What do you think?
Rate this book
The Hotel Neversink
A 2020 Edgar Award Winner!
"A gripping, atmospheric, heart-breaking, almost-ghost story. Not since Stephen King's Overlook has a hotel hiding a secret been brought to such vivid life." —Lydia Kiesling, author of The Golden State
Thirty-one years after workers first broke ground, the magnificent Hotel Neversink in the Catskills finally opens to the public. Then a young boy disappears.
This mysterious vanishing—and the ones that follow—will brand the lives of three generations. At the root of it all is Asher Sikorsky, the ambitious and ruthless patriarch whose purchase of the hotel in 1931 set a haunting legacy into motion. His daughter Jeanie sees the Hotel Neversink into its most lucrative era, but also its darkest. Decades later, Asher's grandchildren grapple with the family’s heritage in their own Len fights to keep the failing, dilapidated hotel alive, and Alice sets out to finally uncover the murderer’s identity.
Told by an unforgettable chorus of Sikorsky family members—a matriarch, a hotel maid, a traveling comedian, the hotel detective, and many others—The Hotel Neversink is the gripping portrait of a Jewish family in the Catskills over the course of a century. With an unerring eye and with prose both comic and tragic, Adam O’Fallon-Price details one man’s struggle for greatness, no matter the cost, and a long-held family secret that threatens to undo it all.
"A gripping, atmospheric, heart-breaking, almost-ghost story. Not since Stephen King's Overlook has a hotel hiding a secret been brought to such vivid life." —Lydia Kiesling, author of The Golden State
Thirty-one years after workers first broke ground, the magnificent Hotel Neversink in the Catskills finally opens to the public. Then a young boy disappears.
This mysterious vanishing—and the ones that follow—will brand the lives of three generations. At the root of it all is Asher Sikorsky, the ambitious and ruthless patriarch whose purchase of the hotel in 1931 set a haunting legacy into motion. His daughter Jeanie sees the Hotel Neversink into its most lucrative era, but also its darkest. Decades later, Asher's grandchildren grapple with the family’s heritage in their own Len fights to keep the failing, dilapidated hotel alive, and Alice sets out to finally uncover the murderer’s identity.
Told by an unforgettable chorus of Sikorsky family members—a matriarch, a hotel maid, a traveling comedian, the hotel detective, and many others—The Hotel Neversink is the gripping portrait of a Jewish family in the Catskills over the course of a century. With an unerring eye and with prose both comic and tragic, Adam O’Fallon-Price details one man’s struggle for greatness, no matter the cost, and a long-held family secret that threatens to undo it all.
302 pages, Kindle Edition
First published August 6, 2019
233 people are currently reading
2105 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 174 reviews
September 4, 2019
Glancing at glowing reviews I wondered if I read a different book named "The Hotel Neversink." It's said to be a multi-generational saga, a mystery, a ghost story wrapped around the history of a large hotel in the Catskills. The last part is true, there's a hotel, but it's no Overlook.
Wealthy, single Foley built a large mansion in the Catskills. His first fiancee died of typhoid. The next one boarded the Titanic to arrive for their wedding. She only gets two sentences so is this meant to be foreshadowing or clever wordplay, since the next owner will name it "Neversink?" No, the Neversink is a local river and the backstory is extraneous. There's a lot of extraneous material throughout the book.
And then, still single, as if a really, really rich man can't find a wife (eyeroll), Foley spent the next ten years compulsively adding onto the house. Now known locally as Foley's Folly, it has ninety-three bedrooms, three ballrooms, a large auditorium and a lot more. Think Winchester Mystery House without the eccentric architecture designed to alleviate Sarah Winchester's obsessive need to outrun and trick the ghosts she saw everywhere. Now forget the ghosts and the word "mystery," because there's very little of either in this book.
Foley's fortune was wiped out after the depression and he jumped from the roof of the house which would, in time, be put up for auction. On to chapter one, in which we meet a poor and starving Jewish family in Poland. See the father shoot their beloved mule and make his beloved daughter watch, and watch mom make broth from the hooves when it was all she had left. I don't mean to sound heartless. Hunger is a massively important social issue and hungry people have to eat. But this was only page 10 and already I was a little jealous of the mule being put out of its misery.
The father, Asher, emigrated to the U.S., accumulated some money, sent for the family and you guessed it, bought the house at auction, which he turned into a hotel he named The Neversink. It became a huge success and we're off. But not really, because for me this book never took off.
It's told in eighteen chapters beginning with Asher's daughter Jeannie's story, which begins with their life in Poland, continues through her elderly father turning management of The Neversink over to her, and ends with the disappearance of a little boy. The other chapters alternate characters within and without the family including Jeannie's brother Joey who is a Catskills comedian, their kids and grandkids. There's also the hotel detective and a thieving maid.
Technically a saga is a long story or series of them and there are indeed four generations in "The Hotel Neversink" so technically this is a multigenerational saga but it didn't read like one to me. It read like a series of character sketches or short stories, the kind of short story I finish wondering where the story was. What they all have in common is the hotel. They're not uniformly bad; they're bad in different ways.
What connects everything is the disappearance of a boy named Jonah in 1950, a boy playing hide-and-seek with Jeannie's son. Over the years local children continued to disappear but they're mentioned very briefly and with no details. Joey's daughter Alice was attacked years later and left for dead but she survived, and her story was the only one that interested me at all. But there are no clues or suspects or any of the elements that make up a mystery. Where were the police, the leads, the investigation? We're not let in on any of it. If you're looking for a mystery, this is not your book.
