Jonathan Dunne Hotel Miramar Quotes

“People aren’t scared of being alone in the dark, boy. They're scared of not being alone in the dark.”
― Jonathan Dunne, Hotel Miramar

“In the beginning, we are all strangers.”
― Jonathan Dunne, Hotel Miramar

“The sea spits back what doesn’t belong to her.”
― Jonathan Dunne, Hotel Miramar

“It’s a freak-of-nature reserve.”
― Jonathan Dunne, Hotel Miramar

“The 14-year-old could see her standing by the table she used as a stand, an old armchair propped up on it, and the face of concentration on his mother as she tucked her hair behind the ear that was now a part of this island, out there tonight, feeding the ants and other carnivorous creepy-crawlies. Little by little, they were all becoming part of the island, they were the flies and Crab was the spider, chomp, chomp!”
― Jonathan Dunne, Hotel Miramar

“The Halifaxes weren’t a superstitious couple — they were the kind of couple that caused superstition.”
― Jonathan Dunne, Hotel Miramar

“We are the strong arms of the Armstrongs, and we will defeat.”
― Jonathan Dunne, Hotel Miramar

“Afraid to go outside but more afraid of what might come inside, the Armstrongs stayed holed up in room 1401, skipping a buffet breakfast of salted frog’s legs and yellow-belly salamanders.”
― Jonathan Dunne, Hotel Miramar

“Guests,’ the voice boomed, ‘time to go walkies.”
― Jonathan Dunne, Hotel Miramar

“Ghosting the ghosts.”
― Jonathan Dunne, Hotel Miramar

“But evil hides amongst us.”
― Jonathan Dunne, Hotel Miramar

“The rhythmic whooshing of the waves fizzled away, and all he could hear were the seagulls and their incessant Ha-Ha-Ha-Ha mocking laughter. Dan's feathered friends stared down at him with their condemning eyes from their clifftop reverie. Ha-Ha-Ha-Ha the gulls squawked wicked mirth at him, the hapless jester, while the seabirds screamed and pointed their wings at him from their lofty galleries.”
― Jonathan Dunne, Hotel Miramar

“They say a smile is worth a thousand words, but Dan Armstrong was speechless.”
― Jonathan Dunne, Hotel Miramar

“The lonesome boatman was the spider, and they were his flies.”
― Jonathan Dunne, Hotel Miramar

“The world has forgotten them, and they have forgotten the world.”
― Jonathan Dunne, Hotel Miramar

“There’s something very fucked up at Hotel Miramar, and we need to check-out before we check-in.”
― Jonathan Dunne, Hotel Miramar

“Mrs Halifax was a dour and staring malevolent stillness standing in the hallway, right outside their door.”
― Jonathan Dunne, Hotel Miramar

“The rhythmic creak of quiet footsteps came from the other side of the door. Ruth paused before bowing down to peer through the same keyhole her son had looked through. There was nothing in there except an empty room in worse condition than theirs, peeling walls, mould, grime, no bed, no nothing, save for an undeniable draught of melancholy blowing through the keyhole.”
― Jonathan Dunne, Hotel Miramar

“Tentatively, Peter Armstrong levered his fingers into the groove in the section of floorboards that had been fashioned into the secret door and lifted. He shone his flashlight down into the opening to see the ghoulish girls living in the floor, staring up at him. That mental snapshot would stay with the boy indefinitely. It was the strangest of strange notions, but the girls’ malformations and deformities had turned them into twin phantoms of nightmare”
― Jonathan Dunne, Hotel Miramar

“And for a very brief moment, the boy thought he was the audience at a strange black light theatre play, where the daemonic hand puppets come up out of the ground from screaming Hell far below. If they were the hand puppets of brooding horror, then the 14-year-old could only imagine the demon’s hands up inside them, working their innards.”
― Jonathan Dunne, Hotel Miramar

“Little by little, people who come to Crab forget who they are and eventually only recognise themselves as guests at Hotel Miramar. Firstly, their identification goes missing. Then their identity goes missing. People lose their minds here.”
― Jonathan Dunne, Hotel Miramar

“We’re not asking you to love him,’ said Mr Halifax. ‘We’re just asking you to kiss him.”
― Jonathan Dunne, Hotel Miramar

“Crutch’s head weaved as he drunkenly stumbled through his labyrinth of memories, many he preferred to keep towards the middle of the maze where they couldn’t escape, and he couldn’t find them.”
― Jonathan Dunne, Hotel Miramar

“As the boatman slowly got to his feet, Peter found himself thinking about a dream he had where the grand-but-burning Hotel Miramar slid down the hillside and slipped into the Atlantic to a million singeing snake hisses and a last dying puff of white smoke.”
― Jonathan Dunne, Hotel Miramar

“Peter Armstrong would've never guessed that the most difficult thing he would ever have to do in life was to pretend his loving parents hadn’t become loving monsters.”
― Jonathan Dunne, Hotel Miramar

“The last thing the 14-year-old wanted to do now was stay in the room with the two people he had once trusted with his life. Now, he didn’t trust his life with them.”
― Jonathan Dunne, Hotel Miramar

“If the gods were listening, they would bring their thunder.”
― Jonathan Dunne, Hotel Miramar

“The boy shook violently and wailed. It was a relief and a horror to hear the child — a horror to hear his pained screams, but a relief to know he was alive enough to scream.”
― Jonathan Dunne, Hotel Miramar