NOVEMBER 2014 - AudioFile
Six familiar voices narrate the newest story from Lauren Oliver. When Richard Walker passes away, his estranged family assembles at their old home to claim their inheritance and dig into the past. Each chapter is told from the point of view of a different character, members of the Walker family as well as the ghosts that are bound to the rooms of the house. Each narrator matches his or her reading to the voice of the point-of-view character—from proper and slow paced for the voice of Alice, the oldest ghost in the house, to energetic and young for Richard’s granddaughter. The variety of voicings helps the listener keep the stories straight. Each perspective adds a layer to the story, and the journey through the various rooms allows the suspense to build as the secrets of the old house are revealed. E.N. © AudioFile 2014, Portland, Maine
Chicago Now
[A] sweet-but-sad-totally-engrossing-reading-at-stop-lights-in-the-car kind of tale… A fabulous read-good for a mature tween straight on up.
Dallas Morning News
[Oliver] turns triumphantly to adult fiction with her latest, Rooms… The last 50 pages of Rooms are as devastatingly emotional as any book I’ve recently encountered… For a thriller, that’s as strong a recommendation as I can make.
Us Weekly
A family faces its demons-such as sex addiction and alcoholism-when they gather after Dad’s death. (Adding stress: His house has ghosts!) A complex first adult novel from the Delirium writer.
New York Times Book Review
Pleasantly spooky.
Washington Independent Review of Books
Oliver skillfully weaves her tales together clearly and cleanly… The real strength of this novel is Oliver’s knack for rendering charmingly flawed characters with real-life problems and complicated relationships… Oliver’s prose is crisp and clean; it gives the book much of its energy.
BookPage
[Oliver’s] first novel for adults, Rooms, is a ghost story, but is completely unlike any we’ve read before… an elegant blend of real and supernatural worlds.
San Francisco Chronicle
Lauren Oliver leaves the young-adult realm with her latest novel, in which the living and dead intersect, and family secrets are unearthed when you least expect it.
NPR
ROOMS is, overall, a very successful work, and an impressive demonstration of Oliver’s craft.
Top 10 Books for September 2014 Washingtonian
[A] fantastic ghost story…. Highly recommend.
Wall Street Journal
Best-selling young adult novelist Lauren Oliver, author of Before I Fall and the Delirium trilogy, enters new territory with Rooms, her first novel for adults—though spooky supernatural elements remain.
W Magazine
A spirited new novel.
New York Times
…in this spectral soap opera there’s fun to be had as the plot’s many traps are set and then snapped shut.
io9
Oliver’s first adult novel is packed with complex, flawed characters, and she manages to turn the ghosts’ observations into a story about how people are haunted by memories. It’s like a Wes Anderson movie in book form, with ghosts.
O magazine
In Oliver’s moody and mysterious novel, a pair of ghosts inhabits the house of the recently deceased Richard Walker and serves as an invisible chorus to his family’s bleak memories and motivations.
Library Journal
04/01/2014
Oliver has already triumphed in the YA arena with Before I Fall and the "Delirium" trilogy; her first novel for adults has already been called "a magnificent gothic fugue on the themes of longing and buried secrets" by Time critic Lev Grossman, author of "The Magicians" trilogy. After Richard Walker dies, his embittered ex-wife and two sullen children arrive at his overstuffed mansion to claim their inheritance. The house also comes with two ghosts who exchange observations that no one can hear—until a new ghost starts communing with Walker's son. With a 150,000-copy first printing.
NOVEMBER 2014 - AudioFile
Six familiar voices narrate the newest story from Lauren Oliver. When Richard Walker passes away, his estranged family assembles at their old home to claim their inheritance and dig into the past. Each chapter is told from the point of view of a different character, members of the Walker family as well as the ghosts that are bound to the rooms of the house. Each narrator matches his or her reading to the voice of the point-of-view character—from proper and slow paced for the voice of Alice, the oldest ghost in the house, to energetic and young for Richard’s granddaughter. The variety of voicings helps the listener keep the stories straight. Each perspective adds a layer to the story, and the journey through the various rooms allows the suspense to build as the secrets of the old house are revealed. E.N. © AudioFile 2014, Portland, Maine
