As self-help gurus and internet memes continually remind us, our lives are a story we are empowered to write ourselves. Travelers Rest provides a thoughtful take on this idea, interweaving the melancholy stories of Tonio and Julia Addison, their 10-year‑old son Dewey, and ne’er-do‑well Uncle Robbie.
The setup is familiar from the uncanny end of horror fiction. The family are on their way home to South Carolina from Seattle when they are caught in a snow storm and pull off the highway into a small town that catches Julia’s eye: the ominously named Good Night, Idaho. Here they check into a chunk of faded grandeur, apparently in the middle of restoration, intending to resume their journey the next day. During the night, Uncle Robbie finds himself drawn to explore the hotel and … weird stuff happens. The characters become separated and spend the novel wandering back and forth through a small set of frigid locales – the hotel, a mine that may or may not be the source of the pervasive strangeness, a diner whose proprietors take a friendly interest in Dewey – trying to find each other and occasionally encountering other residents, some of whom may be equally becalmed. A historical dimension is gradually revealed through visions inhabited by Julia and Tonio, which might ultimately explain the curious position they all find themselves in.
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