She realizes that teenaged Trent can sense her and concentrates on finding ways to communicate. Out of nowhere – literally out of nowhere – a new ghost drops into the mix. The Walkers are a welcome distraction but they stir up a shitstorm that might tear everything apart. They’re confined to the house and have been getting on each other’s nerves for way too long. It’s a fun effect, having the ghosts’ past emerge alongside the family’s. We see what’s shaped each family member and where it might lead them. Oliver deals with Sandra and Alice the same way. Information about everyone is slowly revealed as we begin to understand motives, grievances, and hopes. This is a collision of past and present, and Oliver handles it expertly. The more they discover from Richard’s life – and their own lives – the more twisted everything becomes. The two ghosts, who can speak only to each other, watch them dig through trash and treasure, both internal and external. These are the folks wandering around the haunted rooms of Rooms. Her own daughter, Amy, often seems more like a burden to her than a joy. No matter how much meaningless sex she pours into that space, it never fills up. Her alienation from her father left an expanding hole inside that’s eaten most of her life. That sounds like most teenagers but Trent seriously has some issues. Minna, Caroline and Richard’s daughter, is a mess. She just wants whatever cash can come from this. Trent, her teenage son, is withdrawn, moody, and just plain weird.

She’s a foggy alcoholic measuring time until her next drink.

They comment on the people that used to live there, what they remember, how they’ve changed.Ĭaroline, Richard’s ex-wife, has mostly checked out. No one recognizes them, of course, they’re invisible. But they’re watching. Sandra and Alice have been in the house a long time and they recognize everyone who’s returned. Its rooms are piled with tons of crap that must be sifted through, sorted, and discarded or sold. At least one thing that has to be dealt with is the massive old house where they all used to live. When he finally dries up and dies, everyone returns to sort things out. Richard Walker has been estranged from his family for years. This thing is a genre-bender from the start. It’s a love story but it’s not a romance it’s a multiple-murder mystery where most of the victims have been dead for years it’s not light-hearted but it is life-affirming. But it’s got a lot more going for it than just some spooks.

It’s a creepy ghost story, which is why I’m loosely throwing it into the horror category for the purpose of this review.

Honestly, I don’t even know if I can put the right words in the right order to express this book’s awesomeness. She’s already a bestseller in YA and now I’m going to have to go read all that stuff because Rooms blew me away. Rooms is Lauren Oliver’s first entry into adult fiction.

Rooms by Lauren Oliver