Book Review: The Vacancy in Room 10 | Seraphina Nova Glass

I absolutely love a psychological thriller about what may be happening behind closed doors in your neighborhood. Take that concept and push them all into a rundown, moody apartment building and you’ve got the context for Seraphina Nova Glass’s newest thriller, The Vacancy in Room 10. This book is an absolute blast to read! A gritty, unexpected, unique summer thriller to binge by the pool.

What is The Vacancy in Room 10 about?

The Sycamores is a rundown motel outside of Santa Fe that was poorly converted into apartments. Nearby neighborhood establishments include a Shell gas station with a sign missing the S, a liquor store, an Arby’s, and Teaser’s Gentleman’s Club. Inside the U-shaped complex live a group of neighbors who all have secrets.

Cass lost everything she had when her longtime partner left her for a younger woman. Now, Cass has moved to the Sycamores where she works as the apartment manager and uses handyman skills passed down from her father to keep the dodgy structure up and running. Cass has plenty of secrets of her own—she’s resorted to some unsavory schemes to make it through paycheck to paycheck. Each time she promises herself it will be the last time, but it never sticks. And then Cass’s desperation puts her in the path of someone dangerous…

Seven months later, a woman named Anna is worried when she hasn’t heard back from her husband Henry. She is just about to head to the art studio he has in one of the rundown units at the Sycamores when her phone rings. Henry is sobbing and apologizing, and then he says something shocking, “I…killed someone.” Hours later Henry’s body is found on the shallow banks of the Rio Grande in what the police believe was a suicide.

Anna is heartbroken and determined to find out what Henry was trying to confess, so she packs up her meager belongings and moves into his art studio at the Sycamores. As Anna looks for clues about the secrets Henry was holding, she realizes Henry wasn’t the only resident of the Sycamores with secrets. She’s certain someone knows more than they’re sharing, but her prying only leads to more problems when she begins receiving threatening letters on her door. What is going on at the Sycamores?

What did I think overall?

In her fourth thriller, Seraphina Nova Glass proves once again that her writing and storytelling has a broad range. The Vacancy in Room 10 has a different vibe than her others. It’s gritty, seedy, dark, and addictive. The cover of the book is a perfect representation of what I imagined when I read about the Sycamores. This is an all-time great setting—it felt as though the people living at the Sycamores existed in a different world than the nearby city of Santa Fe. I could picture everything from the broken Shell sign blaring at them (“HELL”) and the seedy gentleman’s club across the street.

The Sycamores is not a place that people come to with levity and good fortune—this is a place of last resorts. It’s a group of people hanging on to their lives by a thread and living in relative squalor. And yet, as depressing and bleak as the setting is, there’s a sense of humor in the eclectic and delightful cast of characters residing in the rundown structure. They spend their days sitting outside their unit on lawn chairs or sitting with their feet in the old motel pool, gossiping wildly about the other residents. The Sycamores is, if nothing else, a community.

How was the pacing and structure?

Several chapters in and this is one of those books you won’t want to put down. Alternating chapters from Cass and Anna keep the pace moving quickly, and things take their first shocking turn early in the story and don’t stop from there. The reader feels transported to the gritty u-shaped complex where secrets and dead bodies could be lurking anywhere. Cass and Anna are very different characters, and initially their stories don’t have any connection outside of them both being forced into the Sycamore. Eventually, Anna’s and Cass’s stories become intertwined.

As Anna learns more about the secrets Henry was hiding in his studio at the Sycamores, she becomes suspicious of Cass. Cass is everywhere, going in and out of units repairing broken parts and generally knowing everyone’s business. Anna is certain Cass knows a lot more about Henry’s double life than she’s sharing, but what reason could Cass have for keeping it a secret? As Anna is tailing Cass, looking for her to slip up, the reader sees that Cass has much bigger problems than worrying about Anna snooping around.

What can you expect?

There were several different threads that became more tangled as the story unfolds. The first and more obvious was Anna’s search for answers about Henry’s final words to her. Relatively early in the story, the police inform her that they are investigating his death as a homicide, which only adds to the mystery surrounding Henry. Anna discovers some shocking truths that led to more questions. Anna’s story was engaging to me, I wasn’t sure if or how it would tie to everything else, but it was clear that Henry chose this squalid complex for a reason.

Several other things are happening. Cass and Anna both witness a resident named Eddie abusing his wife Rosa. A resident named Callum is grieving the loss of his wife to terminal cancer and gets into a different altercation with Eddie. Several of the residents accompany Cass to a party where her ex, her former friends, and his new girlfriend will be for support and things go awry. Someone winds up dead and it is going to cause problems for the residents of the Sycamore. Despite the darkness in the book, the residents are a breath of fresh air (except Eddie). They offer moments of levity, and bits of gossip and information. In a place like the Sycamores, someone is always watching.

Final thoughts

This is a complex, layered, gritty story that takes twists and turns at every corner. The alternating POV kept the pace moving quickly, and there is an ominous feel as Anna and Cass’s stories begin to overlap. The twists caught me by surprise and the ending was a heart-pounding stunner. An exciting and fresh story with a cinematic quality to it, you won’t soon forget the Sycamores or it’s residents.

Thank you to Graydon House for my copy. Opinions are my own.

If you liked The Vacancy in Room 10, what should you read next?

About the Book

The Most Anticipated 2024 Book Releases by Nerd Daily

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When Anna Hartley’s husband, Henry, calls her with a terrible, guilty confession, she can’t believe what she hears. It has to be a bad joke—the mild, predictable artist she married would never hurt a fly, let alone commit murder. But her confusion turns to horror when police find his body washed up on the banks of the Rio Grande.

Desperate for answers to the millions of questions his untimely death has raised, Anna checks in to The Sycamores, the run-down motel turned apartment Henry rented as an art studio. As she absorbs every bit of gossip the eclectic mix of residents are willing to share about her husband and each other, she begins to piece together a picture of a very different man than the one she married, and the life he led behind her back. The more she learns, and the less sense things seem to make, she finds herself wondering: Did she ever really know Henry at all?

But Henry’s secrets aren’t the only ones; as Anna’s search for clues expands, Cass, the mysterious, jaded motel manager, seems more and more determined to keep Anna in the dark. And when threatening letters start appearing at her door, Anna has to decide what’s more important—the truth, or her own safety.