The Thing In Room 601

Shivers #19

by M.D. Spenser

What a way to spend a holiday in sunny California! Liam and Diane, brother and sister, hoped to have a good time with their mom. They would be staying at that great old hotel. But, when Mom has to leave them alone; terrible things threaten. Their room with a view reveals really rotten secrets. Leave the lights on or it could be check-out time - permanently!! Be sure to tip the bellboy from beyond or he'll lose your luggage. Don't wait for that weird wake up call - run for your lives!!!

CALL ROOM SERVICE FROM THE DEAD

Genres: Horror, Fiction, Childrens, Young Adult, Middle Grade, Fantasy, Mystery

121 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1995

About the author

M.D. Spenser is a children's author, journalist and music critic. Born in the United States, he lives now in the UK.

"The Enchanted Attic," Book 1 of his popular SHIVERS series of novels for children, was republished as an e-book in August 2011. It is available at amazone.com, Barnes & Noble, Sony and iBookstory. Book 2, "A Ghastly Shade of Green," and Book 3, "Ghost Writer," followed shortly afterwards.


The rest of the 36-book series will be published as ebooks over time.

Also, an internet petition is circulating asking that the entire 36-book series be republished in paperback: http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/md...

Reviews

[Thomas · Rating 2 out of 5]

So on Twitter I did a quick poll to see what Shivers book I do next, as it's time for our next cycle. I was gonna do this next week but there was a change of plans that left less room next week. I could have waited til March but I'm not a big planner.

The other choices were called The Haunting House, The Animal Rebellion, and The Spider Kingdom. This was the one that sounded the least interesting but the people picked it. And...it sucks. Granted, it's much better than Ghosts of Camp Massacre but it weirdly feels emptier.

Setup is that Liam and his sister are staying in a old hotel as the family is here for their aunt's wedding. But Mom gets a call from a friend who just landed in the hospital, so she has to go to help her. Because I guess this friend has a strict no kid policy, the kids must stay at the hotel for a few days by themselves. Seriously, there;'s no reason they can't go with her, at least none that is given.

Because they can't afford the usual suite, they must stay in Room 601, which has not been used in years and of course it's haunted as they eventually discover. And boy do I mean eventually. I know there's only much you can do in 124 pages but for as slow as the build in these can be, there's at least SOMETHING happening.

This wastes like chapters on stuff I can sum up in two paragraphs. There's so many "little did i know" type cliffhangers, they spend more time telling us what will happen then do on the things that actually happen.

In the least, the voice of the POV character isn't too annoying ad their dynamic has a couple okay moments, so that's the main reason it's better than Massacre. The prose is bad like that one though, just not as bad. So many run on sentences.

There actually are some decent scares and the description is better once the ghost shows up. Too bad this comes in towards the end and between that is a bunch of nothing. There's build up, then there's filler.

The villain is a Mexican maid (sigh) who's quick backstory is she murdered her children. Yep, still dark no matter what entry we're on. She has clear plans to murder the protagonists, and that scene of her chasing them is the highlight. Very real danger there, reminds me of the Goosebumps short story What's Cooking,,,and also The Shinning, which this is a clear take on.

Too bad the ending is really abrupt. Like, the way the ghost is stopped is very lame, i thought it would be a fake out and more would happen. Nope, like Dinner, it just stops. It is more of an ending but the story is overall much weaker. We don't even find out why she was doing this. Plus, her ghost children appear but not in the climax. What was up with that?

At one point they find their room has been cleaned and the bellboy says he didn't' do it. So the ghost woman did...for reasons? Thought this meant she was good but nope. It adds as much as her being Mexican and them going into the tradition of Day of the dead. It's just kind of there.

There are a few decent moments and ideas that keep this from being a hard sit like Ghosts of Camp Massacre was, but at least that had a proper resolution to the conflict and a clear explanation to what was going on.

This was almost closer to a 2.5 but that ending just made the whole thing feel even emptier than it already was so it's a high-ish 2/Meh. Not fully awful but certainly not good. After a few that were flawed but decent this was a let down.

