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BOOK REVIEW: ‘The Sun Down Motel’ is an Eerie, Haunting Mystery

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The Sun Down Motel

The Sun Down Motel by Simone St. James is out this week from Penguin Random House and it’s a must read for fans of mysteries with a supernatural edge.

Set in both 1982 and 2017, the story revolves around a woman named Vivian Delaney who disappeared without a trace while working the night shift at the haunted Sun Down Motel in Fell, New York in November of 1982. It’s a strange town that has seen more than its fair share of murdered women, and the inquisitive Viv had been digging into the cases before her disappearance much to the chagrin of law enforcement.

Thirty-five years later her niece, Carly Kirk–born long after her aunt’s disappearance–has traveled to Fell to once and for all find out what happened to her aunt.

She rents Viv’s old apartment, and before long, has taken a job as the night clerk at the Sun Down Motel. She, too, discovers quickly that the motel is not only strange but it is also filled with terrifying spirits who won’t be silenced.

St. James weaves Viv and Carly’s parallel stories together perfectly, creating ties from the past to the present that are not only plausible but undeniably compelling. Moreover, the transition from 1982 to 2017 and back again is never jarring.

The author draws her readers carefully, step by step, into her world–coaxing us to trust her–only to reveal at the last possible moment that it has been a trap all along.

What I like most about The Sun Down Motel, however, is St. James’s attention to character. Every character in the novel, including the ghosts, have a fully realized story. They are real. They are flawed, and the absence of a single one could easily have toppled the house that she was building here.

That same attention to detail is applied to the motel itself.

Motels have always seemed a uniquely American establishment. Built along highways as an oasis for cross country travelers, motel is actually a portmanteau of “motor hotel” as they generally consist of a single building made up of rooms whose doors open out into a parking lot.

While their more “upscale” hotel cousins have often been given the ghost story treatment in horror settings, motels have been relegated almost entirely to slashers and physical violence.

St. James cleverly says, “Well, if the second happened, then surely the first is possible” and in doing so creates a haunting more violent than The Shining and at times, more chilling than Hill House.

Taken together, this creates a story that blends and blurs genre lines and gives readers a story that will creep under your skin and plague your mind long after the final page is turned.

Do you like suspense? How about gore? Are you a fan of ghosts and the supernatural? Are you the reader whose brain is working overtime to solve the mystery before the characters do?

If you answered yes to any of these questions, then The Sun Down Motel by Simone St. James is a must-read novel for you. Fair warning, be prepared. Once you take her hand, she will not let it go until the very end.

The Sun Down Motel is available in multiple formats on February 18, 2020. Pick up a copy and prepare for a time-jumping, bone-chilling read you won’t soon forget.

 

iHorror also recommends: TRUE CRIME by Samantha Kolesnik

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‘Alien’ is Being Made Into a Children’s ABC Book

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Alien Book

That Disney buyout of Fox is making for strange crossovers. Just look at this new children’s book that teaches children the alphabet via the 1979 Alien movie.

From the library of Penguin House’s classic Little Golden Books comes A is for Alien: An ABC Book.

Pre-Order Here

The next few years are going to be big for the space monster. First, just in time for the film’s 45th anniversary, we are getting a new franchise film called Alien: Romulus. Then Hulu, also owned by Disney is creating a television series, although they say that might not be ready until 2025.

The book is currently available for pre-order here, and is set to release on July 9, 2024. It might be fun to guess which letter will represent which part of the movie. Such as “J is for Jonesy” or “M is for Mother.”

Romulus will be released in theaters on August 16, 2024. Not since 2017 have we revisited the Alien cinematic universe in Covenant. Apparently, this next entry follows, “Young people from a distant world facing the most terrifying life form in the universe.”

Until then “A is for Anticipation” and “F is for Facehugger.”

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Holland House Ent. Announces New Book “Oh Mother, What Have You Done?”

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Screenwriter and Director Tom Holland is delighting fans with books containing scripts, visual memoirs, continuation of stories, and now behind-the-scenes books on his iconic films. These books offer a fascinating glimpse into the creative process, script revisions, continued stories and the challenges faced during production. Holland’s accounts and personal anecdotes provide a treasure trove of insights for movie enthusiasts, shedding new light on the magic of filmmaking! Check out the press release below on Hollan’s newest fascinating story of the making of his critically acclaimed horror sequel Psycho II in a brand new book!

