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The Hotel
A strange collection of brilliantly atmospheric and original horror stories set in a hotel on the fens - originally a series commissioned for BBC Radio 4 and publishing on Halloween
A place of myths, rumours and secrets, The Hotel looms over the dark Fens, tall and grey in its Gothic splendour. Built on cursed land, a history of violent death suffuses its very foundations - yet it has a magnetism that is impossible to ignore.
On entering The Hotel, different people react in different ways. To some it is familiar, to others a stranger. Many come out refreshed, longing to return. But a few are changed forever, haunted by their time there. And almost all those affected are women...
Here are the stories of The Hotel: stories of children, mothers, monsters, cult film-makers, thrill-seekers and workers on the night shift, all with their own tales of its strange power, of the horrors of Room 63, and of desperate but failed attempts to escape its seductive pull.
A place of myths, rumours and secrets, The Hotel looms over the dark Fens, tall and grey in its Gothic splendour. Built on cursed land, a history of violent death suffuses its very foundations - yet it has a magnetism that is impossible to ignore.
On entering The Hotel, different people react in different ways. To some it is familiar, to others a stranger. Many come out refreshed, longing to return. But a few are changed forever, haunted by their time there. And almost all those affected are women...
Here are the stories of The Hotel: stories of children, mothers, monsters, cult film-makers, thrill-seekers and workers on the night shift, all with their own tales of its strange power, of the horrors of Room 63, and of desperate but failed attempts to escape its seductive pull.
160 pages, Kindle Edition
First published May 27, 2021
108 people are currently reading
5255 people want to read
About the author
Daisy Johnson
38 books1,320 followersThe author of Sisters (2020) Everything Under (2018) and Fen (2016).
Shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize for Everything Under, her debut novel.
Winner of the Edgehill prize for Fen.
She has been longlisted for the Sunday Times Short Story Award and the New Angle Award for East Anglian writing. She was the winner of the Edge Hill award for a collection of short stories and the AM Heath Prize.
Reviews for Fen:
"Within these magical, ingenious stories lies all of the angst, horror and beauty of adolescence. A brilliant achievement." (Evie Wyld)
"There is big, dangerous vitality herein - this book marks the emergence of a great, stomping, wall-knocking talent" (Kevin Barry)
"Reading the stories brought the sense of being trapped in a room, slowly, but very surely, filling up with water. You think: this can't be happening. Meanwhile, hold your breath against the certainty it surely is. " Cynan Jones
"I've been working my way slowly through Fen and not wanting it to end - Daisy marries realism to the uncanny so well that the strangest turnings ring as truth. The echoes between stories give the collection a wonderfully satisfying cohesion, so that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. I cannot wait to see what she does next." (Sara Taylor, author of The Shore)
Reviews for Everything Under:
"Everything Under grabbed me from the first page and wouldn’t let me go. To read Daisy Johnson is to have that rare feeling of meeting an author you’ll read for the rest of your life." (Evie Wyld)
"Surprising, gorgeously written, and profoundly unsettling, this genderfluid retelling of Oedipus Rex will sink into your bones and stay there." (Carmen Maria Machado)
"Daisy Johnson is a genius." (Jeff VanderMeer)
"Hypnotic, disquieting and thrilling. A concoction of folklore, identity and belonging which sinks its fangs into the heart of you." (Irenosen Okojie)
"Everything Under seeped through to my bones. Reaching new depths hinted at in Fen, language and landscape turn strange, full of creeping horror and beauty. It is precise in its terror, and its tenderness. An ancient myth masterfully remade for our uncertain times. " (Kiran Millwood Hargrave)
Shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize for Everything Under, her debut novel.
Winner of the Edgehill prize for Fen.
She has been longlisted for the Sunday Times Short Story Award and the New Angle Award for East Anglian writing. She was the winner of the Edge Hill award for a collection of short stories and the AM Heath Prize.
