Hi everyone!
I am back with another blog tour, today it is for A Room Away From the Wolves by Nova Ren Suma.
Thanks so much to Thomas Allan for sending me an ARC of this book for an honest review, as always, all opinions are my own. Make sure to check out all the other stops on the tour for more reviews, Q&As, and other fun goodies!
This story follows Bina, a girl whose mother has kicked her out in favour of her new husband and his daughters. Bina runs off to New York City where she finds the boarding house her mother stayed at years ago, Catherine House. The home might have a few strange rules, but Bina just needs somewhere to stay until the dust settles with her mom. But the longer Bina stays, the more she becomes accustomed to the oddities of the house. The museum-like quality of the living room, with souvenirs from the namesake's suitors, displayed but not to be touched, the eery portrait of Catherine staring down at the girls, and the other girls themselves, all seeming to be happy there but leaving clues of desperate escape.
If I could call this book one thing, it would be atmospheric. The way Suma writes about the house and the goings on in it, it makes it seem so real - but at the same time, fantastical. The house becomes a tether for the girls, it calls them back, regardless of how they feel about leaving.
It took me a little bit to get into this book, mainly because there were so many timeline jumps, at least at the beginning. Once I got used to the writing style and the backstory was more or less told, I really got into it. I would say that if you are having troubles in the beginning, keep going because it does get better.
I think this is one of those quietly consuming books. It's not something that is loud and in your face. When I first finished it, I was kind of meh about it. But as I'm letting it stew for a little while, I can see the quiet brilliance of it. I still have a thousand questions but I feel like I am at least able to understand some of what happened.
I don't know if you will love or hate this book - I'm still not sure how I feel about it myself - but I think it is worth the read if for nothing else the uniqueness of Suma's writing style and the strangeness of the story.