Definitely felt AHS Hotel vibes with demons instead of vampires. World building was interesting, but confusing. I wasn't sure if the characters were being helpful or undermining, which kept me guessing. The commentary on talent, fame and art was also interesting.

I was in the moment it was comped to The Great Gatsby. Thank you so much to the publisher and Netgalley for letting me read this early!

I loved Below the Grand Hotel. It's not the sort of story I might normally choose but the plot summary was really exciting. I like horror and this was a very stylish Gothic romp set in New York City. The spiky protagonist Mabel Rose Dixon immediately put in mind another Mabel, that played by Selena Gomez. Cat Scully has devised a frightening and foreboding, subtle and complete world in this hotel basement. Of course people mention Fitzgerald but I also think of the Eagles: can Mabel ever hope to leave?

Below the Grand Hotel takes the idea of the Overlook Hotel in its 1920s prime, infuses it with big-city life, and populates with it with the denizens of hell. Scully spins a terrific tale of the desire/cost of fame in the heyday of when stardom was new and exciting, and drops it all into an almost House-of-Leaves-esque panorama of architectural intrigue. Tight pacing, intriguing characters, and eerily accurate comps (Great Gatsby x Hellraiser) without sacrificing originality.

Cat Scully’s Below the Grand Hotel is a dark and eerie tale that weaves Faustian bargains and demons into a dazzling art deco setting.
Mabel Rose, a struggling performer in 1920s New York City, faces rejection from the Ziegfeld Follies. To fund her desperate dream for stardom, she resorts to stealing from the wealthy. However, her life takes a sinister turn when she steals from the wrong person and becomes trapped in a hotel run by demons, where she trades her soul for a shot at fame. Throughout the story, Mabel must fight for her soul while questioning whether being human is worth the price of an ordinary life.

The story's glamorous 1920s backdrop contrasts sharply with its devilish plot, using the pursuit of fame and success as a metaphor for the underworld. While at times the narrative is gory, featuring grotesque scenes reminiscent of a Ryan Murphy production, the character development is particularly strong. Each character, especially Mabel, is forced to confront difficult emotions, and their imperfect choices humanize them for the reader. The illustrations evoke a 1920s film noir atmosphere, adding depth to the characters.

Thank you to NetGalley and CLASH Books for this ARC!

I initially enjoyed this, especially Mabel’s character. I enjoyed where her character went and how she progressed throughout the novel but found the pacing to be quite slow and sometimes stagnant at times. It was an interesting premise, and the writing was good, I wish the pacing was a little steadier.

Thank you to NetGalley and Clash Books for an eARC copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

As a horror girlie, I really was reeled in by the plot initially as well as the Gatsby-esque vibe of the Grand Hotel.

The start seemed exciting but the the pace slowed to the point of it almost being sluggish. There was so much emphasis on the maze that is the Grand Hotel that it felt like the characters storyline’s were taking a bit of a back seat.

I enjoyed the characters, I personally didn’t find them relatable (to me) although I did like Mabel’s transformation from who she was when she first enters the hotel to who she is at the end of the book.

Like a few others have said, I felt like I had a bit of whiplash at the end but the ending did tie it all together nicely.

All in all, I don’t think this one was for me, I really had to push myself to finish but I appreciate the opportunity to review it. I rate it a 2.5 rounded up to a 3.

A solid debut! The aesthetic of the book is impeccable and definitely transports you to that time and place. It mixes glamour and horror perfectly and lives up to the description given on netgalley. You get exactly what you came in for! I do also love a mysterious hotel setting, so that worked great for me, although I . Mabel is a very engaging, ambitious MC I had no problem rooting for. The pace was a little too slow at times but I feel like it suited the overall vibe pretty well and created a scarier, more suspenseful atmosphere. I only wish I'd read this on a spooky autumn day for an even immersive experience!

Great setting and characters in this sparkling debut. I loved the character of Mabel and her ambitious, no-nonsense demeanor. Interesting, infernal monsters and a mysterious hotel add texture and suspense to a wonderfully polished story. I raced through this book and would love to read more from Cat in the future!

Although it's described as being The Great Gatsby meets Hellraiser, Below the Grand Hotel has me neither thrilled nor disappointed.

The comparisons are pretty accurate though which I'm pleased with. The Great Gatsby is one of my all-time favorite classic books and I felt like Cat Scully captured the essence of that story and flipped it into the horror that Hellraiser embodies.

Now, that being said why didn't I rate this higher? Although it starts off pretty straightforward with a goal for our FMC Mabel and her cohorts, it does seem to go off the rails a little. It suffers from too many locations. The Grand Hotel is supposed to be this labyrinth of unnatural proportions, but I felt that at times there was so much time spent on describing these elaborate rooms that you lose the point of the story.

There are plot twists I saw coming and some that I didn't which was quite refreshing.

Overall, it's a fine story. I'm glad I read it and I'm super happy that it did live up to the comparisons.

The Glamour of the 20s meets a red shoes. Mabel was an interesting ambitious character who climbs into a hell for what she thinks she wants. I enjoyed the writing and the progression of the story.

Below the Grand Hotel mixes elements of a heist novel, a redemption story, a 1920s flapper-with-moxie tale, and a discussion of what is evil and where is hell in New York City during prohibition.

