NNtG: Shivers #19: The Thing in Room 601

It's been a while. Well, more like a month and a half specifically. Perfect amount of time to spin that barrel once more. It's time for another round of Shivers Russian Roulette. We've been getting the safer end of Shivers lately. So when I see a cover like the one for this book, how can't I think we're about to land on the bullet this time? But then again I've been mislead by many a cover before. Will this be the case? Is this not the room I'm looking for? Let's see for ourselves what's up with The Thing in Room 601.

HOLY FUCKING SHIT what a cover. This... this is for a kids book series right? Right? Like, whether you felt Goosebumps covers border too much on the cornball, they at least felt like kid-friendly covers. Here? Aside from, maybe, the cartoony skeleton photo (which serves as the standard cover skull), you'd mistake this for something more fitting for an older crowd. The bloody axe is one thing, but the blood stained floor with the 601 on the floor and the smeared blood under the doorknob. This might be top contender for the most legitimate nightmare fuel cover of all time. Which makes me worry because you know that cool cover doesn't equal amazing book? I guess we'll have to find out if this can buck that trend, but on first impressions, WOW! 

Liam, his sister Diane, and their mom are visiting Santa Barbara California on account of their Aunt Nancy's wedding. Their dad's busy, so it's just the three of them heading from New York to California. That's the good news, I guess. Depends if you like weddings. The bad news is that they're staying at the Hotel Marlowe, a creepy old hotel that is supposedly haunted. As the three settle down for breakfast, with Liam noting that Diane eats a lot despite being thin because this is a 90s book, their mom gets a call. Her friend Carol had recently moved to a new home in New York, but suffered a broken leg. Because nobody else is around to help her, their mom will be flying back to New York and returning in a couple days. And their aunt is busy what with the wedding, and their dad's still not there, but no matter. The kids can just take care of themselves... in an old hotel... alone. She's just making an excuse to ditch her kids, isn't she? Reader beware, we may have our worst parent in a while.

So yeah, two twelve year old kids are responsible enough not to cause any problems at this big old hotel, right? But they're each given 150 bucks and they'll be called at night to make sure they're not out gallivanting the streets of Santa Barbara at night. And also because, again, 90s book so pre-everyone has an iPhone. They'll also be sleeping in two rooms in the hotel that used to be one room for the maids, but got separated by cartons and stuff. And totally no THING that could be in the room that should be concerning. As their mother leaves, Liam and Diane go to the front desk and learn that they're rooms are Room 601A and 601B. Two doors that require two keys, but there's only one at the moment. And, as the clerk, Bob, says, it hasn't been used in years. That isn't anything to worry about I assume. I doubt there's anyTHING in Room 601 to worry about at all. He then has a hard time giving the kids directions to the room, so they choose to search for it themselves.

The kids head up the elevator to floor five of the hotel, but need to get to the sixth floor to find Room 601. They search for a bit, only for Liam to lose Diane. And then find himself lost. He soon finds the door to the stairway and opens the door, only for Diane to scare him since she found it first. The stairway is old and rotten wood, but leads to Room 601B. Inside everything is old, dusty and moldy, full of cobwebs. Reader beware, you're in for respiratory problems. But, more intriguing to the kids is another door which they assume leads to the other part of Room 601. The room looks like a prison. No phone, not much light, no room for a motorcar. Not a single luxury. But the two get a jump as they hear a scraping sound behind them. An old woman in a maid outfit arrives with their suitcases. Her flesh looks gray, her voice is scratchy, and her eyes look the most alive out of her. Behold, the ravages of age!

The old maid gets Diane and Liam's (the first time we learn his name is Liam BTW on page 62, just about halfway into the book, which might be the record for longest time for a name reveal? And yes, I know it says his name on the back of the book but I digress.) names and then disappears. The kids are spooked and confused what's up with her. Like has she been working for the hotel all these years? Then they debate if she was Mexican because she said their names weirdly which is such a weird thing to add yet kind of feels like a kid thing to ponder. The kids then note the cartons nearby. Liam opens one and sees a human skull inside! He's obviously shocked, but Diane just laughs and plays with the skull. Liam, fairly, thinks she's screwed up in the head, but she notes that the skulls are candy. Sugar skulls. Diane learned about this as her friend Laura is Mexican and celebrates Dia de los Muertos, the Day of the Dead. That they make skulls out of sugar for the deceased. So hey, props to the book for spinning around the Mexican stuff in a less collar-tugging way than I feared.

