The Hotel Nantucket

“Lizbet is an island sweetheart. She moved to Nantucket in the mid-aughts from the Twin Cities, wearing her blond hair in two long braids like the younger princess in Frozen, and at the start of her first summer on the island, she found a ‘prince’ in JJ O’Malley.”

This description of Lizbet is from the fond perspective of the islanders, using colloquialisms like “sweetheart.” Her resembling a childhood heroine indicates her innocence and naivety on coming to the island from the Midwest, a part of the country that has fewer flashy, wealthy people. The idea of finding a “prince” sets Lizbet up for a happily ever after. However, the quotation marks suggest that JJ is not what he originally seemed.

“It’s a high-concept jewel box, a space painted Farrow and Ball’s Pitch Blue (which falls on the spectrum between sapphire and amethyst) and a blue granite bar. There are domed pendant lights that look like upside-down copper bowls and an accent wall sheathed in bright pennies! There’s also a copper disco ball that will drop from the ceiling every night at nine o’clock.”

This description of The Hotel Nantucket’s Blue Bar establishes it as a unique and exciting place. The spectrum of blues makes it appear otherworldly and celestial, while the complementary hued copper accessories give it a modern, metallic appeal. The daily drop of the disco ball indicates that every evening at the bar will be an event, aiming to be unforgettable. Overall, this description exemplifies the hotel’s ambitions.

“For one hundred years, Grace has been trying to set the record straight: She was murdered!”

The dramatic opening to Chapter 3 demonstrates the ghost Grace’s reason for being unable to rest and for haunting the hotel. The exclamation mark highlights her sense of the injustice that was done to her.

“Her reddish-blond hair is long, tousled, and beachy, yet not a strand is out of place (how is that possible?). She’s wearing white eyeliner and has a tiny crystal pressed under her right eye. (At college, Edie thought eye crystals were trashy, but on Alessandra it looks chic. How is that possible?) Her name tag is upside down, which Edie […] realizes must be intentional—a conversation starter—because Alessandra doesn’t make mistakes.”

Edie studies Alessandra’s carefully-managed appearance, which manages to make virtues out of trends that would normally be unflattering or impossible to pull off. The repetition of “how is that possible?” shows how younger Edie is in awe of Alessandra and imbues her with an aura of magic. However, Edie’s insight that the upside-down name tag is intentional shows that she has some ability to read people and will be good in a customer service job.

“In her century as a ghost, Grace has developed and honed her EQ; her instincts about people are (nearly) always correct. Grace can sense trouble—it feels as though she’s hearing a wrong note in a song or tasting a wine that has gone off.”

Hilderbrand employs sensory imagery to show how Grace’s instincts about people function. However, the similes of hearing wrong notes or tasting sour ones are ironic, given that she is a ghost and living apart from the sensory world. Still, Grace plays an important role in the novel by forewarning about characters and the trouble they will bring before there is evidence of it.

“But will he notice the Chanel eye shadow that Alessandra left in Heidi’s makeup drawer in the bathroom? (Heidi wears Bobbi Brown.) Will he check the shoe tree in Heidi’s closet, where Alessandra has left a pair of size 6 crystal-studded René Caovilla stilettos winking coyly among the size 8 Jack Rogers sandals and Tory Burch ballet flats? […] He will not, Alessandra guesses, because men don’t pay attention to the way women live, not really.”

Although serial seductress Alessandra is an expert in having her way with men, she also understands women’s psychology and habits. She seeks to plant evidence that Michael has had an affair that will escape his notice but not his wife’s. Alessandra’s prop management, along with the list of questions in this passage, builds suspense as to what will happen when they are found. The generalization that men do not pay attention to how women live both empowers Alessandra in her actions and indicates that men feel the daily details of women’s lives are too trivial for their notice.

“Chad has been assigned a cleaning partner named Bibi Evans who treats every room like it’s a crime scene. This might be because Bibi aspires to be a forensic scientist, or it might be because Bibi is what Chad’s mother would call a ‘nosy parker,’ or it might be because Bibi is a thief. Chad doesn’t like thinking this last thing, but that’s what his gut tells him, because Bibi touches every single item in any room than might be worth stealing.”

Chad’s thoughts reveal how lost and uncomfortable he is in judging Bibi, a woman from a vastly different background than him. His mind races through a list of the possibilities, one of which—becoming a forensic scientist—is accurate. However, “his gut,” which is informed by his prejudice against people from low-class backgrounds, tells him that Bibi is stealing. This is reinforced by his noticing that she touches “every” item in “any” room that might be worth something.

