Sweetest Darkness by Leslie Lutz

After a few days of breezing through fun picture books, it's time to head back into the nitty-gritty. Today's read dives head-first into horror with a hint of paranormal, an abandoned hotel (where, of course, someone died), and tons of creepiness...or so, that's the promise. Sounds great, right? It grabbed my attention. I'll admit the cover isn't quite my thing, but that means nothing about the story inside...although I'm horribly superficial on the front. 

Still, I'm hoping to have my head buried under the covers as I grab up my flashlight and stay up to all hours of the night. 

SWEETEST DARKNESS

by Leslie Lutz

Holiday House

YA Horror

304 pages

COMING...

SEPTEMBER 24th!!!

A teenage psychic is drawn deep into the honeycomb of an abandoned hotel—and into the cat-and-mouse game of a predatory entity—in a riveting new supernatural horror novel soaked in dread.

Everyone in Gypsum, Texas knows the Hotel Alvarado changes at night—especially Quinn. A teenage clairvoyant descended from a line of witches, he’s been having dreams about it… dreams that call him to its dark, abandoned halls. The hotel is a monument to the town’s more prosperous past, when celebrities flocked to the mineral spas and films were shot in the desert. The Great Depression killed all of that, it killed the Alvarado, and frankly it killed Gypsum, too. Now, when the sun goes down, things no longer living stir deep within its creaking depths.

But the dreams are relentless. When Quinn braves the hotel’s darkness with his best friend June and unrequited love Selena, looking for answers, he gets only one: ghosts aren’t the scariest thing lurking inside the Alvarado (although they’re there, cold and restless and angry).

GOODREADS    /     PUBLISHER

MY TIDBITS

Dreams lead to an abandoned hotel as town secrets draw in to create a creepily, delicious tale.

Quinn knows he has clairvoyant tendencies and makes a few extra bucks reading tea leaves next to classes, but the odd and consistent dreams, which call to an abandoned hotel on the edge of town where a famous director died many years before, are not part of his normal. Add that two of his classmates have the same dreams every night, and he has no doubt that something's not right. When the three visit the hotel to figure out what's going on, Quinn discovers more than he bargained for.

This is a slower, more psychological horror than I expected, and it digs its claws deep. The first chapter begins with the three friends as they visit the hotel to figure out why they're plagued by the same dreams. The reasons leading up to this moment as well as their relationships with each other are filled in as short thoughts from Quinn and their conversations. But it's no problem to get enough grip on, at least, Quinn to be drawn in right away.  But then, the creepy atmosphere formed from the desert town, an abandoned hotel, and the already whispers of magic are movie worthy. While there are three of them sharing the dreams, this tale concentrates on Quinn. While the hotel and whatever is living inside builds the framework, the plot circles around Quinn, town secrets, his relationships, and hidden truths.

I was expecting a bit more of a traditional, haunted house horror with a huge portion of paranormal...and that's not what this is. Instead, it places the paranormal and other threats of the hotel into the position of a looming darkness, which haunts with tendrils of creepy promises while Quinn deals with relationships, town secrets, and his own ancestorial past. The depth weaves layers to build tension and complexity, little by little. It's not fast-paced action or quick-paced, but takes the time to let the horrible truth behind the secrets grow.

This is a read to sink into and enjoy as the horror aspect seeps in, while characters and emotions fall prey to whatever terror waits at the end.