So Many Empty Rooms: Haunted Hotels
Midnight at The Barclay Hotel, and two hotel horror movies.
Hello and good morning!
I hope that all is well with you. I’ve been trying to plow through the remainder of my first winter share of vegetables from the local farm—there’s another one coming next week, and if I don’t do something with all of these sweet potatoes, I’m worried that they’re going to animate and eat ME.
So if you’ve got sweet potato recipes, let me know. (Cozy instant pot casserole-y stuff especially. Related: I made this potato-leek soup yesterday, and it ruled.)
Reading: Midnight at the Barclay Hotel, by Fleur Bradley, illustrated by Xavier Bonet
A cowboy, a librarian, a CEO, an actress, and a detective all receive free weekend stays at a luxurious hotel. The CEO and the detective both bring kids along—the CEO brings her son, JJ, and the detective brings his granddaughter, Penny.
JJ is planning on doing some ghost-hunting; Penny is planning on exploring the hotel’s famous library. And Emma, the chef’s niece, is just excited that there’ll be other kids around for the next few days!
However. Once everyone is assembled, the adults are informed that they were chosen with care: The owner of the hotel has been murdered, they are the primary suspects, and they’re expected to figure out which one of them Did The Crime.
They are not impressed, and they do not plan to comply.
The kids, however, are DELIGHTED. And so begins a weekend of murder-solving, ghost-hunting, and friend-making.
Soooooo… this was not a great fit. On paper, it should work, right? Murders and a mysterious hotel and ghosts and friendships, what’s not to love?
And, mostly, it’s… fine.
It’s fine. It’s perfectly enjoyable, if not a standout.
The major issues I had with it are, I think, 99% My Stuff.
But, in the event that I’m not alone in getting crabby about Weird Little Things, here’s the deal: I think the problem was—and still is, because here I am, still feeling annoyed—that the entire opening sequence felt very, very, veryveryvery The Westing Game, but The Westing Game is never referenced, either in the story itself, or in the Author’s Note. In a book that features a giant library and co-stars a huge reader and includes mentions of other specific stories—mainly by Agatha Christie—that omission just BOTHERED me. And once it was in my head, I couldn’t unsee it.
Then, there was another reveal that prompted me to mentally compare it to another, MUCH stronger book, and that never goes well. (Note: I knew where it was going BEFORE the reveal, mind you, but I don’t want to spoil it for anyone who ends up wanting to pick this one up.)
Unfair? Maybe. Probably, even? After all, for all I know, the author hasn’t even read The Westing Game. Again, it’s fine. I do think that plenty of folks—especially on the younger end of the target demographic—will enjoy it.
Two OTHER middle grade mysteries set in Mysterious Hotels that were MUCH better fits for me:
Greenglass House, by Kate Milford
Winterhouse, by Ben Guterson
Watching: Two haunted hotels!!
I posted on social media, but I don’t think I ever mentioned here that I finished my 61 Horror Movies in 61 Days challenge? Nice work, me. I’m still watching lots of movies—averaging one a day so far this month—but I’ve been all over the place, genre-wise. I’m sure that a lot of them will end up getting mentioned here sooner or later.
In the meantime, TWO HAUNTED HOTEL MOVIES:
If you’re not particularly into quiet, slow-burn horror that relies more on atmosphere and building tension than on in-your-face scares, it’s likely that neither of these will be a great fit—that sort of horror is EXACTLY my jam, though, so I loved these. (Also, assuming that they’re not haunted in real life, I would TOTALLY love to stay at either of these hotels, they’re gorgeous and just look COOL.)
The Innkeepers (Ti West, 2011): Set in a big old hotel on the weekend before it’s due to close forever, and follows two employees as they work said weekend while attempting a last-ditch effort to get some footage of the ghosts that supposedly haunt it. There’s a psychic character—played by Kelly McGillis!!!—who stays there & her character’s whole deal is VERY woo-woo for my personal tastes, but CLEARLY McGillis is walking some kind of line, because she really had me wrapped around her finger by the end of the movie.
Same director as House of the Devil, which I also loved! This was a re-watch for me, and I think there were a couple of elements that I’d either entirely forgotten OR never picked up before, so I’m really glad I revisited it. All that said, like House of the Devil, watching this movie is an exercise in frustration, as it also features one of those heroines who gets a warning about something and then proceeds to ignore it, over and over and over again. BUUUUUT because of the ultimate arc of the movie and the characterization, I think it works. (In both cases, actually.)Ghostkeeper (Jim Makichuk, 1981): Three jackasses—well, two jackasses and a Final Girl—are snowmobiling in the middle of nowhere, get stuck with broken machines and in an impending blizzard, so they break into what they assume is an abandoned ski lodge.
It is not abandoned.
This is ultimately more of a domestic drama with some murders than it is a horror movie—lots of, like, sitting around in front of a fireplace, drinking tea or wine and having Dramatical Conversations. TECHNICALLY, I’d argue that this isn’t a GHOST-Y haunting, more of a curse-type situation—which makes the title rather questionable—but I’m including it here because I loved it. It was clearly made for like $4.50—which is not a dig! I was genuinely impressed with what they did here—and I have some QUESTIONS about some of the plotting, but I was riveted throughout.
Random Nonsense: Pikmin Bloom & Phoebe Reads a Mystery
I have two major problems when it comes to my phone: I love all of those step count gamification apps, and I am a podcast hoarder. (The problem with the apps is that I use them like a maniac for a while, and then I get bored and wander off; the problem with podcasts is that I always download way more than I can ever listen to, and rarely finish any of them because I get distracted by Something Shiny and start listening to something else, but never delete the unlistened-to ones, because I always mean to get back to them, but never do. It’s a whole thing.)
For good or ill, those habits work very very well together. So I spent the weekend obsessively walking around—I EVEN ENDED UP WITH A BLISTER ON MY FOOT, *sob*—listening to podcasts.
Pikmin Bloom: Has the collectible appeal of Pokémon Go, but none of the annoying battling stuff; you can grow new Pikmins MUCH faster than you can hatch Pokémon characters; you can plant digital flowers wherever you walk, which is weirdly satisfying even though it’s all pretend.
Phoebe Reads a Mystery: In which Phoebe Judge from Criminal reads classic mystery novels aloud, chapter by chapter. Right now I’m revisiting Wilkie Collins’ The Moonstone, and it’s just delightful.
That’s all for now! I’m planning on checking in on Friday to list whatever I’m planning to read & watch over the weekend, so I’ll talk to you then.
I hope you have a great week,
Leila