Last week, in an email from Book Riot, I saw this title in the Cheap Read sections. It was recommended as a creepy, underrated YA book. In the mood for a creepy read featuring a haunted house and some psychological horror, I checked this book out of the library. And it definitely delivered on the creepy part...but not much else.

The plot- Leena is excited to start senior year at Bancroft, living in the Victorian dorm that's captivated her imagination since freshman year with her two best friends. Then, a bombshell drops- Leena is assigned an unexpected roommate- the eccentric, abrasive Celeste Lazer. While Celeste may be unwelcome, her older brother David is not. He and Leena flirt with each other and she debates entering into a relationship with him.

As the school year gets underway, odd things occur in their dorm, named Frost House. Pictures fall off the wall, objects are destroyed, doors lock on their own and mysterious sounds are heard. Celeste is convinced the other housemates are trying to scare her into leaving. Leena tries to keep the peace between her and her friends, while maintaining her school work, college applications, relationship with David and her own fears and anxiety. Leena starts taking increasingly drastic measures to keep herself safe and she's left to wonder if the odd things are coming from Celeste, herself or Frost house itself.

What I liked- The narration. The story is narrated in the first person from Leena's perspective and she's a fantastic unreliable narrator. Until close to the end, I was unaware what was causing the odd instances in Frost House. As you learn more about Leena and the backstories of her, Celeste, David and Frost House, it becomes increasingly hard to figure out what's going on. The house is nice and creepy, a character in itself. The instances that occur in the house are also fun. The mounting dread was also handled well. Marianna Baer has a great writing style when it comes to unreliable narration and suspense.

What I didn't like- the characters. Really, every single character, kids and adults, are pretty one dimensional and not likable. While I did say I liked learning more about the backstories of Leena, Celeste and David, I didn't actually like any of them as people or saw them more as stereotypes; the overachiever close to a breaking point, the artist who is flighty and confrontational and the overprotective boarding on obsessive older brother. The best friends are barely worth mentioning, as they are mainly there to show that Leena has friends and how their relationships become strained due to the odd happenings at Frost House. One of them, Abby, disappears halfway through the book with no real explanation other than "she's mad at Leena." She's not even mentioned again after she bans Leena from her family's Thanksgiving celebration. . There's a concerned headmaster, distant parents and a bunch of other cliches populating the house. Some of the choices the characters make, Leena especially, were frustrating and you're not sure if these choices are because of Frost House, character's personalities or something else.

The characters personally brought this book down a star for me, but I still recommend this title if you're looking for a YA book that's part haunted house, part coming of age and part psychological thriller. ( )

Love the cover of this! Certainly has an appeal to it and is eye catching.

This book had all the potential to be a suspenseful creepy novel. It certainly had it’s moments because it kept you guessing, was this something supernatural? Or something else entirely? So it had that going for the novel, but it falls pretty short.

The plot itself just seemed long winded and long. A little too long to get the ball rolling. As a result, it got boring and anticlimactic. By the time you got to the ending you were barely interested in the book and just wanted it to end. Which is unfortunate considering the book had some potential.

The character themselves were alright but had nothing special going. Celeste really bothered me as a character. She was pushy, erratic, and a complete drama queen. Overall annoying in the novel. Leena herself wasn’t so bad to read although she’s a people pleaser, yet at the same time alienates them and in the end, well, she sort of had it coming didn’t she? I wasn’t too happy with the way Abby and Viv treated Leena but you did have to understand where they were coming from. So in a way, their behavior towards Leena made sense.

I wish this book was much better. It had all the characteristics of a good novel but fell really short. I don’t regret giving it a try but it’s just not what I hoped for. Not really worth the read. ( )

I liked this more after taking a break from it, though the ending was a little disappointing. Review later. ( )

Pros:
* Gothic style novel
* Boarding schools
* Who's the real crazy

Cons:
* I don't really have any...

