Title: Guests

Author: Kealan Patrick Burke

Release date: January 1st, 2023

Now, it may look like all I’m reading at the moment is Kealan Patrick Burke stuff, but the truth is – I had expected to finish the Stage Whispers omnibus at the end of 2022 (but I didn’t after getting super sick) and totally forgot his newest one was arriving January 1st. It’s very rare for me to be reading multiple books by the same author at the same time, but I’ll make the exception for Kealan.

‘Guests’ was originally released as a signed/limited Suntup edition in Summer 2022, but luckily for the rest of us, we didn’t have to wait long for a ‘mass-market’ release. When the cover was revealed, there was a collective excitement across the social media platforms over the snowy setting, the figure walking and the strange ‘tentacles’ emanating from them.

What I liked: The story follows Mark Callahan, a young man who is dealing with the recent death of his grandmother. She was his everything and now that she’s gone, he sees that he doesn’t really have anything holding him to the small town he lives in. He has a job – at the hotel – and has a love – who has a boyfriend – and he just no longer thinks his life is in this place.

All seems well, if not topsy-turvy for Mark. But, this is a horror novella. With a huge snow storm about to pummel the area, Mark goes in for one last shift and on this shift, a strange group of seniors make a sudden booking.

It’s from here that Kealan works his magic. We get coworker drama, interpersonal drama and the impending sense that something is horribly wrong with these guests. Even with a shorter page count, Kealan allows these characters space to grow and let us know them and root for them. There’s some really tense scenes between Mark and the hotel manager, years of boss-employee anger coming to the front and erupting and this gives it that extra layer of storytelling. This isn’t simply a ‘it snows and people die’ story, no this has depth and emotions that weave its way through each and every page.

The ending worked really well for me. It might be a miss for others, but there’s a two-part wrap up that not only gave us a brief backstory of the ‘what’ but also shares with the reader what happens beyond the events and just how much Mark was looking for life long love.

What I didn’t like: While the ending worked for me, I think it’ll be the thing that makes it or breaks it for most readers. I loved how we got little bits of the ‘what’ but it wasn’t fully revealed and for some readers that can be a frustration.

Why you should buy this: If you love Kealan’s work – buy it. If you love cold, snowstorm based stories – buy it. If you love creepy folks who have an ulterior motive and when that motive is revealed you’ll be repulsed – buy it. This one is a fast, crisp story that had me desperately wanting to know what happens while wishing the story never ended.

Great stuff.

5/5