I enjoyed the idea of this book. I’m rating three stars because I feel like there were a lot of different parts to keep up with. I found the character development to be intriguing. I loved that it gave slight 1408 vibes, which was a favorite horror movie of mine as a teen.

An engaging thriller/horror audiobook! The main character is a paranormal investigator with a psychology background. A string of haunted-object cases leads her to a much bigger case that gets very dangerous and very personal when she discovers that it all might be connected to her sister’s tragic death years ago. Meanwhile, an online gossip columnist is out to prove that our MC is a fake. Oh, yeah, and her ex-boyfriend is stalking her.

Lots of spooky sh*t and dRaMa here, and I ate it up, even if I did have a hard time figuring out exactly how all the pieces fit together. It was a bit challenging keeping track of some of the side characters, but I loved the main ones—and loved to hate the MC’s haters.

I did not have a print version of this book while listening, which is NOT my preference. I would rather listen AND have the text to refer to as needed. Still, Ina Barrón’s narration competently carried me through the experience of this book solo, and that’s saying something.

Full review posted on Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/7253072898

The Haunting of Room was 904 starts off with a supernatural bang and it rarely lets up. Taken to the famously haunted Brown hotel in Denver to investigate deaths that happen there, Olivia is soon deeply enmeshed a type of horror few could imagine mulch less experience. This book surprises and scares and provides a palpable and visceral fear for the reader to experience. Few books know how to really haunt…. This one nails it.

Everything about this audiobook is so well done. With such a large array of characters, narration could be tricky, but narrator, Ina Barron nails it- she gives each character a clear voice and perfectly portrays the encroaching fear and terror. Can’t wait to see what Wurth does next.
Thank you to @netgalley and @flatiron_books for this audio arc!

Thank you to @flatiron_books for the eARC and @macmillanaudio for the gifted audiobook!

What an interesting and twisty novel! I loved the supernatural aspects and the vivid characters. This book kept me entertained and engaged throughout. I loved the story of a sister fighting for answers for her beloved sister and the supernatural and practical mysteries to unravel. This was a great fast-paced read and I’m excited for Erika T. Wurth’s future work!

I was excited to read this book as I really enjoyed White Horse. I liked the concept but felt like the book was a bit all over the place at times. An interesting read,

"There is no escaping your bloodline."

THE HAUNTING OF ROOM 904 by @erikatwurth uncovers a mystery buried through history. Thank you to the author, @netgalley and the publisher @macmillan.audio for the audio-ARC. #macaudio2025

👻👻👻

Olivia, a paranormal investigator, has been hired to help solve the mystery at the Brown Palace hotel where a woman is found dead in Room 904 every 5 years. Olivia is highly motivated to crack the case since her sister was one of the victims of 904. The key to understanding the mystery lies within an ancient box cloaked in Jewish folklore. When Olivia realizes that the spirit locked in the box is a two-spirit Cheyenne killed long ago in a local massacre, she knows this is much bigger than her sister and those found dead in Room 904.

This book was filled to the brim with heritage, folklore, and the mistakes and cruelties of the past. The characters were fully formed and flawed and the setting is spooky and full of puzzles. The collision between the hotel and Olivia's own life was intriguing and there were so many important discussions regarding race, xenophobia, heritage, and white nonsense (great Karen vibes with the journalist harassing Olivia!).

There were two things I struggled with in this book. I didn't love the attraction/love interest between Olivia and Dorian, her sisters ex. There is nothing that will make a person immediately unattractive to me faster than knowing they have been with my siblings so this was hard to go with for me. I also wanted more about the cult Olivia's sister was involved in that lead to her early death. But these are personal gripes and certainly shouldn't keep you from checking out this interesting haunt.

The idea of this story is what made me excited to read it, however, I did not enjoy my time reading. It fell short of my expectations. There was a lot going on and many pieces of the story didn't feel connected. I did enjoy the narrator, as they did the best they could with the mediocre writing. This one wasn't for me.

