Welcome to the third day of our book club readalong for OwlCrate's April book, Hotel Magnifique!
Just a reminder that this will be a SPOILER discussion for Chapters 11-16 of Hotel Magnifique, so make sure you read are finished this section before continuing.
Discussion questions are listed below, and anyone who participates in the comments will be entered to win a free OwlCrate box! Don't forget, you can also post about the readalong on Instagram with the hashtag #OCHotelMagnifique for another chance to win!
The story continues...
Chapter 11:
Béatrice brings Jani to the map room, where she leaves her with Bel. Inside there is another portrait of the woman in the intaglios, but Bel doesn’t know who she is. He explains to Jani that the atlas he uses to move the hotel also contains hints at where lost artéfacts may be, and the hotel moves to new locations in order to find them. Artéfacts can hold suminaire magic, which helps keep magic safe. Alastair wants to find all the remaining artéfacts, but Bel has reservations about his intentions. He also explains that the contract for staff is opposite of that for guests - when staff sign they forget everything about outside of the hotel, and are not permitted to leave. Thinking of her sister, Jani goes in search of Zosa, and finds her performing in the salon, beautifully. Only at the end of the performance Des Rêves appears and using an artéfact turns Zosa into a small songbird, placing her in a cage.
Chapter 12:
The cage has disappeared and when Jani asks Des Rêves where it is she says she doesn’t know. Jani flees down the corridor behind the stage, stopping in front of an open door where she sees Red prone on a table, Yrsa over her, using her skills to remove and transform one of Red’s eyes into glass. Running, Jani finds herself in a room with an unlocked door, but to her dismay it is Alastair’s office. In his ledger Alastair finds her contract and amends it as he needs to demote her for snooping around. He adds “With this demotion, you will forget everything. Forget your home. Forget your position. Forget your friends. Forget your sister. Forget your name.
Chapter 13:
It’s weeks later, and Jani, now called Mol, has been reassigned to work in the kitchens. Only problem is, the ink that Alastair used for her contract for some reason didn’t work, and Jani remembers everything. For some reason Béatrice has been coming to check on her often, which Jani appreciates. Béatrice takes Jani to help her stuff satchels of lavender for a guest, where they run into Yrsa outside of a magical freezer. Only Yrsa and Chef are allowed inside.
Later Jani and a new kitchen staff member are doing room service for the guests, and after dropping off the last request in the library she decides to take a book to read, only to be caught by Hellas. For some reason he doesn’t report her, and he also seems to remember her, which is odd considering there are hundreds of kitchen staff. Meeting up with the other staff member in the lobby, Jani notices a note, and pockets it before anyone notices. She asks the other staff member to return the trolley to the kitchen and tearing open the note it reads “meet me on six.”
Chapter 14:
Five weeks ago, the morning after the events in Alastair’s office, Bel came to Jani’s door, shocked to find that she still remembered him. He gave her a lesson in pretending to be someone she is not.
Every five days since Jani and Bel have met, for him to confirm that the contract still wasn’t working on her, and for Bel to report anything he knows about Zosa, though he refuses to try to get her a key to the aviary.
Chapter 15:
It is announced that the hotel will visit Skaadi, a country that currently forbids it from entering, and being allowed outside, the staff of the hotel bring gifts and coin to bribe the ambassador. It is agreed that the hotel will be allowed to visit the capital of Skaadi in the new year. Jani recalls looking at the shape of the capital on an old map, and thinks she remembers somewhere she has seen the shape recently. In the bustle of all the workers returning to the hotel Jani slips away.
Chapter 16:
Inside Jani heads to the map room and flips to the page she and Bel were looking at before. The capital of Skaadi, Alpenheim, was teeming with lost artéfacts. Jani notices an old book wedged by the wall, and discovers it seems to be a guide to a lost secret society that protected suminaires, and it becomes evident that their previous headquarters was what is now the hotel. In the back of the book Jani finds portraits of people, one of which seems to be the same lady in the intaglios, but in this one she is holding the same artéfact that Alistair has.
Questions:
- What do you think the signet ring does?
- Why do you think the amendment to Jani’s contract didn’t work?
- Why do you think Hellas seems to remember Jani?
- What do you think Alastair plans to do with all the artéfacts he is collecting?
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