The Synopsis
Below the Grand Hotel by Cat Scully (CLASH Books, May 6, 2025) is the cat’s pajamas and macabre historical fantasy–horror debut. For this Below the Grand Hotel: Vintage book review, we go to opulent 1920s New York, following Mabel Rose Dixon, a scrappy performer from Georgia determined to become a Ziegfeld girl. When a pickpocketing attempt goes awry, she lands in a demonic hotel where artists exchange their souls for fame. She must reclaim her own before the May’s Eve Ball or become a demon herself. Along the way, she navigates shifting hotel corridors, grotesque entertainments, and the dark cost of ambition.
What I Liked About It
- The atmospheric setting in Below the Grand Hotel is right up my vintage vibe. The hotel itself is a vivid character—lavish, twisted, and consuming. Its ever‑changing corridors and bloody tableaux create a mesmerizing, gothic stage.
- Mabel Rose is complex, flawed, and resilient character who tries to be a ruthless survivalist, but her heart and soul’s vulnerability get in the way.
- Loved the Faustian bargain of fame for souls, and artistic struggle. This would resonate with any artist.
- The hotel is capitalism and the exploitation of the worker made literal.
- Wonderful art deco descriptions and luminous fashions that I couldn’t get enough of!
- The dance descriptions were the bees knees and in line with the way I write dance and like to read it!
Favorite Quotes from Below the Grand Hotel
[BEWARE: SPOILERS]
”Devils wear many faces. They don’t all have horns.”
“As she hit each note, something glowed inside her, like a sun rising within her. The light enveloped her bones with its warmth.”
“The cheers drowned out every tiny voice that ever whispered doubt in her own ear, every moment she had ever wondered if she wasn’t good enough for the stage.”
“Mabel brought the orb to her lips and ate it whole. She expected for a sensation like eating food to follow, a literal swallowing of her own soul, but it was more akin to warm hope flooding her chest. A pins and needles kind of feeling she got sometimes while looking at something beautiful, like a sunset over an ocean.”
“Entertainment was a field forever turning its great wheel, leaving its artists behind unless they were lucky enough or skilled enough to change with the times…As she passed the various acts, Mabel lamented this great loss, the performances lost to time, and the ever-fickle audience needs.”
“Your heart and passion was what made you shine, Mabel. Don’t ever dim that let or let it go out. That’s the light of artistic inspiration…”
What I Wanted More Of
- I would have loved to see a little more depth in the other characters in Below the Grand Hotel.
- Although there were lovely metaphors, I would have loved more universal “zinger” kind of statements that resonate when you’re done reading.
- Perhaps a tad bit more emotional depth for Mabel. She was young, but sometimes came across very teen or young adult.
- While horror drives the plot, there was potential to explore more romantic liaisons and up the emotional stakes as a counterpoint to the horror.
- I could go for a more glamorous cover that draws me into the character with a Mabel-like character on the cover.
- More time in the speakeasy or jazzy era jive. Loved that scene and wanted more.
Overall
My Below the Grand Hotel: Vintage Book Review is just in time for spooky season and I was fully absorbed by Below the Grand Hotel. Cat Scully weaves a feast of glamour and gore, spinning the jazz‑age dream into a violent nightmare. It’s a jazzy, uncanny ride of a Faustian horror riff on 1920s ambition, with a heroine whose grit anchors the blood‑soaked fantasy with some nice original concepts for the demons! This novel is for anyone hungry for atmospheric, darkly imaginative fiction about the cost of dreams and willing to walk through hell to get them. With the exception of the gore, it reads very YA and would be appropriate for most high-schoolers. If you like this, check out The Flapper Affair and Ghostoria: Vintage Romantic Tales of Fright! I also have more spooky season book reviews.
Vintage Enthusiast Rating
Fashion: ♥♥♥♥♥
Music: ♥♥♥
Dance: ♥♥♥♥♥
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Do you enjoy atmospheric horror set in bygone eras? How do you feel about protagonists walking moral gray areas to chase their dreams? Does the idea of a Faustian bargain in the world of glam intrigue you? What did you think of the elements I touched on in my Below the Grand Hotel: Vintage Book Review? What are you reading this spooky season, we’re always looking for historical fiction horror here.
Tam Francis is a writer, blogger, swing dance teacher, avid vintage collector, and seamstress. She shares her love of this genre through her novels, blog, and short stories. She enjoys hearing from you, sharing ideas, forging friendships, and exchanging guest blogs. For all the Girl in the Jitterbug Dress news, give-aways, events, and excitement, make sure to join her list and like her FB page! Join my list ~ Facebook page
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