Hotel Angeline: A Novel in 36 Voices [NOOK Book]

Highly recommended. Great Story

I have read everything Garth Stein has written and as with all the others this one was a great read. The characters were well developed and allowed you to feel what they were experiencing. My favorite by Garth Stein was The Art of Racing in the Rain. Wow what a great story.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Very interesting concept!

Hotel Angeline: A Novel in 36 Voices is unique in that it is one complete novel written by 36 distinct authors. Each chapter represents the work of one author. The novel was originally written in front of a live audience during an event was called The Novel: Live!. Given the parameters of the original event, the outcome is pretty incredible.

Hotel Angeline centers around fourteen-year-old Alexis Austin, who lives in a former mortuary turned hotel. The basement is filled with coffins leftover from the mortuary business. The hotel houses several long-term residents, including a pirate with a peg leg and a bonsai gardener. Alexis' mother, also the hotel manager, is sick and no one has seen her for a while. In her absence, Alexis takes over and tries to run the hotel, dealing with everything from repairing the plumbing to serving afternoon tea. Alexis soon finds herself overburdened with grown-up responsibilities. What's a girl to do? Go on a wild adventure and try to save the hotel from creditors! The long-term residents are like family to Alexis and she cannot bear to see them (or herself) lose their home.

Even though the novel is written by 36 different authors, the change in writing is mostly unnoticeable. There were only a handful of chapters where the writing style seemed noticeably different to me. In the foreword, librarian extraordinaire Nancy Pearl recommends that you read the novel once without noticing the author and a second time paying attention. I was not familiar with many of the authors so I did not have a need to pay close attention to which chapter went with which author on my first reading. I plan to go back through and take note of who wrote the chapters that I enjoyed the most.

Disclosure: I received a free e-galley from the publisher, Open Road Media, via NetGalley.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Great idea but not a great book

LOVE the concept of how this book was written, but do not love that the authors tried to outdo each other to make the story take turns that are too unpleasant to want to spend time with their characters. You will want to quit reading part-way through but you'll hope later authors redeem the story, but they don't.

A different type of novel

This turned out different than I thought it would: more serious, but still pretty zany. Some moments of dark humor, some drama, a bit of mystery. Despite the fact that 36 authors contributed to the story, I thought the plot flowed well. Most of it is written from the perspective of the 14 year old heroine, Alexis. For a time, I had trouble with how Alexis was responding to events until I realized I was thinking with the mind of a grown woman. How WOULD a scared, confused, and inexperienced 14 year old girl react to these circumstances? With that in mind, I saw Alexis in a new light. I was pleased with how her story evolved.

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