I really liked the idea of this book, but the execution fell flat for me. I couldn’t really get in to it and felt like parts of it didn’t make sense.

The Cut grabbed my attention instantly from the cover, I love a good creature feature and this one didn’t disappoint. Thanks to Macmillan Audio and NetGalley for the audiobook in exchange for my honest review. Superb performance by the narrator making it that much more enjoyable.

The story follows Sadie a pregnant single mom fleeing from an abusive relationship who ends up working at a sketchy old hotel. If you creepy books with sci-fi elements, strange neighbours and things that go bump in the night you’ll want to check this out. My only complaint is that Sam didn’t suffer enough imo lol he deserved much worse.

The Cut sets up an eerie and unsettling premise: a woman escaping an abusive relationship finds herself in a deteriorating hotel where guests go missing, shadows slither in the halls and trash, and the manager seems to be hiding something sinister.

The story moves at a crawl, and feels sluggish. The mystery is intriguing, and the elements of horror can be chilling. Sadie’s struggle as a survivor is compelling, and her situation is heartbreaking. Her choices often feel frustrating, and her internal monologue can be exhausting. I think there could be more action to engage the reader.

That said, one thing that shines is the audio narration. The narrator’s performance adds atmosphere and tension that the book sometimes fails to maintain. The eerie whispers, subtle voice shifts, and emotional delivery bring some much-needed depth to Sadie’s character. I highly recommend the audiobook, as the narration elevates the material significantly.

Thank you, NetGalley and Macmillan Audio, for the opportunity to review and provide my honest feedback.

⭐️⭐️⭐️

That book was so different. I expected it to be scary. It was more mysterious. I did like the creepy feeling you got while tying to figure things out.

The kid in this book really got on my last nerve. I have a toddler so I can definitely say that she angered me.

The love of a mother was written very well.

I was instantly hooked from the first chapter but towards the end the plot leveled out. The end was very bland IMO.

You do get some closure but it was left open.

Sadie and her 3-year-old daughter, Izzy, are on the run from an abusive relationship when they wind up in a small town along Lake Erie where Sadie has secured an interview for a housekeeping job at the L'Arpin Hotel. But Sadie quickly realizes that their newfound freedom might not be as safe as she thought when things start to go bump in the night at the hotel, guests and employees disappear, and Sadie herself is attacked by something strange with tentacles.

This one had a lot of promise, but I'll be honest - I found the characters kind of annoying. Izzy, in true toddler fashion, is very particular about her name, which Sadie specifically calls out. However, Sadie spends most of the the book calling Izzy 'Stinker,' which is only occasionally a problem for Izzy. I also felt like the book was lacking momentum by about the 50% mark, and didn't really pick up again until the last 10-ish%. However, once it did pick up, and the truth behind the monsters was revealed, I really enjoyed the remainder of the story.

The reveal was interesting, and the lake monsters were unique, but I did feel like the big reveal was rushed, and I would have liked for the author to spend more time explaining the backstory behind the monsters.

I listened to this one on audio, narrated by Jenn Lee. She did an excellent job creating unique voices for each of the characters, as well as adding to the creepy vibe when necessary. My only complaint was during the scenes with whispering, her voice was so quiet, I almost couldn't hear her anymore and had to adjust the volume.

Read if you like:
Single mother
Creepy atmosphere
Haunted hotel vibes
Lake monsters
Single POV

An easy-to-pick-up horror slow burn, In recent years I've seen quite a few novels modeling after the film The Babadook, where the anxiety and psychological pressure of being a troubled single parent with young children is intensely explored in parallel with out-of-ordinary incidents (Let Him In by William Friend is another recent example), and it is difficult not to compare. While the human story is a little being-there-done-that (even the protagonist's daughter, who can be interpreted as being on the spectrum, is similarly set up/utilized as the son in Jennifer Kent's film), I do enjoy the historic hotel + Lake Erie setting, and the finale does offer the campy, adrenaline-filled intensity that makes the buildup prior worthwhile.

Overall, The Cut is not as shocking and intense as its provocative cover art (the scene does happen, but the in-you-face moments are far more sparse than one would expect from a book with such cover), the character and plot progression are within familiar territory (the antagonist-in-disguise is VERY obvious from the get-go), and some suspension of disbelief is required to overlook glossed over details, but the writing is smooth and appropriately moody, and as an audiobook it is very easy to listen to. Not a must-read, but still a decent time nevertheless.

I really liked this. This was fast paced and interesting with a great mc. She felt extremely realistic in the situation she was in. I was rooting for the mc and her daughter the whole time. While I did find the ending pretty easy to guess I always say it's not always about the ending but the journey and this was one heck of a journey! This was fun and I really enjoyed it overall.

