The Sun Down Motel
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4.3 • 873 Ratings
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
Something hasn’t been right at the roadside Sun Down Motel for a very long time, and Carly Kirk is about to find out why in this chilling new novel from the New York Times bestselling and award-winning author of The Broken Girls.
Upstate New York, 1982. Viv Delaney wants to move to New York City, and to help pay for it she takes a job as the night clerk at the Sun Down Motel in Fell, New York. But something isnʼt right at the motel, something haunting and scary.
Upstate New York, 2017. Carly Kirk has never been able to let go of the story of her aunt Viv, who mysteriously disappeared from the Sun Down before she was born. She decides to move to Fell and visit the motel, where she quickly learns that nothing has changed since 1982. And she soon finds herself ensnared in the same mysteries that claimed her aunt.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
Freaky, unnerving, and otherworldly, this mystery is unpredictable from start to finish. Carly Kirk is grieving the death of her mother when, on a whim, she travels to the small town where her aunt Vivian disappeared decades ago. Determined to uncover the truth about Vivian’s story, she begins imitating her aunt’s life, right down to taking the same job at the same run-down motel where she vanished. Jumping back and forth between 1982 and 2017, The Sun Down Motel descends with Carly down the rabbit hole as reality slowly slips away. If this is your first book from master of suspense Simone St. James, it definitely won’t be your last. This is creepy, page-turning stuff.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
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.
Customer Reviews
Binge Worthy
The author did a phenomenal job of telling one story through two perspectives. Throughout the book, the reader should find themself in awe of how well the author pieces together two timelines. This book was impossible to put down thanks to the suspenseful storytelling.
Now after finishing it, I find myself wanting to discuss the reading with anyone else who read the book!
Thank you Simone St. James for this book as it reignited my passion for reading!
Very engaging “ghost” story
Great story told from two time periods and by two women thirty-five years apart.
A must read!
It’s often hard for me to find a book that really catches my interest. It didn’t take but a few pages of this book to draw me in. Very well written & all questions answered by the end of the book. A 10/10! Best book I’ve read in years!!