reading_under_covers's Reviews (1.61k)

Characters and situations are cringe and the writing really jumps from one thing to the next.

This one was a bit of a letdown after how strong the first three books in this series were. 

The story seemed to lack a lot of purpose and the character development was also missing for me.

Disclaimer: I didn’t read Horror Hotel, but still felt like I was able to jump right into this story!!

There were so many fantastic elements happening in this book - a haunted cruise, two rival ghost hunting teams, and a ton of ghosts!

It fell flat for me when it came to the horror element - I am absolutely terrified of ghosts, but from the moment the first one was introduced, I didn’t really feel any sort of fear. Really would have enjoyed this one more if the authors really leaned in to the creep factor.

This one comes out on March 19!!

Thanks to Delacorte and Underlined for the early finished copy!

This is one of those instances where I loved loved loved the sequel (which follows our girl Kiki), but didn’t really vibe with this one.

The main characters just weren’t my fave 🤷🏼‍♀️ and the miscommunication trope was 😵‍💫😵‍💫 

I seem to be in the minority here, but if you’re reading this review, please pick up DIDN’T SEE THAT COMING!! 

Jolene is a local tv reporter in Phoenix. When a controversial talk show host suddenly dies, news reporters swarm to get to the story first. Jolene is determined to find out the truth behind the radio show host’s death and maybe earn an Emmy while doing it.

OFF THE AIR by Christina Estes is advertised as a mystery, but felt more like a “I’m going to tell you a whole bunch of facts and stories unrelated to the mystery to the point that you forget there even is a mystery” kind of mystery.

So much of this story focuses on our “controversial talk show host’s” opinions (read: very unsettling, problematic, far-right ideas) and on random facts and histories of things brought up within the story, that I lost the thread many times.

Our main character Jolene, who always spouted on about being a reporter of integrity, still seemed to do some unethical things and was extremely power hungry…it was hard to root for her.

I’m sure there is an audience for this book, but it just happened to not be me.

Thanks to NetGalley, St. Martin’s Press, and Minotaur Books for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Publication Date: March 27

Very slow-paced with a naive main character. The mystery also didn’t feel very mysterious 

This one ultimately just wasn’t working for me. None of the characters were very interesting and the pacing was off for me.

There were also some story inconsistencies that were eating at me so much it was hard to focus on continuing the story.

Thanks to the author for sending me an early copy of this one even if I didn’t vibe with it! 😭