Throughout "The Hotel Neversink" certain people think they see a ghost. Is the ghost the perp? Is the ghost even a ghost? No matter; if you're looking for a scary ghost, this is not your ghost. The strongest reaction I had to this ghost was to scratch my head (figuratively) and laugh a few times. So we have a series of disjointed narratives that technically comprise a saga, a mystery that's central to the book that isn't investigated and remains in the background, and a random ghost that's not at all frightening.
Take the hotel detective (please). His job is to investigate only minor hotel crimes (guests stealing sugar packets?). His chapter is mostly about his upbringing and marriage. As for the maid, her story comes out of nowhere and returns to nowhere, as if it was dropped into the wrong book. Then there's the chapter with Asher's great-great-granddaughter, who brings her roommate to "The Neversink." He's an aspiring playwright, an obnoxious snob, and he stages a dramatic rendering of "Dante's Inferno" at the hotel for which he casts local porn stars to play the characters of Lust. I didn't realize the Catskills had so many unemployed porn stars. His character is ridiculous, the play is bonkers and how that arc fits into this saga is beyond me.
The end was a little surprising and slightly satisfying. I added one star for the closure.
Wealthy, single Foley built a large mansion in the Catskills. His first fiancee died of typhoid. The next one boarded the Titanic to arrive for their wedding. She only gets two sentences so is this meant to be foreshadowing or clever wordplay, since the next owner will name it "Neversink?" No, the Neversink is a local river and the backstory is extraneous. There's a lot of extraneous material throughout the book.
And then, still single, as if a really, really rich man can't find a wife (eyeroll), Foley spent the next ten years compulsively adding onto the house. Now known locally as Foley's Folly, it has ninety-three bedrooms, three ballrooms, a large auditorium and a lot more. Think Winchester Mystery House without the eccentric architecture designed to alleviate Sarah Winchester's obsessive need to outrun and trick the ghosts she saw everywhere. Now forget the ghosts and the word "mystery," because there's very little of either in this book.
Foley's fortune was wiped out after the depression and he jumped from the roof of the house which would, in time, be put up for auction. On to chapter one, in which we meet a poor and starving Jewish family in Poland. See the father shoot their beloved mule and make his beloved daughter watch, and watch mom make broth from the hooves when it was all she had left. I don't mean to sound heartless. Hunger is a massively important social issue and hungry people have to eat. But this was only page 10 and already I was a little jealous of the mule being put out of its misery.
The father, Asher, emigrated to the U.S., accumulated some money, sent for the family and you guessed it, bought the house at auction, which he turned into a hotel he named The Neversink. It became a huge success and we're off. But not really, because for me this book never took off.
It's told in eighteen chapters beginning with Asher's daughter Jeannie's story, which begins with their life in Poland, continues through her elderly father turning management of The Neversink over to her, and ends with the disappearance of a little boy. The other chapters alternate characters within and without the family including Jeannie's brother Joey who is a Catskills comedian, their kids and grandkids. There's also the hotel detective and a thieving maid.
Technically a saga is a long story or series of them and there are indeed four generations in "The Hotel Neversink" so technically this is a multigenerational saga but it didn't read like one to me. It read like a series of character sketches or short stories, the kind of short story I finish wondering where the story was. What they all have in common is the hotel. They're not uniformly bad; they're bad in different ways.
What connects everything is the disappearance of a boy named Jonah in 1950, a boy playing hide-and-seek with Jeannie's son. Over the years local children continued to disappear but they're mentioned very briefly and with no details. Joey's daughter Alice was attacked years later and left for dead but she survived, and her story was the only one that interested me at all. But there are no clues or suspects or any of the elements that make up a mystery. Where were the police, the leads, the investigation? We're not let in on any of it. If you're looking for a mystery, this is not your book.
Throughout "The Hotel Neversink" certain people think they see a ghost. Is the ghost the perp? Is the ghost even a ghost? No matter; if you're looking for a scary ghost, this is not your ghost. The strongest reaction I had to this ghost was to scratch my head (figuratively) and laugh a few times. So we have a series of disjointed narratives that technically comprise a saga, a mystery that's central to the book that isn't investigated and remains in the background, and a random ghost that's not at all frightening.
Take the hotel detective (please). His job is to investigate only minor hotel crimes (guests stealing sugar packets?). His chapter is mostly about his upbringing and marriage. As for the maid, her story comes out of nowhere and returns to nowhere, as if it was dropped into the wrong book. Then there's the chapter with Asher's great-great-granddaughter, who brings her roommate to "The Neversink." He's an aspiring playwright, an obnoxious snob, and he stages a dramatic rendering of "Dante's Inferno" at the hotel for which he casts local porn stars to play the characters of Lust. I didn't realize the Catskills had so many unemployed porn stars. His character is ridiculous, the play is bonkers and how that arc fits into this saga is beyond me.
The end was a little surprising and slightly satisfying. I added one star for the closure.
August 9, 2019
I'd assumed this was a horror novel; it's actually kind of cosy. The Hotel Neversink is essentially a multi-generational saga about the fluctuating fortunes of a grand hotel in upstate New York, and, setting the concluding chapter aside, it might be best described as collection of linked short stories. Moving through the decades from 1950 to 2012, it narrates the rise and fall of the Sikorskys, the family who run the hotel. We also get the perspectives of several other characters – hotel staff and visitors. A mystery connects the stories: why do so many children go missing in and around the Neversink? A few times it seems the whole thing's going in a supernatural direction, but it never really commits, and ultimately the book is mostly about family, friendship and the vagaries of fate. I sometimes found it difficult to keep track of who was related to whom (I could've used a Sikorsky family tree) but that does, at least, prove I was interested in connecting the dots. This was a swift, satisfying read: the history of the Hotel Neversink had unfolded before I knew it, and I was rather sad to leave the place behind.
