Travelers Rest

Starred review from October 19, 2015
Expertly refurbishing an old structure, this haunted-hotel novel generates some genuine chills. A heavy snowstorm leads Prof. Tonio Addison to pull off the highway and look for a place to stay in Good Night, Id. The huge, eponymous old lodge somehow tempts members of his party—Tonio himself; his wife, Julia; their 10-year-old son, Dewey; and Tonio’s shiftless younger brother, Robbie—to follow impulses and wander off on separate missions. Soon they find themselves alone, catching only odd, disturbing glimpses of one another in or around the hotel. Smart, clever Dewey is the least befuddled, but even he loses control as the action accumulates echoes of increasingly uncanny past events. The characters appear to coexist more or less consciously and willingly with people who lived and died in the hotel years ago, and the elements of an old tragedy are gathering themselves for a reenactment. Morris (The Dart League King) handles the spooky materials deftly, but his writing is what makes the story really scary: quiet and languorous, sweeping steadily and inexorably along like a curtain of drifting snow identified too late as an avalanche. Agent: Renee Zuckerbrot, Renee Zuckerbrot Literary.

November 1, 2015
Alice in Wonderland meets The Shining when four travelers are stranded in Good Night, Idaho, during a freak blizzard. There is something seductive about the Travelers Rest hotel. For Julia Addison, it is settling into an oddly familiar bed in the hotel and dreaming, beyond worry about her husband and son. And for her husband, Tonio, there is a mysterious blonde woman in silver shoes whom he follows, leaving their son, Dewey, behind. Dewey is unimpressed by this strange hotel in this strange town where the snow never seems to stop falling. Sure, he receives more chocolate pie than he could ever eat from the rough but sympathetic owners of the diner, but the novelty of having no parents to whom he must report quickly wears thin. And then there's Uncle Robbie, fresh from rehab, who looks at the whole adventure as a chance to go on the binge of a lifetime and finally cut ties with his responsible older brother. Mostly they flit in and out of their separate experiences that seem to take place in varying times and places, though occasionally one character will catch a ghostly glimpse of another. As the truth begins to come out about Good Night's history and the Addisons' role in it, there is ultimately a rather satisfactory answer to most of the mystery and questions and flashbacks. Morris (Call It What You Want, 2010, etc.) insists on using epigraphs from Proust throughout the book, which detracts from rather than adds to the novel's own illustration of the themes of memory and reality. Though a bit slow to begin, because the characters find themselves lost before we even get to know them, the novel gradually proves itself weighty, suspenseful, and even wistful. The physics of Good Night might be questionable, but the lasting impact on the characters is rather poignant.

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November 15, 2015

Tonio Addison and his family--wife Julia and son Dewey--are driving home from Seattle cross country after picking up Tonio's brother, Robbie, from his latest stint in rehab when a severe snowstorm forces them to stop in Good Night, ID. Charmed not only by the town's name but also by the old hotel called Travelers Rest, Julia insists that they stay overnight to wait out the storm. One by one, family members get separated from one another, and while each has to navigate through the peculiar maze of time and space that occupies Travelers Rest, ultimately their fates rest in Julia's hands. Her choices will determine if her family becomes Souvenirs--those trapped forever in Good Night--or if they get out alive. VERDICT Reminiscent of Stephen King's The Shining, Morris's third novel (after The Greyhound God and The Dart League King) is set in a hotel that exists in multiple places at once, where not only can the echoes and ghosts of the past be seen and heard, but where they can also harm you. What appears at first glance to be simply a horror story, is actually an existential, and often confusing, journey taken first by Julia and then ultimately by her son. Readers will struggle along with the characters to unravel the mystery, but one thing is certain: there is no rest at Travelers Rest.--Elisabeth Clark, West Florida P.L., Pensacola

Copyright 2015 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

December 15, 2015
The Addisons are driving cross-country after picking up Uncle Robbie from his umpteenth stay in rehab when they get caught in a freak snowstorm. Forced to pull off the highway, they enter the town of Good Night, Idaho, and check into a once-opulent hotel called Travelers Rest. Julia and Tonio are immediately taken with the crumbling hotel, while their son, clever 10-year-old Dewey, finds it incredibly creepy. The family members eventually become separated, seemingly moving in and out of time, sometimes catching glimpses of each other's ghosts while interacting with the town's residents, who are known as souvenirs. Meanwhile, the snow continues to fall, blanketing the town and producing an eerie quiet. Morris (The Dart League King, 2008) evokes the strange atmosphere in resonant prose while plying his theme of how the past weighs on the present. In addition to his effective use of atmospherics, Morris has created, in Dewey, a remarkably authentic depiction of a 10-year-old. And, last but not least, there is great poignancy in the way he shows how family members long to, but often fail to, connect. Slow but striking reading.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)