By Rachel Harrison
This book is about Julie, who goes missing for two years only to reappear with no memory of what has happened to her. It is also, moreso, about her friend, Elise, who refuses to lose hope the entire time Julie is gone. Elise refuses to believe she is dead during the funeral, when her other close friends tell her she needs to talk to a professional, and when she is alone and scared in her apartment at night. She is proven right. Or is she? Is it really Julie that came back? If it isn’t, what did?
After Julie returns, Elise and their two close friends from college, Mae and Molly, decide the four need to get together “like old times”. Their reunion takes place at a remote, fancy inn, in upstate New York. Each room is based off a genre or author from fiction. The collected and calm manager of the inn becomes more harried and frazzled as their stay continues. Odd smells and suspicious fluids coupled with the disappearance of staff and guests doesn’t take an astute reader to piece together what is happening.
Julie, who begins the stay as an emaciated shadow of her former self, seems to regain her strength and robustness with each day. The same cannot be said of her teeth as they continue to fall out. She is also seen gorging on raw meat. Though remembering every instance of their friendship, she seems altered and strange. She really wants to get Elise alone to “explain” things.
This book is satisfying. It is a twisted, if predictable romp through dark hallways of an inn and the mind. The reader is forced to ask how far they would go for a friend and what is true friendship? Also, what makes one life “worthy” and another not?
Pros & Cons & Potential Spoilers
Pros
- Interesting monster premise- one I have not encountered before
- Evolution and growth of friendship
- The Inn
Cons
- Some predictability
- Relationship between Julie’s husband and Elise, whether innocent or not
- Monster always waiting in the shadows trope at the end