Hi everyone. I'm rincey and this is
rincey reads. Today I'm going to be doing
a book review on the sundown motel by
Simone St. James. So this is a suspense
slash horror kind of novel. It's a ghost
story. And in this story you are
following two different storylines. The
first one is set in the early 1980s and
you are following Viv Delaney. She has
recently decided to leave her home. She's
like college age approximately. And she's
decided to leave her home, leaving behind
her mother and her sister because she
doesn't really get along with any of
them. And she basically tells her mom
that she's going to leave to go to New
York City in order to become an actress.
However instead of ending up in New York
City, she ends up in the small town in
New York called Fell. And she ends up at
the Sundown motel. She was like
hitchhiking and realized she was in a
not great situation. So she basically
just like got out and ended up at the
motel. And she originally gets there and
plans on just like staying the night and
figuring out her plans from there. But
then the owner of the motel was like at
the front desk when Viv shows up and
tells her that she's allowed to stay
there free of like rent as long as she's
willing to work the night shift. And so
Viv ends up staying in town and working
the night shift. But as she's working
there, she realizes that not everything
is quite on the up-and-up at this motel
in a variety of ways. Then one day she
disappears. The other storyline that
you're following here takes place in
modern day. I think the date in here is
like 2017, but you know basically
modern day. And you are following this
character named Carly. Carly's mom just
recently passed away and she has decided
to head to Fell, New York to figure out
whatever happened to her Aunt Viv. She
didn't realize that she had this aunt
until recently. Her mother never talked
about her really. But she found out about
this aunt and then realized that she had
gone missing and no one really knew what
exactly happened. And so she decides to
head to Fell to figure out what exactly
is going on. And once she gets there she
ends up basically becoming friends with
a girl who lives in an apartment complex
and also ends up taking the night shift
job at the Sundown motel. And while she
is trying to figure out what 
exactly happened you know 30-plus years
ago, she realizes that there are some
weird things going on at this motel. So
I read broken girls by Simone St. James
I think back in like 2018 and I enjoyed
that book. I thought it was really
interesting. That one is also historical
fiction and modern fiction sort of mix
because there is a past storyline and a
present storyline and it has to do with
like boarding school type of situation
in Vermont. And that's a book that has
like a little bit of a ghost
element woven into it but it's not like
a full-on ghost story.
This one is a full-on ghost story. And I
went into this book pretty blind.
I didn't really pay attention to the
synopsis even really. I mean, I paid
attention to the synopsis but I wasn't
really paying attention to what other
people were saying. But I had seen like a
general vibe of like positive reactions
to this book. And again, I liked broken
girls, which is why I got this one from
Book of the Month as well. And I didn't
realize that this one would be leaning
even more into ghost story side of
things. And originally when I first
started reading this book, I was a little
bit hesitant because I wasn't sure how
that was gonna vibe with me because I'm
not really a horror reader.
I actually got along with it pretty well.
It's one of those things where you just
kind of have to go along with it no
matter where you fall in the spectrum of
believing in ghosts. You kind of just
have to buy into the fact that ghosts
are thing in order for this to work. But
I have to say that this book really
freaked me out but it wasn't the ghost
stuff that freaked me out. This genuinely
has like some really suspenseful moments.
It's suspenseful enough that I had to
put the book down because I could feel
sort of like my anxiety growing. I was
also reading this book a lot at night, which
I did that like multiple days in a row.
And every time I would get to a part
that was like really suspenseful or even
like had to do with the ghosts and was
like a little bit creepy, I would be
like why am i reading this book right
now? This was a terrible idea.
But at the same time, I didn't stop
reading it because the book was that
compelling to me. I wanted to know how
this was gonna wrap up. I wanted to know
what happened to Viv.