Reviews for Fen:
"Within these magical, ingenious stories lies all of the angst, horror and beauty of adolescence. A brilliant achievement." (Evie Wyld)
"There is big, dangerous vitality herein - this book marks the emergence of a great, stomping, wall-knocking talent" (Kevin Barry)
"Reading the stories brought the sense of being trapped in a room, slowly, but very surely, filling up with water. You think: this can't be happening. Meanwhile, hold your breath against the certainty it surely is. " Cynan Jones
"I've been working my way slowly through Fen and not wanting it to end - Daisy marries realism to the uncanny so well that the strangest turnings ring as truth. The echoes between stories give the collection a wonderfully satisfying cohesion, so that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. I cannot wait to see what she does next." (Sara Taylor, author of The Shore)
Reviews for Everything Under:
"Everything Under grabbed me from the first page and wouldn’t let me go. To read Daisy Johnson is to have that rare feeling of meeting an author you’ll read for the rest of your life." (Evie Wyld)
"Surprising, gorgeously written, and profoundly unsettling, this genderfluid retelling of Oedipus Rex will sink into your bones and stay there." (Carmen Maria Machado)
"Daisy Johnson is a genius." (Jeff VanderMeer)
"Hypnotic, disquieting and thrilling. A concoction of folklore, identity and belonging which sinks its fangs into the heart of you." (Irenosen Okojie)
"Everything Under seeped through to my bones. Reaching new depths hinted at in Fen, language and landscape turn strange, full of creeping horror and beauty. It is precise in its terror, and its tenderness. An ancient myth masterfully remade for our uncertain times. " (Kiran Millwood Hargrave)
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 262 reviews
October 24, 2024
Daisy Johnson is an auto-buy author for me. I'll read anything/everything. Originally, these stories were released over a few months in 2020 on a BBC radio program. You can listen to that for free:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/brand/m0...
The stories were then collected for this book, which is available from Blackwell's (free shipping to the US). I love the cover design.
The stories are all quite short and range in tone/style. Some feel like diary entries or memoirs, while others read like a dark fairytale or classic ghost story. All the stories have to do with this hotel on cursed land and center on the female experience.
Is it perfect?
Yes.
I feel like this is the lighter, more feminist version of The House of Leaves without any of the textbook vibes, footnotes, or crazy font. The Hotel is bigger on the outside than it is on the inside.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/brand/m0...
The stories were then collected for this book, which is available from Blackwell's (free shipping to the US). I love the cover design.
The stories are all quite short and range in tone/style. Some feel like diary entries or memoirs, while others read like a dark fairytale or classic ghost story. All the stories have to do with this hotel on cursed land and center on the female experience.
Is it perfect?
Yes.
I feel like this is the lighter, more feminist version of The House of Leaves without any of the textbook vibes, footnotes, or crazy font. The Hotel is bigger on the outside than it is on the inside.
October 26, 2024
2 stars
*This review is a postcard from Outlier Island* 🌴📨
short review for busy readers:
A collection of 15 loosely-linked creepy stories about a haunted hotel in the English Fens. Inconsistently imagined, scattered in approach and too vague/absurdist in description to satisfy ghost story fans. Some of the stories aren't even paranormal.
Listen for free on BBC Sounds:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/brand/m0...
in detail:
Here the detractors:
💀 failed metaphors. "The darkness was like a giant hand held over the windows"
💀 not-terribly-well-done 1st person narrative voices. "I put my hand out and opened the door. I lifted my coffee cup to my lips and took a sip. I looked at myself in the mirror and touched my pale hand to my sleek, brown hair." (Narcissist prose)
💀 the haunting is inconsistent. The curse-quote, "I'll be back/there soon," is forgotten over vast stretches, as is the main horror of room 63 and why it attracts the people it does. Nothing at all is explained about what the actual matter with the hotel is (the land, yes. The building, no).
It's as if the author took all the strange occurrences they could think of and put them in a blender on HIGH, creating a nonsensical porridge of events no single ghost could muster, no matter how angry.
💀 Victim porn labelled 'feminist'. So many women with so much abuse, rejection and trauma. I'm not sure where the marketing of "feminist twist" comes in, because most of the tales are about how this or that woman got a shitty deal and it is metaphorically 'haunting' her life. (Not how she survives it, but how it slowly kills her. Is that feminist?)
💀 I listened to this book on BBC Sounds. Unfortunately, most of the readers IMHO vastly misjudge the tone of the stories and insert martyrdom whines and shaky-voiced, melodramatic 'oh poor me, I'm gonna cry' tonal qualities into the text where none exist, causing the stories to take on a schizophrenic, disjointed feel as the text tone and the reader's tone clash.
Plus points:
🔥 the inclusion of stories from non-mainstream women. One from the POV of a transwoman and one from the POV of a lesbian.
🔥 racially inclusive, with a variety of BAME (POC) characters
🔥 the beginning stories about how the land was poisoned and the preparation of the ground for the building of the hotel are actually pretty good paranormal tales. Unfortunately, once we enter the hotel (the bulk of the stories), the quality deteriorates and things just get patently absurd.
