PRE-READING
A hotel in Purgatory where ghosts have to complete seven trials before they can find out whether they're going upstairs or downstairs?
Yes, please.
Also, there is a cat.
I have not read a word yet and I am already emotionally invested in the cat.
POST-READING
I really like the idea behind The Purgatory Hotel for Wayward Ghosts. The hotel itself is probably my favourite part of the book: seven floors, seven sins, ghosts passing through on their way to whatever comes next, and a whole system of lifts, rooms, staff and rules holding the place together.
There are lots of little details that make the hotel feel as though someone has actually thought about how this bizarre afterlife would function. It's not just "a haunted hotel" with a Purgatory label slapped on it; there is a whole structure to the place, and I enjoyed discovering how it worked.
The story is also quietly interested in the idea that the limits we put on ourselves aren't necessarily real.
Several of the characters have very fixed ideas about what is possible, what they are capable of and what the rules of their existence allow. Part of their journey is learning to trust themselves, question those assumptions and, perhaps most importantly, be willing to change their thinking when they're presented with something they genuinely hadn't considered before.
I liked that message. It could easily have become a rather heavy-handed "believe in yourself!" lesson, but the Purgatory setting gives it an interesting twist. These are literally people who are being asked to reconsider who they were and what they might become.
My one slight reservation is that the story occasionally edges towards feeling a little too low-stakes for a book set in Purgatory.
Which is a ridiculous sentence when you stop and think about it.
The characters are, after all, dealing with their eternal resting place. Heaven or Hell is theoretically on the other side of these trials. But the felt stakes are sometimes softer than the premise suggests, and I occasionally wanted the danger to bite a little harder.
That didn't stop me enjoying it, though, because the book's strengths are very much in the cosy territory. I liked the rag-tag group of characters coming together, the hotel itself is wonderfully imaginative, and there's something inherently appealing about a group of dead people trying to work out why their supernatural workplace is malfunctioning.
And then there is the cat.
Obviously.
There is also Lucy, who is in Purgatory, smells slightly of sulphur and occasionally has scales.
Nobody made the obvious connection.
I spent an increasingly significant portion of the book waiting for somebody to look at her and go, "Hang on a minute..."
Perhaps Purgatory has simply decided that the obvious answer is too obvious.
Overall, this is a warm and imaginative cosy fantasy with just enough darkness around the edges to keep it interesting. I liked its messages about trusting yourself and being prepared to reconsider what you believe is possible, and I particularly enjoyed the thought that has gone into the hotel itself.
It's perhaps a little gentler than I would usually prefer, but between the clever setting, the characters, the cat and the occasional hint that perhaps the afterlife is not quite behaving as it should, there was plenty here to enjoy.
RECOMMENDATIONS
If you like cosy fantasy with unusual settings, found-family dynamics and a healthy dose of the supernatural, this should appeal.
I'd particularly recommend it to readers who enjoy the idea of bureaucratic afterlives—people trying to navigate a strange system with rules nobody completely understands.
And if your response to "there's a cat" is anything like mine, resistance is probably futile.
MUSIC PAIRING
“A Forest” — The Cure
A little eerie, a little dreamlike and just unsettling enough to make you wonder whether that corridor was always quite that long.
VIBE CHECK
Colour palette: warm amber, faded green, smoky grey and the occasional flash of something much darker.
Soundtrack: low conversation from the hotel lobby, the soft hum of an old lift, footsteps disappearing around a corner.
And then—
A whisper.
You turn around.
Nothing.
Season: autumn, when the evenings arrive early and the light through the windows feels slightly strange.
Mood: cosy, curious and just a little bit wrong.
Scent: old wood, dust, tea and something faintly sulphurous that you decide not to investigate.
Texture: worn carpet, velvet upholstery, cool brass and the very soft fur of a cat who has decided that you are now furniture.
The hotel is warm and welcoming.
Mostly.
TAROT CARD PULLED
The Fool
The Fool feels like a good fit for a story about learning that the boundaries you've accepted might not actually be boundaries at all.
The characters begin with assumptions about who they are, what they deserve and what the rules of Purgatory allow them to do. But as they encounter things they didn't believe were possible, they have to decide whether to cling to what they already know or take the rather frightening step of believing something new.
The Fool isn't about knowing exactly where you're going.
Sometimes it's about being willing to take the next step anyway.
THE TRUE QUESTION
What if the thing you think is impossible is only impossible because you've never tried to imagine it?
The Purgatory Hotel for Wayward Ghosts publishes on the 8th of October, 2026. I received a free copy and am giving an honest review.
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