Frost

by Marianna Baer

When Leena Thomas gets her wish to live in an old Victorian house with her two closest friends during their senior year at boarding school, the unexpected arrival of another roommate--a confrontational and eccentric classmate--seems to bring up old anxieties and fears for Leena that may or may not be in her own mind.

• ISBN10: 0061799491
• ISBN13: 9780061799495
• Publish Date: 13 September 2011
• Publish Status: Out of Stock
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Balzer & Bray/Harperteen
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 400
• Language: English

Reviews

[catiebug]

I went into Frost with just a general idea of what it was about, but I was so intrigued. From the very first page I was sucked in and I needed to know what was going on.

The story progressed quickly and constantly had me guessing what was going on up until the last few pages. I did get annoyed with some of the characters sometimes, but they were teenagers who were in a boarding school so I guess that's not too surprising.

The end though! I was slightly disappointed, mostly because there were so many things left unexplained. I expected something more or bigger after all the build up and constantly making you question what the heck was going on.

It was a pretty quick read for me and I enjoyed every minute of it.

[rakesandrogues]

I was not quite expecting FROST to be so psychological or so scary. There’s a reason why I wasn’t sorted into Gryffindor. I lack courage. FROST was one of those books I just couldn’t read at night. I know that fear is a very psychological emotion, and Baer was able to trigger my illogical fear just as well as she had with her characters Leena and Celeste.

Leena and I would probably not get along if I knew her in real life. Her character just rubbed me the wrong way. It is pointed out by the Dean that Leena is sometimes skewed with her beliefs and opinions. She gives advice as if she thinks Leena Knows All, and the Dean shuts her down by saying that sometimes what Leena thinks is best is not the best for everyone. I guess her know-it-all mentality and constant urge to meddle with other people’s – ahem, Celeste’s – business just didn’t agree with me.

I love David Lazar and it is completely understandable how Leena can take an instant liking to him. I love that he cares deeply for his family and he would go out of his way to help out his sister. I love some of his quirks such as his obsession with spoons. David was a refreshing love interest to me. He actually felt like a guy that I could meet in real life. He’s not a one-dimensional love interest, which made it frustrating to me at times that Leena increasingly grew neurotic. He probably could do a lot better, and it drove me crazy to see Leena doubt his affections or character.

I would have loved this book more if it wasn’t riddled with so much high school drama. It’s one of the main reasons why I loved my nontraditional high school setting; I escaped unnecessary cat fights for four years. I was not jumping for joy when Leena’s drama with her friends were stirred up. Mostly it comes back to the fact that I know that Leena was at fault and I failed to sympathize with her. She would complain about how her life is a mess, but most of it was her fault to begin with. On the other hand, I feel like drama is inevitable in stories that are set in a boarding school. Still, I wish that there was less of it, even if I can see that it’s important for the development of Leena’s character. FROST would have been stronger minus the excess drama and more focused on the supernatural aspects.

Is this a ghost story? Funny how I can’t exactly answer that. FROST leaves off a little anti-climactic because it fails to answer this question. After 400 pages, I still don’t quite know what happened at the Frost House, and I doubt the characters know either. The ending is open for interpretation so if you like that kind of ending, you’ll probably end the book on a better note than I did.

[Stephanie]

I had such high hopes for this book. I was expecting it to really mess with my mind and creep me out, but it didn't. For the most part, I was very disappointed with the story.

First of all, the characters didn't sit well with me from the beginning. Leena claimed to be this great student who babysat the Dean's children and even started a peer counseling program at the school. But I was never shown that Leena was this great person. I was told, but we never see this side of her.

I was turned off by Leena's two best friends Abby and Viv from the beginning. I can't pin point what really bothered me about them, but I just couldn't get myself to really care for them. Maybe it was the tattoo on the butt cheek. I don't know. Viv does kind of redeem herself in the end, but not to the point that I could get myself to like her.

David and Celeste were just different. They had such a strong bond with each other it was almost borderline creepy. Leena even goes back and forth with herself about how odd David and Celeste's relationship was.

And the relationship between Leena and David did not seem real to me. I couldn't get into their relationship enough to care, especially when Leena had doubts herself.

I was so turned off by all the characters that I almost didn't finish the book quite a few times. The only reason I kept reading was because I was intrigued by the actual story and wanted to know why these things were happening, but even the story ended up fading away in the end. I was not creeped out at all with what was happening in the house and the ending didn't fully explain all the happenings that went on.