All-in-all, it seems to me, Johnson wanted to write about how women are haunted by relationships, responsibilities and outside pressures. That their own inner hunger and lacks are what causes the horror in their lives.
Point taken, but the variety that hunger and situational anguish can take is exactly what causes this collection to fail (for the most part). It makes the hauntings too scattered, too changeable from story to story, and in the end, far too jumbled to make a cohesive whole. If it's "the haunting is different for everyone" then there needs to be far more of a coherent through line in the stories to hold them together.
"The Hotel" tries to do too much and in that doing, the collection falls apart like a house of cards.
*This review is a postcard from Outlier Island* 🌴📨
short review for busy readers:
A collection of 15 loosely-linked creepy stories about a haunted hotel in the English Fens. Inconsistently imagined, scattered in approach and too vague/absurdist in description to satisfy ghost story fans. Some of the stories aren't even paranormal.
Listen for free on BBC Sounds:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/brand/m0...
in detail:
Here the detractors:
💀 failed metaphors. "The darkness was like a giant hand held over the windows"
💀 not-terribly-well-done 1st person narrative voices. "I put my hand out and opened the door. I lifted my coffee cup to my lips and took a sip. I looked at myself in the mirror and touched my pale hand to my sleek, brown hair." (Narcissist prose)
💀 the haunting is inconsistent. The curse-quote, "I'll be back/there soon," is forgotten over vast stretches, as is the main horror of room 63 and why it attracts the people it does. Nothing at all is explained about what the actual matter with the hotel is (the land, yes. The building, no).
It's as if the author took all the strange occurrences they could think of and put them in a blender on HIGH, creating a nonsensical porridge of events no single ghost could muster, no matter how angry.
💀 Victim porn labelled 'feminist'. So many women with so much abuse, rejection and trauma. I'm not sure where the marketing of "feminist twist" comes in, because most of the tales are about how this or that woman got a shitty deal and it is metaphorically 'haunting' her life. (Not how she survives it, but how it slowly kills her. Is that feminist?)
💀 I listened to this book on BBC Sounds. Unfortunately, most of the readers IMHO vastly misjudge the tone of the stories and insert martyrdom whines and shaky-voiced, melodramatic 'oh poor me, I'm gonna cry' tonal qualities into the text where none exist, causing the stories to take on a schizophrenic, disjointed feel as the text tone and the reader's tone clash.
Plus points:
🔥 the inclusion of stories from non-mainstream women. One from the POV of a transwoman and one from the POV of a lesbian.
🔥 racially inclusive, with a variety of BAME (POC) characters
🔥 the beginning stories about how the land was poisoned and the preparation of the ground for the building of the hotel are actually pretty good paranormal tales. Unfortunately, once we enter the hotel (the bulk of the stories), the quality deteriorates and things just get patently absurd.
All-in-all, it seems to me, Johnson wanted to write about how women are haunted by relationships, responsibilities and outside pressures. That their own inner hunger and lacks are what causes the horror in their lives.
Point taken, but the variety that hunger and situational anguish can take is exactly what causes this collection to fail (for the most part). It makes the hauntings too scattered, too changeable from story to story, and in the end, far too jumbled to make a cohesive whole. If it's "the haunting is different for everyone" then there needs to be far more of a coherent through line in the stories to hold them together.
"The Hotel" tries to do too much and in that doing, the collection falls apart like a house of cards.
August 27, 2025
‘’I’ve never been to the Fens before. I’m surprised by the colour of the earth which looks as if darkness itself has slipped from the sky and filled the ground.’’
This is a collection of short stories, all linked and all the same length: all set in a hotel in the Fens in England. The hotel is built on cursed ground and there is a story that takes place before it is built and the stories continue until its demolition. I am already a fan of Daisy Johnson and this just confirmed my appreciation, although it is quite a slim offering.
The themes involve women being trapped in one way or another. People react to the hotel in different ways. This was originally a radio collection, broadcast late night during the Covid lockdown. It’s folk horror at its best. The hotel has a level of sentience, and each person experiences it in a different way, especially in room 63. There is a phrase variation that runs through it:
“I’ll see you soon”
Everything returns.
This is a collection of short stories, all linked and all the same length: all set in a hotel in the Fens in England. The hotel is built on cursed ground and there is a story that takes place before it is built and the stories continue until its demolition. I am already a fan of Daisy Johnson and this just confirmed my appreciation, although it is quite a slim offering.
