ARC Review: Frost

Frost by Marianna Baer, September 13, 2011. 400 pages. Published by Balzer & Bray. Source: Publisher for review.

Leena Thomas’s senior year at boarding school begins with a shock: Frost House, her cozy dorm of close friends, has been assigned an unexpected roommate: confrontational, eccentric Celeste Lazar. But while Leena’s anxiety about a threat to her sanctuary proves valid, it becomes less and less clear whether the threat lies with her new roommate, within Leena’s own mind, or within the very nature of Frost House itself. Mysterious happenings in the dorm, an intense triangle between Leena, Celeste, and Celeste’s brother, and the reawakening of childhood fears, all push Leena to take increasingly desperate measures to feel safe. Frost is the story of a haunting. As to whether the demons are supernatural or psychological . . . well, which answer would let you sleep at night?

First Sentence (ARC Edition, subject to changes):

Before I lived there, before any of this happened, I imagined Frost House as a sanctuary. 

Sadly I was kind of disappointed with Frost. When I picked it up I was expecting a bone chilling psychological thriller that would leave me unable to sleep at night, what I wound up with instead was a book that just fell flat and that didn't quite live up to my expectations.

    I will try my hardest to explain just why this book did not work for me and what I did and didn't like about it.

While it may not have been my cup o' tea Frost isn't a bad book and Ms. Baer's writing is really good. It just had a few elements that kept me from enjoying it as much as I thought I would have.

One of the things that disappointed me the most in this book was the main character, Leena, I just did not like her and could not bring myself to feel anything more then pity for her.

The main reason I didn't like her was that she didn't seem to have much self-respect for herself and that her character was maybe just a little too emotionally scared, cold, damaged whatever you want to call it. She just had too many issues to make for a believable character.

  

My other complaint about Frost would have to be the instant luv factor between Leena and David. Sure they don't get together till pretty much the middle of the book, but the fact that she thought she loved him from pretty much the first time they met was kinda of irksome because how can you love someone that you don't even know, the answer is you can't.

I found that Frost was a bit slow when it came to getting to the actual plot line, because it felt like over the half the book had come and gone before any of the characters (Leena and Celeste) seemed to even consider that some of the happenings at Frost House weren't exactly normal. I think if things had picked up a little quicker that I could have easily been pulled into the story, but most likely my opinion of Leena would not have been any better. 

The one thing I did really enjoy about Frost was Ms. Baer's writing. Her writing was my absolute favorite thing about this book because she did an excellent job of adding a sense of paranoia to the book. If I hadn't enjoyed her writing as much as I did, in all likelihood I would not have finished reading Frost. 

I (with probably no surprise to you the reader) liked the fact that when Leena screwed up, and boy did she on multiple accounts, that she didn't just get a slap on the wrist for what she did.   

Content (highlight to see; will contain spoilers): Leena and David fooling around (no sex, but still being a bit inappropriate), talk of suicide (one by overdosing on pills, the other by cutting *I think*), addiction to prescription pills/stealing others prescription pills. There is also some swearing, mostly mild swear words though.  

Final Verdict: Frost unfortunately the story just didn't work for me. Although I did enjoy Ms. Baer's writing style and will definitely try another book by her.  

Frost earns 3 out of 5 pineapples.