The Sun Down Motel

The Sun Down Motel

  • Downloads：5792
  • Type：Epub+TxT+PDF+Mobi
  • Create Date：2020-02-25 04:11:41
  • Update Date：2025-09-07
  • Status：finish
  • Author：Simone St. James
  • Environment：PC/Android/iPhone/iPad/Kindle

Editor Reviews

11/18/2019

In this engrossing supernatural thriller from St. James (The Broken Girls), 20-year-old Carly Kirk sets out from her Illinois hometown determined to find some answers 35 years after her aunt Viv Delaney vanished while working the night shift at a seedy upstate New York motel. What Carly discovers fairly rapidly in decaying Fell, N.Y., where she signs on for the not surprisingly vacant graveyard slot at the spooky Sun Down Motel, is that she may be tackling a much bigger mystery—the never-solved cluster of murders of local young women preceding Viv’s disappearance. It’s a puzzle her aunt may also have been trying to solve. St. James approaches the chilling central conundrum from dual directions, alternating stretches of Carly’s investigation with flashbacks to Viv’s nightmarish experiences at the haunted motel. Suspense mounts as both characters put themselves in peril. Though the story’s spectral aspects may strike some as heavy-handed, there’s no doubt about the shocking, satisfying denouement. Horror fans will also want to check this one out. Agent: Pamela Hopkins, Hopkins Literary Assoc. (Feb.)

Publishers Weekly

Reviews

Kristi_thebookfaery ，

The Sun Down Motel by Simone St. James is quite possibly one of the best suspenseful ghost stories I’ve read in a long time. It jumps right in to the action and suspense, creating an eerie atmosphere combined with a chilling murderer and creepy things that go bump in the night. "Come on in the building seemed to say with its jagged up-and-down lights, its blue and yellow neon cheeriness. Get some sleep. Take it easy until the sun comes up again. And if you see someone sitting at the end of your bed, pay them no mind. That's just one of my secrets. And I'm not going to tell." Welcome to The Sun Down Motel located in Fell, New York. It’s 1982 and young Viv has started as night clerk to fund her dream of becoming an actress in New York City. But something just isn’t right at The Sun Down and as Viv digs deeper, she discovers the history it holds is ominous and dark. The night it all ended, Vivian was alone... She felt like crying. She felt like screaming. She felt sick. "I don't want to go in there. But I will. Because I always do." Jump forward to 2017 and 20-year-old Carly arrives in Fell, looking for answers to her Aunt Viv’s mysterious disappearance 35 years prior. A disappearance that was never solved and no one in Carly’s family ever talked about. Carly takes a job as The Sun Down Motels night clerk, the very same job her aunt held and starts to look for answers. Cleverly written in alternating timelines, The Sun Down Motel is so compelling I had a hard time putting it down. The characters are beautifully well-written and developed; I quickly became invested in their plight and worried for their welfare. The weaving of the paranormal into the story is done brilliantly and just so freaking creepy that I had chills for most of the book. This is a must read for any fan of thrillers, suspense, mystery, and a good ghost story! A big thank you to Netgalley, Berkley Publishing Group, and Simone St. James for providing a DRC of The Sun Down Motel in exchange for my honest review.

Stephanie Burdo ，

A real page-turner

QuirkyCat ，

The Sun Down Motel is Simon St. James’ latest novel, a paranormal thriller worth reading (and remembering. We’ve all read the story of a girl gone missing – this is that story, but with several dramatic and surprising twists. Carly has spent her whole life knowing that her aunt went missing one day. Even though this is an aunt she never got to meet – Carly is determined to solve the 35-year-old case. She needs the close. But more than that, she is enraged at the idea of her aunt just being forgotten so easily. That anyone could go missing and not be found. Or even searched for. Viv Delany had big dreams for herself. She wanted to get away from home. Maybe even get all the way to New York City. Instead, she ended up in Fell – a small town in the middle of nowhere. But there’s something captivating about Fell, even, or perhaps especially, considering the mysteries and murders of the area. “It wasn’t fair that Vivian was forgotten, reduced to a few pieces of newsprint and nothing else.” Warnings: The Sun Down Motel has a lot of typical thriller elements. But some are especially worth noting/warning about. There’s kidnapping, rape, and murder all within these pages. The Sun Down Motel was an intensely brilliant read. It has been a long time since I’ve read a paranormal thriller, and I had honestly forgotten how much I love them. So for that reason alone, I am truly grateful for this novel. But don’t worry! There are plenty of other reasons to love this novel as well. I promise. This is a tall full of mystery, intrigue, deception, and righteous rage. The town of Fell has been rife with mystery – from murdered girls to missing women. There’s a lot of tension in the air, and Carly is about to add to it. You see, Carly’s character is actually somebody that many of us can empathize with. She’s well and truly angry at the idea of anyone going missing, especially when nobody really bothered to look for her. She’s tired and hurt, and looking for resolution. There’s something poignant in her journey, something that I personally resonated with. I know that I’m not the only one that will feel that way, which is why I’m recommending this book so heavily. The Sun Down Motel is broken into two perspectives, set 35 years apart from one another. One is the story of Viv Delany – the aunt that goes missing. The other is obviously of Carly. Seeing the events unfold in this manner, bouncing back and forth each chapter, allowed for a steady buildup, as well as some creative twists along the way. Everything I’ve mentioned so far is enough to make this an interesting thriller. But I haven’t touched the paranormal elements. That’s part of what made this novel so unique – the inclusion of ghosts. It certainly made the run down motel a whole lot more interesting. It also added a fair amount of obfuscation, which was surprising – but very well done. I really enjoyed reading The Sun Down Motel. I can honestly tell you that I haven’t read anything like it in quite some time – though that is something I intend to fix. I foresee a whole lot more paranormal thrillers in my future.