42 pages • 1 hour read
Emily J. TaylorHotel Magnifique
Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2022A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapter 29-EpilogueChapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 29 Summary
Jani searches the city until she finds the mysterious woman’s shop, which she saw in a vision while making the map. The woman is named Céleste, and she is Alastair’s sister. A long time ago, she stumbled into the Société des Suminaires, which operated as a secret shelter for magical people. Being a powerful suminaire herself, she found a place there and convinced the société to let her brother come with her. Céleste reveals to Jani that Alastair is not in fact a suminaire.
Chapter 30 Summary
Alastair felt powerless and ostracized amongst the suminaires until he met Nicole, a very weak suminaire who later renamed herself Madame des Rêves. Together, they learned to use an artéfact that Jani noticed several times in the hotel, a hand mirror that can transfer magic from one suminaire to another. They used it to steal power from other suminaires and turned the other suminaires into birds and kept them in the aviary. Over time, Alastair and Nicole took over the société and corrupted the contracts that kept suminaires safe. Since the stolen magic is only temporary, they have been collecting and draining suminaires’ magic for decades, using the hotel as a front to hunt suminaires down all over the world. Céleste tells Jani that she did not know about her brother’s deeds until it was too late. When Jani asks what she knows about the signet ring, Céleste tells her it does not exist.
Chapter 31 Summary
Céleste explains that the signet ring is a magical object described in a children’s tale. A suminaire once believed it may have been a clue about a real artéfact, but all attempts to find it have been fruitless. Yrsa then shows up at the store looking for Céleste and Jani. She kills Céleste and Jani escapes, but not before Yrsa tells her that Alastair is threatening to hurt Bel if she does not return to the hotel.
Chapter 32 Summary
Jani remembers the Atelier des Merveilles in Champilliers, which Béatrice likes. She finds her friend there and tells her everything she knows. The two of them come up with a plan to sneak Jani back into the hotel.
Chapter 33 Summary
Jani goes back to the hotel disguised as a wealthy guest. She and Béatrice find Hellas, who has decided to help them and agrees to let them into the aviary.
Chapter 34 Summary
Jani puts on an eye patch before she and Béatrice find Des Rêves. They tell her that Alastair requested that Issig be brought to his office. Jani and Des Rêves enter the freezer where he is kept, and Des Rêves realizes that Jani is lying. Des Rêves threatens Jani, but Issig freezes and kills her.
Jani uses Des Rêves’s artéfact, a silver talon, to turn Issig into a bird. When she gets back to the lobby, she sees that Hellas and Béatrice have let all the birds from the aviary loose, creating panic and chaos. Jani rushes to Alastair’s office to find the ledger where all contracts and enchantments are kept, but it is not there.
Chapter 35 Summary
Zosa, still in bird form, leads Jani back to the aviary, which is threatening to collapse. Frigga is trying to save the rest of the birds and tells Jani that Hellas has not come back. They find Béatrice and Hellas tied up in the salon, with Yrsa guarding them. Bel is also there, but his memories have been erased and he does not recognize Jani. Alastair comes in carrying the ledger. Jani turns Issig back into his human form with the talon and then puts her mother’s necklace on him to undo the enchantment that erased his mind. Now in control of his magic, Issig grabs the ledger and destroys it with a blast of his ice power.
Chapter 36 Summary
After the icy explosion, Jani wakes up with Zosa at her side and turns her back into a human. Béatrice finds them and realizes that she now remembers her sister, Margot. Bel wakes up with all his memories as well, while Yrsa was killed in the blast. They find Alastair unconscious, and Issig suggests he be locked in the freezer. In the following hours, Jani turns the captive birds back into humans, some who bear the consequences of their magic being drained. The guests have left, so the suminaires take up residence in the suites.
Chapter 37 Summary
Jani and Zosa happily reunite. Jani tells Bel about her plans for the future. The suminaires are free again, with some having lost their homes and families. Jani wants to get the hotel up and running again. She also wants to keep looking for artéfacts that could help them. Bel, who now remembers that his family handed him over to Alastair willingly, decides to stay and help her.
Epilogue Summary
In the Epilogue, which is narrated in the third person, new guests witness the magic show in the now repaired hotel. They watch the new maître, Jani, kiss The Magnifique before he hands her his key as midnight approaches.
Chapter 29-Epilogue Analysis
The final section answers some key questions. For example, Céleste is the woman whose voice guests can hear at the hotel and whose portrait hangs in the map room. She provides crucial information about Alastair, who is revealed not to be a suminaire but an impostor greedy for power and control. This revelation echoes L. Frank Baum’s well-known literary character of the Wizard of Oz, another fake magician ruling over other magical people through illusion and coercion. Alastair’s lack of magic emphasizes the contrast between him and Jani, who possesses real magic and, symbolically, Power and Responsibility. The revelation of a fake magic user is a standard trope in magical realism and fantasy settings and often serves as an allegory about the corrupting dangers of greed and tyranny.
The relationship between Céleste and her younger brother offers a parallel and contrast with Jani and Zosa’s. Céleste and Alastair’s bond can be read as a corrupted version of the Lafayette sisters’. Like Jani, Céleste is protective of her sibling. She brought her magicless brother to the Hotel Magnifique so they would not be separated. Céleste points out that she could not “bear the thought of leaving him behind” (309), prompting Jani to comment, “She blamed herself like I did every day for not keeping Zosa in Aligney” (317). Both older sisters act out of a sense of duty and protectiveness. However, Alastair grew resentful and greedy because he felt left out, whereas Jani strives to keep Zosa from harm throughout the story. This reinforces the novel’s message that one can find Home and Belonging through people rather than places.
Alastair’s use of the hand mirror to drain magic symbolizes his exploitation of the hotel’s workers, while Jani’s desire to free the trapped suminaires emphasizes her desire to empower others. The narrative provides answers about the signet ring, another artéfact, which is revealed to be only a story. This may suggest that Alastair’s endeavor to steal magic was doomed from the very beginning or that the ring was used as a narrative red herring. Jani’s decision to keep looking for the ring later imbues it with a more hopeful symbolic meaning.
Jani’s relationships come to fruition, as all the hotel’s workers start aligning with her. Béatrice and Hellas decide to help her, and Issig eventually destroys Alastair’s ledger. They choose to follow Jani because they believe in her cause, rather than because she’s coerced them like Alastair has.
The novel shows the rewards of teamwork and standing up for what is right. The workers recover their Memory and Identity, including Bel’s real name. However, Bel chooses to remain known as Bel because it has become his true identity, echoing Jani’s realization that she has outgrown Aligney. The birds are also able to literally reclaim their freedom, with Jani turning them back into humans. Jani also recognizes her sister’s free will when she lets her choose Alastair’s fate: “It was her life too, after all. […] Her choice” (365).
The Epilogue parallels the Prologue in framing the narrative. It is narrated in the third person, perhaps from a guest’s point of view as they survey the newly restored Hotel Magnifique. The Epilogue, like the Prologue, does not provide names. However, the reader can surmise that the “slight girl with light skin and gleaming blonde curls” is Béatrice and that the “old woman who look[s] so similar to the girl […] playing a bright red piano” is her sister, Margot (388, 399). Jani and Bel appear, also unnamed, as the new maître and her partner. The simplicity of their appearance contrasts with Alastair’s artificial tricks. The novel, which begins on an ominous note, now ends with hope and wonder.
