Abandoned: Arrivals and Awakenings

A Lively Deadmarsh Novel (Lively Deadmarsh Novel Series, Book 1)

By: Katie Berry

Narrated by: Alex Knox

On December 31, 1981, high atop a snowy mountain peak in the rugged interior of British Columbia, Canada, 98 beautiful people eat, drink, laugh, and dance inside the opulent grand ballroom of the Sinclair Resort Hotel.

The clock strikes 12, a cheer goes up, and the music swells; balloons drop and streamers swirl.

Then blackness....

Fifteen seconds later, the power returns and every living soul inside the ballroom has vanished, never to be seen again.

Now, 40 years later, preternatural investigator Lively Deadmarsh and his psychic twin sister, Minerva, have been brought in to solve this decades-old mystery once and for all.

Should they fail, they may become part of it, forever.

©2021 Katie Berry (P)2021 Tantor

So far so good....

This is a story in 4 parts, not 1 book and it's sequel(s) and if I have a complaint it's that I didn't know that going in, I had already bought 1&2 before realizing there were two more as yet unpublished volumes.
But being halfway through the story I am enjoying it. Katie's Deadmarsh Twins are enjoyable both in character and in the number of literary, pop culture, and music references they make. The mystery is intriguing, and loaded with a number of theories about quantum physics and the nature of the universe(s) but also feature some good old-fashioned spookiness. But if this book interests you my recommendation would be to wait until all 4 parts are published and take it all in one fell swoop.

Too short….

This book just stopped in the middle of the story. Most books in a series have closure for the current story but leave enough suspense to make you question if there’s more coming. And you can pick any book in the series, and they are a story-still connected-but you don’t have to purchase all the books in the series to know what’s going on. This book is an epic failure in that respect. It’s the bait-and-switch here. If you enjoyed the FREE beginning (which I did), you’re more likely to purchase the rest of the books. But likely not for me. These books are too short to spend a credit on!!

boring

This book sounded so good and had had so much promise.. But it was boring.. The narrator sounds like he could be an AI because he was so boring.. I've got nothing better to say about it. The interesting stuff didn't even happen till the last quarter maybe less.. Then it continues in the next book.. I was tempted to listen to the next one because things finally got interesting but I can't listen to this narrator anymore..

Only part of the story

Lively enough, but more like young adult fiction. Characters are just so so, but plot was better. Only part of the story so left me hanging.

This is leading...somewhere?

This book sets up a story with some weird and interesting things but is not a stand-alone novel. The main characters are a bit odd and appear filled out yet the story doesn't do much to tell you who they are. The narration was good and the story was interesting but the dialogue... I get it, not everyone is good at dialogue and it wasn't all terrible but the banter between the two siblings was cringe-inducing. I'm eager to continue this series and see where the weirdness goes!

Not terrible

Like others have said, the story just cuts off so that you’re forced to get the next ‘book’ in the series which is such a money grab and annoying. It’s one thing to have an overarching story across the books to conclude at the end but each book resolves some small part, but this one doesn’t.

Lively and Minerva have weirdly flirtatious dialogue for a brother and sister. Why does Minerva admire her brothers physique?? Gross.

Several mentions of Lively and his time in SECIS(sp?) and being an interrogator but there’s no explanation of what that is or why he left to be a ghost hunter. No explanation of why he’s been so obsessed with the Sinclair Hotel since childhood. He just conveniently has been and has gathered a book of information about it.

They are so blasé about the weird things happening in the hotel that there’s no build to suspense, no thrill. Still an interesting story but yea, as of yet, still too many unanswered questions for a book, or should I say novella. I’ll probably get the rest and kick myself for wasting credits on such short books because I have a feeling this should have been one large novel or two smaller ones.

Narrator is good. Not the best I’ve heard but far from the worst. He doesn’t really have different voices for each character but there’s enough change in tone and inflection that they don’t all run together and he’s not monotonous.

Book 1 Great! Moves along well.

A little too much description that gets repetitive. But still a really good book for the first book.

Don’t like

I feel this story would have been better served starting at the beginning of this hotel being built and following through the early stories. I patiently listened to the story and did engage with the characters, mostly the Canadian policeman but going back and forth made the book choppy. The ending was no ending at all. I knew there were subsequent books that carried this story on but the way this one ended wasn’t even a cliffhanger and it didn’t finish anything at all. It was a void so I will not be buying the other two books because I am getting the feeling this story could have been written in two books and not three.

Too much going on

The arrogance of Lively and the constant flippant remarks and pop culture references get old, fast. The book is very disjointed as the author gets sidetracked multiple times, diverging from the main story to tell the tale of a character from the 60s in addition to the cop in the 80s and the brother/sister investigation in 2021. Book one ends abruptly and doesn't resolve the mystery. In addition, the description that the two are in mortal danger is untrue. They can leave any time they want and, in fact, appear to be welcomed by the hotel.

Odd

The dialogue between siblings borderlines on incestuous, the whole premise is that they are hired because they know the supernatural is involved and yet they are looking for a logical explanation.
No interest in purchasing the next installment.