[Review] Floating Hotel by Grace Curtis

Hmm. This book had some promising elements—competent writing, a good premise, and some engaging moments—but it just didn't deliver for me.

There were so many characters and each one was devoted a full chapter. They basically all carried the same weight (with a couple that felt completely superfluous). The only way I could identify who the main character was was by assigning the role to the first character introduced in the book. Essentially, too many characters, without any consistency, meant there was no one to really feel invested in.

As far as the plot, the first half of the book (with all the character introductions) was pretty much just noise. The plot didn't start to develop until the second half of the book. There was a thin mystery that began to unravel eventually, but its connection to the many characters felt vague and tenuous. There were moments where I was enthralled, but just as many where I was left with a sense of ennui.

Overall, this book felt haphazard and disjointed. It was both too much and too little—too many characters, too many subplots, too little focus on a main character, too thin of a main plot.

Note: I received this book as an ARC. It is scheduled to be released March 19, 2024.

3 stars