So this is going to be a short review for a very short book! When I saw this up to be requested on NetGalley, I knew that I had to request it. I love a good middle grade horror novel and I was interested in the fact that the author was writing a short story set in each state of America.

Jayla Walters isn’t sure what to expect when her father’s job uproots her and her brother, Dion, to Estes Park, Colorado. But right away, something doesn’t seem right with their hotel. Jayla soon discovers that their home for the week, room 217 of the Stanley Hotel, is the most haunted place in all of Colorado. Barely asleep the first night, Jayla watches a ghostly woman walk toward her bed. And the ghost visits her room every night. What does the ghost want? And what happens when Jayla and Dion get in her way?

What Troupe does is he takes a real haunted setting in each state of America, and writes a short story based on that setting. So for example, Trapped in Room 217 is set in The Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, Colorado – which is an actual haunted hotel where real ghosthunters and paranormal experts visit. This setting – after doing a little bit of research – was also the inspiration for Stephen King when he was writing The Shining which I think is awesome, and King also stayed in room 217! (Also, I looked on their booking page and it’s only £140 a night which is VERY VERY tempting!)

Anyway, onto the actual story! This took me about half an hour to read (it’s only 136 pages, although I do wish that it was a little bit longer) and it was fun and very spooky When it comes to watching horror/thriller films, I don’t. I’m a massive wuss and I scare very easily when it comes to films and TV shows, but not books. It takes A LOT for a book to scare me. I think that the most terrifying scene in this story was when the children go down a tunnel and their phone battery just randomly dies and then they hear children laughing. Nope. Just no. Anything with children laughing and I’m gone.

Of course, this series IS a MIDDLE-GRADE series, so Troupe had to limit the amount of scare that he put into it. I’ve seen a few reviews saying that it could have been may scarier. Yeah, it could have been, but then it wouldn’t be middle-grade.. it would be YA or adult. Troupe’s audience is middle-grade children, so that he can educate them about the hauntings of America, but also get them into reading thriller/horror novels when they’re older, and I think this is such a brilliant way to do that.

I really liked the characters in this story as well. Jayla was a caring older sister who loved her younger brother, Dion (who also packed his suitcase full of books because he didn’t think that he needed any clothes, so now he’s my favourite character in the world), and the Dad – even though he left them for long periods of time so that he could work – was really supportive and you could tell that he loved his kids more than anything in the world.

One of the negatives that I have about this book though is the formatting of the e-book that I received from NetGalley. There were supposed to be illustrations by Maggie Ivy dotted around, but unfortunately, they weren’t included in the e-book, so there were just random white gaps where the illustrations would have been. It’s such a shame though, because I would have loved to see the drawing accompanying the story.

Again, I know this story is middle-grade, so there has to be an element of a happy-ending (?), but I do wish that the latter half of the story was a little bit more spooky like the first half. But the story did wrap up in a happy, neat bow which I guess is very attractive to a much younger audience.

Overall, this was a very enjoyable story and I am very very interested in reading the rest of the series!

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