Hotel Angeline: A Novel in 36 Voices

Written by 36 different authors, it is not, as you may be thinking, a collection of short stories but a surprisingly coherent novel written live on stage!Yes you read that right. Hotel Angeline: A Novel In 36 Voices is the product of The Novel: Live! Each writer wrote a chapter in two hours and the whole novel was completed in just six days! Now I'll forgive you for thinking, that's great entertainment but surely the book is a bit hit and miss? No, no, no. It turned out a wonderful story about a [...]

Whether you like this book or not might just depend on why you are reading it. If you are curious about a novel written by 36 different authors in 6 days this is for you. It is quite an amazing feat and in many aspects quite impressive. The writing, as expected, is quite impressive. I was most impressed with the fact that the characters were the same throughout the work. I didn't feel as if I was reading 36 versions of each character. Alexis (isn't that such a wonderful name), the main character [...]

Unfortunately, my favorite part of this potentially fascinating novel was the forward and introduction. A fascinating mix of performance art and literary experiment, this novel was born out of a brainstorm to raise awareness about Seattle's literary scene. A basic outline was created and the authors given free reign to interpret and move the story along as they saw fit. Totally neat and super exciting.From the start, I didn't connect with the story or characters. Alexis is an interesting enough [...]

I found this randomly in the library, and truth be told I wasn't expecting to like it very much but how could I resist seeing how in the world 36 different people write one novel?I actually enjoyed this way more than I thought I was going to. Some chapters are better than others, of course. Some chapters seamlessly fade into each other while some jar you with the remembrance that "Oh yes, this is not the same author."One reason I was drawn to this book was the word "hotel" in the title. (And tha [...]

Hotel Angeline: A Novel in 36 Voices is unique in that it is one complete novel written by 36 distinct authors. Each chapter represents the work of one author. The novel was originally written in front of a live audience during an event was called The Novel: Live!. You can read more about the original concept here. Given the parameters of the original event, the outcome is pretty incredible.Hotel Angeline centers around fourteen-year-old Alexis Austin, who lives in a former mortuary turned hotel [...]

The idea behind Hotel Angeline: A Novel in 36 Voices, brainchild of Garth Stein and Jennie Shortridge of Seattle7Writers, is as fascinating as the book promises to be: a cadre of 36 well-known writers gathering in Seattle in October of 2010 to write a complete novel in six days. Before a live audience. Each writer completing one chapter in two hours.How cool is that?As an experiment in literary creation, the book accomplishes three very ambitious goals: first, the rendering of a (mostly) cohesiv [...]

Intrigued by the story of its creation, I chose to read and review Hotel Angeline because of the subtitle. A Novel in 36 Voices says it all.Jenny Shortridge and Garth Stein were asked to help brainstorm ideas for the literary week of ArtsCrush, the Seattle month-long arts festival. The cofounders of non-profit Seattle7Writers wracked their brains until Stein had a novel idea: A writing marathon.Over six days in October 2010, twelve hours a day, thirty-six writers took a turn. For 2 hours - on [...]

Full review at: Over A Cuppa TeaWhen I requested this book for review in Netgalley, I am not quite sure what to expect, considering that it’s one story written by 36 authors live. Yes… it’s just one story…not a collection of story. I was rather skeptic a with the end result even before I began reading.I wondered if it will even have coherence, but much to my surprised, it’s not only decipherable, but the story is amazingly well written and I’m pleased to say it’s one of the best no [...]

I think that this book would appeal to someone who reads Y A books. It was quirky but also depressing. Sort of an Oprah type book for teens.

Mixed feelingThe concept behind this book fascinated me and being a resident in the Seattle area for over a decade made me very interested in reading it. The story was slow to start and I almost gave up after a while. Reading this was like reading a train wreck in slow motion so I am not sure I really liked the story line. However, given it was written by 36 different people, it was surprisingly coherent.

Coming of age. This was the most interesting book in years. The eclectic and creative genius of each writer chapter by chapter made this book unique and enjoyable. What a brilliant idea to use stand-up comedy improve and transfer it to a story well worth ready. It changed my view on young street kids of Seattle. Alexis is a heroine in her growth their tragedy, loss of family and awakening. Brilliant does not do this book justice. Thank you. JM

Fun read. Great continuity. You could tell the different author's styles. Some I liked more than others, but on the whole this book was well worth reading. The characters were interesting, but some of the situations were somewhat far fetched.

Interesting concept. The story was okay.

Despite a few slow spots, this book is interesting because it is one cohesive story written by 36 different contemporary authors. Be sure to read the foreword!

2017 Reading Challenge: A book with multiple authors.

I think that it's pretty safe to say that there's never been a novel like Hotel Angeline before. It was written by 36 authors (each writing for two hours) over the course of six days in October 2010. The Novel: Live! made novel-writing a performance art.The plot, which was outlined before The Novel: Live! event is centered around 14-year-old Alexis Austin and the eccentric-full mortuary-turned-residential hotel run by her mother.My favorite line was written by Jarret Middleton. He has Alexis say [...]

Alexis Austin is taking care of the tenants of the Hotel Angeline in her mother's absence, an absence that Alexis doesn't want anybody to figure out just quite yet. The tenants of the Hotel are a great big mixed eclectic bag of eccentrics who rely maybe a little too heavily on Alexis (and before her, her mother) but who make up the only family that Alexis has ever known. Alexis is too young to have all this responsibility (she's only a teenager, after all), but to her, the alternative is grim to [...]

