Horror Hotel by Victoria Fulton and Faith McClaren

e-Audio,  06:24:02
Narrated by: Leiana Bertrand, Hannah Choi, Mehr Dudeja, David Lee Huynh, & Keylor Leigh 
Release Date: February 1, 2022
Published by: Penguin Random House Audio Publishing Group
Read from: February 17-18, 2022
Stand-alone
Source: Library’s Libby
TW: Death, Stalking, Serial Killer
For Readers Interested In: Paranormal, The Netflix series about the Cecil Hotel, Thrillers, Short Stories, Realistic Fiction,  YA

   This addictive YA horror about a group of teen ghost hunters who spend the night in a haunted LA hotel is The Blair Witch Project for the TikTok generation.

     When the YouTube-famous Ghost Gang—Chrissy, Chase, Emma, and Kiki—visit a haunted LA hotel notorious for tragedy to secretly film after dark, they expect it to be just like their previous paranormal huntings. Spooky enough to attract subscribers—and ultimately harmless.

     But when they stumble upon something unexpected in the former room of a gruesome serial killer, they quickly realize that they’re in over their heads.

     Sometimes, it’s the dead who need our help—and the living we should fear.

     Underlined is a line of totally addictive romance, thriller, and horror paperback original titles coming to you fast and furious each month. Enjoy everything you want to read the way you want to read it.

*MY THOUGHTS*

When I saw this cover it didn’t matter at all what it was about before I added it to my TBR. I know I have a bad habit of starting my reviews like this because I ALWAYS pick a new book based on the covers lol Sometimes they work and sometimes they don’t. This one was smack dab in the middle.

Ghost Gang is a group of teens who visit different places and hunt the paranormal. They have made their way to their next place, a hotel that’s known for being a bad place to record after dark. But when they get there, they realize there is definitely something they weren’t expecting going on here.

I can’t lie. I checked this out from my job because of the cover lol I don’t even think I knew about this book before I bought it for our Overdrive. (Idk what Underlined is doing, but they don’t know how to market their stuff. Or at least they’re not marketing it to me. I had to find out about this from someone else who worked in a library.) But anyway, this book was really fun. I wanted more ghosts, but that could just be a me thing lol And the ending was bomb. The way they used the paranormal aspects and the medium, I thought that was cool. I’ve never read anything like that and it was hella original.

The characters were all different and all had their own personalities. And because of this, there was so much drama. I wasn’t a fan of the angst this time, but only because when I saw the cover and the title I wanted a horror novel. The drama in this was “we like each other but don’t want to say anything,” “I have nothing been pining over you all this time and you know, but you don’t like me like that,” “I know you don’t like me, but someone else likes you so I’m going to get jealous.” It was just a lot. And I wanted to read a horror book lol

Now the ending was what made me fall for this. It was NOT what I was expecting to read when I started this lol But the way it all came together and told the ending it was boss. That SOB deserved everything that’s coming to them. And I also liked the little epilogue. I love when I see the book’s characters in their future life. This one gives info on those that made it and the changes that they all went through. I don’t remember seeing many epilogues in horror novels. (Maybe because the most of them that I read aren’t series”)

Another thing I liked about the characters was the narrators of this. There was a full cast for this and it surprised me. I didn’t really think it needed it? Especially for a book this short. And I know this is weird because it’s coming from me, the person who basically wishes for all audiobooks to have multiple narrators lol But idk, it didn’t seem to make a difference. I think it still would have been the same if it was with one narrator or more than that.

This whole book was a surprise for me. From what it was and what it was about and everything. But those are sometimes the best ones. And though this one won’t end up on my Best of 2022 list, it will be added to books I like to recommend that has some awesome things like LGBTQ+ characters, paranormal elements, and more. I hope they make another book that shows the Ghost Gang coming back together.

Overall, I give this