Frost
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4.4 • 9 Ratings
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- $0.99
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- $0.99
Publisher 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.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Two private-school seniors are forced to become roommates in Baer's YA debut, which is chilly in more ways than one. Leena is a pill-popping, college-focused, peer counselor who dislikes arty, erratic Celeste. Leena's plan to room with her best friends in the tiny dorm, Frost House, is spoiled when one friend goes abroad, and Celeste is placed in the first-floor spot with Leena because of a broken leg. Celeste's gorgeous brother David is some compensation, but the "drama" that has always trailed Celeste continues. Weird noises, errant breezes, and a closet that Celeste abhors and Leena finds strangely attractive are the starting point, but it's not long before events spiral out of control. It's meant to be horrifying, but although Baer is a competent writer, the problem is lack of feeling. Leena is more interested in explaining (and numbing) her emotions than in experiencing them, and because it's a first-person narrative, visceral characters like Celeste get little stage time. The haunted "history" of Frost House is hinted at with little detail, and the ending wraps up the plot with an unsatisfying third-hand report. Ages 12 up.
