If you've been following this case through the documentary or true crime podcasts, this book does not add anything new. This might be a good jumping off point for beginners or people who want to dip into this case for the first time.

BUT -- the author somehow managed to trail off from the case at least once per chapter and make it about his own mental health struggles and how that was related to the case and his investigating the case. It just wasn't what I picked up the book for and felt unnecessary and like the author was just filling pages.

Based solely on this extract I would not be interested in reading the book in its entirety. It seems to be mainly filler and less focused on the case at hand than it does about meeting a word quota.

As nobody has ever been charged for the murder of Elisa Lam, I also fail to see the morality in making money from a book about a young woman's unsolved murder.

🌈 Review 🌈

A true crime case that still perplexes us is the of Elise Lam. She had been staying at the infamous Cecil Hotel when she disappeared (you may remember the elevator CCTV footage of her that was some what creepy, on YouTube) and was found a few days later in the hotels water tank.

What I enjoyed about this book was the format, loved the little seperate headings though out the chapters, 👌🏼 I loved the attention the author played to the importance of not only Elise’s mental health and mental health in general, but to his as well. What I wasn’t a fan of, and what brought it right down for me, was the repetition, the paranormal conspiracy theories, the over complex use of psychological jargon and theory, and the fact that it felt more like the author’s personal memoir.

So for me, I gave this book a 3/5 stars. Good but not spectacular.

Thank you so much for my review copy, i really appreciate it.

I was not able to truly enjoy this book. Most of this stems from the fact that I feel the author used this horrible accident to further his own story.
I have been fascinated by the Elisa Lam since I first heard about it three years ago, but I felt like from page 1 that the author exploited this tragedy to tell whatever he wanted. I am a firm believer that Elisa died from no foul play, and if that is the case, there is no sense in writing a true crime novel since there is no crime to address.

I've listened to several podcasts on this case which probably reasons why I found this book stunningly repetitive. True Crime tends to wade through an endless marsh of repeating the case emotional toll -- almost like it's own cold case writing. I skimmed through the second half to get to the end which was not satisfying.

This book is an authors own experience in investigative journalism. The writer is a man who has bipolar syndrome who hopes to find out or understand the mysterious death of a young woman who was staying at a Los Angeles hotel that is rumored to be “haunted”..

He goes to the hotel to try to recreate the events that are said or known to have happened during her stay here to figure out if her death is a murder, suicide, or something else entirely.

If you believe or are into stories of the occult or know someone or ARE someone who suffers from bipolar or invasive thoughts it might be more easily understood as some of it is a little “hard to believe”. The book is very “wordy” and hard to keep following in spots.

To each his own.

I have always been fascinated by Elisa Lam's disappearance from the Cecil Hotel and the discovery of her body inside the hotel's water tower, and this book takes a pretty deep dive into many aspects of the case.
Many theories have been put forth about what could have happened to Elisa. Was it a serial killer? A hotel employee? A supernatural entity? Suicide?
Although the book doesn't solve the case (not that readers will be expecting that) it dissects sequence of bizarre events that led one of the most bizarre murder cases of the past decade.

I find Elisa and her case fascinating. Sadly this book was not well written. The author spent too much time discussing himself and his own problems. The parts about Elisa were repeated over and over throughout. I was expecting more, I was left disappointed.

There are several deaths that have become almost urban legends on the internet. From Kenneka Jenkins dying from hypothermia in a freezer, and the Slenderman stabbing, Elisa Lam has turned from a tragic death into a creepy elevator video that sparks theories of supernatural possession. Jake Anderson takes the Elisa Lam case back from the Internet sleuths and investigates the case from the location of her death.

While Anderson's connection to the case is interesting, a huge problem with this case is that he very frequently goes off on tangents. Some of these are interesting and connected to the case: for example, the included statistics on bipolar disorder, the history of the police dogs, and the history of the hotel Elisa Lam died in helps bring the case back to a human realistic level The problem is that the author also goes off on unrelated tangents that made me want to skip pages to get back to Elisa: such as his friend's wedding, the concept of synchronicity, and UFOS. While Anderson is the only investigator that views Elisa Lam's Tumblr blog in an almost archaeological viewpoint, his tangents overtake the book and make it unreadable.

It's a shame, because as interested I am in Elisa Lam's case because of her mental health struggles, I was only able to get through 50% of this book.

I've been enamored by the Elisa Lam case since it happened in 2013. I was in my senior year of high school, fascinated by true crime already, when the news came out about a body being found in the water tanks of the Cecil hotel. I've followed this case over the years, constantly fascinated by it, so when I saw this book available for request, I was super excited.

