A lyrical and richly meditative novel with gothic undertones about a young woman searching for meaning in a sleepy seaside town, from the Giller-nominated author of Frying Plantain.

Twenty-four-year-old Simone longs to fall in love with the kind of man she’s only ever read about and travel the world with her best friend, but when that friendship falls apart and she finds herself unemployed after graduation, she begins to wonder if her dreams are simply out of reach. So when she receives an opportunity to work at a hotel across the pond, perched atop white cliffs and overlooking a deep, dark ocean, it finally feels like a chance to leave Toronto and start living.

The Seacliff Hotel proves to be far from an idyllic escape. With its crimson dining room and peeling frescoes, the hotel is a relic of crumbling Victorian luxury. And nothing could have prepared Simone for the underpaid labour, the less-than-ideal living conditions, or the rude guests.

As the days bleed into one another and Simone attempts to settle into the hotel’s rhythms and rituals, she becomes increasingly drawn into the lives of her colleagues and the grueling demands of her job. After her relationships with her coworkers intensify and tensions at Seacliff escalate, Simone must reckon with the life she’s built at the hotel, even as it threatens to consume her entirely.

The Seacliff Hotel brilliantly examines the resilience and journey of self-discovery of a young Black woman coming-of-age in a remote, predominantly white town, and the ways in which reality does not always mirror fiction. Atmospheric and transformative, this novel affirms Reid-Benta as a major voice in Canadian literature.