Cursed Cruise is the follow-up to Victoria Fulton and Faith McClaren’s novel, Horror Hotel. I accidentally jumped into Cursed Cruise without reading Horror Hotel. Luckily, this follow-up is more of a standalone than a direct sequel. There are callbacks to Horror Hotel, but they are quickly explained and not relied on for the main plot.
Cursed Cruise follows the Ghost Gang, a group of four teenagers with a YouTube channel following their paranormal investigations. They have over a million followers and are hoping to find a TV channel that wants to pick up their show.
| Title: Cursed Cruise: A Horror Hotel Novel | Authors: Victoria Fulton and Faith McClaren |
| Release Date: March 19, 2024 | Genre: YA Horror |
| Publisher: Underlined | Page Count: 288 |
Synopsis
From the authors of Horror Hotel , called “fast-paced and freaky” by #1 NYT bestselling author Kendare Blake, comes another addictive YA horror about a group of teen ghost hunters who are invited to travel onboard a haunted historic cruise ship.
All aboard…
After their fateful stay at the Hearst Hotel, the Ghost Gang is back with more spooks and more subscribers. They’ve been invited to record onboard the RMS Queen Anne, a transatlantic luxury ocean liner with a colorful past of violent deaths of hundreds of passengers—souls that bought a one-way ticket to the afterlife (and never disembarked).
When Chrissy, Chase, Kiki, and Emma board the ship, they have a funny feeling they’ve been sucked into a ghostly time warp—a theory that takes a frightening turn when Chrissy goes missing on the first night.
Unbeknownst to the rest of the group, Chrissy has been sucked into another time by a passenger who wants the Ghost Gang to know her untimely death was not an accident and the perpetrator is still alive—and on board this ship.
Review:
Hoping for good footage and headlines, Chrissy, Chase, Kiki, and Emma board the RMS Queen Anne, a ship known for its on-board deaths and subsequent hauntings. The Ghost Gang is particularly interested in the death of an 80s heiress who of an apparent suicide. When hauntings, time travel, and even a curse take over, the gang must rely on each other and stay sharp to solve the mystery and get back to land safely.
This book was so much fun! The horror in Cursed Cruise is spot-on for a young adult novel – it’s creepy with some horror moments, but it has very few jump scares and no overt gore or body horror. I loved the friendship vibes and thought the group dynamics worked well. I loved the focus on family, friends, and relationships, as actual young adults think about these things so much. It feels like a book made with real teenagers in mind, which I loved. My only complaint is that I wish it had a buffer friend in the group who wasn’t paired up romantically with someone else. I would have loved a Shaggy-like character in this Scooby-Doo gang.
Final Thoughts:
Cursed Cruise is an excellent YA novel and perfect for teens interested in books with horror, thriller, and paranormal elements. There’s excellent representation in the book and redemption of one of the villain characters.
Rating: 4/5 Stars!
Thanks to RHCB for providing me with an advanced review copy! All the above thoughts are my own.
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