Weekly Reads: Rooms

I requested an e-ARC of Rooms without even reading what the book was about. I enjoyed Lauren Oliver's Delirium series, and Before I Fall, so I  just assumed I'd be in to this book as well. Imagine my surprise to learn it was an adult book about ghosts instead of a teen dystopian novel. It took me a little bit to get in to the book because there were so many characters to keep straight, both living and dead. Once I got sucked in to the book, I didn't want to put it down. The story was so well told and the stories of each of the characters were interwoven in excellent ways. And there were several shocking plot twists to keep your jaw on the floor.

My rating: 4 stars.

Summary from goodreads:

The New York Times bestselling author of Before I Fall and the Delirium trilogy makes her brilliant adult debut with this mesmerizing story in the tradition of The Lovely Bones, Her Fearful Symmetry, and The Ocean at the End of the Lane—a tale of family, ghosts, secrets, and mystery, in which the lives of the living and the dead intersect in shocking, surprising, and moving ways 

Wealthy Richard Walker has just died, leaving behind his country house full of rooms packed with the detritus of a lifetime. His estranged family—bitter ex-wife Caroline, troubled teenage son Trenton, and unforgiving daughter Minna—have arrived for their inheritance. 

But the Walkers are not alone. Prim Alice and the cynical Sandra, long dead former residents bound to the house, linger within its claustrophobic walls. Jostling for space, memory, and supremacy, they observe the family, trading barbs and reminiscences about their past lives. Though their voices cannot be heard, Alice and Sandra speak through the house itself—in the hiss of the radiator, a creak in the stairs, the dimming of a light bulb. 

The living and dead are each haunted by painful truths that will soon surface with explosive force. When a new ghost appears, and Trenton begins to communicate with her, the spirit and human worlds collide—with cataclysmic results.

Elegantly constructed and brilliantly paced, Rooms is an enticing and imaginative ghost story and a searing family drama that is as haunting as it is resonant.