I wanted to know what was gonna happen
to Carly, if she was going to survive all of the
stuff that was going on. I just overall
really enjoyed this book a lot. But I
will say that it did give me a little
bit of anxiety. So if you are in a
situation right now where you can't
really handle that extra anxiety, then
maybe don't pick up this book. But if you
can handle it / you are ok with it,
then I think that this is like a really
intriguing book. Obviously like the
ghosts part of this story is sort of
leading to this larger discussion. In my
opinion, really good horror does this
thing where it's basically like creating
a space to make commentary on certain
things in society. And I think that this
book does that particularly well. It's
not subtle by any means what is
trying to say here. But it does have to
deal with the way that women are treated
in our world. Both Viv and Carly are
these young women who are living in
these small towns and the way that
they're viewed or just ignored. There's a
lot of discussion in here in terms of
like the general anxiety that women feel
and single women specifically feel
existing in the world and the way that
they are constantly warned about the
terrors that are happening around them,
and what they should be suspicious of
and what they shouldn't be suspicious of,
and the way that they're supposed to act
around certain people in certain
situations. All of that is commented on in this book
because that's partially what the story
is about. Viv and Carly, in both timelines,
are young women living on their own,
working these night shifts and facing
these dangers that in other situations
if they were men they probably wouldn't
be in these situations and things like
that. I have a feeling that the ending of
this book is going to be very like hit
or miss with people. There are certain
like twists and reveals that happen
towards the end of the book that
personally I really enjoyed. I think it's
partially because like I was so sucked
into the story, I didn't spend a lot of
time trying to guess what was going on.
They do start to like slowly give hints
of things that are happening and that
can kind of lead you in the direction
that this book is going. But overall I
really enjoyed it. I will say like the
one thing I will knock this book for is
because this book is told in dual
timelines, you'll see like things occur
in Viv's life and in Viv's
timeline and then you'll basically
watch Carly in like the next chapter
put all of the pieces together in order
to figure out that event that you had
just read about. And it can sometimes
feel a little bit repetitive because
you're basically just like rereading or
rediscovering the same information. And I
do realize like you kind of have to go
through that because you have to show
how Carly is figuring out all of the
stuff that you had just learned. But it
did feel a lot of times that you are
like doubling up on information or
you're just rereading information that
Carly is just figuring out for the first
time. It does feel like there's a lot of
those situations where the reader knows
more than Carly does and you're like
having to wait for her to figure it out
for a lot of the chapters. But it does
put a lot of things into perspective as
well in terms of like the way that
victims of crimes are written about and
talked about. And how you can very easily
assume that you know what's going on
but unless you were actually there you
don't really know what was going on. And
how like people think that like just
because you read a news report about a
certain situation that you know all the
truths. So it does provide a little bit
of that contrast. But I can see like
some people getting really annoyed of
the fact of like having to see Viv go
through something and having to like
relive that exact same scene except
through Carly's eyes. But yeah, overall I
give this book a 4 out of 5 stars.
I think this is the kind of like horror
that I can handle because it's pretty
grounded in reality. And the ghost parts
and the horror parts felt very like in
the background, until it's like not
really in the background anymore. So yeah,
I feel like if you're someone who
doesn't read a lot of horror, this is
like a good borderline sort of book to
dip your toes into the water if you are
interested in reading some horror books.
Because this is really like suspense
horror and the ghost story part is like
a good kind of in-between of like true
horror book. But I do feel like I should
mention the fact that this book does get
like scary and violent and intense at
times. But yeah, I think for me like the
mystery in the 1980s storyline was like
so fascinating to me that that was
really what compelled me and the 2017
stuff or the modern day stuff wasn't
quite as compelling to me. Although I did
want to see what had happened to Viv. But
I found that like what Viv was doing in
a flashback storyline to be the most
compelling part of this book. So yeah,
those are my quick thoughts on the
Sundown Motel by Simone St. James. Let me
know down in the comments below if
you've read this book, what your thoughts
were on it. Or as always if you have any
questions about this book feel free to
leave that down in the comment section
as well. So yeah that's all I have for
now and thanks for watching.
