"The Sundown Motel" Is One Of The Best Novels I Read This Year

The 2020 thriller “The Sun Down Motel” does a lot of things right.  In brings in creepy elements that are closer to a supernatural horror, but without them overwhelming the whole overall narrative to the point it feels out of place. The author Simone St James also heavily uses the 1^st/3^rd person narration technique. Her chapters are long enough to make me feel attached to both narration styles, which sometimes can be a problem with that writing technique. The 1^st/3^rd person narration pick is just a personal presence of mine as a reader but I understand it’s use in the thriller genre.

The story concerns a young women in upstate New York named Viv Delaney in 1982, who stops at a creepy motel , and ends up working there on the night shift. As she works there, she comes across a ton of creepy characters, including a salesman she suspects of being a serial killer of women. The other half of the novel takes place in 2017, where the niece she never met, Carly Kirk, comes to the now run down town in upstate to investigate the disappearance of the aunt she never met. While there, she meets a cute boy, meets a college girl who goes to a local school, and a bunch of older folks who knew her aunt back in the day. She too ends up working the night shift at the Sundown Motel. While the younger folks seem like your run of the mill college kids running around upstate New York, the older folks seem more like your salt of the earth people from the real upstate New York. I was happy to see upstate New York as a setting in a novel, because as someone who lived 10 or so years there, I can tell you it truly an interesting place and very different from down state. It’s the part of New York that isn’t iconic but is instead just a long high way drive up to Canada, and you see some interesting and weird places along the way. This book does nail that.

The ghost elements of the hotel are never too much, but are there, and adds to the creepy feeling of the place, as motels in general have a creepiness to them. The diners and movie theatres and strip malls on the side of the highway also adds to the overall upstate feeling. The pacing did keep me turning pages because I never really knew what exactly made the aunt disappear, nor if her niece was getting any closer to the truth. One of my favorite characters was the older upstate New York cop who knew her aunt back in the day, and wasn’t eager to give off too many details.

This was a excellent thriller, and one of the best books I read this year. I recommend reading it. This book did nail the night shift. Overall, this aunt and niece’s experience as the all night clerks at the Sundown Motel reflect the feeling I had as a all night guard in upstate New York much closer, and nails that creepy feeling of what it’s like to be in a place no one is really thinking about beyond the little corner of the universe you are in. Also the end I didn’t see coming, and it was excellent.

"Ready Player One" is Ready Player Fun as Long As You Don't Take It Too Seriously

 

Solidly fun book if you don't overthink it. Not great science fiction nor great cyberpunk. I would call this book "nerd porn" more than anything. Basically, this book is like if Seth MacFarlane wrote a science fiction novel. Of course, this is a book review, so I'm going to overthink it. That's what you came here for. Some people have complained about the female character being treated like a trophy for the main dorky guy character but what do you expect from a novel called READY PLAYER ONE? You really expect this not to be a male fantasy to some extent? While it doesn't have to be, there's a good shot it will be. I guess the shock it is, is more annoying to me than anything. As for the writing, Ernest Cline is more a fun writer than a good one. He even uses 80s geek references on every other page to pad out the story. If this was a dystopian future, I would think 2000s culture be their old media references by then but I digress. The Easter egg part though is a pretty good goal for the characters. As much as I enjoyed the pop culture references though, it started to become a bit of a storytelling crutch. Like every time Cline needed to pad out the book, he throw in some pro longer pop culture reference to kill a few more pages. Like I don't have enough story and....OH LOOK! A DELOREAN! REMEMBER HOW GREAT "BACK TO THE FUTURE" WAS?! THE IRON GIANT! OH MY GOD! HARRY POTTER! WOW! It's true that a ton of it doesn't make a ton of sense. Wade is dorky, but not to the point he wouldn't have no life, even in the dystopian future he's in. Samantha, the girl he meets online, and falls for, has a birth mark and...that's it. Who cares? They become these good looking avatars, but the way they are described in the book doesn't sound like they are so bad in real life. Doug Walker pointed out in his review that this is even worst in the movie as the actors and actresses are all more than average looking on the attractive scale, so when Samantha calls herself ugly in the movie over a birth mark, it rings hallow. Also, the game created by James Halliday seems like a lot of RPGs online today, and the pop culture references seem like they would be from the 2000s at this point. I love "Back To The Future", but if it was 40 years ago today, it be 60+ years ago by then. I mean, Wade even brings up watching "Family Ties" on the internet, and that's way back. Pretty sure Ernest Cline has a man crush on Michael J Fox. I'm a sucker for these type of references. Just ask my favorite show "The Big Bang Theory", but "The Big Bang Theory" also had characters I grew to care about and watch develop beyond their own little world without ever completely giving it up. When the characters in "Ready Player One" finally grow beyond nerd land, it seems more tacked on then really earned. I'm going to put a spoiler warning here for those who haven't read it so be warned. Don't read beyond this line. Wade gets the girl at the end and never logs into the game again. That's fine, and I actually think it's good when you can ditch some nerdy stuff for a bit more real life, but also, it didn't really seem earned, and you don't just ditch everything you like because you got the girl finally. Contrast that with Leonard from "The Big Bang Theory", who we watch develop confidence to try to get with Penny. He's the stereotype nerd, like Wade, and most nerds really want the same thing. A girl instead of a obsession over comic books. However, Leonard tries to find ways to expand his world to meet the girl half way instead of Wade, who basically sees the girl as a trophy in a VR game. Though "The Big Bang Theory" is a sitcom over 12 seasons, the arc isn't that complicated, and I don't see why we couldn't get that more with Wade in this book. If you want a more intelligent and serious read of the same premise, check out Neal Stephenson's novel "Reamde", also published in 2011. If you want to read a faster book than "Reamde" on the same themes, "Ready Player One" is a good choice. Ready Player One" is 374 pages while "Reamde" is 1,386 pages. Even though by the end, you get a bit annoyed with Ernest Cline and want him to shut up about his geeky obsessions and wrap this up. A sequel to "Ready Player One'' called "Ready Player Two" came out this year, so there you go. However I can see why "Ready Player One" sold a ton more copies. However, "Ready Player One" is fun and quick enough read, with at least something different to it, if you don't overthink it. Three stars. Before I wrap this up though, someone should write a female character driven version of this book. Lets go reader who is inspired by me. I expect a thanks at the end of the book.