This was a bit predictable. But overall okay to listen to. Not my favorite thriller, but it might be for some people!
I appreciate the opportunity to listen to this!

If you enjoyed the movie "The Faculty" you will enjoy this book. Overall book was good. It was mostly predictable but still good at the same time. It had some slow builds as well.

The Cut was definitely entertaining! I wasn't expecting it to be as humorous as it turned out to be, but I guess my sense of humor might be different from the author's intentions. I found the monsters to be quite hilarious, even though I believe they were meant to be genuinely horrific and gory.

That said, I’d still be interested in seeing this adapted into a film — I think it could be even more engaging in that format.

On the downside, the pacing did feel slow in parts, and I felt the character development was lacking. It could have used more depth to really connect with the characters.

Overall, it’s a solid read.

Thank you NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for the chance to listen to this book in exchange for my honest opinion.

This book is the definition of a slow burn. Slow burn is not a negative quality because it helps build up to what is going to happen. Sadie is pregnant running from her abusive fiancé and comes across a hotel next to Lake Erie where she and her 3-year-old daughter can reside, and Sadie can work. Sadie starts to notice strange things happening and thinks she is seeing monsters. The book really picks up about 3/4 of the way in and there is a lot of creepiness going on. This was a good read.

READ IT IF YOU'RE INTEREST IN OR LIKED
- Supernatural/Paranormal horror
- Hidden secrets
- Creepy hotel
- Domestic thriller
- Creature feature
- Domestic violence situation
- High stakes single mom MC

BRIEF REVIEW
If publishers are just looking for storylines that start out with a direction and purpose but then add a bunch of other subplots I'm definitely not going to ever be "big time" published. Again it started off with so much promise. It had moments of being gross. So. Much. Potential. Oh and if you're ever pregnant DON'T stay or take a job in a hotel.

I really wanted to like this book. The cover and description pulled me in. Unfortunately that’s pretty much where my interest ended.

I listened to the audiobook and the Izzie character was so annoying. I know she’s just 3 years old but she is so whiney! The story had potential but it dragged on and the horror part was missing for the most part, until the ending. That fell short for me as well.

I gave it 2.5⭐️ but rounded up to 3.

Thank you NetGalley and MacMillian Audio for an advanced copy.

Super creepy atmosphere, haunted house/hotel vibes. This story follows a single mother trying to protect her daughter. Reminded me of Lock Every Door with the creepy and shady people and things happening around. The hotel residents are sketchy, weird unexplained noises, major reading with the lights on vibes!

I feel it started strong, but got repetitive and a little cheesy in the end. I was engaged, but it just fell flat for me and I didn't feel invested in the characters by the end.

This was a drawn out horror audiobook. I feel like not a whole lot happened for the better part of the book. Something would happen, and then it would go back to a whole lot of nothing.

Once it did pick up though, towards 75% percent, it was a decent horror. I don’t tend to enjoy “monster horror” where someone creates monsters for the “betterment” of humanity. For this one however, I did enjoy listening to it unfold.

I do like the narrator, she has a calming voice. I listened at 1.5x.

This audiobook could have been shorter by an hour or so, and still have the same story. But all in all, it wasn’t bad.

3.5/5. Thank you to C.J. Dotson, Macmillan Audio, and Netgalley for the audio ARC/ALC.

The first half or so of this book was a lot of fun. Sadie, a pregnant mother of a toddler escapes her dangerous home life by heading to the L'Arpin hotel right on Lake Erie. She gets a new job as a housekeeper and starts to navigate her new normal - hoping that it is just a temporary delay to a final normal. But something is strange about L'Arpin. People go missing, she starts to see things, and something is definitely in the water. It's up to her to try and keep her small family safe while dangers - human and otherwise - lurk in the dark.

In the second half, the writing dragged. Repetition took over, and though small amounts of new mystery seep in, nothing seems to really move until the last quarter or so. And even then, it comes so quickly and resolves so unsatisfyingly that it loses some of the sparkle. Did Sadie make the smartest choice? Yes. I think so. Is it the most entertaining for readers? No. I wanted that final confrontation. I wanted to see more discovery And how it ends, that very last "page" (last few minutes), seems very haphazard.

I will be honest: I did not like Sadie. I appreciated that the author tried to make her a realistic mother, but from the first time she left her with a hotel guest she barely knew, I was thrown off. She seems to get herself into trouble, and even at the end of the book, ignores warning signs. And while Izzy is cute, the whining was too realistic (so, I guess, kudos to the narrator!). Some of the side characters were more palatable, but no one I really connected with.

