File this under “I wanted to like this book, but I don’t.”

This book suffers from good premise bad writing syndrome. There are supposed to be four distinct voices, but they all kind of blend together. The characters are different but the writing doesn’t change, so I found myself having to go back and remember who was speaking multiple times while reading.

It’s also sold as YA horror, but the scares are in short supply. It’s more like a murder mystery with a completely unnecessary supernatural subplot. I wish this book would have been more about Eileen (and the ghosts) and less about solving a murder.

And, I have to point out that I know I was reading it as an ARC, but this book needs some major editing. The number of typos, spelling, and grammar mistakes jerked me right out of the story at least once or twice a chapter. I struggled to finish this one to be honest.

I’m being generous with the two stars only because at least the setting/background was interesting.

Five stars for fun! This book had me hooked from the beginning. It's ghost hunters for a social media savvy audience. True crime buffs will love the fact that it was based on a true story.

I could offer some critiques--I'd be lying if I said this was the best written book I'd ever read--but I'd rather focus on what a blast it was to read this story!

I love haunted houses and anything that takes place on Halloween. This modern, queer take on the paranormal teen investigator gang (looking at you, Scooby Doo) was fresh and unique. I enjoyed seeing modern technology and teen concerns, like reaching 1 million subscribers, play into ghost hunting. There were a lot of interesting takes on ghost lore and fun plot twists. All four of the characters had distinct voices and interests so it was fairly easy to tell who was narrating at the moment when I lost track.

If you're looking for an entertaining thrill with a bit of a paranormal tinge, Horror Hotel is a great choice.

Fast paced edge of your seat read!! It started a bit slow but quickly picked up. I look forward to reading more from this author.

Thank you to NetGalley for letting me read this book in exchange for an honest review.

It was a good YA horror with a neat spin on the haunted house genre you that’s don’t see too often in YA - ghost hunter YouTubers with an actual psychic among them. The teens at my library are going to love this one.

What I didn’t like is that they basically took Elisa Lam’s entire story without really changing any elements for her stand-in character Elizabeth Warren. This includes very similar blog posts - like almost verbatim - and having her possibly be bipolar like Elisa (Elizabeth also writes about having hallucinations, possibly being bipolar, and is assumed to be psychic by another character who is psychic). That line between “what if what she really sees is actually there” and “this person has an untreated mental illness” was crossed a little much for me, a person living with mental illness. The reference to the infamous elevator video of Elisa as Elizabeth playing some sort of viral game felt very tacked-on and could’ve easily been left out without hurting the story. If they were able to successfully create a different yet recognizable serial killer for the ghostly Richard Ramirez stand-in, they could have taken that same care with their Elisa Lam stand-in.

That being said, it was a unique, pulpy horror story that was hard to put down. I liked that we got to see from each of the core four characters’ perspectives and it made you care about them all individually, flaws and all.

I rated this book 4 stars because it was enjoyable as a campy horror novel. Let me take a second to get my gripes out of the way. The plot of this novel is very standard for the genre: it’s a bunch of way-too-confident ghost investigators putting their noses where they shouldn’t be. There was no shortage of DONT-DO-THAT moments as these characters were often short-sighted, immature, and downright nonsensical. There’s also a healthy dose of teen drama thrown in, of course.

Aside from that, however, if you took the campy nature of this at face value, it was actually quite fun. It did a great job of being atmospheric and spooky by painting detailed pictures of what these kids were experiencing. The four main characters had very different personalities that helped compliment the story telling (which was told through multiple POV). The ending was quite predictable, but the path there was a thrill-filled ride.

The inspiration for this book is extremely recognizable if you know about it. It is largely based on the real-life story of Elisa Lam and the Cecil Hotel. I read a few reviews about how this bothered some readers, but as someone who isn’t that familiar with Elisa’s story, I was completely fine with this aspect of it. In fact, this book has pushed me to reading the Netflix docu-series about it to learn more (and my partner will be there this time if I get scared again).

I had so much fun with this book!

I think this is a book for teens who don't love to read. It feels relatable and exciting, and uses aspects of social media and technology that makes it feel especially relevant to teens reading today.

This novel is about four teens who have created the YouTube channel Ghost Gang. These teens travel to create videos about haunted places. It's a great cast of teens: the scientist, the psychic, the director, and the it-girl, who all work wonderfully together to make these videos happen. In their goal to get 1,000,000 subscribers, they are headed to ultra-haunted hotel over Halloween weekend. Once they get there, however, the whole trip is derailed as a murderer has been stalking them, and its not only the ghosts in this hotel our characters have to worry about.

It was non-stop from beginning to end and the twist felt satisfying. Teens will gobble this one up. I loved it!

I enjoyed this book. The prose was well-written, and the characters were dynamic and jumped off the page. I thought the story was interesting and the plot kept me guessing.

