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This genre-bleeding romp of a novel is at once sassy, witty, wise, and at times either hilarious or intensely painful. Paranormal investigator Olivia Becente—along with her motley crew of ghost-fighting friends (reminiscent of the Chilling Adventures of Sabrina or the CW’s Nancy Drew in the best way!)—must uncover the truth of her sister Naiche's suicide at the Brown Palace hotel before her mother follows the same terrible fate.

Erika T. Wurth braids historical hauntings with personal grief and regret to create a tonally complex and deeply resonant haunted mystery. Here, the city of Denver drips with raw, aching history in this richly-cast world of dark academia atmosphere, haunted objects, ornate decor, Lynchian escape rooms and portals, and gray "interstitial space" between worlds that all serve as potent metaphors for where story lives and what happens when it's brutally suppressed.

Thematically rich, THE HAUNTING OF ROOM 904 offers a trenchant examination of Native fetishism and whether colonial darkness can ever be righted. And, ultimately, the importance of song and ceremony shine through and had me crying and cheering with Olivia as she strives to expel ancestral and familial trauma or lose everything trying. Don’t miss this one.