The themes involve women being trapped in one way or another. People react to the hotel in different ways. This was originally a radio collection, broadcast late night during the Covid lockdown. It’s folk horror at its best. The hotel has a level of sentience, and each person experiences it in a different way, especially in room 63. There is a phrase variation that runs through it:
“I’ll see you soon”
Everything returns.
November 1, 2025
Currently listening to on BBC (parts 1-9) for free.
August 2, 2025
Every single page of this surreal story went out of my mind the moment I read it. Interesting vibes, very little sense or plot.
December 24, 2024
I loved the premise of this - interlinked spooky stories all set in the same weird hotel - but sadly I didn't get what I was hoping for and only really liked the first story. The main characters were all women and all downtrodden victims of something, for me that got tiresome after a while. I never felt unsettled by these tales, and they had a vague unsatisfying feel, and even though there was a common link I don't feel they hung together particularly well. There were phrases and places that were used quite a bit but never expanded on, I wanted hints as to why that particular room was so awful and what that repeated phrase was alluding to, but it never really went anywhere. A disappointed 2 stars.
December 22, 2024
This is a short, but powerful collection of interrelated stories, centering around The Hotel. The hotel lives and breathes. It’s also the main character, as well as what ties all the individual stories together. In many ways, the hotel represents the patriarchy, showing how it (males) maintain control over women’s lives.
I’ve read all of Daisy Johnson’s work thus far, yet this one really speaks to me. Her writing is fine and polished. Her stories are dark, delicious, and creepy. Highly recommended.
I’ve read all of Daisy Johnson’s work thus far, yet this one really speaks to me. Her writing is fine and polished. Her stories are dark, delicious, and creepy. Highly recommended.
August 10, 2025
I’d really enjoyed Johnson’s two novels, Everything Under and Sisters, and have a copy of her previous short story collection, Fen, on the shelf. This completely passed my notice last year. I liked the idea of eerie linked short stories, but I wish I’d known this was originally written for radio as I think it accounts for how simplistic and insubstantial the 15 tales are.
The Hotel is a fenland folly, built on the site of a pond where a suspected witch was drowned. Ever after, it is a cursed place. Those who build the hotel and stay in it are subject to violence, fear, and eruptions of the unexplained – especially if they go in Room 63. Anyone who visits once seems doomed to return. Most of the stories are in the first person, which makes sense for dramatic monologues. The speakers are guests, employees, and monsters. Some are BIPOC or queer, as if to tick off demographic boxes. Just before the Hotel burns down in 2019, it becomes the subject of an amateur student film similar to The Blair Witch Project.
Scary books don’t tend to work for me because I am often too aware of how they are constructed and so fail to give myself over to the reading experience and take them seriously. I can’t summon much enthusiasm for these stories, though I suppose the setting is rather atmospheric. My favourite was “Infestation,” about two girls – the one (not randomly) named Shirley – who think they discover something down in the laundry room in 1968. Only one of them makes it out alive. Okay, this one was creepy, but the rest left me unmoved.
Originally published on my blog, Bookish Beck.
The Hotel is a fenland folly, built on the site of a pond where a suspected witch was drowned. Ever after, it is a cursed place. Those who build the hotel and stay in it are subject to violence, fear, and eruptions of the unexplained – especially if they go in Room 63. Anyone who visits once seems doomed to return. Most of the stories are in the first person, which makes sense for dramatic monologues. The speakers are guests, employees, and monsters. Some are BIPOC or queer, as if to tick off demographic boxes. Just before the Hotel burns down in 2019, it becomes the subject of an amateur student film similar to The Blair Witch Project.
Scary books don’t tend to work for me because I am often too aware of how they are constructed and so fail to give myself over to the reading experience and take them seriously. I can’t summon much enthusiasm for these stories, though I suppose the setting is rather atmospheric. My favourite was “Infestation,” about two girls – the one (not randomly) named Shirley – who think they discover something down in the laundry room in 1968. Only one of them makes it out alive. Okay, this one was creepy, but the rest left me unmoved.
Originally published on my blog, Bookish Beck.
January 26, 2023
So I'm one of the few people on earth, it seems, who doesn't like audiobooks. I think this is due to a combination of factors; I'm picky when it comes to narrators and my auditory qualities aren't the strongest, which means I often find my mind drifting when listening to an audiobook (if I were to listen to them when walking or driving or cleaning, I do suspect this would be less of a problem).