Liam and Diane start to leave the room when Liam suddenly notices a boy and a girl, the boy reaching into a box of the skulls. Then, suddenly, they vanish. So now Liam's convinced that his brains are starting to scramble the longer he stays in this hotel. They meet with another clerk who says their bags are still on the way to Room 601, so now they don't know what was up with the woman. Liam tells Diane about the kids and she thinks that maybe they're ghosts looking for their sugar skulls. That maybe the kids and the old lady are connected somehow. So that means they both have to go back to Room 601 to see for themselves. However, this time when they check both Room 601A and 601B, the rooms are spotless. So either the room service in this hotel is damn good, or yeah, there's something weird going on. Diane screams as she ends up seeing the kids this time, so it at least confirms Liam isn't the only one losing his mind.

Suddenly, a bellboy shows up and notices the room is clean and also notes the sugar skulls. Since he can't clean the room he can provide exposition. When the hotel had first opened in 1929, a Mexican woman by the name of Elena worked as a maid for the hotel and lived in room 601 with her son and daughter. Things seemed to go well until one day Elena snapped and murdered her children, decapitating them with a carving knife. Since then, there have been boxes of the sugar skulls in the room and stories of Elena's ghost haunting the floor. But that's all a story, or it could be true, this bellboy is the kind who likes to mess with people's heads. Speaking of heads, maybe Liam and Diane should watch theirs because supposedly no kids have stayed in Room 601 until now. The bellboy leaves and the kids realize the old woman was Elena and that she'll be back soon. And by soon I mean immediately as she shows up looking more older and now holding a carving knife that she starts to swing at the kids. Well that escalated.

Elena, now looking skeletal with skin hanging off her like paper, swings the knife wildly at the kids. Eventually, Liam grabs two of the sugar skulls in the carton and tells her that they are the skulls of her children, then throws them into the other room. Elena gives chase and they place the nearby dresser over the door to lock her in. They breathe a sigh of relief for a moment, then hear a knock at the front door. It's their mom who showed up early since Carol's in the hospital and will do fine there. But since the hotel is full, they'll have to go to a different one. The kids are relieved and leave Room 601 with Liam looking at the other door, relieved he won't be the one to see what's on the other side.

So, yeah. Super gory cover, kind of a tame book. I mean, we get a zombie/ghost woman slashing a knife at two kids, and a dark explanation of what happened to her own kids, but otherwise, not as dark as I would have expected. So by that logic, I'm saying this is another empty chamber and not a bullet. Dammit Shivers, I really thought this one was gonna go super gory. Ah well. As for the book itself, it's okay. Very straightforward, which I like, but also feels like it takes so long to build to the story and what's going on that it fast forwards everything by the end. Elena's origins, the murder of her kids, why she did it which is never explained, the confrontation with her and the resolution. It feels like a case of too much build to the fireworks factory and not enough time at the fireworks factory. 

Liam and Diane mostly exist as protagonists. They snipe at one another for the early going, but start to work together and get along by the end, mainly because they're two kids alone in a hotel having to deal with the strange hauntings of Room 601. Diane is smarter and more of a prankster than Liam, and is mainly also here to clue together the Mexican sugar skulls stuff. Which, in the grand scheme, does mostly feel like a gimmick when you get down to it. A way to, I guess, have a book about beheaded children without actually beheading children (which given what we've gotten from Shivers is saying something). But this book came two books after Camp Massacre. I'm just saying that there is precedent in Shivers being much, MUCH worse at handling stuff linked to race and traditions. But it still makes it feel like a gimmick.

So yeah. Not really much to say with this one. I'm genuinely shocked at how hard that cover hits and how middle ground the story overall is. Might be the most blue balls cover experience we've gotten since Cheerleaders: The New Evil. Though I guess that at least gave us the scene, yet still underwhelmed. Hell, the weapon of choice in this book isn't even an axe. I'm so disappointed. But I'd still say this is a light recommend. Quick to read and not bad as a straightforward horror story. Just set your expectations way, way, way WAAAAAAAAY low after seeing the cover. The Thing in Room 601 gets a B-.