I received an advance review copy of The Hotel Neversink from the publisher through NetGalley.
TinyLetter | Twitter | Instagram | Tumblr
I received an advance review copy of The Hotel Neversink from the publisher through NetGalley.
TinyLetter | Twitter | Instagram | Tumblr
June 10, 2019
Entertaining but it over-promises and under-delivers.
January 8, 2021
Simply put, this is great storytelling.
September 15, 2019
If you enjoy interlinked short stories in the vein of Olive Kitteridge, this book will likely be for you. The stories revolve around the Hotel Neversink, a Catskills hotel purchased by Asher Sikorsky, a Jewish immigrant and innkeeper, in 1931. The hotel is a family affair, passed down through the generations. Some of the family revere it and others view it as an albatross.
It is a matter of fact that there were two children to disappear on the grounds of the Neversink but this is not the gist of the story. The disappearances are background noise, a shadow and sadness that is like a continuous fog over the hotel. What is important in the story are the people who travel through the Neversink's doors - guests, employees, owners, and children. Each provides an individual look at the Neversink and the hotel becomes something new and special in each story.
For Alice, who finds a dead body in a boiler room, it is a lifelong trauma, one that provides her with creative insight and fear of living. Jeannie is the model hotelier. She loves the Neversink and it is like her spouse or firstborn. Hannah is a maid with a case of kleptomania that lands her in a terrible predicament. Joseph, the black sheep son of Jeannie, suffers mental illness and has his large breakdown trying to do standup comedy at the hotel. Lenny, too, is Jeannie's son, the chosen one to pass on the hotel. Can he keep it up to Jeannie's high standards? Does he even want to?
These are just a few of the fascinating people whose lives intersect with the hotel. Each one has a narrative that is breathtaking. Read this book!
It is a matter of fact that there were two children to disappear on the grounds of the Neversink but this is not the gist of the story. The disappearances are background noise, a shadow and sadness that is like a continuous fog over the hotel. What is important in the story are the people who travel through the Neversink's doors - guests, employees, owners, and children. Each provides an individual look at the Neversink and the hotel becomes something new and special in each story.
For Alice, who finds a dead body in a boiler room, it is a lifelong trauma, one that provides her with creative insight and fear of living. Jeannie is the model hotelier. She loves the Neversink and it is like her spouse or firstborn. Hannah is a maid with a case of kleptomania that lands her in a terrible predicament. Joseph, the black sheep son of Jeannie, suffers mental illness and has his large breakdown trying to do standup comedy at the hotel. Lenny, too, is Jeannie's son, the chosen one to pass on the hotel. Can he keep it up to Jeannie's high standards? Does he even want to?
These are just a few of the fascinating people whose lives intersect with the hotel. Each one has a narrative that is breathtaking. Read this book!
October 15, 2020
Interconnected, family saga-type short stories about the rise and fall of a hotel.
I loved the idea pf this book--historical gothic hotel with an intergenerational Weird Thing hanging around. But, while the book wasn't terrible, it didn't deliver, either on the promises made by marketing, or on the promises the book itself made independently. The marketing kind of promised "East Coast The Shining," while the book itself promised a slow, complex family saga set in a particular area. I would have been good with either, but in the end the author seemed to be trying to encompass both.
It was no East Coast Shining. But on the famila saga side, there wasn't really any sense of family or the area, either, or even overall details about the hotel. The ending made me roll my eyes, because so many threads of suspense had been dropped that I no longer cared about the resolution of the problem.
But: good characters, interesting setups and beginnings, telling moments of irony and heartbreak.
Can't recommend. Hope the author keeps writing, though. I think this book shows bugs to be worked out, not bad art.
I loved the idea pf this book--historical gothic hotel with an intergenerational Weird Thing hanging around. But, while the book wasn't terrible, it didn't deliver, either on the promises made by marketing, or on the promises the book itself made independently. The marketing kind of promised "East Coast The Shining," while the book itself promised a slow, complex family saga set in a particular area. I would have been good with either, but in the end the author seemed to be trying to encompass both.
It was no East Coast Shining. But on the famila saga side, there wasn't really any sense of family or the area, either, or even overall details about the hotel. The ending made me roll my eyes, because so many threads of suspense had been dropped that I no longer cared about the resolution of the problem.
But: good characters, interesting setups and beginnings, telling moments of irony and heartbreak.
Can't recommend. Hope the author keeps writing, though. I think this book shows bugs to be worked out, not bad art.
October 21, 2020
Kind of terrible. It sounds promising, and reading the description was intriguing - even the first few chapters seem like its going to be a really good spooky novel. But instead of focusing on the ghosts, serial killer and child snatcher, it focuses on the very messed up Sikorsky family. There’s lots and lots of drug abuse, depression, attempted suicide, perverted young men, lesbian rape, and a whole bunch of other disturbing and depressing content. I finished the book, only because I wanted to prove my own theory about the villain. But it left me feeling very sad and weirded out by the awfulness of a family that had no redeeming qualities.
December 30, 2020
I thoroughly enjoyed reading this multi-generational saga of the Sikorsky family and their hotel in the Catskills. I found it to be a real page-turner and when the mystery was revealed I was genuinely surprised. Highly recommended!
August 8, 2019
'The Hotel Neversink" is the story of a Catskills resort, it's people, and it's history as told in a series of short stories. The stories are written in the voices of various family members, hotel guests and staff, and once, in a group voice. The author, Adam O'Fallon Price has written a family saga by way of a murder mystery, and the book is a gem.
Other books have been written in this short-story style. for example, Elizabeth Strout's "Olive Kitteridge" two-book set. It's an interesting method to read a book; I'd say you could pick up the book, read a story or two, and put it down for next time you have some free time. But "The Hotel Neversink" is such a compelling read in Adam O'Fallon Price deft hands, that chances are you'll want to read it all in one sitting.