But I loved Johnson's novel Sisters, I love horror and ghost stories, and I love collections of interconnected short stories, which means that consuming The Hotel (which is freely available on the website of the BBC, making it even more enticing) suddenly seemed to have a lot more pros than cons. Thus, I sat my ass down and listened to these deliciously creepy stories over the course of three days.
Though I am still not a fan of audiobooks, I can highly recommend this one. All episodes are between 13 and 14 minutes long, which means they are perfect for when you need a short break from studying/working/whatever. Though bite-sized,they are genuinely creepy. Each story adds to the mythology of the hotel (that's why I love interconnected short story collections) whilst also managing to stand on its own.
My favourite is probably story nr 14 'The Priest', though I loved nr 2 'The Witch' a lot, too. There's not a single story in here that I didn't enjoy. It makes me wonder if I should reread Johnson's debut collection Fen again; I read it when I had covid, which I suspect must have diminished my love for it. I'll definitely be stealing my sister's copy of Everything Down Under, that's for sure.
But I loved Johnson's novel Sisters, I love horror and ghost stories, and I love collections of interconnected short stories, which means that consuming The Hotel (which is freely available on the website of the BBC, making it even more enticing) suddenly seemed to have a lot more pros than cons. Thus, I sat my ass down and listened to these deliciously creepy stories over the course of three days.
Though I am still not a fan of audiobooks, I can highly recommend this one. All episodes are between 13 and 14 minutes long, which means they are perfect for when you need a short break from studying/working/whatever. Though bite-sized,they are genuinely creepy. Each story adds to the mythology of the hotel (that's why I love interconnected short story collections) whilst also managing to stand on its own.
My favourite is probably story nr 14 'The Priest', though I loved nr 2 'The Witch' a lot, too. There's not a single story in here that I didn't enjoy. It makes me wonder if I should reread Johnson's debut collection Fen again; I read it when I had covid, which I suspect must have diminished my love for it. I'll definitely be stealing my sister's copy of Everything Down Under, that's for sure.
December 1, 2020
This is absolutely amazing. I love the different characters and how they all weave around each other and The Hotel. The music is also really meaningful in the storytelling.
September 20, 2025
I found The Hotel underwhelming. There wasn't really much to it, and what was there was rather forgettable.
I don't really feel like I got enough of a sample to be able to deem this bad or good. Every time a story almost got going, it ended before I got anything from it.
Maybe it worked better as the radio series for which I understand it was initially written?
I don't really feel like I got enough of a sample to be able to deem this bad or good. Every time a story almost got going, it ended before I got anything from it.
Maybe it worked better as the radio series for which I understand it was initially written?
January 9, 2025
3.75⭐️ (Rounded up for Goodreads)
‘’There were 63 jars here and this is the room of 63 fears, all clamoring, all so loud. It is the room I will come back to and, perhaps, this room leads only into the ground.’’
Attention lovers of slow-burn, spooky gothic horror! The Hotel has a distinctly vintage, classic horror feel. This collection is composed of 15 haunting short tales, originally written for Radio4. Each story is only around 5-6 pages long.
‘’I’ve never been to the Fens before. I’m surprised by the colour of the earth which looks as if darkness itself has slipped from the sky and filled the ground.’’
We begin with a presumed witch who’s sentenced to death by the religious zealots of her village. She’s killed in the space that will become Room 63 of the hotel that’s eventually built. Each story connects and whispers of the dark, bloody history that lies within the very foundation of the hotel.
“What happened on the grounds stayed in the earth, and trauma was carried in the body like a child.”
‘’There were 63 jars here and this is the room of 63 fears, all clamoring, all so loud. It is the room I will come back to and, perhaps, this room leads only into the ground.’’
Attention lovers of slow-burn, spooky gothic horror! The Hotel has a distinctly vintage, classic horror feel. This collection is composed of 15 haunting short tales, originally written for Radio4. Each story is only around 5-6 pages long.
‘’I’ve never been to the Fens before. I’m surprised by the colour of the earth which looks as if darkness itself has slipped from the sky and filled the ground.’’
We begin with a presumed witch who’s sentenced to death by the religious zealots of her village. She’s killed in the space that will become Room 63 of the hotel that’s eventually built. Each story connects and whispers of the dark, bloody history that lies within the very foundation of the hotel.
“What happened on the grounds stayed in the earth, and trauma was carried in the body like a child.”