First and foremost, this book has one of my most favorite covers. It’s brightly colored but still super dark, and cuts to the sinister happenings inside the Hearst Hotel. 💀

This was a fast, fun (as fun as murder, ghosts and serial killers can be…) read. I’m a sucker for teen horror movies and this one has so many elements that play right into my nostalgia - with some updates. Creepy hotels, True Crime vigilantes, psychic happenings, ghosts and social media 💕 Toss in some classic horror movie gore and teenage relationship drama and I’m sold.

I totally could see this one as a movie or series🍿It would be neat to see the main ghost hunt play out with some of the Ghost Gang’s YouTube clips, Kiki’s Instagram posts and Eileen’s blog entries interspersed throughout for background.

Spooky hotel, haunted rooms and a group of youtubers craving for 1M subscriptors. What could possibly go wrong?

Everything.

This YA and horror story, keeps you hooked the entire time.

Chase, Emma, Kiki and Chrissy are best friends and together they host a Youtube channel about paranormal activity; they visit haunted places in order to contact with the other side. Their channel it's very popular, mostly because Chrissy is an actual médium, she can see ghost and hear the living's thoughts.

With the 1M subs goal just ahead, Chase decides to do a video from al always haunted hotel in LA in celebration. All of their videos are real, but the most of the time, the dead people are harmless, so, when strange things starts to happens in this hotel, the Ghost Gang knows that this is gonna be really different and that their lives can be in real danger.

A suspicius death ocurred a little while ago on the hotel, and if we add that to the new murders happening, we have a very exciting and dramatic journey to follow.

I've loved the main characters. The four of them have opposite personalities, as a group and as friends, they complement each other very well. Personally, I think the romance between them (two couples) was unnecesary, but wasn't bad either.

The spooky ambientation was very well acomplish. You can really feel the creppy walls of the hotel, the awful lost souls wandering on the halls, the sadness and pure rage crushing in their floors. It gives you chill and I loved the sensation while reading.

A thing I do can complain about is the ending development itself. I felt it was the right way for thing to close, but it was a little dumb. Like, I suspected of one person to be the killer and I was correct, but it was, like, the easy way, the easy solution. And the motives of the killer... cuestionable, and not in a good sense.

At the end, there were several things that didn't fit, or just stayed unresolved. I'd wish it had a little bit more of deepness and work on it.

However, I think is a four-star book because dispite the ending, the journey to get there was very interesting. I felt genuine anxiety for some character's lifes, I laught on some of their conversations, I empatized with some of their fears and toughts, I learn to like them and their carism kept me really motivated to continue the reading. Besides, their friendship it's so solid, loyal and strong, that it's heart-touching; even in the bad moments, you could see the love between them.

I believe a book it's way more than its ending, so, Horror Hotel really deserves to be readed. Recommended. ♥

This is an ARC review, thanks to Netgalley.

This book was really nice - and creepy. It gave me the chills. I'm not a person who reads creepy books, but I enjoyed this one.

"Horror Hotel" is a fun, albeit predictable, horror story loosely based off of the Cecil Hotel in Los Angeles but with a touch of the supernatural. It's a great pick for teens looking to read horror without the grim and gore they may find in adult horror fiction. Readers will enjoy the book from start to finish.

I fell into this book quickly, eager to see how the haunted weekend unfolded for each of these four teens. The twists are somewhat predictable, but I didn’t mind because the pacing was fast and the character development winning. It’s more thriller than horror in some ways, but a rock solid choice for middle schoolers and teens. (Or, at least, I read horror way stronger than this in middle school.)

Horror Hotel is a quick but thrilling read that follows four members of a Ghost Gang. The point of view for each character was distinct and with their own motivations, making it easy to distinguish without any confusion. The descriptions and scenarios of the book can be chilling, but it’s balanced by the romance and funny friend dynamics. I liked how the book brought closure but also showed that not every question can be answered.

Horror Hotel was a fun, scary YA thriller based on the infamous Cecil Hostel. The book was based on the case of Elisa Lam who went missing and later was found in the Cecil Hotel. I have been obsessed with this case ever since I watched the Netflix documentary on the case. Also, Cecil Hotel was the home of the notorious serial killer, The Night Stalker.

The book pretty much stuck to the original story and made it a paranormal version of it. A bunch of teens with a successful YouTube channel called the Ghost Gang were paranormal investigators. Chrissy, Chase, Emma, and Kiki decided to go to the LA Hotel and film the paranormal occurrences to get their dream of one million subscribers.

Chrissy was the psychic who could see and hear the dead. As they start the investigation, they stumble into dead bodies, murderers and ghosts. This whole book was a wonky, scary, fun ride to crazy town. The ending was very predictable but I still enjoyed the book. I loved the banter of the group and the quirkiness of each of the characters. Overall, it was definitely a good book to read. Check this out, if you like paranormal thrillers.

