Age Group: Young Adult
Genre: Paranormal/Romance/Coming of Age
Release Date: Sept. 13, 2011
Buy Links:
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Book Description:
Leena Thomas’s senior year at boarding school starts with a cruel shock: Frost House, the cozy Victorian dorm where she and her best friends chose to live, has been assigned an unexpected roommate—confrontational, eccentric Celeste Lazar. What Celeste lacks in social grace, however, her brother, David, a recent transfer student, makes up for in good looks and charm. But while he and Leena hit it off immediately, Leena finds herself struggling to balance her growing attraction with her fear of getting hurt.
As classes get under way, strange happenings begin to bedevil Frost House—frames mys-teriously falling off walls, doors locking by themselves, furniture toppling over. Celeste blames the housemates, convinced they want to scare her into leaving. And while Leena tries to play peacekeeper between her best friends and new roommate, soon the mysterious happenings in the dorm, an intense triangle between Leena, Celeste, and David, and the reawakening of childhood fears all push Leena to take increasingly desperate measures to feel safe. But does the threat lie with her new roommate, within Leena’s own mind . . . or in Frost House itself?
Frost is a stunning and surprising tale of suspense from debut author Marianna Baer.
This book is more than a little unsettling. The setting is drenched with foreboding throughout the novel, which leaves you tense and eager to keep reading to find out exactly what’s going on. But here’s a heads up: whatever you think is going on, you’ll probably realize you’re wrong. The ending is a twist I didn’t see coming at all, and having read a lot of suspense/paranormal novels, I generally can predict endings.
Which means, of course, that I really liked this one, and that I was impressed.
You can’t help but feel for the main character, Leena, who’s the daughter of divorced parents who live hundreds of miles away. Because she couldn’t choose which of her parents to live with, she chose to go to boarding school, and her two closest friends became her new family. She discovers Frost house at the end of her junior year and because of her friendship with the dean of students, she and her friends are able to occupy the house their senior year. She imagines it will be a great year…until she gets the news that Celeste Lazar will be rooming with her due to a broken leg.
Immediately weird things begin happening in the house, mostly to Celeste, who blames Leena’s friends for the issues, though they deny having anything to do with it. The one plus about Celeste living there is that her older brother David hangs around a lot, and though she tries to deny it to herself, Leena begins to develop feelings for him.
As things get more intense for Leena all the way around—with her friends, with David, and with the house itself—she begins to withdraw, quite literally. But will she be able to save herself from what’s to come? Or will she cave to the temptation to give up?
You won’t find the answer here, but you should definitely pick up a copy of the book and find out for yourself! It’s well worth the read!
Marianna Baer received an MFA in writing for children and young adults from Vermont College of Fine Arts, and a BA in art from Oberlin College. She also attended boarding school, where she lived in a tiny dorm called Frost House, the inspiration for her first novel, Frost. She currently lives in Brooklyn, NY.
Good review. Makes me want to read the book.
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