November 29, 2025
this was a spooky short story collection about a peculiar hotel that i really enjoyed. great atmosphere and some parts of this was genuinely chilling
November 19, 2024
LOVED this short story collection, and have immediately added all of Daisy Johnson’s work to my TBR list.
‘At night my Mother Hotel is awake most often, stretching, moving her windows, opening and closing doors, disturbing the fragile reality. She is an unclear archive, a great collector. She knows everything about anyone who comes through her doors, sees them clearly. She gathers these people to her in death, stores them inside her aching walls. She is possessive and at times - despite her great age - volatile. She was not always a hotel. Once she was just an idea, buried in the earth.’
‘At night my Mother Hotel is awake most often, stretching, moving her windows, opening and closing doors, disturbing the fragile reality. She is an unclear archive, a great collector. She knows everything about anyone who comes through her doors, sees them clearly. She gathers these people to her in death, stores them inside her aching walls. She is possessive and at times - despite her great age - volatile. She was not always a hotel. Once she was just an idea, buried in the earth.’
November 9, 2024
Oooh this was good.
Creepy collection of connected stories about The Hotel - disturbing, weird, haunting.
“I know, now that I’ve said it out loud, the words are in you too, inside you. I’m sorry. I’m sorry for giving them to you. I cannot take them back now. They belong to you just as much as they belong to me. Do you feel them? Can you feel them inside you?”
Creepy collection of connected stories about The Hotel - disturbing, weird, haunting.
“I know, now that I’ve said it out loud, the words are in you too, inside you. I’m sorry. I’m sorry for giving them to you. I cannot take them back now. They belong to you just as much as they belong to me. Do you feel them? Can you feel them inside you?”
November 10, 2024
3.5
Haunted hotel which began with the killing of a witch.
A bunch of short stories of various women who have had “experiences” with the hotel.
The book sticks to the mysterious and ominous - no real answers or resolutions.
The Witch was my fave story.
Haunted hotel which began with the killing of a witch.
A bunch of short stories of various women who have had “experiences” with the hotel.
The book sticks to the mysterious and ominous - no real answers or resolutions.
The Witch was my fave story.
October 28, 2025
It is very unusual for me to read a book straight through in one go. However this was my book club’s October book and as I wanted it fresh in my mind for discussion and also because it is relatively short at 150 pages, I decided to read it on the day of the book club supper.
‘The Hotel’ is a collection of short stories all linked to a hotel in the Fens and to the farm that was on the land before the hotel was completed in 1919. The first chapter introduces the hotel with some general background:
‘This is what we know about The Hotel:
It is bigger on the inside than the outside.
Do not go into Room 63.
Doors and windows do not stay in the same places.’
And the list continues.
It is difficult to find information about the hotel online - and what information there is tends to fade away like morning mist: ‘sentences which begin and end nowhere, vanishing punctuation’.
Each succeeding chapter is written from a different point of view, starting with the farmer’s wife accused of witchcraft and progressing chronologically through The Hotel’s construction and ending with its destruction in a fire in 2019. Some of the stories and characters cross over.
To me the best type of horror stories are ones that unsettle the reader - and ‘The Hotel’ certainly had that effect on me. Doors that disappear and reappear, unexplained happenings, mysterious writing, a strange compunction to return to The Hotel - this short story collection had it all. I enjoyed finding the connections between the characters and events in the book. I particularly enjoyed the chapter ‘Conference’, written in the first person by a female character who has just landed her first job. What was interesting about this story was that her strange experiences start in the office where she works but become magnified by The Hotel when she attends a conference there. This links to the chapter at the beginning of the book ‘The Witch’, where the farmer’s wife writes that whilst she has always had ‘some talent at seeing what is ahead’, this takes over her life once she lives in the farmhouse to the extent that she struggles to tell the present from the future. The conference chapter was also an amusing read as it describes life in the office where everything is ‘GREAT’ and ‘FANTASTIC’ but nothing is specific - a feverish atmosphere of positivity where it is difficult to find anything tangible to hold onto, so that the narrator never finds out what the job is all about.
I gave this four stars rather than five because I don’t particularly like short story collections. I would rather read a story where there is one narrative that builds through the book. With a horror story I find an atmosphere that becomes ever more unsettling as the book progresses much more satisfying. However, that said this was a very good Halloween read! We were instructed not to read the final chapter and instead this was read out loud by one of the book club members in a candlelit room in the break between the main course and dessert. A suitably chilling end to this well written collection of stories!
