Title: The Sleep Tight MotelAuthor: Lisa Unger
Series: Dark Corners Collection #2
First Published: September 27, 2018
Publisher: Amazon Original Stories
Pages: 46
Genre: Horror, Paranormal, Short Stories
Format: Ebook
Source: Prime Reading
Rating:
Synopsis:
A woman on the run finds refuge in a motel at the edge of the woods, with plenty of vacancies. Check in for the night with New York Times bestselling author Lisa Unger.
Eve has a fake ID, a .38, and a violent lover receding in the rearview mirror. He’ll never find her at the isolated motel, and its kindly manager is happy to ease her fears. But if Eve is the only guest, whom does she keep hearing on the other side of the wall? Eve won’t get a good night’s rest until she finds out.
Buy the Book: AmazonReview
I had a hard time deciding how I felt about this little novella and whether or not I really liked it. It had its good points, some decent characters, and a somewhat unexpected romance. However, despite being listed as a suspense story I didn’t actually find this story to be all that suspenseful. The characters were too one-dimensional, they were either all good or all bad and the direction of the story can be guessed fairly quickly.
The main issue I took with the story was the comparisons between nice guy and bad boy relationships. The main character’s best friend is an obvious mirror, and she sees her friend’s relationship as normal and safe. Meanwhile, she fell for the dark and dangerous man who enthralled her with money and taboo sex. I really can’t stand when books seem to blur the lines between good old-fashioned kinky sex and violent relational abuse.
The other thing that bothered me about this story was that it was essentially a watered-down version of Psycho. A secluded motel with a lonely and charming owner, a woman on the run, trouble with money, and a boyfriend… Honestly, the story elements that were lifted are pretty blatant. It might have been okay if it wasn’t so alike, to me at least.
If I were to consider the story by itself it would still only be mediocre. I kept waiting for the story to get scary, or for there to be some twist with the motel but there really wasn’t. I honestly wanted more from this story and was left pretty underwhelmed.
Quote
“Maybe not him, the man he actually was, but the man I thought he was. We cling to our ideas of people, don’t we?”
Content Warnings
View Spoiler »About the Author
About Lisa Unger
Lisa Unger is a New York Times and internationally bestselling author. With books published in twenty-six languages and millions of copies sold worldwide, she is widely regarded as a master of suspense. Her new release is CONFESSIONS ON THE 7:45, a Goodreads Choice Awards Nominee.
Unger’s critically acclaimed books have been named on “Best Book” lists from the Today show, Good Morning America, Entertainment Weekly, People, Amazon, Goodreads, and many others. She has been nominated for, or won, numerous awards including the Hammett Prize, Macavity, Thriller Award, and Goodreads Choice. In 2019, she received two Edgar Award nominations, an honor held by only a few authors, including Agatha Christie. Her writing has appeared in The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, NPR, and Travel+Leisure. She lives on the west coast of Florida with her family.
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