Olivia Becente was never supposed to have the gift. The ability to commune with the dead was the specialty of her sister, Naiche. But when Naiche dies unexpectedly and under strange circumstances, somehow Olivia suddenly can’t stop seeing and hearing from spirits.

This audiobook was narrated by Ina Barron, who did a wonderful job. Her voice was clear and her characterizations never pulled me from the story.

While I did enjoy the story, I felt the pacing was a little off and there were places I simply lost interest.
I love any story that involves native Americans, and those that do not why away from the mistreatment of all Natives from the colonist who thought that had some claim or right to land. Adding that history and what should be obvious anger from the ancestors was a great premise for a haunted room story
I was able to feel and care for the main character, Olivia. I understood her pain and grief over her lost sister, but I'm not sure I could as calmly deal with those who were responsible, directly or indirectly.

The slow build is not what I usually like, and I did struggle with it but I won't condemn the book for that. Everyone likes a different level of horror and a more sedate pace then I do. Just be aware the build is slow.

Published date Mar 18, 2025
Thanks to @netgalley and MacMillan Audio for the opportunity to read this eArc in exchange for my honest and unbiased opinion.

Thanks to Flatiron Books and NetGalley for this audiobook arc.

This is my first experience with the author, and I really enjoyed it. This is like a mix between ghost hunting and being a ghost medium, with Olivia having not only the sight, but abilities. She’s like a paranormal detective but also a kind of spirit weaver. The novel opens with her solving a few lesser incidents to get your blood flowing, but they all end up coming back in connection.

When hired to investigate room 904, Olivia is facing far more than just a simple haunting. The room is the place where her sister was last seen alive, before she took her own life, and it’s believed that this is directly linked to the haunting itself. Every year like clockwork a woman checks into the hotel, whether or not they try to lock up room 904 tight, without fail, three weeks later there’s another death. And Olivia’s investigation is hit with another layer of desperation when she finds out her mother has been to the hotel…

The in between is filled with a couple of repetitive beats, where she is struggling back and forth with solving the mystery. There are some shared locations that made it feel like similar things were happening. But I was a really big fan of these small sections at the beginning of chapters that served as little advertisements for different ghost hunting equipment. And as my version was narrated, it added almost a comedic beat to break things up. What was kind of strange to me though, was how much research must have gone into the equipment, when the items themselves take a serious backseat in the story. The author mentions that they are there, or that they are using them, but then it always defaulted to Olivia reaching out with her powers anyway.

The novel deals with indigenous mistreatment and culture erasure, not only in its past plot line of a massacre, but also in the way those around Olivia speak and treat her. There’s this incredibly nasty journalist after her, and she is a great example of the way people speak about American Indians in a way they feel they can claim is not a racial commentary. And I found this not only informational, but a good facsimile for readers of what people actually have to deal with. A solid first read for me.

I loved White Horse so much and was so excited to read this one! This book is definitely creepy and creates an atmosphere that sucks you in immediately and makes you question the reality of ghosts. Mysterious deaths, culty activity, and betrayal keep you glued to the pages until the shocking conclusion.

Ina Barrón narrates and does such a wonderful job bringing all the characters to life. Her voice is perfect for spooky stories and I was able to binge this one quickly thanks to her performance.

I really enjoyed the overall story, but felt that the writing itself was very choppy. I really really loved the Native mysticism and the representation. I loved the idea of the story itself, but the way it was written pulled me out of the experience a little bit. This could be because I listened to the advanced audio, rather than reading it.
Thank you to Netgalley, the Publisher and the Author for the opportunity to read and review this prior to publication.

The haunting of room 904. If you love ghost hunting , you will enjoy this book. This book will take you on a wild adventure through haunted items to solve the mystery of why can’t the massacre Indians can’t rest

This was an absolute ride of an audiobook! I loved Wurths White Horse, and The Haunting of Room 904 was another slam dunk. I was invested the whole time, spooked at the right times, and ready to fight a few men! This was campy enough, without being too much, and I loved all of the subplots as well as the main story.

