I received this book for free from the Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
The Paradox Hotel by Rob Hart Published by Ballantine Books on February 22 2022
Genres: Adult, Science fiction
Pages: 336
Format: eARC
Source: Publisher
Buy on Amazon
Goodreads
The nitty-gritty: A fun mystery with interesting characters and relationships, The Paradox Hotel was full of good ideas but ended up confusing me more than anything.
This was a strange little story, but I ended up really enjoying it after a bit of a rocky start. I thought the book was going to focus more on time travel adventures, but that’s not at all what it’s about. Instead, the story takes place entirely in the Paradox Hotel, which services rich travelers who have booked expensive trips to the past through a time travel hub called the Einstein Intercentury Timeport—kind of like staying at the Disneyland Hotel if you’re spending a long weekend at Disneyland. So, to reiterate: there isn’t really any time travel here, only glimpses of the past seen through the eyes of our main character, January Cole.
January is the house detective-slash-security officer, and she loves her job, which involves keeping track of the many hotel guests, watching out for security breaches and making sure no one breaks the rules of time travel. But January is suffering from a condition known as Unstuck. Before she became head of security, she worked as a timestream agent, accompanying guests on trips back in time. The exposure to time travel messed up her brain, and now she occasionally “slips” into the past, experiencing events and conversations that have already happened. These time slips are becoming more and more frequent, and January is worried that eventually the hotel manager will consider her a liability and will ask her to leave.
But one thing she loves about these slips is that she gets to visit with her dead girlfriend Mena, who was killed in a gas explosion in the hotel’s kitchen. But are those brief moments with Mena simply past memories, or is she actually speaking with Mena’s ghost? January is even more confused when she finds a dead body in one of the hotel rooms—a body only she can see. With her trusty robot assistant Ruby by her side, January decides to investigate. But with the impending sale of the hotel, a fierce winter storm, and increasing time slips into the past, January is having trouble doing her job, especially when it’s hard to tell what’s real and what isn’t.
The overall vibe of The Paradox Hotel is a light, humorous mystery that doesn’t take itself too seriously. I really love Rob Hart’s writing style, and his humor and dialog are so well done. There are some wacky moments in the story, most notably a storyline about three baby dinosaurs that are brought back from a time trip illegally. The dinos end up causing all sorts of havoc in the hotel, attacking guests and running loose through the corridors. The characters are a bit overblown at times, and some of the situations are on the absurd side, but it was all good fun. Even the occasional violent moments didn’t feel very heavy, and I liked the consistent tone throughout.
The story takes place in 2072, so it’s plausible that there would be a way to time travel for fun and profit. I loved the idea of the Einstein, a theme park-like business where the rich can go back in time and witness important events throughout history. The travelers even dress up for the particular place and time they’re traveling to, and timestream agents accompany them to keep everyone safe. Hart populates his story with quirky hotel employees, each with their own personalities. I especially liked Cameo, a non-binary reservations clerk, and Mbaye, a chef who works in the hotel restaurant.
But there were some negatives for me. Unfortunately, I just didn’t like January at all, and that kept me from completely embracing this story. January is a jerk. She’s rude to everyone she meets, even coworkers she’s known for years. She’s horrible to Ruby, her assistant. At least with Ruby, January feels justified in being rude. It’s only a machine without feelings, right? But my heart wept for poor little Ruby, who did everything January asked it to do and then some. I get it, the love of her life is dead and she can’t move past that. But January’s poor treatment of just about every single character in the story wore on me after a while.
I also found the story to be confusing at times. Not that time travel is easy to understand, but parts of the plot didn’t make much sense to me. For example, if time travel leads to being Unstuck, why is January the only character in the story who suffers from it? Speaking of which, January’s time slips were extremely jarring, and I often lost track of whether we were in the past or the present. Hart jumps in and out of these slips without any warning, and I found myself having to go back and reread pages to figure out where I was in the story. Or maybe that was done deliberately, because January probably didn’t get much warning either. I also found that there were way too many characters to keep track of. In addition to all the hotel employees—and we meet a lot of them—there are the people who are bidding on the hotel, and I’ll admit after a while all their names started to blend together.
But even though I disliked January, I was surprised to discover my favorite element of the story was the relationship between January and Mena. I loved Mena’s ability to see past January’s acerbic personality to the damaged child underneath and actually understand her. Mena was a fascinating character. She seems to pop up just when January needs a pep talk, and because she’s Unstuck, it makes perfect sense to January that she keeps running into past Mena. I also loved the gentle way that Mena is able to coax January into admitting why she is the way she is and why everyone she meets seems to hate her, almost like a therapist. The reason for January’s prickly personality is revealed late in the story, and while I didn’t completely forgive her behavior, at least I was able to finally sympathize with her.