The book begins with an Eastern European Jewish family enduring hard times in Silesia in the 1920's. Somehow the family makes it to the United States and some propitious lending by more affluent family members allow the Sikorsky family to buy a huge old hotel and turn it into the Hotel Neversink. (Get it?). The hotel took off and did well, as many others in the Catskill region did. They attracted Jewish families and groups, who found the Catskills, with the relative nearness to New York City, an attractive place to spend the summer. The family ran the resort - through economic ups and downs - and the disappearance of several children. There was a "question" about the resort but the guests came...til they didn't and the Neversink began its long, downward "sinking".
Price's novel is not a long one, only 297 pages, but he manages to introduce about 10 characters, in whose voices the book is written. All his characters are interesting and none are caricatures, which they easily could have been. "The Hotel Neversink" will definitely make my ten best for this year!!!
Other books have been written in this short-story style. for example, Elizabeth Strout's "Olive Kitteridge" two-book set. It's an interesting method to read a book; I'd say you could pick up the book, read a story or two, and put it down for next time you have some free time. But "The Hotel Neversink" is such a compelling read in Adam O'Fallon Price deft hands, that chances are you'll want to read it all in one sitting.
The book begins with an Eastern European Jewish family enduring hard times in Silesia in the 1920's. Somehow the family makes it to the United States and some propitious lending by more affluent family members allow the Sikorsky family to buy a huge old hotel and turn it into the Hotel Neversink. (Get it?). The hotel took off and did well, as many others in the Catskill region did. They attracted Jewish families and groups, who found the Catskills, with the relative nearness to New York City, an attractive place to spend the summer. The family ran the resort - through economic ups and downs - and the disappearance of several children. There was a "question" about the resort but the guests came...til they didn't and the Neversink began its long, downward "sinking".
Price's novel is not a long one, only 297 pages, but he manages to introduce about 10 characters, in whose voices the book is written. All his characters are interesting and none are caricatures, which they easily could have been. "The Hotel Neversink" will definitely make my ten best for this year!!!
March 26, 2021
I am so confused by the good reviews here. I saw so much potential with this book but was let down every time a delicate subject was steam rolled over by what appears to be a fascination with sex that mimics a fanfic author in 7th grade. The actual mystery is explored for 2% of the book and the only thing preventing me from giving this 1 star is that you do indeed find out who dunnit. I am bitter that I had to choke this book down only to discover that it actually does not get better.
November 22, 2022
This unique novel follows a family and their Catskills hotel for almost a century. It combines mystery, suspense, history & family drama. My full review & an audio sample: https://bookbybook.blogspot.com/2022/...
May 18, 2019
Oddly enough, I read an excerpt from the novel in Harper's Magazine this week, and so intrigued by the short story, I read the novel to find out what happened to the kleptomaniac housekeeper single mom of a young son with polio and the large female hotel guest who offers to pay for her son's medical expenses but expects sexual favors in return. Lo and behold, those characters never surface again in the novel. There's a brief mention of the housekeeper, but no reappearances. To some degree, it's more a collection of short stories that are connected to the Hotel Neversink than a novel, as readers are introduced to a variety of characters, mostly related by family to the owners of the hotel, and many of these characters don't surface again until the end. It's a bit of a Who Done It--since children start disappearing at the hotel and in the town, found dead here and there, but one girl who was strangled, survives, and years later, decides to confront her demons by researching the murders and writing a book about the hotel's dark history. The ending was not a complete surprise, but I do wish we would have seen more of the character who was guilty for the murder throughout the novel. Lively novel, rich characters, and a compelling read.
July 19, 2019
*I received an ARC from the publisher in exchange for my honest review*
I wanted to like this a lot more than I did— the premise is fascinating, and the beginning chapters are interesting, but it lags in the middle. I don’t think the narratives are tied together enough to make it feel like a cohesive story, and the final chapter (“Ensemble”) was disjointed and confusing— I found myself having to reread several pages to figure out whose point of view I was in. The ending was innovative, but overall left me unsatisfied and didn’t evoke any kind of reaction from me. The prose itself was wonderful to read, though!
I wanted to like this a lot more than I did— the premise is fascinating, and the beginning chapters are interesting, but it lags in the middle. I don’t think the narratives are tied together enough to make it feel like a cohesive story, and the final chapter (“Ensemble”) was disjointed and confusing— I found myself having to reread several pages to figure out whose point of view I was in. The ending was innovative, but overall left me unsatisfied and didn’t evoke any kind of reaction from me. The prose itself was wonderful to read, though!
December 28, 2019
This book was good, but certainly not as advertised. There is a hotel, but it shouldn’t be compared to the Overlook. There is a mystery, but there are no clues and no investigations. There are ghosts, but they are abstract. It was a fun read, and could have been made better if the book decided what it wanted to be and what genre it is best suited for. The ending was slightly satisfying, so adding an extra star for the loosely solved case.
May 15, 2019
What a great read. The characters are so well drawn in each chapter and I loved how the plot was moved along through each character's story.
June 23, 2019
The Hotel Neversink is a collection of voices that hinge around a history of violence that ripples outward across generations. Set in a hotel in the Catskills, the cast of characters struggles to create and sustain their lives with an overwhelming threat of danger constantly looming. The secret shame of the family continually interrupts and redirects their lives and makes it hard for them to connect with each other.
There are some great voices in this book. Almost each chapter introduces you to a new member of the family, creating the effect of listening to a story in chorus. The style of this story reminds me a bit of kaleidoscope - its revolving fragments are constantly moving and shifting, but remain whole.
