Book Review: The Invisible Hotel by Yeji Y. Ham

Literary horror in a gothic tradition that will creep you out.

Yeji Y. Ham is a Korean Canadian writer. She graduated from the University of British Columbia and went on to receive her MFA from Brown University. The Invisible Hotel is her first novel. 

I was hooked by the premise immediately. With no expectations going in I found the story to be very haunting, unsure at first if Yewon was dreaming about the hotel or if it was a hallucination. It had a surrealist quality that kept drawing me in. I connected with the characters and felt awful that their family history was so unfortunate, especially considering the political turmoil of the North and how it overshadowed everything in their lives. The most disturbing detail was the tradition of keeping the bones of lost loved ones piled in the bath tub. The idea they would obsessively wash them every day, and the description of the smell was vivid, immersing me in the story.

Ham’s descriptions of the hotel in Yewon’s dreams also stuck with me including the old frail man and his ominous warnings. The graphic details of the long hallways with infinite doors and the people who would wander between them searching for answers. It all felt like a nightmare. I found the rumors circulating about North Korea fascinating although disturbing, curious if they were influenced by more than imagination. The themes of political divide and the country’s collective heritage shone through the characters in this story, making more of an impact when told through the eyes of family. The pace was consistently steady throughout, although it did slow for me when Yewon visited Seoul with Min. The writing style had an urgency to it which I felt more so in the dream scenes, and the author’s voice was compelling enough to keep me turning the pages.

3/5⭐️⭐️⭐️

For readers who enjoy haunting stories with a literary twist.

Published March 5th, 2024

Synopsis:

I know this place. The room is too dim to see clearly. It smells like the bones.

Yewon dreams of a hotel. In the hotel, there are infinite keys to infinite rooms—and a quiet terror she is both eager to understand and desperate to escape. When Yewon wakes, she sees her life: a young woman, out of her job at a convenience store, trapped in the tiny South Korean village of her birth, watching her mother wash the bones of their ancestors in their decrepit bathtub. Every house has them, these rotting and fragmented ribs, tibias, and femurs, whose constant care and persistent stench serve as reminders of what they have all lost to the Forgotten War that never seems to end.

Now Yewon’s brother is stationed near the North Korean border, her sister has experienced a life-changing tragedy, and her mother is overwhelmed by anxiety, her health declining. When Yewon begins to drive a local woman named Ms. Han, a mysterious and aging North Korean refugee, to visit her brother at a distant prison, Yewon’s dreams intensify. As the line between reality and illusion slowly begins to blur, Yewon is led to an unsettling truth about her country’s collective heritage.