[R] Rooms, by: Lauren Oliver

Rooms
by: Lauren Oliver

★★★★☆

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.

my thoughts

And making my review soon enough was in one month later. My thoughts aren't exactly clear, but I totally remember a lot to write this review... I think. As I said, I really enjoy the book. I didn't read it all in one sitting, but I enjoyed reading it.

“Funny, isn't it, how quickly the future becomes the past.”

Richard died and he left the house, the same one where Trenton and Minna were raised and the one that Caroline loved but now hates. Well, almost everyone in this house hates it. But the house isn't empty, two ghosts live here or well, when they were alive, they lived there. The story is in everyone's POV, meaning that we have Minna, Trenton, Caroline, Sarah, Alice and even Minna's daughter. We see how much the characters are different, but how similar they can be. Don't be a fool, the book isn't easy to understand and it takes times to realize that at the end the house isn't going to be standing.

“Memory is as thick as mud. It rises up, it overwhelms. It sucks you down and freezes you where you stand. Thrash and kick and gnash your teeth. There's no escaping it.”

The book is divided in parts depending which room is happening the action. Sometimes the kitchen, the bedrooms, the bathrooms, the attic, etc. And everywhere you go, you at least will find a ghost. They aren't very chatty with each other, but when they tell you their story you understand why. All of these characters lived in different times, but they connect back to the house. The house makes them remember, things that even if they didn't want to remember, they do. Its kind of dark, sad, but interesting to see this characters minds, even the kid.

“This is how we grow: not up, but out, like trees--swelling to encompass all these stories, the promises and lies and bribes and habits.”

Typical, not my favorite, but a really good read. If you want a book that at the end everything falls in place, and the family lives happy then this is your book. If you want something with a touch of paranormal and a bunch of reality, common, this is your book. I may like Lauren Oliver after all!

“That's what everyone wanted, in the end: to be part of something bigger.”