This book was decent! It was like reading an episode of those ghost hunting shoes that were super popular at the beginning of the 2010’s…plus, there was the element of the hotel being known for people dying there, love the historical call to the Hotel Cortez.

This was really good! I didn’t realise that it was so short – 224 pages! A good thing is that it didn’t feel like I was missing out by it not being over 300 pages. The pace was exactly what I want in a horror book. And another reason why I liked the book so much was because it felt a lot like a horror movie would – and I love it when books feel like that.

I did guess the one plot twist, but it didn’t bother me much when I read it. Then there was another plot twist that I definitely didn’t see coming, which was really cool to see. Normally I can figure out plot twists (thank you years of watching crime shows). All in all, the plot is really good, reads easily, and it’s enough to get you to finish the book in one setting!

I really enjoyed the characters. Chrissy was a strong character and she definitely sees most of the action – she is psychic anyway, so it would make sense that she does. I didn’t really like Chase – I felt him very annoying when it came to Chrissy. Emma and Kiki were cute, I did like reading their chapters.

Chase, I don’t want to go into detail because I don’t want to spoil anything, but he was definitely my least favourite of the Ghost Gang. He seemed to want the fame and everything that came with the Ghost Gang more than wanting to find out the truth. Maybe he changes after this, who knows.

There was also another minor character by the name of Bram and Chase doesn’t like him at all for reasons I won’t go into. I didn’t appreciate that of Chase. It felt too much like girl-on-girl hate for me (except they were guys).

Unfortunately, there was the issue of trying to figure out whose chapter was whose (as it’s a multi-pov book. I didn’t feel like their voices were strong enough to tell them apart – which is a shame as it’s such a short book.

I recommend this book if you like ghost stories, true crime series. Maybe you like multi-pov. Or a lot of real-life references in your books! Definitely recommend this to you!

This was exactly what I had been hoping for. I wanted a quick, creepy horror and I think Horror Hotel delivered and then some. I’ve found lately that I’m really loving the social media elements in books – podcasts, blogs, social media platform equivalent to Instagram lol – and I enjoyed how Fulton & McClaren made this a Scooby-Doo-esque YouTube Ghost Hunting gang.

The characters each have their own POV, which I think was a great way to tell the story. Each character brought their own unique quirk. You have the creator (focused on gaining followers/views), the skeptical/technician, the psychic/co-creator, and the cute one/scaredy-cat. I enjoyed every perspective and I never wanted to skip a POV – rare in a multiple POV for me.

The Hotel setting is perfectly sketchy and realistic, even with the haunting elements. I imagined the outside as this real world Disney Haunted House… but less green 😅 and the inside as a run down hostel in Hostel lol. The characters within were just as sus, except the gorgeous Aussie also visiting the hotel on some hush, hush business. There’s plenty of mystery within this horrible hotel and I loved how Fulton & McClaren answered them all.

Although I wouldn’t say Hotel Horror reinvents anything, I did find myself binging this story and enjoying every second of it. If you enjoyed Burden Falls by Kat Ellis, The Girls are Never Gone by Sarah Glenn Marsh, Horrid by Katrina Leno, or White Smoke by Tiffany D Jackson then youll likely enjoy this. Although all of those vary drastically in the amount of horror, they all have at least some common elements with Horror Hotel. I also would have loved a little more spook, but overall I think it set the perfect tone for the setting and mysteries. If you’re wanting a haunted house story then definitely pick this one up!

I went into this book knowing the story of the real-life Cecil Hotel, but while books based on true crime stories aren't usually my thing, I still wanted to read this because I wanted to see if it was done right. And it ended up being better than I expected.

Chrissy, the psychic, has had the ability to see and communicate with ghosts ever since her mom died twelve years ago. Until she met Chase Montgomery, no one believed her, but now their YouTube channel, Ghost Gang, which follows four teenagers exploring supposedly haunted places, has taken off and is close to one million subscribers.
Chase is the son of a wealthy real-estate developer and has dreams of becoming successful in Hollywood, but his hard work and desire for fame often let him forget the real-life tragedies of the places explored by the Ghost Gang. (Yes, the others call him out on this, and I loved that, because someone really needed to say that to the web sleuths featured in the Cecil Hotel documentary).
Emma doesn't actually believe in ghosts and uses the channel as a way to find scientific explanations for everything, and is seen by the others as cynical and emotionless. But one thing she is passionate about is her attraction to Kiki Lawrence, the last member of the group.
Kiki, who loves fashion and making TikToks and is scared of just about everything, likes participating in the channel but wishes it was more respectful to historical tragedies and not as focused on going to haunted locations for fame.

