Kurtain Motel

Confess!!

Patrick Lahm is on his way to a book signing when he has some car trouble. Through the storm he makes out lights coming towards him. A priest pulls up and Patrick gets a lift to the nearest town, but the storm is worsening and they decide to stop at the Kurtain Motel for the night. This turns out to be a massive mistake and the night seems never ending.

So I quite enjoyed this. While there are a few minor issues, overall it was thoroughly enjoyable. Plot wise, I was intrigued and interested in the whole plot. The setting of the motel was perfect because a creepy motel in a storm will always give you shivers!! Then we have the whole "confess" bit! That was initially confusing but once the story got going I was able to figure somethings out. I also loved the fact that everyone seems to have their own secrets.

One problem for me was the sheer number of characters. I found myself a little lost on who was talking at any given time, but it did eventually click for me and I was able to distinguish each one and kinda figure out what their secrets were. I really liked Patrick and am intrigued to find out what his secret is ;)

The minor issues for me were the fact that some of the characters weren't as developed as I would have liked. Also, when the boy came into the story, I thought, from the description, that he was really young, but near the end we find out his age. It just didn't add up! But as I said, these are minor issues and didn't detract from the creepiness of the story!!

Thom Bowers does a great job of capturing the atmosphere and bringing the book alive, I just found that he didn't differentiate some of the male characters enough. It took me a while to figure out which character was which. But he does read this well and is clear and concise, so in all, I did enjoy his performance.

I was voluntarily provided this audiobook for free from the author, narrator, or publisher. This in no way affected nor influenced my thoughts.

5 of 5 people found this review helpful

I think they stayed at this hotel

Confess confess confess
I am never going to be able to go to church again because I’m going to sit in the pew and scream. This book is very well written a few too many characters to juggle at first but once you get going it makes sense why they are all there. Not only that but it is a great entry into the Sin series. Can’t wait for number two.

Sin Motel

This was a good story about people trapped in a motel and forced to face their past mistakes. I will read more from this author.

Never staying at a small motel again...

Any additional comments?

I liked the story idea, it was good overall but it did have some parts that were a little slow. Thom did an excellent job narrating.

Great start to series

Excellent listen! Very chilling story, I wasn't expecting the direction that this story took. The narrator is amazing and really adds to the chilling quality of the story. Looking forward to seeing where this series goes next.

Kurtain Motel

For the most part, the story was ok. It wasn't terribly scary, but it kept me reading. The narrator did a good job of differentiating between the various characters, with only a few minor slips. I wish I could give this book a higher rating, but unfortunately, there are massive holes in the story. One character's sin was never revealed, while three other were never completely explained. The best character in the story was killed "off screen", while another lost their mind with no explanation given. I even checked the e-book to make sure there wasn't just a glitch in my audiobook, but sure enough, they matched. I don't know if it's laziness or inexperience on the author's part, but I really hope the rest of the series is better.

hardyreader

Hard to follow at times, otherwise a fairly good story. Found the narrator's reading of female characters a bit campy.

Whoa! Excitement from start to finish!

Thom Bowers gave a brilliant reading as always. The book was exciting the whole way through so much so that I didn't want to stop reading. Or listening in this case. I'm really looking forward to the next book. I foresee lots of freaky events.

Now for the negative stuff. I'm not sure how the beginning was supposed to tie into the rest of the story. It was great but it had nothing to do with the main plot except for the Confess stuff. Same situation, different place and different people. They probably could've dropped it as it made no impact on the rest of the story.

Some of the characters were difficult to keep separate after awhile. There were so many men and they all sounded the same. I doing mean that it was just Thom Bowers giving them the same voice though that happened too. I mean that the characters were all too similar. Some stood out - Patrick, Harold, Jason, the ladies - but the rest seemed to just all be angry and mean. Nothing to really differentiate them all.

In depth details were given on most of them but not all. That would be fine except it seemed like Harold would be important, but we never got past the surface. We learned what unimportant characters did, but we never seven got a glimpse of his dark side. The kid even pointed him out to make him seem important. It felt like so much time was taken building everything up that the author ran out of steam or time and hurried to throw an ending together. I want to know more about the ladies sins and situations. They were giving us lots on Gina's insecurities and then made a passing mention of he'd sin before moving on and then nothing more. That's just not right.

Finally, the way the boy, Jimmy, is described in the beginning made it sound like he was a little kid around 5 or something. It's not till the end we find out he's 13. That threw me for a loop. Not important perhaps but I was imagining a little boy this whole time when instead I should have been picturing a young teenager. Very different impression for me.

So, yes, I was disappointed at the end because it hurried to end and left out a ton of stuff that I would've loved reading/hearing about, but this was still an awesome book. If you like horror books that don't ramble for 100s of pages, then I highly recommend giving it a try.

Great book with excellent narration

Would you consider the audio edition of Kurtain Motel to be better than the print version?

Yes, the right narrator can enhance the reading experience

What was one of the most memorable moments of Kurtain Motel?

What about Thom Bowers’s performance did you like?

His performance is excellent due to his voice inflection and timing

Confess

I purchased and read this 1st in series book in April, and given audiobook in September by Scare Street (THANK YOU) it is so much better to listen too. I love horror and ghosts stories. Loved the characters of Patrick, Jimmy and Connor. Patrick stopped at motel for the night due to storm, then all hell starts. This book was scary, creepy and thrilling better than the Slaughter series. Recommend to anyone who enjoys horror books, onto 2nd book.