Deadfall Hotel
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4.9 • 9 Ratings
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- $3.99
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- $3.99
Publisher Description
This is the hotel where our nightmares go...
It's where horrors come to be themselves, and the dead pause to rest between worlds. Recently widowed and unemployed, Richard Carter finds a new job, and a new life for him and his daughter Serena, as manager of the mysterious Deadfall Hotel. Jacob Ascher, the caretaker, is there to show Richard the ropes, and to tell him the many rules and traditions, but from the beginning, their new world haunts and transforms them.
It's a terrible place. As the seasons pass, the supernatural and the sublime become a part of life, as routine as a morning cup of coffee, but it's not safe, by any means. Deadfall Hotel is where Richard and Serena will rebuild the life that was taken from them...if it doesn't kill them first.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
"No ordinary hotel" but more "a state of mind," the eponymous setting for this haunting dark fantasy from horror eminence Tem (The Book of Days) provides the perfect backdrop for thoughtful ruminations on death and grieving. Richard Carter is still mourning the death of his beloved wife when he accepts a job as new caretaker at the Deadfall Hotel. Once Richard and his adolescent daughter are established there, it becomes clear that the hotel's weird patrons and scary vermin are avatars of death that reflect Richard's inability to accept Abby's demise. Though Richard's strange encounters unfold episodically, they build to a revelatory climax that Tem engineers perfectly. His interwoven reflections on the cathartic value of horror entertainments add considerably to the novel's emotional impact. Gorey-like pen-and-ink illustrations by John Kenn Mortensen perfectly complement the text. Also included is the 1986 short story from which the novel grew.
Customer Reviews
What a beautiful book.
If you find the first half of the book a bit slow, hang in there. Most good books start out slow. This is a horror story, yes, but it also the story of each of us, how it hurts to be a sentient being, and how it hurts to love and be loved. Tem's observations, accompanied by succulent comments, are as good as any of Schopenhauer's.