The Last Chance Hotel
The Seth Seppi series, Book 1
Nicki Thornton
Chicken House
Fiction, MG Fantasy/Mystery
*** (Okay)
DESCRIPTION: Young Seth has no memories of his mother and barely any of his father, once the chef of the remote Last Chance Hotel. People used to come from miles away to the lonely little place in the middle of the forbidding woods just to taste his food. When Dad disappeared, he left Seth behind. Now the boy toils as the dishwasher/cleaner/porter/general lowly servant of the nasty Bunn family who runs the Last Chance. The worst of them is their mean daughter Tiffany, who constantly reminds Seth that he'll never be the famous chef his father was, and he'll never escape the Last Chance Hotel. If it weren't for the grungy old black cat Nightshade, he'd have no friends at all in this desolate place.
When a group of important guests arrives, each more peculiar than the last, Seth sees hope in the illustrious Doctor Thallomius, who treats the boy well despite his lowly status. Maybe, just maybe, Seth has found an ally, someone who could help him escape the Bunns and a future of drudgery. When Thallomius dies at dinner - poisoned, it seems, by the dessert Seth made especially for him - he instead finds himself accused of murder. But the food was fine when it left the kitchen; he tasted it himself. Along with his cat Nightshade, he'll have to figure out who the real killer is if he hopes to clear his name. But things become complicated when he realizes that the guests at the Last Chance aren't just peculiar. They're each magicians, with real magic, and each of them has their own reasons to have wanted Thallomius dead.
REVIEW: The Last Chance Hotel starts with plenty of promise and a decent enough premise, as well as a young protagonist who, right out of the gate, has an interesting gift in his culinary sense and sensitive nose. The nasty Bunns are a too-familiar cliche, particularly the girl Tiffany whose sole motiviation is "big meanie bullying Seth" (the sort of shallow characterizations even picture books have been known to rise above, let alone a full-length story pitched at the lower end of middle grade), but I figured things would flesh out as the story progressed and the worldbuilding unfolded. Unfortunately, the story remained flat and thin throughout.
Seth starts out a downtrodden boy who nevertheless dreams of living up to his father's legacy and restoring the Last Chance Hotel's kitchen to its former reputation... yet his every action is preceded by pages worth of hesitation and cowardice and general indecisive, repetitive dithering. It's unclear how the Bunns came to be his guardians, and it's equally unclear why Tiffany is such an insufferable monster to him... matters which (risking spoilers, here) are hardly clarified at all throughout the entire book. It doesn't help that Seth is an utter blockhead of a protagonist. Not long after the accusation of murder, his cat Nightshade starts talking to him, yet it still takes him several long and tedious chapters to finally clue in to the existence of magic and the magical community. To repeat: His. Cat. Is. Talking. To. Him. Is this not a massive clue, not only to the existence of magic but secrets in the hotel? Apparently not. Seth is the sort of character who needs things explained multiple times before they begin to percolate through his cranium, and even then he tends to backslide and fail to connect dots as he repeats information to himself. (Even then, he has to be reminded of things he actually experienced at more than one point.) It doesn't help that the worldbuilding here is all over the map. The Last Chance Hotel is the sort of place with little to no sign of modern technology, seeming to exist in a nebulous sort-of past where nobody really expects a remote location to have so much as a phone, let alone television or computers or a cell phone signal, the sort of world where a fading magical community can exist even as it fades into obscurity... yet at one point Seth brightly compares a magical artifact to "virtual reality". Huh? Where would Seth have even heard about virtual reality, and how can a world with virtual reality - and associated technology, which would almost have to include some sort of recording devices - forget that magic is a thing? I struggled to really care about such a nebulously sketched world and such a deliberately clueless boy... or, frankly, any of the people surrounding him. (Yes, unfortunately, that includes the cat Nightshade.) Things happen to Seth more often than he actively acts to clear his own name, characters behave suspiciously or ridiculously (often both), Tiffany behaves cruelly because she's a half-note character (not even a one-note character) who makes Veruca Salt from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory seem complex and nuanced, and somehow things work out while leaving threads dangling for future books.
