Rooms for Ghosts

A young girl comes of age in her wealthy family’s vacation home on an island. At 14, she handles her mother’s drug addiction, her father’s affairs, and her own struggle with growing up a little too soon.

It seems like the mother’s drug-laced parties and the father wandering off are commonplace for the teenager. Who’s to say how many of the previous summers were just like the one depicted in the book? She develops an unhealthy obsession with her father’s mistress, wandering to the woman’s cabin and stealing her belongings until she’s caught and the two come face-to-face. When the final tragedy strikes, it is almost a relief. The girl seems to come away from the harrowing series of events unscathed, but it’s difficult to know for sure.

Rooms for Ghosts is a gritty, intense account of a girl looking to latch on to anything that will give her love and purpose; it is a story that can be tackled in an afternoon. It will suck you in and won’t let go until you reach the final pages. Even though the story is very short, its haunting remains will stick in your mind for weeks.