On Halloween weekend, the Ghost Gang drives to downtown Los Angeles to explore the Hearst Hotel, which is known for murders, suicides, and mysterious deaths. From the serial killer who lived there in the 1980s (whose description reads like an exact combination of Richard Ramirez and Jack Unterwager from the Cecil Hotel) and killed his victims in his 14th-floor room to the young blogger who was found dead in an elevator 10 years ago, the Hearst has certainly earned its reputation.
When a dead body is found in one of the rooms, the Ghost Gang realizes that the ghosts in the hotel are far less dangerous than the living.

I do wish some details were different when describing the history of the hotel, because I kept thinking I'd seen the exact story before. Although I did appreciate that it wasn't 100% focused on the blogger's death, because of how obsessive the real-life Cecil Hotel visitors get. We never found out exactly what happened to her, even though there are hints, and that was okay with me. I would much rather read about YouTubers who realize they're in over their heads than about YouTubers who solve a decade-old case and become famous for it. Kiki perfectly described all my problems with the web-sleuth community.

The actual serial killer was extremely easy to guess. My first theory was that the hotel managers had staged everything to ward off tourists and warn people about thinking they could get entertainment out of the hotel's dark past, but that ended up not being right, and the most obvious answer for the murderer was revealed. I think I would've preferred for it all to be staged, because it was the easiest guess of any book I've ever read.

Emma and Kiki's grumpy/sunshine relationship was my favorite part of the book, and I was definitely most interested in their POVs.

The book is even dedicated to Elisa Lam and "anyone who feels like just a flicker in the universe."

Teen ghost hunters spending a night in a haunted hotel. Yes, I’m a sucker for a good haunting. And that cover is everything.

Imagery is superb from the beginning, and from the second the teens stepped foot in the hotel I immediately thought of American Horror Story: Hotel. Minus the vampires, of course. But Hotel Cortez in AHS and Horror Hotel do share some similarities – they’re both overrun with ghosts. I’m not fond of the swing a dead cat saying, but it’s a pretty apt description in this case.

The four members of the YouTube famous Ghost Gang have their own talents involving directing, writing, tech, cameras, media, etc., but one member – Chrissy – can see and talk to ghosts. The girl is legit. The group may be in for more than they bargained with this hotel, and Chrissy in particular is in danger. Some ghosts are more aggressive than others.

Ghost Hunters, The Blair Witch Project, and true crime fans will enjoy this quick read, as will fans of slasher films. The teens make some stupid decisions, they choose the horror movie trope of separating at one point (and we all know what happens after that), and it’s pretty obvious who the bad guy is long before they’re named. Despite that, this is a fun read I finished in a couple days. I recommend turning down the lights, grabbing a bowl of popcorn, and settling in with this spooky, paranormal tale.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

*Thank you to Random House Children's, Victoria Fulton, Faith McClaren, and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review*

Previously published at https://www.mysteryandsuspense.com/horror-hotel/

“Hey, you guys, look, I know I’m just the dude that carries the bags. But it seems to me we all play an important part in this group. I mean, we’re just like a big, delicious banana split. Fred, you’re the big banana. Daphne, you’re the pastrami and bubble gum flavored ice cream, and Velma, you’re the sweet and sour mustard sauce that goes on top.”

-Shaggy Rogers, Scooby-Doo: The Movie.

Horror Hotel, Victoria Fulton’s debut novel, is suspenseful, creative, a little scary, and a joy to read. If you have followed the Elisa Lam disappearance from the Cecil hotel, “THe Vanishing at the Cecil Hotel”, this is a re-telling with many twists and turns by a “Scooby-Doo” like gang, who is both hilarious and really smart. It is the Scooby-Doo we all know and love from childhood with Ghost Hunter similarities and an updated social media take.

Fulton and McClaren’s debut novel centers on “The Ghost Gang”, a group of high schoolers who ghost hunt and put their experiences on YouTube. There is Chrissy, who sees and hears ghosts. Chase, the only male, eager to get 1 million subscribers and that gold button from YouTube, Kiki, an influencer who helps to bring their followers and finally Emma, the skeptic behind the camera. When they decide to visit a hotel based in Los Angeles, and home of the mysterious disappearance of “Eileen Wright”, they get much more than they bargained for.

This is a fantastic Young Adult Horror novel and hard to believe it is their first novel. It is so creative, and I loved it as a group of teens running the show. I suspected who the culprit was but was still surprised at the big reveal. Horror Hotel is fast-paced and even a little scary, as they spend their night running from a serial killer. It touches on some dark themes but is really tame at the same time. The book is told from each of their points of view and will appeal to a younger audience. I especially enjoyed Chrissy’s perspective as the only one who can see and hear ghosts, but also Chase’s perspective as we learn his feelings for Chrissy run deep. The pacing of the book is quick, and it was just so much fun to read. It hooked me from the beginning. It is a book that doesn’t take itself too seriously. There are some scenes that may feel juvenile to the older reader, but if I were reading from a high school perspective, it would be a very scary book.