There is an element of "whodunnit" in this story (which pleases me greatly, I always love puzzling out a mystery), but the mystery itself is not the point. More than understanding who and why, this story asks a reader to consider how a family tells its own story, and how the members of that family survive its telling.
There are some great voices in this book. Almost each chapter introduces you to a new member of the family, creating the effect of listening to a story in chorus. The style of this story reminds me a bit of kaleidoscope - its revolving fragments are constantly moving and shifting, but remain whole.
There is an element of "whodunnit" in this story (which pleases me greatly, I always love puzzling out a mystery), but the mystery itself is not the point. More than understanding who and why, this story asks a reader to consider how a family tells its own story, and how the members of that family survive its telling.
August 27, 2023
Maybe it's because I was promised a mystery, but the ending was a total let-down. I knew who was responsible for the disappearances from literally chapter one. I loved the structure and the setting, but that just wasn't enough.
CW: missing persons, serial killer/murder, deaths (including children), suicide attempts/suicidal ideation, sexual harassment, antisemitism, homophobia, ableism, sexism, drug use, psychiatric institutionalization (off-page), divorce, infidelity, animal death
CW: missing persons, serial killer/murder, deaths (including children), suicide attempts/suicidal ideation, sexual harassment, antisemitism, homophobia, ableism, sexism, drug use, psychiatric institutionalization (off-page), divorce, infidelity, animal death
January 5, 2023
I appreciated the structure of this book—the slow burn of small vignettes about different characters over time that were adjacent to the murder mystery but still slowly revealed it. I appreciated how it reimagined the murder mystery genre in that way. The characters and stories were a bit dark and steeped in trauma with little redemption. Only the men had fulfilling and/or fully consensual sex. And the number of times the writer described people as “fat” associated with negative traits was unfortunate.
February 26, 2021
I loved this. I ate it up.
January 6, 2020
If you ignore the slight mention of Stephen King's Overlook in the blurb you'll enjoy this. This is not a horror story, it's not even creepy. The comparision to the Overlook was more about spaces/structures being an entity independent of the story unfolding around them. The Little Stranger is a perfect example.
This is a historical novel with a mystery in the background. You read this type of book for the characters, you become engrossed in their lives. You also read it if you're the type of person who becomes nostalgic when seeing abandoned buildings .
So to recap, not a horror novel. You'll dig it if you like abandoned buildings. This book is about the decline of such a building, and a family.
This is a historical novel with a mystery in the background. You read this type of book for the characters, you become engrossed in their lives. You also read it if you're the type of person who becomes nostalgic when seeing abandoned buildings .
So to recap, not a horror novel. You'll dig it if you like abandoned buildings. This book is about the decline of such a building, and a family.
September 11, 2019
Have you ever walked around a hotel you were vacationing at and wondered about the lives of the people around you? Or maybe, sitting in your room and imagining the life this room has lived before your occupancy. The idea can be a little chilling. The Hotel Neversink brings these very thoughts to life
I was nervous starting this book because I feared it was going to be overly historical, which it thankfully was not. I really enjoyed this book, it was something unique from what I typically read. Each chapter makes it easy to connect to the characters and you start to feel like you’re part of the family. The characterization and details are written very intelligently. I went into this thinking I was going to be reading a book about a haunted hotel and it was so much more than that. This was a story about aging and the pressures we face to please our families with ghost overtones
See more reviews on instagram @Unshelvededition
I was nervous starting this book because I feared it was going to be overly historical, which it thankfully was not. I really enjoyed this book, it was something unique from what I typically read. Each chapter makes it easy to connect to the characters and you start to feel like you’re part of the family. The characterization and details are written very intelligently. I went into this thinking I was going to be reading a book about a haunted hotel and it was so much more than that. This was a story about aging and the pressures we face to please our families with ghost overtones
See more reviews on instagram @Unshelvededition
February 6, 2020
I was excited to read this based on the premise it set up, but I have to admit that it left me feeling defeated and unsatisfied. I genuinely enjoyed all the characters that we were introduced to and the perspective offered over the different generations involved in the hotel. However, I was left wanting so much more than we were given. There are mentions of possible ghosts, but there isn't any follow up. There are psuedo-investigations but we aren't given much development there. Alice's investigation at the end was probably the most interesting of them all to me and it wasn't fleshed out near enough to be as filling as I would have liked as a reader. I really wanted to like this book because I thought the idea of it was so interesting, but it left too much to be desired for me.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 14, 2024
A really lovely book about flawed characters and their relationships. I was worried that the resolution of the mystery running through the rest of the story would be silly but it was a satisfactory way to close the circle on the Sikorsky family tribulations.
Still, I think that this book wouldn't have suffered if the plot about the missing children had been removed. It could standalone as an examination of familial bonds, generational expectations, idealism vs pragmatism, the line between loyalty and foolishness.
Still, I think that this book wouldn't have suffered if the plot about the missing children had been removed. It could standalone as an examination of familial bonds, generational expectations, idealism vs pragmatism, the line between loyalty and foolishness.
May 30, 2020
This book is not for everyone. It wasn't necessarily one that I'd consider to be a book that I personally enjoyed throughout the entire reading process. However, it did have some unique qualities about it that were just enough to keep me reading to the very end. First I should probably talk a tiny bit about the story before giving out too much of my thoughts about it.
This book tells the tale of three generations of a family that start from nothing and wind up building and running a hotel. Through time it sees grand times and bad times. You get to learn about all the members of this family and see the hotel go from grand to crumbling all in one fairly short book. There is a bit of a murder mystery but that isn't really at the forefront for most of the story (I'll discuss that a little bit more later). That's the bare bone basics of the story.