“Now, where does Magda English, who moved here back in September to care for her poor bereaved brother, William, and her nephew Ezekiel and who is working as head of housekeeping at the haunted hotel on the other side of town, come up with that kind of money? Nancy can’t begin to guess.”

When Magda leaves five $100 bills in the church collection basket, she baffles Nancy, who does not know how Magda, who bears all the hallmarks of being needy, has such resources. This sets up suspense about who Magda is throughout the novel and makes the reveal of her spectacular wealth and social clout even more impressive.

“She tastes it—and for one sublime moment, she can’t remember her own name, much less the name of her ex-boyfriend or the wine rep he was sexting. For the next few minutes, she exists in a bubble where it’s only her, the Heartbreaker, the blue granite, and the world’s best chips and dip.”

This passage shows the transformative effect of Mario’s culinary creations on Lizbet and is a prelude to how he will affect her when they fall in love. The amnesia that happens as a result of her sensory immersion in the Blue Bar and its food suggests that despite her heartbreak, Lizbet can subdue the past in favor of the present. The hyperbole of forgetting her own name, along with JJ’s and Christina’s, indicates the extent of her enjoyment.

“She was tan and had this sun-bleached hair, and she was wearing faded jean shorts and boat shoes that looked like they’d been repeatedly run over by a vintage Jeep Wagoneer. And she said, ‘Sorry I’m late. My parents wanted to eke out one more week at our house on Nantucket.’”

Lizbet describes how her fascination with Nantucket began with meeting a girl at college who summered on the island. The girl’s physicality, from her sun-bleached hair and clothes to the tattered boat shoes, fully embodies the island and transports Lizbet to the kind of lifestyle she craves. 

“It wasn’t exactly what they had planned—a baby arriving in September, Lizbet hugely pregnant all through the summer season—but they both grinned like crazy, calling each other Maw and Paw, naming the baby ‘Bubby’—and when Lizbet started to bleed at nine weeks, they cried in each other’s arms.”

This passage, revealing JJ and Lizbet’s unexpected thrill at discovering they would be parents, juxtaposed with their misery when she miscarries, shows the real tenderness in their relationship. The references to mutual feeling—both grinning like crazy or crying in each other’s arms—indicate that they were a close-knit couple, despite what happened after JJ’s betrayal.

“The ending, rather than creating a stronger place that Lizbet could launch from into a new, different, better-quality life, was an obliteration, as though fifteen years of Lizbet’s life—her prime years, twenty-three to thirty-eight—had vaporized. She couldn’t salvage anything from them except the knowledge that she had, technically, survived.”

While Lizbet has launched full steam ahead with building a new life, she cannot help but feel an enormous sense of loss when she thinks about the end of her relationship with JJ. The mention of “prime years” indicates her sense of personal sacrifice for a relationship that did not last. The fact of not being able to “salvage” anything from the relationship wreckage indicates that she cannot yet find meaning from its loss.

“The dream died with Fiona, a piece of all of us died with Fiona. So yes, I’ve had my heart broken by this island. So badly that I left for seventeen years.”

Mario’s heartbreak has to do with the closure of the Blue Bistro following the death of its owner, Fiona. Mario’s dreams and identity were invested in that place, so he found himself devastated when it closed. The notion of an anthropomorphized Nantucket Island breaking hearts is repeated in the book when different characters consider leaving after their fortunes turn sour. However, Mario’s return signals he is willing to give the island­—and, by extension, falling in love—another chance.

‘“Ali Powell?’ she says. Alessandra freezes like an animal in the wilderness confronted with a predator—because anyone who uses Alessandra’s childhood nickname is an existential threat.”

The simile comparing Alessandra to an animal in the wilderness illustrates how an encounter with her schoolmate has made her feel suddenly out of her depth. She freezes like a hunted animal pretending to be dead, showing that she is uncomfortable with being recognized from her childhood. Alessandra’s fear of her own past is the first chink in her armor and a hint that she is on the run from a former identity.

“His mother still hasn’t acknowledged the fact that Chad has a job. Whitney Winslow is an expert at ignoring the things that make her uncomfortable. She obviously knows Chad works every day at the Hotel Nantucket, but that doesn’t mean she has to talk about it.”

Chad’s mother’s approach to his job at the Hotel Nantucket mirrors her denial of everything that happened on May 22: She simply prefers to live in a reality of her own creation rather than acknowledge the truth. Chad’s confrontation of reality is the opposite of his mother’s approach and indicates that he does not want to become another irresponsible rich person.