Really wish I got do Animal Rebellion but ah well. This series has been...disappointing, to say the least. At least I have Animorphs tomorrow.

[Brandon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ever since discovering the Shivers books and seeing all the amazing covers ,one book in particular really stuck out to me ,and that book is the thing in room 60. I love the concept of something being in a room and not knowing exactly what it is based solely on cover art and a vague description.It seemed like a pretty good mystery and I finally finished it. The story starts off with two siblings Liam and Diane they're going on vacation at this fancy hotel. Their mom is going to her sister's wedding and the dad is flying back from New York.I think. Well one of their mom's friends ends up getting hurt so the mom has to go look after her for a little while. And this is where the questionable parenting kicks in. The mom decides to leave they're two siblings who are both twelve years old by themselves at this hotel for three days.She gave them money for food and stuff like that but still .Don't do that. They go through this hotel and it's like a big maze.Its easy to get lost in already and now that their mom is left they have to go to a different room. This is where they get the keys to the room 601 ,which is upstairs. They end up finding the room after almost getting lost, and they noticed that the room is dirty and filthy and all kinds of stuff.They end up finding this cardboard box that's pressed against the corner of the room and it has two skulls in it. But it's sugar skulls.Apparently this is like a Hispanic custom for when people die they have sugar skulls made in remembrance of them.These kids know this somehow from Spanish class. When they end up moving them they hear a sound coming upstairs and there's this really old lady standing in the doorway. She has their bags for them and she sets them down.She asks them their names and they tell her.They end up deciding to get out of this hotel for a little bit because this lady creeps the kids out so they get ready to leave.But not before seeing two other characters that I won't say because of spoilers. They go to the hotel lobby and the guy behind the counter tells them that their bags are on the way. And you can see where this is going.They also tells them that the maid should be up there to go clean their rooms in a little bit.So when they come back it's spotless.The bellhop comes up and he surprised to see that the room is clean and spotless because he is not the one that cleaned it. The bellhop informs them about the skulls sitting against the corner he knows about them and tell them the story and it is actually pretty disturbing.I'm going to let you as the reader read it for yourself.That's really all I can give away for Shivers The Thing In Room 601, because honestly not a lot happens. The book is so short and choppy with really, really short chapters. This is easy to breeze through I had fun with it. It's kind of a story where the more you think about it the creepier it is.alsp the story of how all these things came to be would traumatize me if I read this as a kid. I would probably get this book four out of five stars.

[Mariah · Rating 1 out of 5]

I really would have been better off not reading this story. It was like a 12 year old wrote it.

[Owen · Rating 2 out of 5]

I thought this was gonna be a good good and just because of the cover of the book, but this was a total disaster it was boring, had no action, and the plot was dumb asf. Grandma as a killer for real?
It's not worth reading just a dumb story. Trust me because I read all 36 books.

[محمد قرط الجزمي · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have just five stories from this nice shivers. I liked this more than the others.

[Famine · Rating 1 out of 5]

Don’t even bother with this one. Not even for laughs. It was such a cop out, cheap story, I’m shocked it got approved and printed; it felt like a 8 year old’s campfire ghost story, it was that shallow and badly written.

The story? Non existent. Shivers are supposed to be light reads for a very young crowd, not the quality of Goosebumps or Spooksville. This felt like a bad ghost writer who made zero effort.

The ‘plot’ =

A family goes on holiday & rents a hotel room; the mother has to leave the 2 kids alone for 3 days while she visits an unwell friend interstate.

The kids are moved to an abandoned room.
An old Mexican maid introduces them to their new room.
They see 2 dead child ghosts in their new room. They only exist in the book for those couple of lines.
The 2 kids find 2 sugar skulls in their new room. (Add a faintly racisf, ignorant, ‘Mexican custom for halloween & its sick’ explanation.
They go to the beach to avoid the 3 ghosts but come back for clothes.
A bellboy explains the Mexican maid cut her children’s heads off years ago.
Mexican Maid tries to kill the 2 kids when the bellboy leaves.
Mexican Maid is locked in an adjacent room with the 2 sugar skulls.
Kids’ mum shows up conveniently to announce changed plans & hotel.
Hero Kid explains that the ghosts are still there but it’s not his problem.

