visualize the hotel and many times I realized I was almost holding my breath for what would happen next.

I’ll definitely be recommending this book and appreciate the opportunity to read in advance!

The Cut by CJ Dotson is a raw, gut-punch of a story that dives headfirst into small-town secrets and the chaos they leave behind. Every chapter keeps you hooked, peeling back one disturbing layer at a time like a scab you can’t stop picking. If you’re into dark, messy thrillers that get under your skin, this one’s worth it.

I was intrigued by the premise of this one but unfortunately the actual story fell short of my anticipation. I found the characters and subsequent plot to be quite flat and disinteresting. Ultimately I could have finished it but I didn't have much to say about it.

I requested this one because it might be an upcoming title I would like to review on my Youtube Channel. However, after reading the first several chapters I have determined that this book does not suit my tastes. So I decided to DNF this one.