“Word has gotten out that the hotel is haunted by the ghost of Grace Hadley and everyone wants to experience the phenomenon. This is Grace’s fifteen minutes of fame, and she can’t afford to squander it. She’s very busy in the nighttime hours making benign room visits. She knocks on walls, flickers the lights, messes with the electric shades (this is so much fun), and plays the guests’ favorite songs out of nowhere.”

Grace is in her element as she is finally recognized for haunting the hotel. Her sense of fun is conveyed in mischievous tricks, which demand the guests’ attention, and the energetic manner in which she conducts her actions, as though she fears being pushed into obscurity again. The word “squander” indicates her wish not to waste her efforts.

“Guests gather in the lobby for the percolated coffee (the richness of the coffee is mentioned time and again by guests on TravelTattler) […] They read the paper, start conversations, admire the James Ogilvy photograph, and watch Louie play chess (Louie shows up every morning at seven o’clock sharp, hair combed, glasses polished, little polo shirt buttoned to the top).”

This scene describes the lively lobby of The Hotel Nantucket, with its sensory delights and numerous interactions. The fact that the hotel’s comestibles are a talking point on TravelTattler and that the atmosphere in the lobby starts conversations shows how the hotel brings people together despite its elite status. Louie, an organic feature of the hotel lobby, provides further evidence of the place’s good atmosphere.

“She’s consumed with her romance with JJ’s idol, the man whose picture she gazed at on the wall of JJ’s office for fifteen years. It’s the kind of crazy plot twist that happens only in novels and movies—but she’s living it. She can’t believe how happy she is.”

This metafictional moment in the novel shows Hilderbrand’s self-consciousness about the miraculous turn of events for her heroine. Whereas last year Lizbet was betrayed and humiliated by JJ, she is doing so well this year that she has gotten together with JJ’s idol. However, the phrase about not believing her own happiness is a prelude to searching for some reason to spoil everything and hints at lingering insecurity.

“She has bracelets of red fingerprints around her wrists; her dress is in shreds; she has lost a shoe. Alessandra strips down and puts on one of the hotel robes and a pair of slippers. Tears are streaming down her face, and when she wipes them away, she stares at her fingers as though she can’t figure out why they’re wet.”

This passage illustrates the severity that unwanted sexual advances have on everyone, even women like Alessandra, who seek to trade consensual sex for other kinds of privilege. The red bracelet wound is a sinister echo of the Cartier bracelet that her former Italian lover bought her and indicates how vulnerable she was in Bone Williams’s bedroom. Hilderbrand demonstrates the extent of Alessandra’s trauma when she has been crying and yet cannot figure out how her fingers have gotten wet.

“August is the least favorite month of most people who work in the summer service industry—and Lizbet is no exception. July is merely a dress rehearsal for the flat-out-theater-of-the-absurd production that is August.”

This extract progresses the passage of time for mid to late summer and exemplifies the weariness faced by staff who have already spent two months dealing with demanding guests, only to find that their predicament worsens as August hits. The phrase “flat-out-theater-of-the-absurd” indicates the hyperbole of the guests and their requests and prepares the reader for the demands of such folk as Mr. Ianucci, who is an FBI agent masquerading as a guest.

“It was right after this that Graydon started asking for things in bed, things Edie wasn’t entirely comfortable with—and eventually was mortified by—but she consented she felt she had to apologize for her success.”

This passage explains how Edie was coerced into sexual activity that made her uncomfortable and ended up with compromising videos of herself. The notion of having to apologize for her success links into the novel’s theme of women growing in confidence after they leave past relationships and embark on new challenges at the Hotel Nantucket.

“If only she’d had the courage and self-assurance to say those words a hundred years earlier—I’m turning you down, Mr. Benedict, I’m sorry—she would have gone on to live a full. Life. But those words hasn’t been available to Grace in 1922. She feels proud now, not only of Magda, but of womankind. There’s been progress made in this century.”

As Grace spies on Magda, a woman whom she perceives as being in a position of service, turning down Xavier’s request, she reflects omnisciently that there has been progress in the position of women in the past century. She admires the fact that words are now available for women to demonstrate their wish for independence. This experience brings Grace’s history to a resolution after a century of haunting the hotel.

“The best part of the Hotel Nantucket was the staff. It may have taken me fifteen years to realize this, friends, but realize it I have: Hotels aren’t about rooms. They aren’t about amenities. They’re about people—and the people who work at the Hotel Nantucket are what earned this property its fifth key.”

Shelly Carpenter affirms that the Hotel Nantucket’s interpersonal dynamics make it stand head and shoulders above its rivals. It took Carpenter 15 years to realize this fact because, like other guests, she was so distracted by the quality of the facilities that she missed out on the subtleties that make hotels worth visiting.