The writing in this debut novel is eloquent, the plot twists are tight, and everything comes to light in the end, or does it?

I kept thinking about [b:The Turn of the Screw|12948|The Turn of the Screw|Henry James|http://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1327909344s/12948.jpg|990886] while reading this, which makes sense as it is the quintessential gothic horror novel. I also love that even though Leena is the narrator, she becomes increasingly unreliable throughout the novel

It's so hard to talk about this book without giving it away, but at the same time it's the kind of novel you want all your friends to read so you can discuss plot points and theories. For example, at first I was a little disappointed that the answer was carbon monoxide poisoning, but then the author set up the counterbalance that maybe the poisoning was the houses way of keeping Leena. ( )

When I read the synopsis on the back cover of the book, Frost, by Marianna Baer sounded like a pretty good read. I had gotten away from reading suspense/thriller type books awhile ago, but lately have found that I am wanting to read them again, so this book seemed like it would have just enough of a creepy factor to be interesting.

In the first chapter or so of the book, we learn a little about the main character, Leena, who is in her last year at boarding school. She has three really close friends that have become almost like family to her, and she also is close to the Dean of Students whom she sometimes babysits for. Life seems to be going pretty great for all of them as they get ready to enter Senior year. One day Leena chases a field hockey ball through some brush and ends up in the backyard of some old Victorian house. She finds it captivating, almost like it is whispering to her, inviting her to "Come In". She discovers the house is an old dorm, and before you know it, she and her friends are moving in.

As Leena begins moving her stuff in, she hears loud music and sees boxes already piled in her room. She figures that one of her friends has accidentally picked the wrong room, so she goes in and decides to scare her friend, only to freak out a boy she has never seen before. This is her first meeting with David.

After meeting David, she finds out from him that his sister Celeste will be sharing Leena's room for a semester. The friends all know Celeste and are not particularly fond of her, and don't really want her there. Leena goes to talk to the Dean about moving her, but of course gets stuck agreeing that the girl could stay for only one semester until her other friend would be taking her place when she returns from being out of the country. Also, Celeste is in a whole-leg cast from a recent accident. This is where the story starts to build up.

Things start going on in the house, and they all seem to be happening to Celeste. She hates the room she shares with Leena, and states that she feels like she is being watched all the time. Later, she is so freaked out she moves completely out of the room, and into a small room where desks are kept instead. But, the doesn't stop the things from happening.

Leena has her own issues as well. She keeps a stash of anti-anxiety pills that she has started to take on a regular basis. What had started out as a prescription, has become a habit of "borrowing" from wherever she can get them. And her room has become her haven, she doesn't want to leave it, and discovers that the closet has become her "safe place", where she goes and sits underneath the clothes to find some calm. Several other things happen as well as the story progresses, and none of them are good.

During this time, Leena becomes smitten with David, who, like I mentioned earlier, turns out to be Celeste's brother. It seems that Celeste and David's father has been diagnosed with a schizoaffective disorder in which he suffers from psychosis and has to go live in a institution of sorts. Because of all this, Celeste and David are very touchy about talking about anything to do with mental illness, since this condition can be hereditary and they are afraid that they will start showing signs of the disorder. David is also super-obsessed with taking care of Celeste, and his attention towards her almost seemed like that of a boyfriend instead of a brother. Their whole relationship seemed disturbing to me, and I did not find David's character comforting or even likable in any way.

I found myself sitting up until the early hours of the morning to finish this book, but found the ending to be pretty disappointing. The story had been built up to this huge climactic point, only to have this weird let-down. There were so many avenues the ending could have taken, and I felt that instead it ended like air being let out of a balloon. After reading the last page I was sitting there with that "what just happened?" kind of feeling.

But, like I said, I DID enjoy the book. I thought it had some really great suspenseful moments and I liked the whole vibe of it. I just thought the ending was going to be so much more. I would definitely recommend the read, but would warn about the weird ending. ( )