There are some promising ideas and nicely described moments now and again. Seth had potential to be interesting, as did the setting. I did want to enjoy the story. I just couldn't really connect with anyone, or the world the story tried to build.
You Might Also Enjoy:
Serafina and the Black Cloak (Robert Beatty) - My Review
A Wizard's Guide to Defensive Baking (T. Kingfisher) - My Review
Midnight for Charlie Bone (Jenny Nimmo) - My Review
Friday, October 4, 2024
One of Us Is Lying (Karen M. McManus)
One of Us Is Lying
The One of Us Is Lying series, Book 1
Karen M. McManus
Delacorte Press
Fiction, YA Mystery/Thriller
**** (Good)
DESCRIPTION: Bronwyn's been college bound since elementary school, with top grades and top ambitions. Cooper is living his father's dream on the baseball diamond, with interest from colleges and the major leagues even before high school graduation. Addy, homecoming queen, is the envy of half the school as she dates the star quarterback. Nate has a criminal record for drug dealing, but it's the only way to keep the bills paid with his father drowning in a bottle all day and night. Simon runs a gossip app, About That, spreading hurtful rumors that always turn out to be true. All five wind up in Mr. Avery's room for detention on Monday for bringing their cell phones to class... and all of them know for a fact that the phones they were busted with weren't even theirs. Mr. Avery doesn't care; he's just there to make sure they serve their sentence and learn their lesson.
Then Simon drops dead in the middle of the room... and the police suspect foul play.
The four survivors had little in common before the incident. Now, they're all considered suspects. And, thanks to Simon's gossip app and a particularly damning post that was due to be posted on Tuesday, all four of them have sufficient motive. As the police dig deeper and the media catches wind of the story, each of the four suspects wonder which of the others is guilty, or if they're all being framed.
Everyone has secrets in Bayview. Who had secrets worth killing for?
REVIEW: Built on a tried and true formula of mismatched students forced to see each others as people rather than stereotypes (in the vein of The Breakfast Club) with a murder mystery and potentially unreliable narrators, One of Us Is Lying presents a solid mystery with thriller overtones.
From the start, it's clear that each of the four narrators - the viewpoint shifts in each chapter, rotating through the students - has secrets even beyond what Simon spread in his app. None of them like the rumor-monger, yet nobody can deny that, however he gets his information, it always proves out in the end. His app goes far beyond locker room gossip, revealing secrets that crush people and end futures before they begin, and even though he only identifies people by their initials, it's easy for anyone at Bayview High to figure out who is who. Bronwyn, Cooper, Addy, and Nate all have their own reasons for loathing Simon; even if they haven't been targeted directly (yet), they all know people who have been destroyed by his app, such as the girl who attempted suicide after a particularly brutal campaign of harassment. Still, none expected to be seriously considered as suspects in his death. When the police get that bit in their teeth, there's no shaking them, especially when goaded by national press coverage... not even when the investigation turns out to be at least as damaging and harmful as Simon's app, unearthing all manner of skeletons from everyone's closets. Worse, someone seems to have taken up Simon's torch to make sure the entire student body, and the world, knows about every one of those old bones as they're brought to light. Could it be the killer, or one of Simon's unknown informants avenging his death?
During the course of the investigation, each of the targeted teens finds their lives turned upside down. Friends they thought they could rely on disappear. Futures they took for granted disintegrate before their eyes. None of them know whom they can trust, and not even their own families can be relied on to support them; Nate in particular lacks any sort of home safety net, but even Bronwyn's affluent parents seem more interested in preserving their idealized image of their child (and their own reputations) than listening. They each are forced to re-examine assumptions on which they've built their worlds and the people they've surrounded themselves with. Naturally, they end up drawing closer to each other... but is one of them actually a killer, or covering for a killer? They all ultimately have something to contribute to the mystery's resolution, each of them stepping up in ways they'd never anticipated they'd be capable of before the accusations and the upending of everything they believed about themselves and their peers. It all makes for an interesting, fast-paced ride with characters whose actions and emotions always rang true.
