In the early 80's young girls began to disappear in the small town of Fell, New York. This was uncharacteristic of the area yet law enforcement in the area were willfully incompetent in attempting to solve these murders. Enters Viv, our 19 year old protagonist in the story. Viv works as the night clerk at the Sun Down Motel, and is convinced she can help solve these murders...until she herself goes missing. Fast forward to 2017, Viv's niece Carly comes to Fell, and her aunt's old job falls into her lap. She uses this position to find out exactly what happened to her aunt, uncovering secrets and encountering ghostly pals that help her along the way.

MEGA ULTRA SPOILERS AHEAD FYI PSA
Eh....idk ya'll :( this really wasn't for me. This book was classified as a horror read and so I went in expecting a gristly murderer in a seedy hotel vibe and while I got that (SORT OF) I felt like it was delivered in the most bland, watered down way possible. When we get Viv's side of the story, she isn't really DOING much besides calling her police bestie and screaming into the void that Simon Hess is a murderer. This was slightly frustrating to begin with but after chapters and chapters of her doing the same thing I simply began to not care lmao. Carly's chapters were far more interesting to me yet, the supernatural elements were corny af and unnecessary. I would have appreciated them if they brought an eerie/scary vibe to the story but instead the plot became more murky, there was too much going on. BIG OL SPOILERS COMIN AHEAD: Callum (Hess' grandson) being randomly revealed to be someone who is "weird to girls" right at the 80% mark in the book felt like an afterthought...and it was so CHEESY??? And then his death...totally weird and misplaced, again just adding to the chaos to the book. ANOTHER SPOLIERY THING: Viv randomly having cancer??? Carly saying the phrase: "A girl's gotta lose her virginity somewhere right?" (If this wasn't at the 98% mark in the book I'd have DNF'd right there bc....9-1-1)????? Idk it just felt like St. James was pulling ideas from a hat to plop into the book sporadically to see what would happen. The overload of elements and writing style made this story fall FLAT. This is a super bummer considering that the premise for the story + the setting is really cool but, it just didn't work out IMO. This is a Would not recommend :(