Summary: Elizabeth and Freddy are reunited once again at the Winterhouse Hotel for their holiday season. However, their troubles have resurfaced with their return. There are new mysteries, and new foes, surrounding the hotel, and the two friends have to figure out what all of it means before Gracella comes back to life!
Review: Winterhouse is potentially my favorite setting of any book I’ve read, and if it’s not THE favorite, it’s up there. It’s just so magical and secluded in its own little winter wonderland! I absolutely love myself in the beauty of it and feel like I’m there with Elizabeth and Freddy running around the snow-covered hotel solving mysteries. I cannot overstate how much I love this aspect of the book.
The setting also is the crux of most of the mystery. In this story, a lot of the mystery revolved around the strange doors and passageways that the friends discovered. I was trying to figure out the truth behind them with Elizabeth and Freddy, and the reveal was a really good pay off in the final chapters! Elizabeth finally made her way into the tunnels and encountered Gracella, leading to the climax of the story. I was glad there was a purpose to the mysteries of the hotel.
Along with this, I liked that Guterson explained Elizabeth’s powers more clearly. In the first book, I was a bit confused about what she could do (and why…). While the fantasy element in this book is still weird and seemingly a bit out of place, I really did like it much more than in the first book.
I didn’t love the pendant thing, though. It was so random. She wore this pendant and it was totally normal. Then she found a statue of her mom, the statue had a mirror on it, she looked in the statue, and now it’s magical! So weird and so random. I think this could’ve been revealed better than this.
Circling back to the good things in this book: Elizabeth’s relationships were all great. Her friendship with Freddy, her developing familial bond with Norbridge, and the mentor-mentee connection with Leona were all given adequate page time to where the relationships felt authentic. These all really enhanced the quality of the book for me, since I am someone who loves reading/learning about characters.
I do wish the author would focus on developing his antagonists though. In both books, the villain has been insanely predictable, and unfortunately, I don’t expect that to change in the third book. Rodney and his parents were such immense jerks that it would’ve been crazy if they HADN’T been the villains. Also, Elana and her “grandmother” were so sketchy. It really didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out who the bad guys were since they were already “bad”. I just wish there was more of a reveal.
Even if there wasn’t a big reveal of the villain at the end, there was still some good foreshadowing at the end of this book towards the third book. The ground deep underneath the hotel is shaking… welcome back Gracella.
Rating: 5 out of 5
Recommended reader: Anyone who likes:
- Mystery
- Beautiful settings
- Christmas
- Winter
- Hotels
- Stories about friendship
- Stories about family
- Ghost stories
- Puzzles and Riddles
Reviews of Previous Books:
Discussion Questions:
- Was Elana really “evil” like her aunt and Gracella? Explain your thinking on this with specific examples from the text to back up your point.
- Explain the riddle that Elizabeth pieced together from the plaques. What did it lead to? What did it mean? What happened as a result of this all?
- What makes Winterhouse a unique setting? Why is it so special to Elizabeth and other guests there? How would this story be different if it were set in a different setting? Could the same events be happening?
- Why are the various people in Elizabeth’s life (Norbridge, Leona, Freddy) so important to her? What do they contribute to her and her life? How do they each help her in the story?
Specifics of the book:
- Genre: Mystery
- Lexile Level: 850L
- Accelerated Reader Level: 5.8 (12 pts)
- Content Level: 5th
- Pages: 371
- Controversial Issues: None
Young Adult Lit Reviews 