You might wonder why I'd give a book that I didn't seem to enjoy very much a three star. For reading enjoyment I would probably rate this a 2/2.5. At least for the first half. I just kept getting a little bored and I found that I didn't really care all that much about a lot of the sexual thoughts and actions of the characters. I don't know if this is because I didn't feel comfortable enough with the characters yet or the scenes just didn't work for me or something. I'm not sure. Anyway, I found myself dragging through and trying to keep track of who was who. There was a section with a maid and I was trying to figure out where she actually fit in but I think there was just a quick mention of her a bit later in the story but that was it. I could be wrong, but I didn't see any of that story line building to anything. I was just trying to keep track of everyone and everything. I was finding my reading enjoyment slipping. Then all of a sudden you if just became more interesting.
I really don't know what happened but some time after the half way mark it became more interesting. At this point, you were reminded that there were children who disappeared in the past and the body of a child found. It was talked about and questioned. I had forgotten about it completely! When the people started discussing it again I was engaged in the story once again!
This was good in the way it was written as it covered an entire family and the hotel from start to finish. The premise of the book is excellent. This is a book that I think a lot of people will really love and find a connection with. I definitely would encourage you to pick it up and read it for yourself so you can form your own opinion about the book. For me, it just fell a bit flat but for you this could be a high flying five star read. You never know.
This book tells the tale of three generations of a family that start from nothing and wind up building and running a hotel. Through time it sees grand times and bad times. You get to learn about all the members of this family and see the hotel go from grand to crumbling all in one fairly short book. There is a bit of a murder mystery but that isn't really at the forefront for most of the story (I'll discuss that a little bit more later). That's the bare bone basics of the story.
You might wonder why I'd give a book that I didn't seem to enjoy very much a three star. For reading enjoyment I would probably rate this a 2/2.5. At least for the first half. I just kept getting a little bored and I found that I didn't really care all that much about a lot of the sexual thoughts and actions of the characters. I don't know if this is because I didn't feel comfortable enough with the characters yet or the scenes just didn't work for me or something. I'm not sure. Anyway, I found myself dragging through and trying to keep track of who was who. There was a section with a maid and I was trying to figure out where she actually fit in but I think there was just a quick mention of her a bit later in the story but that was it. I could be wrong, but I didn't see any of that story line building to anything. I was just trying to keep track of everyone and everything. I was finding my reading enjoyment slipping. Then all of a sudden you if just became more interesting.
I really don't know what happened but some time after the half way mark it became more interesting. At this point, you were reminded that there were children who disappeared in the past and the body of a child found. It was talked about and questioned. I had forgotten about it completely! When the people started discussing it again I was engaged in the story once again!
This was good in the way it was written as it covered an entire family and the hotel from start to finish. The premise of the book is excellent. This is a book that I think a lot of people will really love and find a connection with. I definitely would encourage you to pick it up and read it for yourself so you can form your own opinion about the book. For me, it just fell a bit flat but for you this could be a high flying five star read. You never know.
October 29, 2019
When a book doesn't quite fit any standard templates it can be a bit of a gamble. On one end of the spectrum you might end up with the most unreadable pile of pretentious experimental pages, and on the other end you might end up with something so wildly amazing that you have to tell everyone you know about it. This second novel from Price doesn't hit that high mark, but it's definitely on the right end of the spectrum.
The story revolves around the titular Catskills hotel -- whose history, from conception to ruin (1910s-2012), is told in 18 chapters narrated by about 12-14 different characters. The novel as a set of linked stories is not a new idea, but it is executed quite well here, considering the span of time being covered. The chapters largely work as stand-alone short stories that would withstand removal and reading in isolation from each other, focusing on classic themes of love, family, ambition, belonging, and so on.
However, genre elements also season the narrative. Starting in 1950, there are a series of attacks and disappearances of children at or near the hotel. Is there a serial killer lurking at the margins? Linked to these are a series of uncertain ghost tales which bring into question what's actually going on. And while some readers expressed surprise at the "twist" ending that reveals the answer, I suspect that most readers will have picked up on the very obvious likely answer that's presented early on. In fact, I had kind of assumed that was too obvious a red herring and so was surprised that it wasn't!
The ensemble cast and series of stories do a nice job of evoking time and place. that said, there are a few portions that don't quite connect as well to the overall narrative arc, and a few bits that didn't work quite as effectively for me. But it's definitely worth checking out, especially for readers with a particular interest in fiction about American Jews.
The story revolves around the titular Catskills hotel -- whose history, from conception to ruin (1910s-2012), is told in 18 chapters narrated by about 12-14 different characters. The novel as a set of linked stories is not a new idea, but it is executed quite well here, considering the span of time being covered. The chapters largely work as stand-alone short stories that would withstand removal and reading in isolation from each other, focusing on classic themes of love, family, ambition, belonging, and so on.
However, genre elements also season the narrative. Starting in 1950, there are a series of attacks and disappearances of children at or near the hotel. Is there a serial killer lurking at the margins? Linked to these are a series of uncertain ghost tales which bring into question what's actually going on. And while some readers expressed surprise at the "twist" ending that reveals the answer, I suspect that most readers will have picked up on the very obvious likely answer that's presented early on. In fact, I had kind of assumed that was too obvious a red herring and so was surprised that it wasn't!
The ensemble cast and series of stories do a nice job of evoking time and place. that said, there are a few portions that don't quite connect as well to the overall narrative arc, and a few bits that didn't work quite as effectively for me. But it's definitely worth checking out, especially for readers with a particular interest in fiction about American Jews.
June 14, 2020
“The Hotel Neversink” by Adam O’Fallon Price won the Best Paperback Original at The Edgars this year and did not apologize for its status as a simple whodunit without sacrificing too much in quality. The flap (which I should never read) describes it as a tale of a hotel cursed after the disappearance of a boy. Still, it tells a series of short stories about different individuals throughout the history of an inn in the Catskills.