Other than the copycatting of The Shining (hotel worker goes mad and butchers his two children token plot device), it had the worst writing, no plot, no characters, no body/weight, nothing even substandard or amateur.

No explanation whatsoever behind the ghosts, the murder, the sugar skulls, why they had to be Mexican and what thei funeral customs had to do with monsters, no mention of a curse or unfinished business, how the maid died and why does she live in the room, how & why did she go mad, etc.

The book could have been written in one chapter.

[Carmen Tudor · Rating 5 out of 5]

Years ago I gave away tons of kids' and YA books, and since then I've often thought about my Shivers collection. After finding a few titles on eBay I decided to start with an old favourite, The Thing in Room 601. It's a lot shorter than I remember and while the originality of the story is is as good (I think) as what you'd find in Stine's Goosebumps, I would've liked more time for the supernatural element to develop. Still, The Marlowe Hotel, Elena, Liam and Diane's breakfast squabbles and Mum's too-good-to-be-true absence are a whole lot of fun and I'm so glad to have got my hands on these books once more (I'll never give books away again!).

[Todd East]

So far I've read 33 pages out of 121 pages out of this book. From what I've read so far is great. It introduces you to the two main characters and other family members. It builds up well. It gives the reason why they are there and how they end up in the abandoned top floor. Can't wait to read some more.

[Briana · Rating 2 out of 5]

i mean... i know its a childrens book lmfao but waiting all the way until the end to do anything seemed like a waste. also couldve done a lot more with the spook factor. but again... its for kids so. i mean if i was a kid i too would like more scares but whatever. ive had this book on my shelf for like over 20 years at this point probably im just glad i can finally say i read it

[Nader Nate · Rating 2 out of 5]

I expected at the beginning of the story that it was promising, although the characters were not bad and The plot was good and could have been really terrifying, but with the repetition of the scenario and the stretching of something important, and when it happens, it happens in a very fast and disappointing way
What a waste!
(Verdict): 5.8/10

[Jairo_rocker · Rating 5 out of 5]

DONT MIND THE HATERS THIS BOOK IS AWESOME.


This book is amazing and probably my favorite shivers book.
the ending part really is scary and i like the buildup.
the cover is awesome and the book is also great

[V · Rating 1 out of 5]

Read as a desperate attempt to meet my 2025 reading goals.

I was hoping for nostalgia, and to bring back the feeling I used to get when I read Shivers and Goosebumps as a teenager; did not work. I'll try again with Goosebumps next.

[Nathan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Poorly written and paced edging.

[Morgan · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5/5☆

[BRANDON · Rating 4 out of 5]

A little short, not enough burn between the backstory and the climax, but this was my first exposure to Dia de los Muertos, so it left an indelible mark on my memory.

[Stephanie]

I have decided to no longer use star ratings. They are too arbitrary to me. Instead, I will be ranking an author's books against their other books. This does not mean that I do NOT like their books, just in what order I enjoy them most.

Here I am ranking the Shivers books I have read.

The Awful Apple Orchard
The Locked Room
The Secret of Fern Island
The Enchanted Attic
Ghosts of Camp Massacre
Ghost Writer
The Mystic's Spell
Lost in Dreamland
Camp Fear
Guess Who's Coming for Dinner
The Haunting House
Pool Ghoul
Your Mamma's a Werewolf
A Ghastly Shade of Green
The Animal Rebellion

[WhatShouldIRead · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun juvenile ghost story which had mini-cliffhangers at the end of each chapter. The story was not anything I'd consider 'in-depth' but a fun read nevertheless.

One small thing - the 'ghost chase' seemed to come on pretty fast then was over in a blind of an eye. I would have like to have seen some other interactions with the otherworldly being rather than just the one scary one at the end.

[JJ Ferrell · Rating 3 out of 5]

Easy and relaxing read. Read it in one evening. Not well written, but the story was decent and kept me flipping pages to get to the end.

[Coolfaddy]

its a great book to read.