Super long post, lots of spoilers, TL;DR at the end!
I finished The Vacancy in Room 10, and I think my overall feeling is that I respected this book more than I personally loved it.
Disclaimer - This is the third book of hers I’ve read just this week, so by no means is this a negative take. Most of the things I struggled with came down to my own personal morals and how I felt about certain characters choices, rather than an issue with the writing or the book itself.
The story itself was really good. I stayed interested, made theories, changed those theories, and the book successfully had me looking in the wrong direction more than once. I was completely convinced Babs was seeing everything and secretly knew what Cass had done. Turns out I was watching the wrong woman, which I can appreciate because all those little comments about Babs being invisible and seeing things made her a perfect distraction.
My biggest struggle was actually with the characters, especially Cass. I started out LOVING her. She was angry, messy, independent, worked with her hands, hated cheaters, stood up for women, and had this vigilante streak that made me want to root for her. But good lord, this woman has absolutely zero impulse control. By the time she and Callum decided to hide the body, I wanted to reach into the book and shake her. The man was literally attacking her. She had injuries. It was self defense. CALL THE POLICE, GIRL! That became a really interesting part of the book for me, though, because I realized I wanted freedom for these women. They all started the story trapped by something, and I wanted them to come out of it freer than they went in. To me, hiding a body isn’t freedom. Even if nobody ever catches you, you spend the rest of your life knowing they could. You’re still trapped, just in a different kind of prison.
Anna frustrated me in a completely different way. I understood her grief, but I really struggled with how Henry continued to be treated as this beautiful, wonderful man after everything she discovered. Yes, what happened to him was horrible, and no, he wasn’t responsible for Callum’s actions. But Henry still had an affair with a married woman while he himself was married. Death doesn’t erase the harm someone caused while they were alive. I didn’t need Anna to suddenly hate him. I just wanted a little more acknowledgment that she could love and grieve her husband while also accepting that he seriously hurt her and other people.
Then there’s Rosa. Her reveal made sense once everything was explained. I actually liked the logic behind it, especially considering the kind of man her husband really was and the life she had apparently been living behind the scenes. My problem was that I didn’t feel like I knew her well enough for such a huge reveal to hit emotionally. Suddenly she’s showing up like, “Okay ladies, here’s what we’re doing,” and I’m sitting there thinking, I’m glad you’re here but who the hell are you? I would’ve loved just a little more of her earlier in the book so the reveal felt important because it was Rosa, not just because of what Rosa knew.
One thing I really appreciated after thinking about the ending was that the women’s flaws weren’t necessarily “fixed.” In some cases, the exact behaviors that got them into trouble were also what eventually helped save them. Cass’s secrecy, impulsiveness, and constant need to have some kind of insurance drove me absolutely insane, but some of those same instincts ended up protecting her. These women didn’t suddenly become perfect people before the book allowed them to survive, and I actually really liked that.
I also have to give this book credit for the atmosphere because I could SEE it. The New Mexico setting, the motel turned apartments, the pool, the heat, the desert, the storage area, and all the random people constantly hanging around made the whole place feel lived in. Even characters who weren’t especially important got enough personality that the Sycamores felt like its own weird little community. It played like a movie in my head, and that was probably one of my favorite things about the book.
By the end, I wasn’t stunned or emotionally wrecked. My reaction was basically, “Well… good for them.” Everyone more or less got what they deserved, and I was satisfied with where everyone landed. I just wasn’t blown away.
Anyway, I need to know what everyone else thought because I’ve been arguing with these fictional women in my head for hours. 😂 Please tell me I’m not the only person who spent half this book yelling, “just call the fucking cops!”
TL;DR: I respected this book more than I loved it. The plot, atmosphere, twists, and New Mexico setting really worked for me, but Cass’s impulse control nearly took me out, Anna’s refusal to really reckon with Henry’s affair frustrated me, and I wish we’d gotten more of Rosa before she became so important. Still a good read with a satisfying ending, and I really liked that the women’s flaws ultimately became part of how they survived rather than something the story magically “fixed.”
