By Matt Spaulding
The Haunting of Room 904 is a tale of generational trauma that is focused on one room in one hotel. It’s an interesting look at how the sins of the past still affect the world decades and decades later.
Olivia Becente is a paranormal investigator with a gift for seeing spirits, a gift that previously belonged to her sister, Naiche. But, a few years back, Naiche died by suicide in the notorious Room 904, a room in which deaths happen every five years. Always a woman. Always in 904. Whether that woman was checked into 904 or not. Spooky, right?
That’s what I was expecting when I went into this book. Unfortunately, I wasn’t greeted with as much horror as I felt I was promised. Though there are certainly horror elements like ghosts and cults and, of course, the curse of the titular room. But this is much less horrific than I was expecting. Instead, this is more of a mystery. What’s going on with the room? Why? How is it tied to the historical Sand Creek Massacre? Why is this random bitchy, vindictive journalist trying to take down our protagonist?
This isn’t to say that the story is bad. It’s just not at all what I was expecting. And maybe it’s because my horror sensibilities are so hardened, but I did find the spooky elements lacking. This may be for someone who is horror-curious rather than die-hards like myself.
I also, unfortunately, did not connect to any of these characters, so I found it hard to care what happened to them. This has nothing to do with the way they are written, I just found them all to be not to my taste. Which is a hard thing to write about now that I’m here trying to do it, because it’s not something concrete. I can just as easily see other people liking them a lot.
But that doesn’t mean Wurth is a bad writer. Indeed, her descriptions are vivid and her mystery was compelling. And, as a fan of horror, I’m a big fan of any writer that’s bringing diversity into the genre. Wurth includes Native American elements that I was super into. I’ve said many times in the past that, as a cis-het white male, I’m SO tired of stories about people exactly like me. I know that story inside and out. There are so many more stories out there that are worth telling, and Wurth is bringing that to the table.
Ultimately, Room 904 fell flat for me. It’s difficult for me to articulate exactly why it did, though, because everything that didn’t work for me is so subjective. As I said before, the horror wasn’t there for me. The characters were not interesting to me. But if you’re not a super horror fan but appreciate it fine, or if you’re horror-curious, then this book is a great launch pad.