Although not billed as a collection, it starts with a family who starts the hotel and abandons a sick child in the process and meanders to a little boy who goes missing during an innocent game of hide-and-seek. Once it reaches a maid with a stealing habit who develops an odd relationship with the one who catches her in the act, you realize that it has a lot to say.
The sections vary greatly in their levels of raciness, meaning it had a Mary Higgins Clark feel before meandering into some rather graphic details and adult language. Still, it cuts back and forth between the vivid imaginations of little kids and very adult indiscretions effectively. The story of Alice, who was violated as a youth and developed a very mature drug problem, ties both extremes together in a weird way.
When Price transitions from one spouse to another, for instance, you do not experience the “he said, she said” of, say, “The Affair,” but rather a glimpse into why they are both miserable in their unique way. The reader will most likely react to the pervasive drug use and rampant depression, but this most likely exists among the victims of violent crimes and those with sudden financial woes.
For a suspense novel, it handles tricky issues like suicide with care and insight. Other books will have more social consciousness, but this one outperforms its genre. I wanted to hate it but found myself wondering about the characters when I put it down. The best short story writers leave you wanting to know more about those you met.
Although not billed as a collection, it starts with a family who starts the hotel and abandons a sick child in the process and meanders to a little boy who goes missing during an innocent game of hide-and-seek. Once it reaches a maid with a stealing habit who develops an odd relationship with the one who catches her in the act, you realize that it has a lot to say.
The sections vary greatly in their levels of raciness, meaning it had a Mary Higgins Clark feel before meandering into some rather graphic details and adult language. Still, it cuts back and forth between the vivid imaginations of little kids and very adult indiscretions effectively. The story of Alice, who was violated as a youth and developed a very mature drug problem, ties both extremes together in a weird way.
When Price transitions from one spouse to another, for instance, you do not experience the “he said, she said” of, say, “The Affair,” but rather a glimpse into why they are both miserable in their unique way. The reader will most likely react to the pervasive drug use and rampant depression, but this most likely exists among the victims of violent crimes and those with sudden financial woes.
For a suspense novel, it handles tricky issues like suicide with care and insight. Other books will have more social consciousness, but this one outperforms its genre. I wanted to hate it but found myself wondering about the characters when I put it down. The best short story writers leave you wanting to know more about those you met.
September 3, 2019
[psst I got this book for free from Tin House, but that does not sway my opinion]
Plot: THE HOTEL NEVERSINK by Adam O’Fallon Price is a novel that reads like a set of short stories from both loosely and closely related family members and staff of a once booming hotel in Upstate New York in the Catskills. Each chapter is written about a singular character in a time period of their individual involvement in the hotel’s history over the course of nearly a century. Some of the characters are revisited and play a key role throughout the narrative, others are seemingly random additions that assist in painting the complete picture of the hotel, the constant character throughout.
Highlights: The “American Dream” concept comes into play, as well as wealth at the expense of relationships and/or emotional well-being. There is family drama and ghosts and mysteries and lazy employees and grand parties and affairs and nosy neighbors and kidnappings. At the end of the day, this is about one family, the Sikorskys, and their dedication to maintaining the prestige of their hotel throughout the decades.
Takeaways: Buzzwords like “multigenerational saga” and comparisons to The Shining’s Overlook Hotel are what drew me to this story, and, in reality, they do not do the book justice. Sure, there’s some creepy child abductions that might be the doings of a hotel ghost, but the story isn’t about a haunted hotel. It’s about the rise and fall of a family business and the multitude of people who make it what it is. I truly enjoyed this book, primarily because I love short stories. But really it is marketed and blurbed as a novel, so I can see how it could be a letdown to some readers. It gave me some Claire Fuller-esque vibes, a huge positive in my opinion. My only wish is that there be a more oblique ending left for the reader to draw their own determinations on. That may be a controversial opinion because it would drive a lot of readers nuts. But I love an ending that isn’t oversimplified and spelled out.
Plot: THE HOTEL NEVERSINK by Adam O’Fallon Price is a novel that reads like a set of short stories from both loosely and closely related family members and staff of a once booming hotel in Upstate New York in the Catskills. Each chapter is written about a singular character in a time period of their individual involvement in the hotel’s history over the course of nearly a century. Some of the characters are revisited and play a key role throughout the narrative, others are seemingly random additions that assist in painting the complete picture of the hotel, the constant character throughout.
Highlights: The “American Dream” concept comes into play, as well as wealth at the expense of relationships and/or emotional well-being. There is family drama and ghosts and mysteries and lazy employees and grand parties and affairs and nosy neighbors and kidnappings. At the end of the day, this is about one family, the Sikorskys, and their dedication to maintaining the prestige of their hotel throughout the decades.
Takeaways: Buzzwords like “multigenerational saga” and comparisons to The Shining’s Overlook Hotel are what drew me to this story, and, in reality, they do not do the book justice. Sure, there’s some creepy child abductions that might be the doings of a hotel ghost, but the story isn’t about a haunted hotel. It’s about the rise and fall of a family business and the multitude of people who make it what it is. I truly enjoyed this book, primarily because I love short stories. But really it is marketed and blurbed as a novel, so I can see how it could be a letdown to some readers. It gave me some Claire Fuller-esque vibes, a huge positive in my opinion. My only wish is that there be a more oblique ending left for the reader to draw their own determinations on. That may be a controversial opinion because it would drive a lot of readers nuts. But I love an ending that isn’t oversimplified and spelled out.
