Room Service

May 15, 2021
Four teens spend an unsettling weekend at a fancy hotel in this Dutch import. It has been almost a year since Fender, Kate, and Lucas lost a friend--but they don't talk about her anymore. Thanks to Kate's dad's work meeting, they've got rooms at the five-star Riverside Hotel to celebrate Kate's birthday weekend--supposedly there will be adult supervision, but in reality, they're largely left to their own devices. The trio will be joined by their new friend from school, Linnea, who seems to have filled in all the gaps left behind by their friend who is gone. Fender and Linnea alternate as first-person narrators along with a creepy unnamed voice who stalks them both. It's that voice that's in the threatening messages delivered to Fender's door on room service trays and written in black marker on the walls of Kate and Linnea's room. That voice, brusque and accusatory, directs the narrative, creating suspense with a growing feeling of dread as it alludes to sexual assault, murder, and suicide. The characters are compelling enough to keep the pages turning, and the emotions, both intense and mercurial, feel apt for a young adult novel. The ending, however, feels anticlimactic, the twist not quite sufficient to justify the magnitude of the horror in all the preceding hints. Main characters are assumed White. Macabre and melodramatic. (author's note) (Thriller. 14-18)

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July 1, 2021

Gr 9 Up-Kate is celebrating her birthday at the poshest hotel in town with her three closest friends. Her father has given them rooms for the night and made reservations for an exquisite dinner in the five-star restaurant. But Kate, Fender, Lucas, and their newest friend Linnea will not enjoy this weekend. The suburban teenagers are forced to relive the tragedy from Kate's birthday the previous year. This brief horror novel is an easy read. The content, including drinking, death, and suicide, make it most appropriate for older teens. Chapters alternate among each character's point of view, but few insights are gleaned from their thoughts and actions. The plot is clumsy, the settings are jumbled, and the story lacks the eerieness and suspense readers may have hoped for. VERDICT This horror thriller fails to deliver on the suspense fans will expect.-Devita Jo Joy, Univ. of Mary Hardin-Baylor, Belton, TX

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