‘The Hotel’ is a collection of short stories all linked to a hotel in the Fens and to the farm that was on the land before the hotel was completed in 1919. The first chapter introduces the hotel with some general background:
‘This is what we know about The Hotel:
It is bigger on the inside than the outside.
Do not go into Room 63.
Doors and windows do not stay in the same places.’
And the list continues.
It is difficult to find information about the hotel online - and what information there is tends to fade away like morning mist: ‘sentences which begin and end nowhere, vanishing punctuation’.
Each succeeding chapter is written from a different point of view, starting with the farmer’s wife accused of witchcraft and progressing chronologically through The Hotel’s construction and ending with its destruction in a fire in 2019. Some of the stories and characters cross over.
To me the best type of horror stories are ones that unsettle the reader - and ‘The Hotel’ certainly had that effect on me. Doors that disappear and reappear, unexplained happenings, mysterious writing, a strange compunction to return to The Hotel - this short story collection had it all. I enjoyed finding the connections between the characters and events in the book. I particularly enjoyed the chapter ‘Conference’, written in the first person by a female character who has just landed her first job. What was interesting about this story was that her strange experiences start in the office where she works but become magnified by The Hotel when she attends a conference there. This links to the chapter at the beginning of the book ‘The Witch’, where the farmer’s wife writes that whilst she has always had ‘some talent at seeing what is ahead’, this takes over her life once she lives in the farmhouse to the extent that she struggles to tell the present from the future. The conference chapter was also an amusing read as it describes life in the office where everything is ‘GREAT’ and ‘FANTASTIC’ but nothing is specific - a feverish atmosphere of positivity where it is difficult to find anything tangible to hold onto, so that the narrator never finds out what the job is all about.
I gave this four stars rather than five because I don’t particularly like short story collections. I would rather read a story where there is one narrative that builds through the book. With a horror story I find an atmosphere that becomes ever more unsettling as the book progresses much more satisfying. However, that said this was a very good Halloween read! We were instructed not to read the final chapter and instead this was read out loud by one of the book club members in a candlelit room in the break between the main course and dessert. A suitably chilling end to this well written collection of stories!
November 22, 2024
On the front of The Hotel is a quote from The Observer which says: 'Daisy Johnson is the demon offspring of Shirley Jackson and Stephen King', and I couldn't think of a more perfect summary.
I have been suitably frightened by Daisy's interconnected collection. I first heard one of her short stories in the car to the Cairngorms as a set of Radio 4 plays. I was so ensnared that I couldn't get out of the car till it was finished. Now made into this novel, I can promise that it is just as engrossing.
The Hotel is a foreboding, seductive, building with its guests' memories haunting its many rooms and lobbies. In the flat, marshy Fens, the building ensnares anyone who steps into its shadow; seeping into the fabric of their bodies, most of those affected are women.
I have been suitably frightened by Daisy's interconnected collection. I first heard one of her short stories in the car to the Cairngorms as a set of Radio 4 plays. I was so ensnared that I couldn't get out of the car till it was finished. Now made into this novel, I can promise that it is just as engrossing.
The Hotel is a foreboding, seductive, building with its guests' memories haunting its many rooms and lobbies. In the flat, marshy Fens, the building ensnares anyone who steps into its shadow; seeping into the fabric of their bodies, most of those affected are women.
December 26, 2024
3 / 5 stars
I did really enjoy these stories and their loose connections and their ambiguity. It did remind me of Shirley Jackson in a way but while her stories are also not fleshed out fully, leaving the terror in the unknown very often, her stories feel more complete ? Like Johnson collected snatches of uncanny elements and put them all together but not in a very thought out manner, if that makes sense.
It’s difficult to say and maybe I read it too quickly on a lazy Christmas Day between naps on the couch. I’m sure I will return to this book and will hopefully pick up on more nuances then because I love ambiguous ghost stories - from Shirley Jackson to Picnic at Hanging Rock.
I did really enjoy these stories and their loose connections and their ambiguity. It did remind me of Shirley Jackson in a way but while her stories are also not fleshed out fully, leaving the terror in the unknown very often, her stories feel more complete ? Like Johnson collected snatches of uncanny elements and put them all together but not in a very thought out manner, if that makes sense.
It’s difficult to say and maybe I read it too quickly on a lazy Christmas Day between naps on the couch. I’m sure I will return to this book and will hopefully pick up on more nuances then because I love ambiguous ghost stories - from Shirley Jackson to Picnic at Hanging Rock.
