My first impression after reading blurbs and the synopsis was that Hotel Magnifique was essentially The Night Circus, but make it ~hotel~. And for the first third or so it was pretty much exactly that. Two sisters, Jani and Zosa, are trying to escape their difficult lives in the town of Durc, and finally get the opportunity to when the famous, magical Hotel Magnifique makes an appearance. They each take jobs in the hotel, which is as bizarre as it is enchanting, and can hardly believe they could be so lucky.
I’d read The Night Circus years ago and while I enjoyed it I wasn’t super interested in reading a re-hash of it. As a result the beginning of this story was kind of boring for me. Eventually, though, the book took a darker turn, with everything that glittered before starting to look a little more nefarious under a different light. For the next two-thirds of the novel the author relished prying off the story’s shiny paneling to reveal the rot hiding beneath. And at first I really loved this too, but after a while even that started to take on a repetitive quality.
I don’t want to get too into the specifics of what went on, but for the most part we followed Jani and her attempts to uncover secrets of the hotel and its employees. I liked a lot of pieces of the story, but some of how it was fitted together didn’t quite make a complete whole for me. The magic veered into vague and there wasn’t much in the way of explanations on how it all worked—it felt like a lot of hand-waving ~magic~ instead of a tangible system. The story just wasn’t as dazzling or dreamy as I think it wishes it was.
Another thing I noticed in the way that characters were written, literally every single one had their skin color described in detail. Like immediately, the first thing the author does is say the exact skin tone of every person encountered, even characters we see in passing. Sometimes the only thing we’re told about a person is the precise shade of their skin, and it just came off really weird. I’m assuming the intent to show that the hotel and world around it was diverse, but it was also mentioned multiple times that “every body shape and skin color imaginable” was present, so it felt like more of a fixation by the author than necessary details. A search on my kindle shows 121 instances of the word “skin”, with the majority being used in this way. I don’t know, I’ve never encountered something like this while reading, but it was distracting enough where I felt like I had to make note of it.
I kind of wish I had more to say on my experience with Hotel Magnifique. The ending wrapped up a little quickly, given how long it took us to get to the interesting parts in the beginning. But other than that, I’ve got nothing else! It didn’t leave as much of an impression as I was hoping it would, especially since there was plenty of good material to work with. For a fantasy that’s a bit off the beaten path it does its job, though I doubt I’ll be excitedly recommending it come Spring 2022.
I’d read The Night Circus years ago and while I enjoyed it I wasn’t super interested in reading a re-hash of it. As a result the beginning of this story was kind of boring for me. Eventually, though, the book took a darker turn, with everything that glittered before starting to look a little more nefarious under a different light. For the next two-thirds of the novel the author relished prying off the story’s shiny paneling to reveal the rot hiding beneath. And at first I really loved this too, but after a while even that started to take on a repetitive quality.
I don’t want to get too into the specifics of what went on, but for the most part we followed Jani and her attempts to uncover secrets of the hotel and its employees. I liked a lot of pieces of the story, but some of how it was fitted together didn’t quite make a complete whole for me. The magic veered into vague and there wasn’t much in the way of explanations on how it all worked—it felt like a lot of hand-waving ~magic~ instead of a tangible system. The story just wasn’t as dazzling or dreamy as I think it wishes it was.
Another thing I noticed in the way that characters were written, literally every single one had their skin color described in detail. Like immediately, the first thing the author does is say the exact skin tone of every person encountered, even characters we see in passing. Sometimes the only thing we’re told about a person is the precise shade of their skin, and it just came off really weird. I’m assuming the intent to show that the hotel and world around it was diverse, but it was also mentioned multiple times that “every body shape and skin color imaginable” was present, so it felt like more of a fixation by the author than necessary details. A search on my kindle shows 121 instances of the word “skin”, with the majority being used in this way. I don’t know, I’ve never encountered something like this while reading, but it was distracting enough where I felt like I had to make note of it.
I kind of wish I had more to say on my experience with Hotel Magnifique. The ending wrapped up a little quickly, given how long it took us to get to the interesting parts in the beginning. But other than that, I’ve got nothing else! It didn’t leave as much of an impression as I was hoping it would, especially since there was plenty of good material to work with. For a fantasy that’s a bit off the beaten path it does its job, though I doubt I’ll be excitedly recommending it come Spring 2022.