I saw this recommended on reddit, bought it on audible and literally the next day zirza panned it on here. Sadly, zirza was right, it’s not great.
A cross between a mystery and a ghost story, The Sundown Motel tells the story of nefarious things happening in the small town of Fell, NY, where Viv Delaney disappears after her night shift at the titular motel in the 80s, while her niece Carly investigates the case in 2017. The POV switches between these two women and slowly the pieces of what really happened fall into place.
Listening to this felt like reading WIP fanfic. The author clearly has good ideas but hasn’t decided which direction to really take them yet, so the story meanders between the different things it wants to be, there are hints of possible subplots that are later completely ignored, and boy is Carly an annoying, not-like-other-girls-I’m-special-because-I-read protagonist.
The crime/ghost story mash-up doesn’t work imo, which is a pity, because individually they’re not bad! The horror elements are really scary and the cases of the missing girls are compelling, but it doesn’t really come together. Seriously, if you saw real freaking ghosts at work, would you go back there as if nothing happened? Or would you run screaming “I just saw some real freaking ghosts at work! Yeah, the Ghostbusters movie wasn’t out yet but get a preacher or something! You just found out that life after death is real! I dunno, maybe that’s just me.
The side characters are mostly cardboard-ish and convenient, the solution is predictable and very unlikely in a small town like Fell, yet not super clear either, at least in the ghost story department.
What I liked about it, in all fairness, was the part where Viv was investigating the murders and the frustration she began to feel at every difficulty that was thrown her way. That felt real, as did the sense of aimlessness that both aunt and niece felt, and how tragedy in your family can alienate you. More of that, less “quirky” roommates who just happen to have some vague “trauma” that’s basically tailored to what you need.