I loved the premise of this book. The idea of a woman who sees the dead and uses it to help people with hauntings. Cool. Right up my alley. The execution was not at all even, though There was a lot of down time and uninteresting moments. The characters are fairly flat and simple and the who in who-dun-it was very obvious from the first second.

I've seen so many good reviews online but I think this one just wasn't for me. I did enjoy the narrator and the overall premise of the book, but it wasn't memorable for me. I do appreciate the diversity of the book and the supernatural elements but it didn't hit for me as a whole.

I had high hopes for The Haunting of Room 904—the premise sounded eerie and full of potential. A haunting, a mysterious past, and the promise of tension-filled suspense should have made for a thrilling read. Unfortunately, the execution just didn’t work for me.

The biggest issue I had was the pacing. It felt incredibly slow, to the point where I struggled to stay engaged. I kept waiting for the story to pick up, for something truly gripping to happen, but it never quite delivered the level of excitement I was hoping for. The atmosphere had promise, but the lack of momentum made it difficult to feel fully immersed in the haunting elements.

While I can appreciate a slow-burn horror novel when done well, this one just didn’t hold my attention. If you enjoy more methodical, drawn-out ghost stories, you might have a better experience with this book. But for me, it just wasn’t the chilling, edge-of-my-seat read I was looking for.

DNF @ 50% - With a summary that sounded right up my alley, I am unfortunately super disappointed. There are no transitions in the writing leaving it in a stagnant bland pace. The tone of the writing feels very YA and the dialogue feels pulled from a straight to DVD movie about how adults interact with each other. I am not one to usually dnf things as there’s always the possibility for positive turnaround in the end, but I truly cannot bring myself to care.

If you’re looking for a bingeable book, you can stop your search and just go ahead and pick up The Haunting of Room 904 👏👻

Our main character Olivia is probably not the typical paranormal investigator, having spent a lot of her adult life pursuing academia. But everything changes when her sister, Naiche dies. We’ve got cults, ghosts, and a whole lot of history that comes together in a sad, layered plot.

I finished the audiobook in 24 hours. Ina Barrón is a fantastic narrator and Erika T. Wurth is a wonderful plotter and storyteller. The pacing was perfect and there were a lot of twists and turns that kept you on your toes. This story has a lot of heart, one that’s broken but trying to heal by bringing buried or conveniently forgotten truths to the surface again for acknowledgment.

We’re also gifted well-rounded side characters, some you’ll wish were your friends and others, well… you’ll see.

Even if you don’t consider yourself a horror fan, I think you’d love this. It’s mysterious with horror elements that are based in reality. It’s a book I wish I could read for the first time again, but I’m grateful I still have White Horse to read.

I was so ready for an eerie read that would freak me out. Alas, this wasn’t that read.

The storytelling style felt… analytical? That’s the word I keep coming back to. I don’t know how else to describe it. I was never scared or even on edge.

The characters lacked the spark of personality necessary to keep me invested. We’re told a lot of things, but we don’t necessarily see these things in the characters’ interactions. Also, the dialogue often felt juvenile. I mean, I can’t envision any time in which my mother would ask me if I’d “boned” a guy. Ugh.

The audiobook is narrated by Ina Barrón, who does a fantastic job. Her style reminded me of Julia Whelan, who is one of my favorites.

*Thank you (and apologies) to Macmillan Audio for the free audiobook download!*

Nicely written with just enough to keep someone interested without being overwhelmed with the feeling of impossibility. As someone who will always be torn on paranormal or not, the reality or not. I found it very interesting to be able to see how it could be twisted into our lives and a part of a persons everyday life without even realizing it. The Native American culture has so many intricate parts and stories so that this was able to include one and give not only the back story but show how it could impact our current world.

I also greatly enjoyed the mystery aspect. One of those “who is the bad guy and who isn’t….then to turn around and be like oh wait I had that wrong!” Aspects. Those are always fun and keep things interesting. A bit predictable, but not so predictable that there couldn’t be other options or that you just don’t want to read it. In the end I’m glad she did right by her people, the mystery was solved and no one else has to die in that room