Hotel Iris is a dark, seductive novel about a lonely young woman and the unsettling relationship that draws her away from the life she knows.
Seventeen-year-old Mari works the front desk of her family’s fading seaside hotel in Japan. Her world is small, quiet, and tightly controlled by her strict mother. But everything shifts the night a middle-aged man and a sex worker are thrown out of their room. Mari becomes captivated by the man’s calm, commanding voice—an attraction that becomes the first pull in a long, dangerous connection.
The man, a widowed translator living on a remote island, is surrounded by troubling rumors, including whispers that he may have murdered his late wife. Still, Mari begins visiting him, drawn into a secret sadomasochistic relationship that blurs the boundaries between longing, power, pain, and trust.
As her mother grows suspicious, Mari must confront what she wants and what she’s willing to risk. Haunting and unsettling, Hotel Iris explores desire, control, and the hidden corners of intimacy that defy explanation.
