Ghosts and girlhood and chronic illness. ( )

*well-written book with a captivating storyline
*easy to read and kept my interest from cover to cover
*great character development
*highly recommend ( )

There's something strange about Violet's new house. Violet's bedroom is in the attic, with weird sloping ceilings, a musty smell, and truly hideous wallpaper. Her stepdad promises to fix the room up, but he has other projects on his list first. And then Violet gets sick . . . and she doesn't get better. The symptoms from her illness stay with her. Sometimes she is too tired to walk up a flight of stairs. She can sleep and sleep and still feel tired. Her doctors think that she might be making it up for attention, or to get out of going to school. Lying in her bed, Violet starts to see . . . something . . . lurking behind the design in the wallpaper. Is that also all in her head?

Ursu takes her inspiration from the Charlotte Perkins Gillman story, "The Yellow Wallpaper," though it's not a direct retelling. I thought the different threads of this story all came together nicely, though the ending was maybe a smidgen rushed. There are a couple of creepy scenes that might frighten very gentle, horror-averse readers, but all in all it's more about Violet's friendship drama and medical struggles. Ursu's writing shines as always, and I'd recommend this to anyone intrigued by the premise. ( )

Three stars I guess. I hesitated to write this review because I couldn't really organize my thoughts and anyway, as of this writing, I'm trying to arrange several interrelated errands and it's stressful. This is not a haunted house story at all, but--the author knows how to write one. She knows how to write one but it seems like she's waiting for another idea to do that. Her prose, at times, is similar to Shirley Jackson's, and please understand that is a -massive- compliment and huge to building up a great haunted house story. The audience is warned a few times it's not the wallpaper, and ooh, it hinted at a great ghost story inside the pages. Wrong..

The medical gaslighting is the real horror in this book. It starts in the second half of the novel.
There are three themes the author explored skillfully in the book, and what's jarring is that they're so clearly delineated. She could have easily split them into Parts I, II, and III, and it would have made for easier transitions. Haunted house horror explores multiple themes each time. The haunted house is just the framing, and it's wonderful and my favorite. I love different interpretations and how they're handled. But the protagonists are going through something in their lives, and the haunting exaggerates it. It's blended together over these novel, and there's always an escalation. That didn't happen here. It almost did. The haunting doesn't make her illness worse. It doesn't increase the medical gaslighting in and of itself. It would have been better to set this in a haunted -hospital-. Oh, that would have been stellar! It would have fit the themes so, so neatly. Her friends could decrease visits, not know how to do sympathy, and it would fold into the growing pains she's already experiencing around friendship in the novel proper.

But this is set in a haunted house that's...not so haunted. Things go bump in the night. And then suddenly there's a ghost that amounts to a Big Lipped Alligator Moment: (physically) comes right the fuck out of nowhere, has little to no bearing on the plot and is overdone in terms of ridiculousness (especially since it comes in so late in the book), and once it's over, no one ever speaks of it again. Thanks to Nostalgia Chick for the term. There's no real reason for the ghost to be in this, either, because the book has already set up so many different things. The chronic illness is set up and handled well, and things around it are super realistic. I think I'd read other works of the author, but not necessarily seek them out.. ( )

First sentence: The house stood a little apart from the rest of the block, as if it did not quite fit in. Perhaps it was wary of the other houses, or perhaps it was the other houses that wished to keep their distance from it. If only houses could talk, then one of them could tell us which it was. Of course, if houses could talk, they could also lie.

Premise/plot: Violet Hart is struggling--struggling with her health, with her friend group, with starting middle school, with getting along with her older [oh-so-moody] sister, with her new house, with her new attic bedroom. It seems the world is out to get her--no lucky breaks. But is the world truly out to get her? Or is it merely her YELLOW WALLPAPER out to get her?

My thoughts: Not my cup of tea. Oh how I WANTED this one to be my cup of tea. Definitely has Twilight Zone vibes. A blend of super-creepy and supernatural WITH your typical angsty coming of age novel. It's this back and forth between the supernatural AND the super realistic that is conflicting me. On the one hand, it doesn't embrace the haunted-ness and pure creepiness of the house. On the other hand, the slightly supernatural elements are at odds with the very real struggles of her invisible illness. At least to me. The author shares how she struggled (struggles) with her invisible diseases, and as a kid/teen it was impossible (or nearly so) for doctors to validate her symptoms, take her seriously, and diagnose her. This could have been compelling--alongside her friends not understanding why she's so tired and unable to join in on their daily activities--on its own. But the direction is an adaptation of the short story, "The Yellow Wallpaper." YET the conclusion isn't really the same if my memory is accurate. (Which to be honest it's been a LONG time since I last read it.)

I think like the wallpaper itself this one is a little too busy/chaotic for my own personal liking. BUT I could see how this might be a good fit for another reader. ( )