June 7, 2025
I have read one or two other books by Daisy Johnson but struggle to recall their content. I like that her books are set in the Fens, as that’s the landscape of my childhood summer holidays. I read the sample of this on Kindle and it’s a page turner so I went for it. I suppose the main character is the hotel, from the circumstances in which it was built to those of its decline. It covers maybe 150 years, up to the present day. It is a very short novel but reminded me a bit of Enlightenment by Sarah Perry. I guzzled it, responding to the pace of the narrative. It was thrilling.
This might be a better listen as it was originally written for radio.
This might be a better listen as it was originally written for radio.
March 11, 2025
Read this in one sitting, fittingly on Halloween.
Stunning writing, eerie atmosphere, a strange sort of haunting, wherein the ghost may actually be the place? I'm in.
I intend to read this again backwards once the stories grow hazy. It feels right.
This is my second Daisy Johnson book and I now need to read everything she writes. It cannot be helped.
2025 update: Finally checked out the audio version. Would recommend. You can listen for free here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/brand/m0...
Stunning writing, eerie atmosphere, a strange sort of haunting, wherein the ghost may actually be the place? I'm in.
I intend to read this again backwards once the stories grow hazy. It feels right.
This is my second Daisy Johnson book and I now need to read everything she writes. It cannot be helped.
2025 update: Finally checked out the audio version. Would recommend. You can listen for free here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/brand/m0...
November 1, 2024
Well I loved this! From the woman who lived in the farmhouse before the hotel was built, to a labourer who laid the foundations, a little girl playing while her parents dine downstairs, hen do guests, a cleaner, an owner. You follow the hotel through its years and experience unnerving recurrences time slips and hauntings. This book was fresh and a brilliant exploration of both the old and modern horror of being a woman.
January 20, 2025
"We'll be at The Hotel soon."
A chilling read from start to finish. This short story collection is a rich tapestry intricately woven with sharp prose, haunting atmosphere and an uncompromising feminine lens on tales of repression, neglect, grief, our ties to the past and the inevitable fates some are bound to.
An impressive body of work from Daisy Johnson, rightfully earning her moniker as "the demon offspring of Shirley Jackson and Stephen King".
A chilling read from start to finish. This short story collection is a rich tapestry intricately woven with sharp prose, haunting atmosphere and an uncompromising feminine lens on tales of repression, neglect, grief, our ties to the past and the inevitable fates some are bound to.
An impressive body of work from Daisy Johnson, rightfully earning her moniker as "the demon offspring of Shirley Jackson and Stephen King".
February 19, 2025
I read Daisy Johnson's other short story collection, 'Fen', a couple years ago and this is just as good. I loved all the interesting connections throughout and I found it sat between a novella and short story collection because of how central the fictionalised hotel is. I'm also just fascinated by the fens too which helps.
March 25, 2025
A really interesting and eerie collection of short stories interlinked by The Hotel. I really enjoyed each story and loved how the characters linked into some so seamlessly. Daisy Johnson creates increasingly creepy and weird atmospheres in each story. I randomly picked this up at the library but will definitely read more from her.
September 3, 2025
Ik had niet verwacht dat ik dit boek zo snel uit zou hebben! Dit boek bestaat uit korte verhalen van telkens precies 10 pagina's en de wetenschap dat ze maar zo kort zijn, maakte dat ik maar bleef door lezen. Maar ook omdat de verhalen echt eng zijn en je wilt weten hoe de verhaallijn van Het Hotel verder gaat. Mooi geschreven!
November 30, 2024
Eerie and entertaining, The Hotel reads as a contemporary mashup of Jackson's 'The Haunting of Hill House' and Chamber's 'The King in Yellow', yet someone manages to seem completely fresh and original at the same time.
December 10, 2024
Üksteisega läbi põimunud kummituslood, lugesin ühe jutiga läbi ja meeldisid, aga praegu midagi pikemat öelda nagu ei oska. Daisy Johnsoni jutukogu "Fen" mulle väga meeldis ja see meeldis ka, romaan on veel lugemata. Väikesed õuduspudemed.
January 13, 2025
Love the work of DJ and found a lot of this to be pretty unsettling and effective, but it did start to feel a little repetitive towards the end. Extending one of the shorts into a longer novel may have worked better (the final story in particular had real potential for this!)
April 6, 2025
Daisy Johnson is probably one of our best young writers (I like saying this because she is older than me). I thought maybe there were too many short stories in this, but the last one is top notch. #Spooky
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