This is my first true crime read of the year and has reminded me how much I love reading about cases like this. I became obsessed looking more into the case as I was reading, watching the famous elevator video over and over again as I read the sections breaking the video down from different perspectives.

This is a book all true crime fans must read, especially if they know about this case. I thought I knew a lot about what happened but there was so much new and interesting information in this book, I couldn't put it down. I actually wasn't familiar with the famous yet creepy history surrounding the Cecil hotel, so I found this aspect of the book truly riveting. The new information Jake Anderson was able to uncover about this case shows how much we truly don't know about what happened to Elisa and how we probably won't ever know what really happened.

My only "problem" with this book was some of the rambling that Anderson did going off on tangents about things not necessarily related to the case. However, in time, it became clear why he did this. Sharing his journey with mental illness helped the reader understand how and why the Elisa Lam case resonated with him so much and why finding the truth and justice for her and her family was/is important to him.

Overall, an incredible read that explores psychology, conspiracy, and the United States justice system. A must read for true crime fans.

4.5 stars

Elisa Lam disappears while traveling alone, leaving behind a macabre tumblr and a haunting surveillance video from the most haunted hotel in America.

The book opens explaining it “is a cross-pollination of true-crime and psychological memoir” but I would argue that a healthy dose of conspiracy theory and paranormal activity is also involved. Jake Anderson seeks to destigmatize mental health and humanize the subject of his inquiry, Elisa Lam, while investigating everything from law enforcement injustice to the damage websleuths do to due process.

The investigation into the workings of the LAPD is disappointing as usual when Anderson is able to draw parallels between Elisa and The Black Dahlia. It’s obvious many entities had to come together in order for this event to remain unsolved. The book in its entirety is a head-trip. I often found his information hard to accept given his honesty about his own struggles with mental health and substances during his time writing it but that in itself highlights one of his points about Lam’s state of mind and her demise.

I really felt for Elisa, as happens with many unexplained missing women, she was quickly dehumanized by the media and amateur investigators in their attempt to solve the unsolvable. The human tendency to scratch an itch until it’s resolved forcing them into every corner of her life only to regurgitate it back into forums to start the process over again.

Honestly for me, the real star of this show was The Cecil hotel, of American Horror Story and housing multiple serial killers fame. The owners recently secured Historical Landmark status insuring it cannot be burned right to the ground as it justly deserves. I don’t know about the paranormal shenanigans going on in this case but I believe energy collects and this place is bad news. It works its weird voodoo on Anderson as he investigates, shining a light on the vulnerability of the mind and its ability to override its host.

Basically this is not for the normal true-crime fan. It is more like a four part investigation into subgroups of our modern fascination with the morbid. I will say the circumstances that set the stage gave me goosebumps and a gag or two for the first time in my true-crime history. Although a bit scattered and occasionally off topic, it was enjoyable and I would recommend it for what it is. My only real issue was the unclear flip-flopping from Anderson’s past experience to the investigation.
3.5/5

Thank you to Netgalley for giving me the chance to read and review, "Gone at Midnight" by Jake Anderson. I was little disappointed that this was only an excerpt. The story of Elisa Lam is a strange one indeed. Jake Anderson uses investigation skills to try to solve the mystery. It is too bad that we will never know what truly took place that fateful night.

I found the storyline to be interesting but it repeated itself alot. The writer talked about himself which really shouldnt have been in the book. I didnt get all the answers i was looking for.

"Gone at Midnight" by Jake Anderson is the book that covers everything concerning the mysterious death of Elisa Lam based on the information available in the public domain. And this is what I expect from a true crime book. Note that if you are already aware of all the developments that had happened in the case, this book has nothing new to offer.

He covers the three most discussed theories in complete detail - mental illness, homicide, and paranormal activity. Given the fact that officially there is no proof of a crime being committed in this case, speculations is the most one can do. He even goes a step ahead when discussing the theories of mental illness and paranormal activity - Jake uses his own medical history of mental illness to draw conclusions, and uses his expertise to point out various paranormal angles related to the case and the Cecil.

Many a times, especially when talking about the history of the Cecil, or the history of the police and coroner's departments, the author mentions other serial killers, or cases, or proofs of negligence. While this makes sense in order to understand the background, delving deep into all that off-topic stuff was like taking the spotlight away from the main case and the victim. A casual mention would have been enough in my opinion, it could also have acted like a hint. The curious readers will then be aware of more books or articles pertaining to those 'extra' topics.

Thanks to the author and the publisher for the ARC.

Verdict: One time read.

