The Hotel Nantucket

In the book’s final section, the theme of Hotel as Exchange Hub is evident in the stark contrast between The Hotel Nantucket’s staff members’ commitment to the place and Xavier’s whim to dispense of it now that it reminds him of Magda’s rejection. Mario explains the tendency of “guys like Xavier,” who “aren’t in it for the money or the greater good—restoring an historic building, boosting the local economy, creating jobs—they’re in it for the bragging rights” (363). According to Mario’s theory, now that Xavier has the coveted five-key review from Shelly Carpenter, he has lost interest in the hotel. Although Mario overlooks the Magda factor, he touches on Xavier’s selfishness in closing down the hotel and depriving the local community of jobs and a project they can be proud of. Xavier’s distance throughout the summer has caused him to view the hotel as an investment, and this is exemplified by the soulless office building that it would become if he sold it to his proposed buyer. In this swift turn of events, the former benefactor becomes the villain, and it is up to the staff to band together to save what they love.

Luckily, Magda, who despite her secret wealth has a strong community consciousness, teams up with Chad’s father, Paul Winslow, who, perhaps owing to his son’s influence, has seen the light about working towards the collective good. Together, they buy the hotel from Xavier, investing in the vibrant community that has emerged over the summer and enabling the other characters to continue their journeys. Indeed, all the staff members intend to return except for troublemaking Alessandra, who will go and find work on the West Coast “where [she] belong[s],” indicating that her growth might continue there (378). Alessandra’s character arc ends on an upswing, in which she uses her experience to help Edie fight back against her blackmailer. Whereas Edie is young and inexperienced, Alessandra knows that revenge porn is illegal, and they work together to get Graydon to leave Edie alone and return her money. This is another instance in which the novel subverts normative power hierarchies—women band together to overcome a male abuser—and it also subverts traditional romance character tropes. While Alessandra does many morally questionable things in the book, she is more nuanced than a stereotypical villain or a seductress.

The real Shelly Carpenter turns out to be more integrated into the hotel community than the staff could have imagined: She is Kimber Marsh, the breezy, chaotic, bright-haired divorcée who has been staying with them all summer. Kimber’s review overturns the expectation that a good hotel experience is about novelty and luxury, as she states that interpersonal dynamics and feeling at home are the most important factors. The hotel’s unique role as a warm, friendly, and equalizing space is emphasized not only in Kimber’s review but in the Deck's failure and Grace’s decision to remain in the hotel rather than seek a blissful afterlife. Kimber ending her column after awarding this highest accolade indicates that she herself is looking to move on from a transitory sort of lifestyle to one of more stability as a mother to her kids and Richie’s partner.

At the end of the novel, while there is still drama afoot with Richie’s arrest and the Bicks’s marriage in ruins, the main characters, including Grace, have achieved a sense of peace. With the letter from Jackson indicating his responsibility for Grace’s death, everyone knows and empathizes with her story, and she is able to be truly at rest. While she is technically free to leave the hotel, she finds that with its current atmosphere, it is such a pleasant place that she does not want to. Here, Hilderbrand creates the impression of a Nantucket hotel that will continue to run and perhaps be part of the permanent landscape of the island she revisits in future novels.