Dr. Olivia Becente, psychologist and Denver’s top paranormal investigator, is called to The Brown Palace where a string of mysterious deaths keep occurring in one of their rooms, room 904. Dealing with the grief from the loss of her sister and her own personal ties to room 904, Olivia takes on the mystery that nobody else—police, private detectives, mediums—is able to solve; every five years, a woman dies in that room, whether by suicide or homicide, nobody can tell.

It has been over two years since we, as readers, were blessed with Wurth’s White Horse, a novel that sat with me so deeply and introduced me to Wurth’s writing—thank god for that. In The Haunting of Room 904, readers are met with the same foreboding tone and haunting atmosphere present in her last novel. If you’re looking for a paranormal horror set in Colorado with deep native history, you need look no further than this. 


Unfortunately, this story got too bogged down in details and it interrupted the narrative flow. Even still, though I didn’t love this book as much as White Horse, it remains an interesting read that I would recommend trying for yourself. I greatly enjoyed the audiobook narration performed by Ina Barrón but I think because of names and details, a physical copy is necessary for full enjoyment. This would be a perfect dual read—audio and physical in tandem.

Thank you Macmillan audio for the early copy in exchange for an honest review Available Mar. 18 2025

I've read [book:White Horse|60652964] (loved it), and I've read some of Wurth's short stories, and I mostly enjoy what I read. But this story was so... stuttering? I don't know how to describe it as anything other than a series of vignettes, sometimes alternating between the past and present.

I just had a hard time getting into this, because I kind of loved the way it started as a series of monster-of-the-week sort of situations. I saw a review that referenced the Friday the 13th tv show and I totally see what they meant with all the supernatural objects and magic lol But don't take my lol as directed at the content of this story - this is a dark, angry novel. Bad thing after bad thing comes for Olivia and it is so relentless that I had to take a break and start a new audiobook to clear my mind while listening to this.

The narrator, Ina Barrón, does a great job tbh, I don't know I'd have been able to finish this story otherwise (because it's a lot).

I can see this book being divisive. Being familiar with this author I wasn't surprised by the content or any of the themes, it was just...relentless.

Stuttering and relentless, those truly are the best words to describe this book.

I didn't hate it though!

Good...but not great. Best parts were the inclusion of all kinds of humans! Spooky but in a normal way.fans of Grady Hendrix and Stephen Graham Jones will enjoy this and recognize similar themes.
Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC.

Paranormal thrillers aren’t usually my genre of choice, but The Haunting of Room 904 completely blew me away. From the first chapter, I was hooked.

The story follows a mystery set in a hotel room with a dark past, blending supernatural with mystery. The characters were well-developed and the plot kept me on edge and flipping pages well past my bedtime. Even though it’s out of my usual reading preferences, I couldn’t stop reading.

If you love a story that keeps you guessing, gives you chills, and delivers a satisfying ending, The Haunting of Room 904 is a must read. It might even convert you into a fan of paranormal thrillers like it did me!

This was such a good book. I loved the story and the writing so much. The characters were great and the story flowed smoothly. Will definitely read more books by this author in the future.

I wish I had more specific feedback for this one but it just didn't hit for me. I expected (based on the title and description) a creepy story and other than maybe one or two scenes it just never got to even remotely creepy or scary. It was also just kind of odd and distracting that the nice big hotel is called 'The Brown Palace'-- what a terrible name for a nice hotel (or even a crappy hotel to be honest). Maybe there is some sort of reference I missed but it nagged at me the whole book and the combination of blah characters and not scary ghosts became a bit of a struggle to finish.

I listened to the audiobook of this, so maybe that's why it was a little confusing in some parts, but I did enjoy the paranormal activities and the story. Most of the characters were likeable and I did want to know how the story ended. A little let down by how quickly it wrapped up, but again that could be the audiobook and not the book itself.

I have been talking about this book to other horror readers and I have been describing The Haunting of Room 904 as “true and deep horror.” A am a huge fan of Wurth’s first novel, White Horse, and her second novel did NOT disappoint.

Olivia is an indigenous paranormal investigator, who begins to become personally haunted by the spirit of her sister, a dark entity, and a medicine woman. Dark spirits circle Olivia as she investigates a cult, a haunted hotel and desperate restless spirits who were massacred by white European settlers.

Olivia is great character, with levels of regret and distrust, love and pain, and a deep pride in her heritage and culture while withstanding racism and ignorance. I would love to see a series built around her character! The scenes of her clients and their haunted items were deeply terrifying and as each item keeps linking back to her sister and the cult, Olivia is pushed to her limits trying to save her mother, her friends and herself.

This story twists and turns and builds and builds toward a very satisfying climactic scene. Great characters, great dialog and relationships, at turns funny then devastating, heart warming then horrifying. A great read!

Thank you NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for sending this book for review consideration. All opinions are my own.

Okay, so this book was.... well, okay. I didn't love it, but I also didn't hate it. WARNING: MILD SPOILERS AHEAD.

I enjoyed the unexpected addition of Indigenous lore. I also liked the "haunted hotel room" (not haunted HOTEL) setting. The representation of queer characters was also nice. Finally, I found the ending to be satisfactory. Not great or memorable, but satisfactory.

However, the book itself didn't deliver on the spookiness and mystery it promised.

The characters themselves weren't super flushed out, and their dialogue was very... childish at times. The subplot of the controlling ex-boyfriend also didn't add anything for me. I mean, yes, the character played a role, but it wasn't an integral or even an important role really. His interference got the MC's partner arrested, but only for like what I'd assume was 2 pages. (I listened on audio.) It was a bit pointless, and the story could have developed without him.