I saw the eerie video of Elisa Lam a while back. You may have seen it. A young woman in an elevator acting off. I couldn’t tell if she was being followed by someone or it was something paranormal or possibly she was mentally ill. I didn’t know anything about her other than that was the last video of her from the night she disappeared. Nineteen days later her body was discovered. When I saw this book offered on NetGalley I was super excited and requested it.
I’m super torn on how many stars to give this book. It takes us along on the author’s investigation into what happened to Elisa Lam. I have finished the book and am left with even more questions than I had. It took me longer than I expected to read because the author was a bit everywhere through the story. In retrospect the story is so convoluted because there are no real answers, only theories. I did appreciate the author going through so many of them. I was fascinated with the history of the Cecil Hotel and the theories that involved it, both paranormal and the ones involving staff members.
The author went deep into Elisa Lam’s mental health, which I believe was mainly researched through her writings on her blog. He added into it his own insight on how mental illness may have been a big part in what happened. This insight came from his own experiences with mental illness. While it was, at times, a bit difficult for me to follow, I did find that helpful. Some may find it unnecessary and perhaps a bit self serving. There were a couple of times when I thought he was identifying too much with what she may or may not have been experiencing. While it was interesting and it gives us a look inside the author’s mind, it probably could have been cut down a bit. It, at times, overshadowed the story of Elisa Lam.
I was left with a lot more knowledge of what Elisa was possibly going through and the various theories. It isn’t, in my opinion, a far stretch to believe there was a cover up in her disappearance, death and the way it was handled. My heart goes out to her family who not only lost someone they loved but then are left with the possibility of never knowing exactly what happened to her. I can’t imagine the double edge sword of hearing or reading the theories of what may have occurred and the questions people are asking in an attempt to find some justice for Elisa Lam. It’s a sad story that has no satisfactory conclusion. The author, I think, did his best to put everything out there in an effort to have people talking about Elisa and what happened
I’m grateful to NetGalley, Kensington and the author for making this title available. I did learn a lot, and though I have questions, I am happy I read this book. My review is voluntary and all opinions are mine.

I haven't read a whole lot of true crime in my reading career so I don't have a lot to compare this to. I was interested in the case of Elisa Lam that Anderson researched thoroughly. Clearly he was invested in this project. I also appreciate the fact that he wove in the story of his own mental health battle. I am concerned that there were parts of the story which were unnecessary and confusing.

I do applaud Jake Anderson for all the time and resources he used to create this.

I stand in awe of this exceptional nonfiction work, which despite its length I consumed in one day. It rendered me speechless. The basic case: the death, due to whatever means, of a 21-year-old, Chinese-Canadian, university student-blogger who suffered apparently from Bipolar Disorder, was aware of it, striving to deal, to mature: that alone would have made for a worthwhile narrative.


Author/investigator/documentary filmmaker/Websleuth Jake Anderson (himself a lifelong sufferer of Bipolar Disorder as was a family member) carefully and diligently searched out Elisa Lam's extensive online presence, to understand her life and mentality. That would have been a book.


Then there's the "investigation," which I would label ?investigation?, because clearly it wasn't. The "autopsy " was inefficient (and long delayed). An unexplained death, of a healthy young person: the cause could be homicide, suicide, accident [death by misadventure]. To determine that requires an active, efficient, dedicated, investigation, and an efficient, skillful, autopsy, including rape kit and toxicology screening.


Amy of these factors would have made for a compelling narrative. But those are not all. There's "the Mystery": 7 plus years later, and NO ONE knows! (Unless, of course, the cause was homicide or involuntary manslaughter: if someone else was involved, or at minimum, present, then that someone knows. But not the Family, LAPD, or the vast Internet community of Websleuths. Not the global public. Not the tenants or guests at Los Angeles's Hotel Cecil.


Finally--and certainly not least--this reader believes we must view Elisa Lam's demise through the lens of rape culture. Yes, I said it. This woman was twenty-one-years old, traveling on her own, suffering from a psychological condition which may cause erratic, even dangerous, behavior, especially if unmedicated. The location is known for prevalent sexual abuse by employees, the residence of certified sex offenders [and has been the home of at least two serial killers]. We can't emulate Pollyanna and say it wasn't an assault. We don't know and we must maintain an open mind.

Thank you to Netgalley for an ARC of Gone At Midnight. I thought this book was well written and thought provoking. It opened my eyes to a lot of theories on the disappearance of Elisa Lam. I'm also so thankful for the author, Jake Anderson, shining a light on mental illness. It's not talked about enough. I would recommend this book to anyone, true crime fan or not.

I read everything I could find on this case years ago. It was intriguing and had quite a few unanswered questions. They were investigated and answered. This book repeats all of this over and over and nothing is new. The book is jumbled and can't stay on the timeline. I wish he had focused on her mental illness. aspect a bit more.

A strange story I heard about years ago and read about nonstop. When I discovered this book I was excited. But then I felt like there wasn’t anything unique about this reporting of the story.