You Might Also Enjoy:
Like Never and Always (Ann Aguirre) - My Review
Killing Mr. Griffin (Lois Duncan) - My Review
Don't Even Think About It (Sarah Mlynowski) - My Review
The One of Us Is Lying series, Book 1
Karen M. McManus
Delacorte Press
Fiction, YA Mystery/Thriller
**** (Good)
DESCRIPTION: Bronwyn's been college bound since elementary school, with top grades and top ambitions. Cooper is living his father's dream on the baseball diamond, with interest from colleges and the major leagues even before high school graduation. Addy, homecoming queen, is the envy of half the school as she dates the star quarterback. Nate has a criminal record for drug dealing, but it's the only way to keep the bills paid with his father drowning in a bottle all day and night. Simon runs a gossip app, About That, spreading hurtful rumors that always turn out to be true. All five wind up in Mr. Avery's room for detention on Monday for bringing their cell phones to class... and all of them know for a fact that the phones they were busted with weren't even theirs. Mr. Avery doesn't care; he's just there to make sure they serve their sentence and learn their lesson.
Then Simon drops dead in the middle of the room... and the police suspect foul play.
The four survivors had little in common before the incident. Now, they're all considered suspects. And, thanks to Simon's gossip app and a particularly damning post that was due to be posted on Tuesday, all four of them have sufficient motive. As the police dig deeper and the media catches wind of the story, each of the four suspects wonder which of the others is guilty, or if they're all being framed.
Everyone has secrets in Bayview. Who had secrets worth killing for?
REVIEW: Built on a tried and true formula of mismatched students forced to see each others as people rather than stereotypes (in the vein of The Breakfast Club) with a murder mystery and potentially unreliable narrators, One of Us Is Lying presents a solid mystery with thriller overtones.
From the start, it's clear that each of the four narrators - the viewpoint shifts in each chapter, rotating through the students - has secrets even beyond what Simon spread in his app. None of them like the rumor-monger, yet nobody can deny that, however he gets his information, it always proves out in the end. His app goes far beyond locker room gossip, revealing secrets that crush people and end futures before they begin, and even though he only identifies people by their initials, it's easy for anyone at Bayview High to figure out who is who. Bronwyn, Cooper, Addy, and Nate all have their own reasons for loathing Simon; even if they haven't been targeted directly (yet), they all know people who have been destroyed by his app, such as the girl who attempted suicide after a particularly brutal campaign of harassment. Still, none expected to be seriously considered as suspects in his death. When the police get that bit in their teeth, there's no shaking them, especially when goaded by national press coverage... not even when the investigation turns out to be at least as damaging and harmful as Simon's app, unearthing all manner of skeletons from everyone's closets. Worse, someone seems to have taken up Simon's torch to make sure the entire student body, and the world, knows about every one of those old bones as they're brought to light. Could it be the killer, or one of Simon's unknown informants avenging his death?
During the course of the investigation, each of the targeted teens finds their lives turned upside down. Friends they thought they could rely on disappear. Futures they took for granted disintegrate before their eyes. None of them know whom they can trust, and not even their own families can be relied on to support them; Nate in particular lacks any sort of home safety net, but even Bronwyn's affluent parents seem more interested in preserving their idealized image of their child (and their own reputations) than listening. They each are forced to re-examine assumptions on which they've built their worlds and the people they've surrounded themselves with. Naturally, they end up drawing closer to each other... but is one of them actually a killer, or covering for a killer? They all ultimately have something to contribute to the mystery's resolution, each of them stepping up in ways they'd never anticipated they'd be capable of before the accusations and the upending of everything they believed about themselves and their peers. It all makes for an interesting, fast-paced ride with characters whose actions and emotions always rang true.
You Might Also Enjoy:
Like Never and Always (Ann Aguirre) - My Review
Killing Mr. Griffin (Lois Duncan) - My Review
Don't Even Think About It (Sarah Mlynowski) - My Review
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)