Mabel Rose Dixon runs from the rules, religion and expectations of rural Georgia, to NYC, using sass and petty theft to get an audition for Ziegfeld’s Follies. Misplaced pride and overzealous desperation leads her to following a potential mark into the infamous and decadent Grand Hotel.

Demons run amok in the Grand, and Mabel is forced to sell her soul in a horrific scene of gore and violence. She is filled with immediate regret and endeavors to get her soul back and escape the Grand.

Mabel is likable, and I enjoyed how Scully revealed her backstory and motivations. I loved Mabel and Will’s adventure through the bowels of the hotel as they try to save themselves and others trapped in hell.

Scully successfully maintains momentum and tension, as Mabel tries to preserve her humanity. The pages practically turned themselves.

There were some inconsistencies that sometimes took me out of the story and the book seems to need one more go over to fix places where characters are misnamed or paragraphs are out of order.

In all, I enjoyed my time being terrified at the Grand Hotel.

3.5 ⭐️

First of all, thank you Netgalley and Clashbooks for the opportunity of reading this book prior to the release in return for a review. This is still a honest review that is solely my opinion.

This book was literally everything it promised to be and I would definitely agree with the Netgalley description which describes this as a combination of Great Gatsby and Hellraiser.

This book has horror, demons, but also glamour and culture. The vibes that this books are just 👌🏼

Mabel is a struggling artist in 1920 New York who wishes to become one of the Zieglergirls. However, due to the struggles she experiences she steals to keep her self floating. Until… she steals from the wrong people. She follows this wealthy looking couple into the grand hotel, but they end up being demons. And desperation and a deal with a demon is not a good combination.

This premise was so unique and immediately sucked me in. Unfortunately, it sometimes went a bit fast and I got lost in everything that was going on. And the ending definitely gave me whiplash the plottwists were plottwisting in this one!

Overall, a very enjoyable read if you love gothic horror, mixed into a glamorous great gatsby style hotel and a touch of romance.

Below the Grand Hotel by Cat Scully will be released May 6th 2025.

Below the Grand Hotel by Cat Scully is a Gatsby-inspired horror novel that weaves glitz, glamour, and the grotesque into a tale of demons running a hotel designed to ensnare souls for their dark agenda. The setting is richly atmospheric, capturing the decadence of a bygone era while layering it with an unsettling undercurrent of dread. However, the slow-burn pacing, while deliberate, sometimes drags, making it difficult to stay fully invested in the characters and their fates. While the concept is unique and the blend of opulence and horror is intriguing, it didn’t quite captivate me, leaving it as an okay read rather than a standout.

Selling my soul to the devil?
In an art deco world with flapper style?
HELLO? Say less.
I'm so glad I got to read this story and found in insanely unique and well organized. I was hooked from the beginning and will be passing this along to anyone who will listen!

A delightfully dark gothic feeling thriller. I really enjoyed the characters development throughout this story, definitely one to recommend!

Oooh this was a scary good one! Thank you Netgalley for this ARC!
Mabel is a struggling performer in 1920s New York City who usually steals from the rich until one day she steals from the wrong crowd: Demons! I wont say more but if you like horror with an historical atmosphere I definitely recommend it!
4 stars

ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Unfortunately, it will be brutal.

So many typos and editing errors, including spelling the lead’s name wrong twice within the span of two pages. And I know some of that can be adjusted still, but there was one part where a paragraph didn’t make sense and clearly the paragraph before it had been edited in such a way to remove the context for the next one. And I love a good fragmented sentence, but some areas felt like a chopping room floor with viscera left everywhere and no clean up crew.

Speaking of viscera, I actually did enjoy how gory and bloody this book was. It couldn’t decide on Christian or Greek religious imagery, but that’s a different problem.

I feel like I walked in expecting a heist book with some supernatural elements, and about 40% of the book was heist that… didn’t end up mattering? Basically at all?

I walked into this book excited for historical fiction with supernatural elements and a heist and was left with a lackluster cast of characters, plot convenience thrown in at every turn, and actually a really banger ending if we’d cut out kind of the entire middle of the book, tbh.

Kinda just every element that could’ve worked for me flopped HARD. What did pull through nicely is how much emphasis is on artists/creators and their souls and how their work is so intricately tied to their humanity, and I think if that had been stronger throughout, I would’ve really resonated with Mabel more.

I think this would’ve been much cooler as a graphic novel.

Mabel accidentally loses her soul to a demon after a pick pocketing gone wrong
Frank offers her a chance to get it back if she preforms in his Grand Hotel, collecting 100 souls for hers, the catch: she slowly becomes a demon the longer it takes to collect
With other workers warning her of the future horrors that the hotel holds for her
Mabel uses her stealthy skills to uncover the gothic horrors
Cat Scully thrusts you back in time with this seat gripping story!

The setting and premise were really unique and interesting. The setting, both in terms of the era and the grand hotel itself, felt lush and very fleshed out. I found the ending fairly satisfying, but I felt like there was a bit of a time skip towards the end of the book that maybe needed a bit more attention. Mabel's motives seem to flip between wanting to be a "good person" and desiring the fame and luxury the hotel could offer a bit too easily. As well as her affections fluctuating between the two main male characters she interacts with.

Overall, I enjoyed this book, and will handsell it to folks interested in that time period or looking for something a bit different, but I wouldn't consider it a favourite myself.