40/100 or 2.0 stars

The first few chapters of this were engaging and hooked me into the story, but as the story progressed, my interest got lower and lower. The ending was not the best and it just didn't work for me, and that is sad since I thought I was going to really like this one.

Thank you to the publisher/C.J. Dotson for the #ARC in return for an honest review.
Pubdate: April 8, 2025
Horror

I did not finish this... this was a highly anticipated read which ended up being very disappointing. I got towards 59% and finally decided to DNF. I really wanted to love it due to the cover, the plot line, and the vibes of an old Sy-Fy movie I saw when I was younger. It was giving creepy, unsettling, and unreliable narrators. I started skimming at the 38% mark hoping that it would get better. I liked the idea of a supernatural element. I will say 10/10 on the cover because it's awesome!! But here's where we started to go wrong:
- I did not understand why we needed so much baby talk???? I get it. There is a kid in the book, but it was tiring.
- repetitive and slow
- too much dialogue that cut into the buildup of the book
- Sadie as a main character could not pick a decision. Her choices made it hard to sympathize with her.

I love books like this where there's a real human bad guy (and with her family, arguably multiple bad people) and the victim runs for safety into a terrible supernatural situation. Sadie is looking for safety for herself, her toddler and her unborn child. It's lucky she finds a job in a hotel that lets her have a room, but what is happening around her? Are the new dangers worse than the ones she's fleeing?
Sadie is a good character because she's not just a victim. She may not have chosen the best partner but she has priorities and even tries to rescue someone she thinks is drowning. I definitely wanted the best for her, so it was suspenseful.
Thanks to NetGalley for letting me read this

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the eARC.

I had absolutely no business reading this book. Too new to horror for this to have actually appealed to me.

This was my first cosmic horror book and I was really intrigued. There were some slow parts and some repetition. However, I found it interesting.

Creepy and goosebump-inducing, Dotson gives us a story that sends a chill up your spine. Not only is our protagonist, Sadie, on the run from her abusive fiancé, but the place she now lives, and works at, is unsettling. Sadie knows something is wrong-even if everyone else sees nothing amiss. But people start disappearing, and no matter who she turns to for answers, she continues to get stonewalled. On top of that, Sadie swears there’s something in the pipes trying to slither its way into her room. It’s a nightmare she feels stuck in.

The idea for this story is a solid one. It gives off eerie vibes and builds throughout-as you see Sadie desperately trying to hang on to her sanity, and try to leave the L’Arpin Hotel for good. The story also had a variety of characters that add to the overall uneasiness of the setting-leaving us trying to figure out what is truly going on at the hotel. Unfortunately, what should have built up to a slam-bang finish ended up being a whimper. It left much to be desired, despite all the great elements that formed the story.

I truly wanted to like this story more than I did. It had a lot of potential to be an awesome horror story. The idea as there, but the follow through wasn’t enough.

I just don't think I should be 25% into a horror novel and not have any idea what is happening. I'm tired of hearing about this woman hearing water drip and jumping every time her phone rings. Like girl just turn it off??? I'm bored, I'm not invested. I don't care about the characters and quite honestly I don't even remember her name and I just put the book down a second ago. I won't be finishing.

On Lake Erie there sits an old and prestigious hotel, though not as busy as it once was.
Sadie Miles finds herself a new member of the cast of characters that occupy the L'Arpin Hotel after escaping an abusive relationship with her young daughter and a baby-on-the-way. Sadie finds herself trapped due to circumstance and perhaps by sinister motivations from people around her--or is she just unpacking her trauma from the abuse afflicting by a manipulative and controlling ex? As Sadie comes to terms with and learns to cope with being an indeendent caregiver, she also has to question the reality of happenings around her. Who is a friend and who is out to get her? Or is it all just in her head from years of questioning herself?

This could almost be considered cozy horror, if it wasn't for all the times I felt unsettled by this story. I enjoyed the small and intimate cast and setting. And the things that bothered our main characters are things that I could envision happening to myself.

I was highly anticipating this book, so I was so excited when I got the opportunity to read it! I love that the setting takes place in a creepy hotel and the main character gets a job there. The workers are also very odd and weird stuff starts happening. This was a solid horror book and I was very satisfied with it.

This book had promise but unfortunately it just wasn’t for me.

Sadie finally leaves her abusive finance, fleeing with her three year old daughter to an interview at an old hotel as a housekeeper. She keeps a permanent residence there and weird things start happening.
While the story had a good foundation for a haunting, it took a turn to green things that I just couldn’t keep a straight face with while reading.

I didn’t connect with any of the characters. And while I sympathize with Sadie’s struggles and what she’s been through, it was very repetitive.

But if you like monsters and creepy hotels this book is definitely for you!

Thanks for the read!

Let's get this out of the way before I say more. This book is what I would call a creature-feature, one of my favorite horror sub-genres. But the creatures in this book are GREEN people! Did this cover designer even read the book? Moving on.

Sadie and her three-year-old daughter, Izzy, are running away from Sadie's abusive fiancé and land in a small town on Lake Erie, Ohio. Sadie interviews and get a job at a historic hotel, L'Arpin, which works out well because the manager/owner allows Sadie to live there as well. Soon after her arrival she begins to hear strange water sounds coming from the hallways and a trail of water left behind. In addition, people are coming up missing and no one at the hotel seems to care. The man who runs the power plant next door keeps accusing the hotel employees of sabotaging his building and the old lady, Gertie, who has lived at the hotel for what seems like forever keeps finding more and more reasons to be around Izzy.

