Review: Cursed Cruise by Victoria Fulton and Faith McClaren
Title: Cursed Cruise (Horror Hotel #2)
Author: Victoria Fulton and Faith McClaren
Published: 19th March 2024
Genre: Horror
Age: YA
What’s it About?
Following their near-fatal visit to the Hearst Hotel, the Ghost Gang YouTube channel has been doing well and the group of teens behind it - Chrissy, Chase, Kiki, and Emma - are close to getting their own TV show on a leading horror network. They need one more big viral hit to secure them the backing they need, and they hope their invitation aboard the RMS Queen Anne is just the ticket.
The Queen Anne has a storied past filled with a truly alarming number of deaths, and the ship is rumoured to be not only haunted, but cursed. Following a multi-year refit, the ship is setting off on a transatlantic voyage from New York to Southampton, with the gang on board. But as soon as psychic Chrissy sets foot on the ship, she knows something is very wrong indeed. The ship is alive with ghosts, and one in particular is dead set on showing Chrissy what really happened to her, even if that means putting Chrissy and her friends in danger.
“What does she want?” I ask, swallowing hard.
“I don’t know,” she says, flicking eyes so light blue that they almost look iced over back and forth from me to Chase. “But I have a feeling I’m going to find out. Soon.”
Welp. All aboard our haunted vacay.
Opinions:
Cursed Cruise is the second book in the Horror Hotel series. I loved the first half of book one but found the conclusion to be a huge letdown, so I was hoping Cursed Cruise might do better. Unfortunately, this book suffered with many of the same issues as its predecessor.
The biggest issue I had with Cursed Cruise was that it relied heavily on tired tropes and clichés, as well as its protagonists making a series of dumb decisions. The human antagonists are laughable - think Twister's rag tag bunch of storm chasers vs Cary Elwes' smarmy corporate rivals downgraded to teen YouTubers - and the source of the supposed curse is so hilariously predictable it makes Scooby-Doo villains feel shockingly creative. There's simply nothing you can't see coming a mile away, and the story of the Lady in White feels hard to compute every time you remember that she died in 1984 and not sometime around 1912. The writing style also feels much too young for this to be a YA.
“Chrissy always talks about hotels and ships and haunted locations as if they’re alive,” Chase explains. “If this boat really is a she and it really has thoughts, feelings, desires, et cetera … why couldn’t it have murderous intent?”
That being said, there were some positive points to be found. I loved that the events of the previous book thoroughly informed the story here. Too many later book in a series have their characters behave as if they are back at the beginning. All four of the Ghost Gang went through traumatic events in Horror Hotel, and it shows. One character is dealing with intense flashbacks and sleeping difficulties due to recurring nightmares, while Chrissy is facing intensifying emotions related to her psychic gifts as a result of what she had to go through, meaning she might be losing her grip on reality. Those elements feed the story, as the characters not only have to deal with what is happening to them on board the Queen Anne, but their concerns regarding how much, if any, of it is in their heads.
Sadly, that's not enough to lift this above a three star for me, although I will read the next book in this series should one be on the horizon. I would still recommend this series, but mostly for younger readers - perhaps those looking for a transition between middle grade and YA. Many thanks to Random House Children's Books for the ARC.
Rating: 3/5