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.

The story blends paranormal and heart-pounding suspense to keep the readers engaged throughout the book. Our FMC, Olivia, explores the lengths we'll go to for the ones we hold dear. It begins with Olivia's unsettling inheritance of her sister Naiche's gift, the connection to the spirit world. Olivia is not just chasing ghosts; she's navigating the aftermath of her sister's death. She is trying to right the wrongs of the past. In her quest to honor her sister's memory, she connects the reader on an emotional level and anchors the supernatural elements in the relatable human experiences of grief and guilt.

As the story unfolds, Olivia's investigation into the Brown Palace Hotel's history of unexplained deaths of women in room 904 takes center stage. Olivia's sister happens to be the last woman found dead. Olivia begins to unravel her sister's secretive life with a cult, which puts her into a dangerous web of deception, betrayal, and long-buried truths. Olivia must find a way to break the curse to save her mother and the buried secrets of her sister's death. Olivia's connection with her sister transcends death, and their bond becomes a powerful force driving her actions. The pacing is electric, balancing emotional depth with edge-of-your-seat suspense. Every revelation, whether encounters with restless spirits, confrontations with a vindictive journalist determined to expose Olivia's secrets, or the betrayals of those closest to her, tugs Olivia deeper into danger. It flows with narratives rich in emotional intensity, powerful and historical stories of the supernatural, and yet profound human loss through generations.

The audio performance added to the overall reading experience and gave the FMC a strong voice and personality.

I received an ARC audiobook for my honest review. Thank you, NetGalley and Macmillan Audio.

I liked the Native and Jewish representation. I think that was done very well. I felt like way too much was happening within the plot. Like too many side plots and it all felt rushed and sometimes unfinished. I also wish the description would’ve made it more clear that her sisters death was technically a suicide, and it was very uncomfortable/odd to repeatedly refer to it as “she suicided”. Review posted on instagram

I listened to the audio version of this book. I thought it was done well. Ina Barrón was a great narrator choice. She did a nice job bringing these diverse, well-built characters to life. If you enjoy tense paranormal thrillers with horror elements, I recommend checking this book out. This was my first book by Erika T. Wurth, but it won’t be my last! Thank you NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for providing me with an ALC in exchange for an honest review.

This is the second book I have read by Erika T. Wurth, and it was every bit as fabulous as the first. This book got me from the start with the main character, Olivia, purchasing possessed items online or helping people who have such objects. Olivia has the ability to see and hear spirits, just like her sister had. The story unfolds as we learn that Olivia' sister, Naiche, has died under strange circumstances. (Again, you have me hooked.) This book intertwines sad and horrifying indigenous events with the paranormal. I completely devoured this book, and look forward to reading more by Wurth in the future!

The Haunting Of Room 904 by Erica T Worth, I listen to the audiobook narrated by Ina Barone, who has a very relaxing yet awesome voice for this type of story. The story is about Olivia, who on the night of her Doctoral graduation found out her sister committed suicide and she has been living with the trauma and guilt of it ever since, but that isn’t the only change in her life. She has also due to her sisters demise gain the ability to speak to the dead and experience their thoughts and emotions something she has turned into a business along with her best friend Alejo/Alejandro. Lately the haunting she’s been called to,. Has something to do with her and her sister‘s death but what it is she cannot quite figure out. When the hotel where her sister died call asking for her help to intervene on the haunted room where her sister was found. Olivia doesn’t know if she wants to do it or not. but you soon realizes if she wants the answers to her sister‘s death and the strange hauntings she’s been called to. She’s going to have to take the job and it will change her life forever. I really really love monster stories, and when the golem came to life, I was so super excited. This was such a great book. I love the fast paste narrative. all the crazy stories that were in the main story like the one about the hotel the Wolfman the really isn’t much negative. I can say about this book. I do think Olivia was made out to be almost like a supernatural person with her life partner being gay Alejo, whose name kept changing in the book from Alejo to Alejandro and that was annoying. I found it odd that the only people she knew were lesbians and I found Sarah to be such a job. I would not bring her to any escape room haunted intervention and don’t know why Olivia did Olivia seem like a much smarter person than that but I digress in my last complaint is stalker. Josh seemed like a cartoon character and not a real person. Other than that, I really really like this book I do want to say, however in the book she states that Christians Catholics and white people only believe in God and Satan and I must disagree. There are many colors to white people; there’s Muslim white people, buddhist, Wicken, in every religion in between. To say that every white person believes in Christianity… I do, but I am one person and there are many others that don’t. Some people don’t believe in anything. sorry for my tiny rent, but generalizing is a pet peeve of mine and I wish it didn’t annoy me so much when people say one group of people do an absolute when that is impossible. This book was great. I definitely recommended that was just one small sentence that I made into a mountain. I apologize. Read the book or even better listen to the audio version. #NetGalley, #McMillanAudio, #EricaTWorth, #TheHauntingOfRoom904,