Horror icon and filmmaker Tom Holland returns to the world he envisioned in 1983’s critically acclaimed feature film Psycho II in the all-new 176-page book Oh Mother, What Have You Done? now available from Holland House Entertainment.

‘Psycho II’ House. “Oh Mother, What Have You Done?”

Authored by Tom Holland and containing unpublished memoirs by late Psycho II director Richard Franklin and conversations with the film’s editor Andrew London, Oh Mother, What Have You Done? offers fans a unique glimpse into the continuation of the beloved Psycho film franchise, which created nightmares for millions of people showering worldwide.

Created using never-before-seen production materials and photos – many from Holland’s own personal archive – Oh Mother, What Have You Done? abounds with rare hand-written development and production notes, early budgets, personal Polaroids and more, all set against fascinating conversations with the film’s writer, director and editor which document the development, filming, and reception of the much-celebrated Psycho II.  

‘Oh Mother, What Have you Done? – The Making of Psycho II

Says author Holland of writing Oh Mother, What Have You Done? (which contains an afterward by Bates Motel producer Anthony Cipriano), I wrote Psycho II, the first sequel that began the Psycho legacy, forty years ago this past summer, and the film was a huge success in the year 1983, but who remembers? To my surprise, apparently, they do, because on the film’s fortieth anniversary love from fans began to pour in, much to my amazement and pleasure. And then (Psycho II director) Richard Franklin’s unpublished memoirs arrived unexpectedly. I’d had no idea he’d written them before he passed in 2007.”

“Reading them,” continues Holland, “was like being transported back in time, and I had to share them, along with my memories and personal archives with the fans of Psycho, the sequels, and the excellent Bates Motel. I hope they enjoy reading the book as much as I did in putting it together. My thanks to Andrew London, who edited, and to Mr. Hitchcock, without whom none of this would have existed.”

“So, step back with me forty years and let’s see how it happened.”

Anthony Perkins – Norman Bates

Oh Mother, What Have You Done? is available now in both hardback and paperback through Amazon and at Terror Time (for copies autographed by Tom Holland)

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Sequel to ‘Cujo’ Just One Offering in New Stephen King Anthology

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It’s been a minute since Stephen King put out a short story anthology. But in 2024 a new one containing some original works is getting published just in time for summer. Even the book title “You Like It Darker,” suggests the author is giving readers something more.

The anthology will also contain a sequel to King’s 1981 novel “Cujo,” about a rabid Saint Bernard that wreaks havoc on a young mother and her child trapped inside a Ford Pinto. Called “Rattlesnakes,” you can read an excerpt from that story on Ew.com.

The website also gives a synopsis of some of the other shorts in the book: “The other tales include ‘Two Talented Bastids,’ which explores the long-hidden secret of how the eponymous gentlemen got their skills, and ‘Danny Coughlin’s Bad Dream,’ about a brief and unprecedented psychic flash that upends dozens of lives. In ‘The Dreamers,’ a taciturn Vietnam vet answers a job ad and learns that there are some corners of the universe best left unexplored while ‘The Answer Man’ asks if prescience is good luck or bad and reminds us that a life marked by unbearable tragedy can still be meaningful.”

Here’s the table of contents from “You Like It Darker,”:

  • “Two Talented Bastids”
  • “The Fifth Step”
  • “Willie the Weirdo”
  • “Danny Coughlin’s Bad Dream”
  • “Finn”
  • “On Slide Inn Road”
  • “Red Screen”
  • “The Turbulence Expert”
  • “Laurie”
  • “Rattlesnakes”
  • “The Dreamers”
  • “The Answer Man”

Except for “The Outsider” (2018) King has been releasing crime novels and adventure books instead of true horror in the past few years. Known mostly for his terrifying early supernatural novels such as “Pet Sematary,” “It,” “The Shining” and “Christine,” the 76-year-old author has diversified from what made him famous starting with “Carrie” in 1974.

A 1986 article from Time Magazine explained that King planned on quitting horror after he wrote “It.” At the time he said there was too much competition, citing Clive Barker as “better than I am now” and “a lot more energetic.” But that was almost four decades ago. Since then he’s written some horror classics such as “The Dark Half, “Needful Things,” “Gerald’s Game,” and “Bag of Bones.”

Maybe the King of Horror is waxing nostalgic with this latest anthology by revisiting the “Cujo” universe in this latest book. We will have to find out when “You Like It Darker” hits bookshelves and digital platforms starting May 21, 2024.

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