For six days last October, 36 writers took turns writing a novel, live on stage, during an event organized by the Seattle7Writers called "The Novel: Live!" ~ you can see the list of authors on The Novel: Live! website. Each author had a two hour time slot during which they were to write the next chapter in an evolving novel. Author Jennie Shortridge wrote the first chapter, and Susan Wiggs wrapped it up six days later. In between, authors came and went, adding their layers to the story. At the e [...]

I am what Nancy Pearl, in the brilliant introduction to Hotel Angelique, calls a Loca-reader. I've always enjoyed reading books written by author who live in or novels set in my hometown. So when given the opportunity to read Hotel Angelique, a novel set in Seattle with 36 chapters, each written by a different Seattle author, I jumped on it.Hotel Angelique, it must be noted, is much more than just a collaborative effort by Seattle's best and brightest authors. The novel was conceived as performa [...]

Thirty-six of the most interesting writers in the Pacific Northwest came together for a week-long marathon of writing live on stage. The result? Hotel Angeline, a truly inventive novel that surprises at every turn of the page.Something is amiss at the Hotel Angeline, a rickety former mortuary perched atop Capitol Hill in rain-soaked Seattle. Fourteen-year-old Alexis Austin is fixing the plumbing, the tea, and all the problems of the world, it seems, in her landlady mother’s absence.The quirky [...]

I would give this novel a five for concept and a three for story--hence the four rating. The concept of the novel is pure genius. As part of The Novel: Live! project, this novel was written in six days, with 36 authors writing for two hours each, for 12 hours a day. Did I mention that each author wrote on stage with an audience and the project was being recorded and beamed out on the Web? There was also a chat room function and the project was used to raise money for a variety of causes. Before [...]

Alot of people have commented on the wild absurdities of the characters and situations our heroine faces in this novel. I could forgive the absurdities, and consider them in a humorous light for two big reasons:1. The conditions of the writing meant that the writers couldn't invest alot of time in researching and exploring the characters emotional development, and had to rely on instinct more than shared emotional experience. Going for (sardonic?) humor had to be a more reliable route than tryin [...]

Whether you like this book or not might just depend on why you are reading it. If you are curious about a novel written by 36 different authors in 6 days this is for you. It is quite an amazing feat and in many aspects quite impressive. The writing, as expected, is quite impressive. I was most impressed with the fact that the characters were the same throughout the work. I didn't feel as if I was reading 36 versions of each character. Alexis (isn't that such a wonderful name), the main character [...]

My initial interest in this book came about through my love of Karen Finneyfrock's poetry, but it grew once I learned that this book was created as a part of The Novel: Live. The project was an attempt to have 36 writers take part in a week-long writing marathon live on stage, in which the story would be passed from writer to writer and result in a complete novel. Hotel Angeline is the result of those efforts. Due to the nature of its creation, there are some holes in the plot here and there and [...]

Similar to the Placebo effect, upon knowing this book is an experiment, you approach it in a different manner than if you had no idea each chapter was written by a different author. As a literary experiment, I thought it was successful. The tone, for the most part, as well as the characters, remained consistent throughout. There were certain chapters I thought were written “better” than others (some were more didactic where others were quite lovely in their prose). Overall though, I found th [...]

Before discussing the book, it's important to mention what "A Novel in 36 Voices" means. As part of a literature week in Seattle in 2010, 36 authors decided to collaborate on a book. Each author wrote a chapter in a few hours before passing the story off. One week later, we had Hotel Angeline, a hectic and (predictably) occasionally disjointed story about a young girl coming of age in Seattle.The characters in Hotel Angeline as piecemeal works of emotion and experience. Each author contributes s [...]

An entertaining story about a young girl (fifteen) whose mother dies leaving her to care for an aging hotel and an equally old set of long term quirky hotel residents. Of course she is much too young for this responsibility but, has inherited a misunderstood sense of loyalty to both the old hotel and the eccentric residents. I was impressed that thirty six authors could put together this entire book in six days working from a coordinating center in Seattle. It was a work of charity for raising a [...]

Death can arrive abruptly and unexpectedly, and it could not come at an inopportune time for Alexis and the family-owned Hotel Angeline. Left to her own devices, how is a 14-year-old supposed to take care of herself and figure out how to prevent anyone from selling the hotel? The answer lies in the hands of 36 authors who tackle the challenge of writing about the same characters and story but still putting their own unique twists and turns.Hotel Angeline reminds me that I still need to read Nake [...]

Thirty-six writers -- mystery writers, romance writers, essayists, young adult and historical fiction writers -- got together for one week in 2010 and wrote, in front of a live audience, a single story. Each one took two hours to write one chapter, adding their voice and their ideas to move the story forward. So if the storyline itself is disjointed in places, and there are plot holes big enough to ride Alexis' stolen pedicab through, and the main characters repeat themselves (when they aren't s [...]

I stumbled across this while trying to read all of Garth Stein's work. It turns out that he only wrote 1 chapter of this book. This novel came about as part of a project by the Seattle7 Writers Group. They recruited 36 local Seattle authors to collaborate on one novel, each crafting a specific chapter, and all of it done live, on the spot, in one week. It's a clever idea, and showcases lots of local talent, but I didn't fall in love with the story. Alexis, the 14-year-old main character, is left [...]