Reviews with content warning for Murder - The Paradox Hotel

January Cole is head of security at the Paradox Hotel, a place where the extremely wealthy can take tourist trips back in time. The hotel is run by the American government, but is badly losing money, prompting Congress to set-up an auction to privatize it. It's on the eve of this summit that a locked room murder occurs, setting the events of the story into motion.

It's an interesting story, but the most divisive element needs to be stated: January blows right past "smart-mouthed detective" and straight into cruel. She verbally, publicly, repeatedly demeans hotel staff until they are in tears; she inserts herself into situations that do not require security just to sneer at the clientele and make things more difficult for the customer service side of the hotel; she repeatedly assaults customers and staff.

The book is told from a first-person perspective, so you also come to understand that she is crippled by her grief over her (recently?) deceased girlfriend. It provides an explanation for her frankly abusive behavior that renders her pitiable to me, but based on the number of other reviews that DNF'd the book specifically because of her cruelty, it's worth mentioning that whether she's sympathetic in addition to unlikable is going to be very much a case of: your mileage may vary.

Content Warnings

dgarrison's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

There are a lot of reviews that mentioned that the protagonist, January Cole, is really mean and unlikable.

This is true and she even knows that she is being unnecessarily mean. But still I kind of understand why she is like that. She had a bad childhood and her parents were neglectful. She is terminally ill, but the disease is going to cause her to lose her grip on reality until eventually putting her in a catatonic state, and finally the love of her life tragically died.

But overall this was an entertaining read.

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obviousthings's review

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adventurous emotional mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

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mari_books's review

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dark emotional mysterious sad fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

It’s been so long since I have read a book this hard to follow. Really interesting concept with so much potential. Part of me wishes that this was a Netflix show instead. Clearly written by someone who has never worked in a hotel, entirely too many characters and like 6 different plot lines (which I know is the point) but many of the characters blended together Bc they were all adversarial to the narrator. I also found the narrator to be insufferable, and never learned.

Spoiler

Mena as a character with all the Buddhist stuff just seemed like a crutch to January so that we could have things spelled out literally, partially explained without having to show anything. I also did not understand the ending and why the author chose that moment to cut to a boring future scene that gives us no resolution to all the problems they set up text

. This book almost feels like a fanfiction of a better book - I feel bad saying it!

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bluejayreads's review against another edition

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My tolerance for characters making stupid decisions in books is very low. January, our protagonist, is rude, violent, and completely capable of exercising self-control (she actually does once to prove it) but simply chooses not to. It's like the whole book was designed to see how willing I am to tolerate characters being stupid to read about interesting ideas. Because the ideas are interesting. Set in a hotel that's basically the airport hotel of a time travel airport, this book sets up some very interesting plot hooks: January can see the future but can't remember what she saw. There's a murder victim only she can see. Someone is tampering with hotel security videos. All the clues point towards a literally invisible assassin trying to arrange their assassinations to look like accidents. And the entire concept of time seems to have stopped working. All extremely interesting ideas. And yet for all that setup, it's very slow. In the first 44%, we've set up a bunch of ideas but all January has done is piss everyone off, get on the bad side of some very important people by insisting on making bad decisions, and make an utter fool of herself in public multiple times. I'm interested in the plot and ideas, but utterly fed up with January.

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mar's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

jaded asshole of a lady detective. lesbian angst. time travel shenanigans. a fucked up hotel. dinosaurs. snarky drone AI with googly eyes and a new zealand accent. what's not to love honestly. it gets a little too chaotic by the end but i had fun :)

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librarycowboy's review

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dark emotional mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

A solid and emotional story about guilt, grief, and choosing to heal set in a mysterious time shifting hotel. Pacing gains ground throughout the book.

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lilifane's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I LOVED IT!
I understand why people might not, but I did with all my heart. It was just the perfect book for me. Very wibbly wobbly, very timey wimey, very fast-paced and action packed, very funny, very VERY confusing. A lot of characters, and a lot of things happening at the same time on every single page (and when I say at the same time, I mean past, present and future). You don't really get a break to even catch a breath. It is super diverse and has lots of queer representation (lesbian, non-binary, trans). The protagonist is not the nicest person, but you get to understand her better through the book. I really really liked her. (My favorite character was an AI drone, though.)
You are not prepared for how wild this book is. But it also had some really good quotes in the second half, some deep, emotional and social commentary that I didn't expect. And I really liked the ending, it was very fitting.

Since the plot takes place in a single building and is so complex and confusing, it gave me "The 7 deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle" and "Man in the empty suit" vibes. I'd definitely recommend it to people who like Steven Moffat's Doctor Who episodes. This reads like all of them... at once, have fun.

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