The Vacation

Wow! What a wonderfully crafted story with amazing connections of all the storylines and characters in this novel. Great twists from a truly gifted writer.

A Vacation You Won’t Forget—No Matter How Hard You Try!The Vacation is another twisty, binge-worthy thriller from John Marrs. Set in a tropical hostel filled with strangers running from their pasts, this story unravels through multiple perspectives—each more unreliable than the last. Marrs does a fantastic job of building suspense while slowly revealing each character’s secrets.The pace never really lets up, and I found myself flying through chapters just to see what would happen next. Some twists were a bit far-fetched, but honestly, they only added to the drama. This book is full of tension, morally gray characters, and a few jaw-dropping surprises.Perfect for fans of fast-paced, character-driven thrillers. Just don’t expect a relaxing holiday…

It came bent :(

As an avid reader, nothing makes me happier than discovering a new author. This is my second Marrs book and I'm SO excited knowing that i have a pile of his books to lose myself in.The Vacation was a fun, fast read. I cared about the characters, even the few that I didn't care for when they were first introduced in the book. I won't give anything away other than to say by the end of the book you'll know what happens to each person.Can't wait to dive into my third Marrs book!

My first thought when I started reading was that it is a good thing my reservation at a Venice Beach hostel fell through back in 2009—I really dodged a bullet!John Marrs can do no wrong. As each character was introduced, I worried about keeping track of them all, but it was surprisingly easy. Each has a unique backstory and distinct personality, making it simple to separate them. I loved the multiple plot lines, which kept me glued to the pages as I mapped out my theories—boy, was I off! Most characters were connected in more than one way, and the obvious connections were not (always) relevant to the plot.As we learn about the characters in the present day, we also get glimpses into their pasts. The character development was so well done that even someone I should have disliked, evoked my empathy, given their tragic backstory. John Marrs elicited a range of emotions, from laugh-out-loud moments to deeply sad and tragic scenes. Though the story tied up nicely in the end, it felt like it could have gone on a while longer.

I normally get the kindle version of a book, along with the audiobook so that I can listen at work, and read at night. That was almost impossible to do with this book because the audiobook and the kindle book were different from one another, which was very frustrating. Given the fact that I was already invested, I ended up still trying to do both because I was curious about the differences, so I feel like I actually read this book twice.This book is a re-release of Welcome to Wherever You Are and I wondered if the audiobook was that version, not updated and the kindle book is the updated version. There were major differences between the two, so I would recommend picking 1 version and sticking to it. There were chapters that were in the audiobook that weren't in the kindle book and vice versa. A lot of character names were different between the two, which was really odd. One version gives you something that happened to Ron, that didn't happen in the other version. One version gives you a different update to Nicole in the epilogue that the other version didn't give. Again, I find this frustrating and odd.Aside from the frustrations with the differences between the audiobook and the kindle book, this was a good story. There were a ton of characters to keep track of and what felt like way too many storylines going on, but John Marrs amazingly weaved them all together in ways that I didn't expect. There were many characters that I just didn't like, and many characters that I grew to love and care for. Because of all the different characters and storylines, it took about 50% of the way through before I found this book to really grab me and become unputdownable...but the second half of the book was so good! I know this is one of Marrs' earlier novels, but he's done it again for me. I haven't met a Marrs book I haven't enjoyed yet!

I enjoyed it. Not going to be the best book you ever read, but it kept me engaged, and was a great summer read. Definitely recommend it.

Okay so does this author do his research?I am on p. 47. He writes about a nurse in current times shuffling patient clipboards on the hospital desk. I’m pretty sure most hospitals have electronic records today. And he writes the nurse is ordered by her charge nurse to cover a wound on her cheek. So the nurse pulls out foundation, which she powders with. Isn’t foundation a liquid?