The last twenty percent of the story was fast-paced and exciting, and Hart manages to tie up his many story threads in satisfying and believable ways. The ending surprised me in a good way, and I loved how unexpectedly sweet and emotional it was. The Paradox Hotel might not be perfect, but I’m glad I read it, and I look forward to Rob Hart’s next book.
Big thanks to the publisher for providing a review copy.
Time travel stories usually prove a little problematic for me, so I guess that since the theme is not central I might enjoy this story, about which I’ve been curious since it first surfaced in the blogosphere. And I consider myself forewarned about this not-so-enjoyable main character…. 😉
Thanks for sharing!
Maddalena@spaceandsorcery recently posted…CITY OF BONES (Harry Bosch #8), by Michael Connelly
I would be curious to see what you make of it…
Sudden shifts in time without enough clues for the reader would bother me, too. And January does not sound like a fun character, though the idea of a hotel in the future with time travel trips is pretty cool. Good review as usual, Tammy.
Priscilla Bettis recently posted…Can You Write a Successful Short Story Using a Formula?
Thanks Priscilla. I really loathed January, lol! The poor robot Ruby, she was so mean to it:-(
That’s a bummer that the time travel element was so confusing. I usually love time travel stories but how it works has to make sense to me. Otherwise this does sound like a pretty entertaining read.
It was very entertaining, and worth reading:-)
Oh. I was expecting time travel to take center stage…then again, it sounds like this one might work for me, non-likeable main character notwithstanding. Maybe not to the point to be a 5 or 4 star read, but…I don’t know – I’m intrigued!
Awesome review !
Roberta R. recently posted…Tell Me Something Tuesday: Has a Book by Your Favourite Author Ever Disappointed You Badly?
It’s definitely worth reading! I probably should have read the blurb more closely before I started reading…
But the blurb IS misleading! LOL.
I liked the previous book I read by this author, but based on your review, I”m not sure I’d want to spend time on this one — although it’s good to know it has a satisfying end. Maybe later in the year ,when I don’t feel quite so bogged down by my ARC reading!
I liked The Warehouse better, although it was pretty quirky as well. I do love his writing style.
Not a big fan of science fiction and especially stay away from time travel stories.
Thanks for sharing.
I totally understand!
I’m torn about this one, it sounds interesting and I usually enjoy time-travel stories but it sounds even more confusing than the 1st season of The Witcher LOL. I might give it a try if I see this book on sale but it’s not a high priority.
Maryam (@thecurioussffreader) recently posted…Book Review: The Fallen by Ada Hoffman (The Outside #2)
It’s very confusing at times, trying to figure out “when” in time January is at any given moment.
Too bad this book didn’t have the time travel you wanted. I think I would probably feel the exact same way as you did. Sounds like a good read but with flaws. It happens and no book is really perfect.
Stephanie @ Bookfever recently posted…Monthly Wrap-Up: February 2022
Oh I’ve read some perfect books, lol.
Sounds kind of interesting!
It had some cool ideas.
Ah snap! It did sound pretty intriguing but it’s a bit saddening to hear that the time travelling elements are rough here. I’m also a bit meeeeh when it comes to humor within sci-fi. Great review, Tammy!
P.S. I wanted to let you know that I’ll be embarking on a new solo blogging adventures and will my blog going live soon. Considering that I do enjoy having you around in my little blogosphere, I would love if you’d follow me there going forward (nothing mandatory here heheh). I’ll probably just end up cross-posting a little on Bookidote before I feel like letting go of it for sure! 😀
Thanks Lashaan! I’m definitely following your new blog. Good luck with your new endeavor!
Glad to see you had some fun with this one even if it was a little strange and off at times. Your mention of how some of the time slips were jarring and had you rereading to see what you’d missed reminded me of that season of Buffy where Dawn was introduced as her sister, as if she’d always been there as a sister. It had me wondering how many episodes I must have missed and struggling to find them, before I finally realized it was all planned that way. 🙂
Ha ha I did the same thing with Dawn and Buffy! Like what did I miss??
Great review! I just recently picked up a copy for myself and I’m looking forward to reading it!
It’s a lot of fun. I’m looking forward to hearing what you think.
Looks like you liked this one slightly more than I did but we had some of the same issues, namely January. She was so obnoxious and awful to everyone! I just couldn’t enjoy myself to the fullest while having to put up with her attitude.
She was awful! I kept thinking I was going to warm up to her, but nope.
Interesting. Robin rated this one the same.
I like the sound of this one although time travel can be touch and go for me – but, I think the character January is kind of putting me off. a little.
Lynn 😀
Hmm, it sounds like it would be an okay read, but if it left you confused about some parts, I probably won’t rush out to read it. Thanks for sharing your review!
Lisa Mandina (Lisa Loves Literature) recently posted…Review: The Accidental Countess (The Aristocrat Diaries #3) by Emma Hart