Sneha Jaiswal (Twitter | Instagram)
The mere mention of Slovenia is likely to conjure a beautiful image of the dreamy Julian Alps, the deep blue Adriatic Sea, and charming old city streets. However, the supernatural thriller novel “Good Night Room Nine” by Cody Ray George takes readers to an ominous bed-and-breakfast in the Slovenian wilderness, which transforms into a foggy playground for occult practices and human sacrifices during the night.
Jenny Novak, a full-stack coder, is introduced as the protagonist of this 120-page novella. She is visiting Slovenia to re-connect with her grandfather but decides to start by unwinding at a hotel on her first day, rather than diving headlong into an emotional family reunion. With zero knowledge of Slovenian words, Jenny doesn’t feel very welcome at her bed-and-breakfast, a decaying old building which used to be a boarding house for dogs and is filled with creepy portraits of mastiffs and hounds. Author Cody Ray George vividly describes Jenny’s temporary new stay, which is the primary focus of the story.
The BnB, with its shady history, a staple of local occult legends, and oddly decorated rooms, morphs into a foggy hell-hole for Jenny and its other guests, as the exit stairs vanish, rooms shift, and a potential serial killer lurks in the corridors. While the Slovenian supernatural hotel premise is fantastic, what proves to be a disruptively disappointing twist in the tale is the sudden change of protagonists mid-way through the novel. Just as readers begin to warm up to Jenny’s point of view, watching her scramble to ensure safety for herself and others, an older guest at the BnB takes the forefront of “Good Night Room Nine”. Readers are also presented with war flashbacks of this new protagonist, and depending on the reader, these flashbacks will either feel like annoying breaks from the current tension in the tale or intriguing additions to the character’s backstory.
The banter between all the characters stuck in the strange hotel is amusing, with everybody wary of each other, while some are surprisingly more trusting. Given that most guests are foreigners who don’t know Slovenian, there are plenty of subtle comedic moments due to the language barrier. Since they are all trapped in the same floor, with no means of communication, it almost feels like they are the last people around. Their situation was reminiscent of the dystopian novel ‘The Last’ by Hanna Jameson, where a group of people try to survive the end-of-the-world in a remote hotel.
While the writing in the first half of the novel is crisp, descriptive, and vivid, some of the descriptions in the second half aren’t as straightforward, making it a bit of a struggle to imagine the bizarre proceedings clearly. While the antagonist initially appears as a young human, the story does introduce a supernatural deity-like villain; however, unfortunately, their appearance is too brief, leaving one wanting more. To compensate for the drastic change in protagonist, the author makes amends with readers towards the end. The climax feels like a nightmare finally coming to a close; it’s open-ended and interesting enough to leave readers with their own conclusions.
“Good Night Room Nine” is available on Kindle Unlimited. Click here for GoodReads link.
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