Title: Rooms
Author: Lauren Oliver
Publisher: Ecco
Publication Date: September 2014
Genre: Adult Fiction
Series or Stand Alone: Stand Alone
Synopsis can be found here.
I received this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
Review:
In Rooms, Lauren Oliver’s adult fiction debut, the reader feels just like the ghosts that haunt the house, drifting through time and space, unable to react to what is going on, but horrified at watching the dysfunctional family play itself out. There is something so basically captivating that I found myself reading it in small bursts, only to put it down to wrap my head around it all.
The Walkers have come home to the place of their youth, before their mother took them away from their now deceased father Richard. Caroline, the wife and ripping at the seams alcoholic mother. Minna, the sexually overcharged adult daughter and her daughter Amy join the house. Trenton, the depressed and socially awkward boy who thinks little of anything else besides suicide and the father he lost.
Add that two mysterious ghosts Alice and Sandra, and the house is brimming with stories, characters, ulterior motives. The reader is another ghost, who like Alice and Sandra, observe the goings on in this now dilapidated house. They filter from room to room, following the living and watching it all come undone. The living characters are bright and vibrant, making me cringe and squirm sometimes in my chair. However the real gems are Alice and Sandra. At first, both of theses ghosts flowed into each other, neither voice being very distinctive. But as the book moves on, Alice and Sandra are both very very different and I loved them and wondered about them equally.
The house has a history as do all of the inhabitants within them. Oliver does a good job of breeding tension slowly and carefully until somewhere in the book the reader is enraptured with ghosts and wills and death and fire. It’s all so strong and so well written, I can feel the ashes and dust around me, hear the creaky house. I also want to hug Trenton, and slap Minna and yell at Caroline.
I really enjoyed Before I Fall, which was Oliver’s YA debut. I wasn’t sure what to expect from this ghost haunted house adult story. Try it. There are some beautiful sentences that had me going back and thinking about them again and again. Strongly flawed and loved characters, wholly dimensional and breathtakingly real. Love and Death and Circumstance flood the house and its rooms.
Rating 8 Cookie Worthy
Kimberly majored in Songwriting and currently works full time in the music industry. When she's not listening to music, knitting or writing, you can find her outside reading her favorite genres: Young Adult, Adult Fiction, Mystery, and Romance.
Sounds like a scary book
It is more tension filled, not like a typical ghost story.
I loved Oliver’s YA books but haven’t tried this one yet. It sounds interesting though so I will add it to my TBR list!
Great! I hope you like it. It’s different than her other ones. I liked the story but really, it was the writing that sucked me in. It’s fabulous.