Overall, the book wasn't bad, but just not my type. I think the pacing should have been evened out more and the climax full of more excitement than, say, running me over with a bulldozer...

The Cut: A Novel by C. J. Dotson, is the story of Sadie, who in an attempt to escape an abusive relationship, ends up at the L’Arpin Hotel. Almost immediately, we get a sense that not all is what it seems at this hotel.

Initially the story starts out well, but ultimately I could not connect with any of the characters. The narration by Jenn Lee was ok, until you got to that Sadie’s daughter. There was a lot of repetitive language in the book, leading to a level of sophistication of a YA novel. This was my first experience with this author, and while I was not a fan of this book, there is enough here to have me try another by this author.

Thank you to Macmillan Audio for the opportunity to read this eARC. All opinions are my own.

Rating: 3 stars
Pub Date: Apr 08 2025

Tags:
#MacmillanAudio
#TheCut
#CJDotson
#JennLee
#YarisBookNook
#netgalley

I received an early copy of this book for review through NetGalley for an honest review. Thanks guys!

Sadie's life isn't exactly where she wants to be. Newly pregnant and the mother of an outgoing toddler she is fleeing her abusive fiancé. She is sure she finds a suitable landing place in L'Arpin Hotel, a historical hotel nestled on Lake Erie where she secures both a housekeeping gig and a free room. Little does she know that while she's running from one danger, she's running straight into another.

I was really excited for this one, but it kind of just fell flat for me. A lot of it was very... conflicting.

The opening prolouge absolutely hooked me - I feel like Dotson has a really solid understanding of how to write horror. Her description of something lurking in the water and the sinking realization that you're not safe was wonderful. I just wished that energy kept up.

A lot of the book was slow. I don't know if it was the third person aspect or the writing, but it took a lot for me to really connect with Sadie and to care. Other characters like Izzy, her energetic toddler, and Gertie, the elderly busybody living in the hotel, felt full of life and interesting. But seeing the world through Sadie's eyes just was.... Tedious?

This is part of why I am so conflicted because I feel like Sadie's grappling with her abusive relationship and how she will escape it feels real. That paranoia that behind every tree, around every corner, could be that person you're running from was well done. I could feel the urgency. But it also felt like her instant paranoia on the water was very plot convenient. IT happened not because it actually made sense but because it needed to for the story.

The middle of the story dragged out for me. I got halfway in and thought I should have been close to finish. That’s how slowly it felt like things built. I actually feel like this book would have made for a much better movie to resolve some of these issues. A lot of time was spent explaining subtle vibes or the monsters. The monsters and their behavior were intriguing, but the written word was not the best way to convey it.

The last rush where all the secrets came out was exciting. The twist was unexpected for me, so that was a nice surprise. All in all, though, I was generally underwhelmed. I didn’t hate this book, but I was also happy to be done with it.

I would like to thank NetGalley, Macmillan Audio, and C. J. Dotson early access to the audiobook version of the novel The Cut by C. J. Dotson.
First off oh boy does the cover of this novel make me uncomfortable. I almost didn’t request it because it gave my Slither vibes, and that movie is a big NO for me. Luckily, I pushed on, as I am always looking for new horror books to recommend to my patrons.
I am always a fan of a good creepy hotel story, something about them always catches my attention, and this one was no different. The focus of the story is a single mother, Sadie, on the run from an abusive ex with little to no options available for her and her toddler. This is how the two come to stay, and work at L’Arpin, a historic hotel that might be hiding a thing or two in its walls.
I liked the depiction of gaslighting that is shown throughout the novel or well the attempt to gaslight That was one aspect of Sadie’s character that I liked. She would not let anyone dissuade her from what she sees or knows as fact. One aspect I hated about her character was the lack of discipline she showed her daughter, who made me want to pull my hair out any time she spoke. She even mentions that she will have enough time when the kid is older to fix her behavior, but for the time being she can’t be bothered to.
The rest of the main plot was kind of predictable. I figured out most of it early on but stuck around for the icky imagery. I honestly wouldn’t mind a prequel that explains how the hotel came to be and the early exposure to the horrors within.
I will give this a 3/5 because while the plot was ok, the monsters and their depictions were very memorable.

Dang, I was really excited for this but it didn't hold up to my expectations.

The narration wasn't the problem, Jenn Lee did a great job—this story just fell super flat. I wasn't interested enough to keep listening and wouldn't have had this not been for NetGalley.

{Thank you to CJ Dotson, Jenn Lee, SMP & MacMillan Audio for the ALC in exchange for my honest review!}