January 7, 2021
I bought this book from the "Friends of the Library" sale for $1.50 and thoroughly enjoyed it! This book is something between a mystery and a character study novel. Each chapter is told from the perspective of someone connected to the Neversink Hotel - owners, staff, or guests. Each story serves as its own commentary on the individual struggles of various people's lives, but also adds to the greater picture of the Neversink Hotel and it's decades-long mystery: who took the children?
I appreciated how small details were added in each chapter, which built the mystery up in small and enticing pieces. I would recommend this for anyone who likes a good character study, but is also intrigued by some mystery and macabre.
I appreciated how small details were added in each chapter, which built the mystery up in small and enticing pieces. I would recommend this for anyone who likes a good character study, but is also intrigued by some mystery and macabre.
September 3, 2022
I'll start with the good points. The author put together a generational tale of a family and the hotel they owned, The Neversink. The writing is good and the transitions between the characters and their points of view flow well and are easy to follow. The story line itself gets kudos for originality.
Now for the bad points. This isn't a ghost story although touted as one. There was one ghostly encounter and we aren't sure if it really happened or if it was just a bad dream.
Two things added nothing to the story line or plot and seemed gratuitous. First is a chapter about a kleptomaniac maid having a coerced lesbian affair in order to have her son's medical treatments paid. I kept waiting to see if this maid, or her son, had anything further to do with the story line but that was it. The second was the chapter of how Len lusted after his future wife. Again, there really wasn't anything revealing that added context to the story. I am not a snob or prude and if these additions would have not been so contrived and instead added some measure of value, I would have had no problem with them.
The mystery part was who was abducting children from the area and hotel which moved the story along, but I had the culprit figured out early on, it was obvious and I read to the end only to confirm my suspicion.
What bothered me the most was that the author could have been less descriptive, it just caused the story to get bogged down and the last 20% of the book was more a test of fortitude and perseverance than anything else.
Lastly, the characters were not able to get me invested in them emotionally and so I really didn't care about what happened to them one way or another. I like to care about people in a story one way or the other, but this cast of individuals were the milk toast variety, digestible but bland.
In conclusion I think this is a good read overall and a page turner but it definitely needed to weed out the junk that seems to have been added "for good measure" as filler.
Now for the bad points. This isn't a ghost story although touted as one. There was one ghostly encounter and we aren't sure if it really happened or if it was just a bad dream.
Two things added nothing to the story line or plot and seemed gratuitous. First is a chapter about a kleptomaniac maid having a coerced lesbian affair in order to have her son's medical treatments paid. I kept waiting to see if this maid, or her son, had anything further to do with the story line but that was it. The second was the chapter of how Len lusted after his future wife. Again, there really wasn't anything revealing that added context to the story. I am not a snob or prude and if these additions would have not been so contrived and instead added some measure of value, I would have had no problem with them.
The mystery part was who was abducting children from the area and hotel which moved the story along, but I had the culprit figured out early on, it was obvious and I read to the end only to confirm my suspicion.
What bothered me the most was that the author could have been less descriptive, it just caused the story to get bogged down and the last 20% of the book was more a test of fortitude and perseverance than anything else.
Lastly, the characters were not able to get me invested in them emotionally and so I really didn't care about what happened to them one way or another. I like to care about people in a story one way or the other, but this cast of individuals were the milk toast variety, digestible but bland.
In conclusion I think this is a good read overall and a page turner but it definitely needed to weed out the junk that seems to have been added "for good measure" as filler.
September 1, 2019
Calling all lovers of multi-generational family sagas! Have I got the book for you!
The Hotel Neversink is an exploration of family through the life cycle of a hotel. From the humble beginnings with a family of immigrants who have nothing to the heyday of wealth and prestige to the slow crumble in the wake of the modern world.
Each chapter is narrated from a different year and character, and I found myself so invested in all the perspectives. The author has a talent for creating dimensional characters that come to life on the page with very little effort. Each characters’ life has somehow revolved around the Neversink, whether it was a traumatic event when they were a child, or they spent their life running the hotel. They all keep coming back to this monument, this physical testament to their family’s existence.
There are dark secrets too. Over the years, children have gone missing at the hotel and in the area around it. These disappearances are constantly in the back of everyone’s mind—including the reader’s! Though the book gives you all the pieces you need, I was still surprised with the conclusion.
Often sad and ruminative, I loved how this story considers all the different sides—everyone leads a different life and what may be transformative in one character’s case is only given passing mention in another’s. I loved seeing how the parts of the story overlapped, came to fruition, and changed the way I thought about certain characters or events.
This is a masterpiece of fiction.
My thanks to Tin House for my copy of this one to read and review.
The Hotel Neversink is an exploration of family through the life cycle of a hotel. From the humble beginnings with a family of immigrants who have nothing to the heyday of wealth and prestige to the slow crumble in the wake of the modern world.
Each chapter is narrated from a different year and character, and I found myself so invested in all the perspectives. The author has a talent for creating dimensional characters that come to life on the page with very little effort. Each characters’ life has somehow revolved around the Neversink, whether it was a traumatic event when they were a child, or they spent their life running the hotel. They all keep coming back to this monument, this physical testament to their family’s existence.
There are dark secrets too. Over the years, children have gone missing at the hotel and in the area around it. These disappearances are constantly in the back of everyone’s mind—including the reader’s! Though the book gives you all the pieces you need, I was still surprised with the conclusion.
Often sad and ruminative, I loved how this story considers all the different sides—everyone leads a different life and what may be transformative in one character’s case is only given passing mention in another’s. I loved seeing how the parts of the story overlapped, came to fruition, and changed the way I thought about certain characters or events.
This is a masterpiece of fiction.
My thanks to Tin House for my copy of this one to read and review.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 174 reviews