Not so terrible as it is terribly amateur. The novel is vaguely in the horror genre while firmly in the literary fiction camp, but unfortunately does not have the literary skill to fully make it with the big leagues its trying to. Jagger has forgone a plot in pursuit of a character study, which while illuminating at times, is dressed by a prose style that is overstated and melodramatic. The characters do not act to life and much of the potential symbolism is underdeveloped. There's an underlying inauthenticity with many of the situations as well, mainly around money and the dialogue that pushes the story forward. I enjoyed bits of it — don't get me wrong — but it felt like a first novel you write as a teen and keep quietly on your desktop.

(Also... is no one going to mention this girl working as a hotel cleaner and having a negative bank account while her father makes six figures as a data analyst? Are you actually fucking with me?)

Thank you (and apologies) to NetGalley for this ARC. ( )