Additionally, the author didn't do a great job with her transitions. The book didn't flow well. It was like I went from being in one location, and BAM! I'm suddenly in another location. It was... jarring. It made it hard to keep up with the characters for the first half of the book.

I went into the book thinking it was going to be a horror story. It definitely is not that. It's more.... paranormal mystery? And while I'm okay with that, it wasn't what I was hoping for at the time, so I think it affected my overall enjoyment of the book.

As for audio aspects, those were fine. Zero complaints there.

I thought this one was interesting but found it a little hard to follow. It felt like it was a couple of stories wrapped into one.

Olivia is a paranormal investigator. After her sister Naiche dies under suspicious circumstances, Olivia investigates the folklore of a haunted hotel room where her sister died.

The book was full of prejudice, racism and nationalism which became a big focus of the story, and kind of took away from the ghost story.

There was also a lot of indigenous folklore which I found interesting, but it made the ghost story a little too convoluted for me.

Overall, I didn't dislike it but would have liked it more if there wasn't so much crammed into one story.

I thought the narrator did a good job with the book but wonder if I would have done better reading a physical copy at my own pace. I felt like I needed to keep rewinding to keep up with what was occurring in the story.

This was omg so good! I had high expectations but this exceeded them by far.
It was just beautiful. I wanted to listen to an entire series about the protagonist.
Just wonderful! I loved the narration too. More of these please!

This book was so good! I loved the spooky feeling behind most of the book. Olivia’s adventure tied together with all the little facts throughout the book. It was nice to see how everything ended up coming together.

I'm not the biggest fan of this read, but I think I could have enjoyed it more if I physically read the book instead of listened to the audiobook. The narration was great, but also gave the story a different tone than I would have perceived from reading it myself.

Erika T. Wurth has made a book that is equal parts horror thrill ride with a great race against time aspect to it, and a deep reflection on European genocide of Indigenous peoples, our news culture that disregards the importance of truth, and how generational sins can cause all kinds of problems for everyone. This is a funny, scary, and emotional book. I loved every second of it. Also, I listened to the audio for this book, and the narrator is exceptional as well!

Olivia is a paranormal investigator with a unique gift to commune with the dead. When she gets a call from the Browne Palace, to investigate a haunting, Olivia quickly agrees. Every few years, a girl is found dead in room 904, no matter what room she checked into the night before. The last girl to be found in room 904 was Olivia's sister Naiche. Olivia and her team must find what or who is behind the deaths before a new girl is found.

Horror is not a genre I usually read but I did enjoy the Haunting of Room 904. The main characters were fantastic, and I loved the relationship between Olivia and her assistant Alejandro. The audiobook was easy to listen to, but the story could be disjoined at times and took me out of the story. Overall, this was a solid read.

Thank you to NetGalley and MacMillan Audio for the opportunity to review The Haunting of Room 904. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

This is a paranormal story that has so many layers! I enjoyed this book thoroughly and received it as an ARC. The main character deals with ghosts for a living and is trying to free who is trapped in a mirror in a hotel. There is also the Native American piece which I think was done well with the characters. I will definitely recommend this book!

DNF at 15%. I just couldn’t get into this one. I really loved the premise as it kind of reminded me of the old Friday the 13th TV show (haunted objects, not Jason Voorhees). But the opening launched into a really over the top scene with REALLY overdramatic dialogue. I pushed past it, but some of the characters seemed more like caricatures of a stereotype. The brief mention of Alejandro having HIV kind of irked me because it didn’t seem to have any bearing on the story and was just kind of put there for shock value. (It was something to the effect of, “Alejandro had just gotten HIV,” and that was it). As someone who has watched a family member die from AIDS, I felt like that was an opportunity for character development that was squandered. Most of the characters seemed to have little development, and I think that could be because the story was started in the wrong place. If it had started a bit earlier and grounded us in the story more, I may have a different opinion. Also, there was just way too much going on in the first 15%. There was no clear line to follow, so my attention kept wandering. I think there is a lot of potential with this one and it could be a really fantastic story. Maybe with a massive revision and a lot more character development, but as it is now, it’s just not for me.

Huge thanks to Macmillan Audio and NetGalley for sending me this ARC for review! All of my reviews are given honestly!

I don't think this one was for me. From reading the synopsis, I was expecting this to be different than it was. At times, this felt more like a young adult read, which wasn't my favorite. Scenes that I think were written to be scary and tense, lacked that feeling. I did think the narrator did a good job telling this story,

the continuity was lacking as it felt like a collecting of anecdotes. zero backstory or character development. the over arching story was interesting but there were too many interuptions and vague answers.

4 stars

After really enjoying _White Horse_, I highly anticipated this next sinister effort from Erika T. Wurth. Like its incredible cover, this book contains a lot of promise and a satisfying outcome.

Olivia is an intriguing protagonist. There are some fascinating through lines regarding her identity, not just in terms of her relationship to the other realm, but also regarding her attachment to culture, ethnicity, racial categories, and even her family dynamics. Getting to know Olivia was my favorite part of this read, and it's also the central area in which, greedily, I wanted a little more. Olivia's mother and sister are integrally involved (in interesting capacities) in the narrative, so any time they appeared, I wanted to know more backstory and detail and also found myself most engaged.

For the genre, the plot and premise are straightforward and easy to follow, which makes this a great audio option, too. This is packed with solid representation of all kinds (a big draw for me to this author in general) and an ending I really appreciated.

I'm so glad I got to listen to this and look forward to recommending it judiciously (there is a lot of discussion of suicide, so prospective readers' relationship to this content may be the deciding factor in proceeding for some). Of course, I'm already looking forward to what comes next from Wurth.