The Grand Hotel

August 25, 2014
Inspired by the Sanskrit classic The Five-and-Twenty Tales of the Genie, this stagey fantasy novel unfolds as a series of first-person narratives told by residents of the creepy Grand Hotel to visitors on a tour being lead by “Vic,” the hotel’s enigmatic front desk clerk. Most involve a brush with the fantastic—a doctor travels back to medieval times to treat the sick with modern medicine, a police officer sees his partner’s ghost spirited away by the specters of a haunted apartment building—that sometimes verges on the ludicrous, such as when a television chef cooks in the world’s most haunted places. Kennemore (Zombie, Indiana) presents these stories as parables that Vic tells an unnamed tourist, but their shaggy-dog character makes their lessons feel forced. A final tale reveals Vic’s identity and the underlying purpose of his tour, but the “whole” that it suggests is barely equal to the sum of this novel’s parts.

October 15, 2014
Baffled tourists in an unnamed city step into another world when they visit a crumbling hotel. The Grand Hotel is in such disrepair that passersby often don't know whether the building is actually in use or not. With a flick of a light switch, the all-but-invisible desk manager inevitably startles everyone who ventures in. But when he reassuringly welcomes a group of tourists, he explains that in its heyday the hotel entertained kings, queens, presidents and prime ministers. Besides, it has 333 1/3 rooms, and at least some of them have permanent guests with strange histories. One is Mr. Pence, who doesn't tell his story outright because he's a corpse. Yet for 50 years, the food delivered to his room has always been eaten, and his bill has always been paid. The next guest the tourists visit is Mr. Orin, whose tale is not your usual fish story. Ms. Kvasov, who lives in a room full of lifelike dancing wooden mannequins, shares a tale of extortion and revenge, while Detective Click reminisces about a strange case in a haunted house in Chicago. As the desk manager, who comes to be known as Vick, leads the visitors to a succession of residents, all of whom share their bizarre experiences-a conspiracy aboard a secret space ship; a reality show called Ghost Chef filmed in the Outer, Outer Hebrides; a violin with a life of its own; a vengeful spirit in a metal mask-Vick tells the tourists that all ghosts want something. He wants something, too; he's testing the tourists, especially a precocious redheaded girl. And as his role at the hotel becomes clearer, so do his intentions in this series of clever occult vignettes inspired by a real-life ancient story cycle. Kenemore (Zombie, Indiana, 2014, etc.) crafts a series of witty, deliciously creepy tales whose larger story arc is built on growing suspense about the fate of one of the hotel's visitors.

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October 15, 2014

In an unnamed city there stands a decrepit hotel, where a mysterious man at the front desk welcomes lost tourists who stumble through the front doors, eager to take them on a tour of the once-famous establishment. As they move through the halls, the clerk introduces the group to some of the Grand Hotel's longtime residents: a dancer, a chef, a musician, a doctor, and a priest, and they all have a dark story to tell. Each narrative in this linked novel by the author of Zombie, Ohio: A Tale of the Undead is a triumph and could have stood alone, but they gain immense appeal by being strung together on the tour of the creepy hotel. Running throughout is the interaction between the desk clerk and a young girl who seems out of place among the visitors. After each story, the man questions the girl to see what she has gleaned from the tale, but to what end? The menace is subtle yet it builds effectively as the tour reaches its final stop. VERDICT This is a solid pick for those looking for horror tending more toward the mysterious and spooky.

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