Review: “The Sun Down Motel”

“The Sun Down Motel” by Simone St. James was all over my Instagram feed last year, so I finally gave in and read it. It was … OK.

The premise is interesting. Carly travels to upstate New York to find out what happened to her aunt, Vivian, 35 years ago. Vivian, the night clerk at the Sun Down Motel, went missing during the middle of her shift. After Carly’s mother dies, the young woman uproots herself to move to Fell, NY, to solve this family cold case. Oh. And the motel is SUPER haunted.

This book was a struggle for me. It’s written in an unconventional format. The perspective shifts between first-person (when told from Carly’s point of view) and third-person (when told from Viv’s point of view). The perspective flipping is complicated even more as we hop from past to present and back again. I found it to be a little disorienting and hard to follow at times.

I did really like the mystery that spanned decades. Did Viv run away? Was she murdered? Is her disappearance connected to a string of other murders in the area? The murder-mystery thread that connects our protagonists definitely kept me on my toes.

Which is why I don’t understand the ghosts? The primary plot is enough on its own, so the addition of the supernatural element seemed … too much. The potential serial killer and the nearly abandoned motel are creepy and unnerving enough. Throwing in ghosts was unnecessary. The only reason for the haunting, in my opinion, is to propel readers through the ending in a haphazard attempt to fill in plot holes.

That being said, however, I didn’t hate this book. If you’re looking for a creepy, female-driven mystery, “The Sun Down Motel” checks that box.

3 out of 5 stars