Book Your Stay At This Haunted Hotel: A Review of The Haunting of Room 904 by Erika T. Wurth

Hello, Book Nerds! Welcome back to Reading Has Ruined My Life or welcome if you are new. As always, my name is Hannah and I am your captain on this journey into my bookcases.

The best time of year has arrived. I have spooky reviews galore lined up. I have horror book recs out the wazoo. I have multiple favorite series returning to the blog in the upcoming weeks. Reading Has Ruined My Life is your one stop shop for all things Spooky Season.

Happy Spooky Season!

So please give a warm welcome to The Haunting of Room 904 by Erika T. Wurth!

As always, a spoiler alert is in order. If you have read any other review on this site then you will know I simply love to spoil the entirety of the books I read. This is your one and only warning. I also have a content and trigger warning to issue. The Haunting of Room 904 includes mentions of rape, sexual assault, sexual harassment, stalking, self-harm, suicide, and drug addiction. The novel also discusses the Sand Creek Massacre, referred to in this text as “the Massacre” by the author out of respect to descendants of the survivors. Should I mention this event in my review, I too will refer to it as “the Massacre.” There are many heavy topics discussed in this novel so please check other content and trigger warnings as there is a possibility I have missed some topics. With that, let’s get to the synopsis.

If you're jumping ship, that's fine, there's a lot going on in this one. I'll see you next week then.

Five years ago, Naiche Becente took her own life in room 904 of the Brown Palace. Naiche is not the first woman to have done this, and she will not be the last unless her sister Olivia Becente can use her paranormal expertise to end a curse. Yes, that’s right, room 904 is cursed. Every five years, a woman will check into the Brown Palace, she will magically appear in room 904, and then three weeks later she will once again appear in room 904 and take her own life.

Now Olivia was never supposed to be a paranormal expert. The paranormal was Naiche’s interest. She was the one who could see and talk to spirits, but upon her death, Naiche’s ability became Olivia’s. Olivia takes it in stride and becomes a paranormal investigator. But with the five year anniversary of Naiche’s death coming up, so is the choosing of the curse’s next victim; something the Brown Palace desperately wants to prevent.

A cult, a curse, a haunting connection to the past, Olivia must navigate through a sea of secrets and shocking revelations. Her friends may in fact be foe. And someone close to her may become the next victim of this curse.

For the vast majority of this novel, there seemed to be a disconnect between all the various elements of the story. The author has so much going on. Like I said, there’s a cult, a curse, a true crime element, the Massacre, the paranormal, and because there is so much going on the writing is disjointed and often choppy.

Honestly, I felt as if I was dropped into the middle of an ongoing series. I did genuinely question, many times, if The Haunting of Room 904 was indeed part of a series that I wasn’t aware of and had to pause my reading to do some quick research. That is how much disjointed lore and backstory was thrown at readers. I truly believed it was because readers had to be reminded of events that occurred in previous entries along with inconsequential characters.

The wrong things are hyperfixated on in this novel. For a book entitled The Haunting of Room 904, hardly any time is spent in room 904 with said haunting. And the cult Naiche was involved in feels completely rushed over, questions are never really asked about the cult, but there is plenty of time for Olivia’s mother to tell Olivia, multiple times, that Olivia should get back together with her ex-boyfriend Sasha. Why are the characters not ghost hunting? Why is the cult being brushed over? And why is there a stalker ex? He comes out of nowhere. Does the stalker ex even need to exist? He offers nothing to the plot other than being an obvious deus ex machina. The only relevant plotline that’s focused on is how the Massacre relates to Naiche and room 904’s curse.    

This novel is so disjointed. The dialogue is forced and often the attempt humor falls flat on its face. Not to mention, the transitions don’t have a good flow. There are too many times when one scene essentially crashes into the other with only exposition dumps in between.

It’s such a shame. The Haunting of Room 904 does have a fantastic premise. Haunted house stories are my favorite horror subgenre. Add in the historical aspect, and the main plot has promise. It’s a formula for a perfect book in my eyes. Sadly everything else about this story flops. It flops hard.  

With that, I shall bid you all adieu. Thank you very much for joining me today, Book Nerds, I hope you all had a lovely time here. I will see you all again next week with another Spooky Season review. If you can’t wait that long, then I highly suggest giving Reading Has Ruined My Life a follow over on Instagram (@ReadingHasRuinedMyLife). I post there almost daily so come back often to revel in literary goodness. You can also follow the blog on Twitter and BlueSky (@RHRMLBlog). If you want something not related to books, then I highly suggest checking out my podcast Nothing to See Hear. The show stars me and two of my dearest friends as we talk everything and anything. We have episodes on Disney, Scooby-Doo, Barbie, bad 90s wrestling, and so much more; there’s bound to be something that strikes your fancy. Nothing to See Hear can currently be found on Spotify and YouTube with new episodes releasing every Wednesday evening.

Until next time, stay safe, wash your hands, and read some good books for me.

See y'all then, bye!