This book started out kind of slow. I was about 40% in when it eventually picked up. It wasn't that I ever thought about DNF'ing, but I just found myself putting it aside and not in any real hurry to pick it back up. However, once I reached the last 30%, I couldn't put the book down. I also found the setting and some of the characters pretty creepy, even though Sadie was annoying most of the time. That being said, it is also clear she is a victim of domestic violence, and the past abuse was the root of many of her actions and poor decisions, so I completely get it. I found the ending somewhat over-the-top but it was dramatic and fit the creature-feature Modis Operandi.

Overall, The Cut was exactly what I expected, except for the red creatures. It wasn't perfect but it ended up being fun and sometimes that's all you need from your horror. If you are even slightly curious about this one, I recommend you give it a try.

Unfortunately this was very very repetitive and became boring. It had so much promise. But ultimately it wasn't for me. Thank you for the copy!

2.5 / 5 stars rounded up.

In The Cut, a single mother escapes from an abusive husband and finds a live-in job at a hotel that increasingly reveals that it and all the people around it are hiding something.

This story really had all the elements of some of my favorite horror stories.. The Shining’s haunted hotel, The Mist’s mutated monsters… but it just didn’t really come together.
A lot was really way too repetitive among the main character’s inner monologue. It was understandable why she would be in a panicked state as a single mother running away from an abusive ex, but I swear she had the exact thought “I need to get out of here as soon as I can” at least 20 times throughout the book, as well as a lot of other sentiments that were repeated over and over again.
I also didn’t really understand what drove Sadie to try to get to the bottom of things. After the coworker disappeared, it made a little more sense, but especially as a single mother trying to protect her daughters, it was weird to me the way she was barreling through at the beginning demanding to see the security tapes, etc.

Overall, the story had a lot of promising aspects, and there were parts where I didn’t want to put it down, but it did drag especially at the end, and I just feel like this could have been a lot more captivating than it was.

Man, this had so much promise and I love a creature feature horror book, but this just wasn't it for me. It got really repetitive and overall became boring. ending up skimming to the end and I'm left feeling unsatisfied

🐙🏨🗝The Cut🗝🏨🐙

First of all, my girsl Sadie and Izzy can't catch a damn break!

After running from a domestic situation and thinking they find a safe place to live and work Sadie and Izzy find themselves at The L'Arpin Hotel, where there's an increasingly amount of red flags being thrown around, nothing is more terrifying than finding themselves at the grasp of Sam, Sadie's ex. Missing people, weird creatures, mysterious staff, adorable nosey and helpful neighbors, that's what awaits you at L'Arpin, once you check in, who knows if you'll check out.

I know the description says horror, but this is 75% thriller/mystery and 25% horror as well as a slow start. So keep that in mind if you pick it up.

I overall did enjoy this book and the way of writting and do recommend it. It was a little bit predictable at times BUT I am a sucker for guessing the plot so it might not be easy for you.

I want to thank NetGalley for allowing me to read and review this e-book ARC!

This horror book started off so promising!!! I flew through the first 70 pages so quick and I was so invested. It had all the creepy atmosphere, I love the haunted hotel atmosphere, I love that we’re following a single mother who is fleeing from an abusive situation and she’s also pregnant herself with another child on the way. She’s doing whatever she can to protect her little girl, and getting a job at this hotel is all she can do right now.

I loved the set up of this book, it was reminding me of some of my favorite horror books like Lock Every Door and Nestlings.. The owner of the hotel starts acting shady, strange occurrences happen, the residents who live at the hotel are acting weird, and she keeps hearing noises in the hotel, like slurping sound and splashing sounds coming from the tubs. It had great creepy vibes~

But this book got very repetitive in a lot of ways. The way she kept calling her daughter “stinker” all the time a was very annoying. And a lot of the conversations in this book felt so repetitive. I thought the first 50% was so intriguing but then the second half of the book got sooooo cheesy. The ideas in this book were cool, but the execution was not well done at all, and I found myself losing interest and skimming a lot in the end. All the potential was there for this book to be great, but it really lost me in the second half, which is such a bummer!!

Thanks to the publisher for sending me an ARC in exchange for an honest review!

This book was far too cerebral to be a thriller or horror that could be picked up forafew hours of fun reading. Trying to follow the timeline began to feel like a chore.

3.5 Stars

This book would probably make a pretty cool movie/mini series. I really enjoyed the creepy hotel vibes and all of the reveals. I generally really like books that center around water. This also has a hotel that has some shady stuff going on. I thought the premise was really intriguing, and for the most part this was really well done. I do feel like I had read at least one other book with a similar premise, and I liked that one a tiny bit more. I did not love the ending, and there were a few places that I felt were kind of slow. Overall though this was a fun read. This would be great to read on vacation. It's a pretty easy read with some good reveals.

Thank you, C. J. Dotson NetGalley for the ARC. I leave this review voluntarily and happily. Also, thank you publishers for your hard work!

I'll admit this book took me a long time to read. The book started off slow, and it just didn't keep my interest. The characters are very much likable, and you certainly want to give a few words and a stink eye to others. There are mentions of past abuse in this book, dealings with the abuse, and it's just so sad. There is grief, loss, and depression. The monster is icky and makes your skin crawl. It certainly made me think at many times what it is? Is it a sea monster? Tentacle monster.... a parasite!? But even with all this happening, i had a hard time keeping interest in it.

After escaping her abusive ex-husband, Sadie is doing everything she can to provide for her child. Living in a hotel and being a housekeeper, she has been noticing strange things afoot. Every time she mentions it, the man in charge just shrugs it off or finds ways to explain it away. There is something dark and dangerous here... but what? Sadie must keep both her child and unborn child safe. Will she make it?

Like I said before, I just had the hardest time keeping interested in this book. It might just be how slow it was.

as visceral and sharp as that gorgeous cover, dotson offers a thrilling story that’ll keep any horror lover glued to the page. may be a little slow for some readers, but once it gets going, it gets GOING, unrelentless in every page in the way only good horror can be.