The Sun Down Motel by Simone St. James gave me mixed feelings.
I’d been eagerly anticipating this one for months, especially after seeing SO much love for it from readers and other book bloggers. I was so excited when it came in from my local library just before they closed down because of COVID-19. I was quarantined, but I figured, Hey, I got THE book I was waiting for, so NBD.
Ehhh, not quite.
What’s The Sun Down Motel about?
The Sun Down Motel has two timelines. There’s the 1982 storyline following Viv, who takes a night job at a creepy, run down motel in order to save up for her big move to NYC. Then, there’s the 2017 storyline following Carly, who happens to be Viv’s niece who’s obsessed with finding out why her aunt mysteriously disappeared from the Sun Down Motel decades ago.
It took me awhile to get into the first half of the novel, quite honestly. The two narratives in The Sun Down Motel eerily mirror each other. It’s a good set-up, but it sometimes was difficult remembering which narrative I was reading and which character was telling the story. I was constantly flipping back through pages, going, Wait, who did that happen to? What year am I in? Didn’t this already happ — oh, wait, no, no, that was in the other narrative….
The second half of the book sucked me in, though. And, once a major twist was revealed, I grew way more interested in The Sun Down Motel. After that point, I raced through the book. So, if you find yourself stalling a bit, just keep going. It does deliver in the end.
What I liked about The Sun Down Motel
Okay, let’s get to what I really liked about The Sun Down Motel: St. James is clearly railing against the daily injustice women face when it comes to raising suspicions and allegations against predators, and being taken seriously when voicing their often-valid concerns. It hammers home the message that all women are potential victims, and that what happened to the girls in the story could happen, quite easily, to any woman. It’s all very timely and #MeToo.
I appreciated this grim little message because, unfortunately, it’s true. Women are still fighting an uphill battle against the dangers lurking around dark corners, empty nighttime parking lots, and even public parks on sunny days.
Most of us are lucky — nothing ever comes of the uneasy feelings we get from that guy looking at us just a little too long, a little too hungrily as we pass him on the street. But, some of us aren’t so lucky. The Sun Down Motel is for those girls — the girls who never stood a chance, and the girls who spoke up but no one believed until it was too late.
How scary is The Sun Down Motel?
Since my first introduction to St. James was The Haunting Of Maddy Clare, I was expecting The Sun Down Motel to deliver another bone-chilling ghost story. And, yes, there are definitely ghosts haunting the motel. There’s no doubt about that, and some parts of the book are pretty damn creepy. I mean, there’s a ghost child, and we all know how creepy those can be just by standing there and staring at you, nevermind speaking to you.
While the paranormal activity level in The Sun Down Motel is pretty high, it didn’t quite do it for me. I admit, though, that I’m horribly desensitized, so people who don’t read ghost stories as obsessively as I do will probably be plenty scared by the spooky activity in this book.
For me, though, human nature is always scarier than the supernatural, and that’s the part of this book that freaked me out the most. While The Haunting of Maddy Clare was primarily a ghost story, The Sun Down Motel, much like The Broken Girls, is primarily a murder mystery. The main characters in both narratives are trying to find out what happened to a bunch of murdered girls, so there’s lots of research and sleuthing and piecing together of puzzles across timelines. So, if you’re into all that true crime-detective stuff, this is probably a good book for you. (It will also make you glad that door-to-door salesmen have mostly gone the way of the dodo.)
Should you read The Sun Down Motel?
The Sun Down Motel is a good book; the story it delivers is solid and keeps you guessing. Pick this one up if you’re a fan of Simone St James, though prepare yourself for more of a thriller than a ghost story.
What I do really like about The Sun Down Motel is the overall message St. James conveys through her kick-ass female protagonists and supporting characters. For that alone, I think this novel is worth the read.
