In a classic example of me seeing someone else’s review, thinking, “I’m sure I won’t feel that way about this book,” and then feeling that way after all: this book contains too much information about other people and not enough information about the hotel that it is suppose to be about. It’s quite readable, but you should know going in that you’re going to learn a lot more about American culture, Sylvia Plath, and Mademoiselle magazine than The Barbazon. 

Overall, I enjoyed it, but it meandered a lot. It’s clear that Bren decided to pad the work to make it novel length, instead of accepting that this could have been a short book. She also takes some serious digs at Sylvia Plath and doesn’t really seem to empathize with her subjects, particularly if they ever told a slightly mean joke.