In the end, the characters were the big thing that turned me off from the story.

[Suz @ Bookish Revelations]

Frost is an exceptionally well written gripping novel that tells the story of a "haunting." The question of whether it's of a demonic nature or more of a psychological one, is what the reader's are faced with. It's a bit of a mystery, as the audience is plunged deeper into the depths, with each turn of the page. Baer has created a unique way of exploring the paranormal, with Frost.

Right away, the cover of this debut novel itself, tells the reader that it's going to be a story that possesses a creepy vibe. First you notice the model's face, then in the distant background you start to see what appears to be an old house that looks as if it might possess some secets and mystery of its own, and then finally you notice that it's shrouded in fog and the tree's are pretty barren of leaves - void of life. That was all I needed to capture my attention, enough to know that Frost was a novel that I would not only enjoy, but would want to read in attempt to solve the mysteries contained within.

Everyone has their own personal demons that they live with, ones that they wrestle with constantly and try to overcome at some point. It's when those personal demons start taking on certain paranormal elements, the whole story starts to change and somehow shift into something else entirely. It almost reminds me of those old gothic classics, in a way. That's what Frost is, that's the story that this novel has to tell and Bare does a marvelous job at telling it.

I wouldn't say that Frost is your average paranormal haunting, but I will say that it's one of the most different and unqiue, of all the paranormal novels that I've read before dealing with hauntings. This one felt a bit more personal, a bit more real and close to home. I'm not exactly sure that it had to do with the psychological aspect of it, but it was surely enough to keep me up at night for a good while, wondering what was going to happen next and jumping at every little sound I heard.

Baer does a fantastic job of giving the reader's characters that are not only unique, but are interesting as well. Leena, the main protagonist, seems to be wrestling with her own set of demons holding her back. It seems like this is the affect Frost House appears to have on some, while Celeste comes off as a bit neurotic or paranoid to a degree , in accusinng everyone else of vandalising her stuff, while carrying on an almost "too close" tumultuous relationship with her brother David (who has developed a growing attraction to Lena). Trying to keep up with Leena's confused mind-set is a little hard at certain points, but Baer tackles it head on and manages to do a wonderful job delving into it and pulling it apart unraveling certain pieces along the way throughout Frost.

I found it a bit weird or almost awkward, in a way, to see how attached Leena was to Frost House when it seemed like it was doing more harm than good (as far as all of the incidents, the creepy noises, and the strange happenings) that were going on. There was just so much confusion going on with this novel, that sometimes it was hard to tell what was really happening. This can be both a good and a bad thing, in this case I think it's a little bit of both. Almost all of the characters were relatable and likeable (give or take a couple of them), which is something that doesn't always happen. I found myself enjoying the many different quirks that they possessed.

Another thing that I found myself enjoying as far as characters go, is the fact that Frost House was just as much a key character in the novel, as the rest of the physical characters were. In a way, it was the equivalent of a supportive character, and yet so much of the novel surrounded it. It gave it an intensely eerie feeling to the book. Perhaps, you could go so far as to say that Frost House was the main character in a way, and Leena was the supporting protagonist.

Baer's attention to detail, the plot itself, and all of the explanations for the strange things that take place in Frost House, is flawless. She gives enough to keep the audience hooked, as well as to interpret the ending as they felt it was. Sometimes, there just simply aren't resonable enough explanations for why certain things happen or when they do. It's not always that black and white, a fact that I'm personally glad to see Baer unaffraid to tackle and do so in such a successful way. She writes with a style that is all her own, setting the tone of Frost almost immediately, drawing the reader in and dazzling them with her turn of phrase and psychological bordering on paranormal attributes, as subtle as they may have been.

Frost is a beautifully written novel, that is fast paced, leaves the audience to ponder a few things on their own, that will not disappoint. This isn't your typical R.L. Stine or Christopher Pike, in YA literature. Although the paranormal aspect of it, may have been a bit subtle the fact that it plays on one's psychological nature makes it even better in my opinion, which is why I have no qualms about giving it four stars. The lack of the fifth one that I would have possibly given, lends itself in part to the confusion I felt while trying to figure out and understand Leena's mind and the rationale behind some of her actions. I realize that this may have been Baer's intention all along, but it was a small bone of contention for me personally.

In short, this is a lovely blend of creepy, that as a reader you will not want to miss out on. Think The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer or perhaps Imaginary Girls, fans of those novels and other's similar to them will not be disappointed.



{ This ARC was provided by HarperTeen, in exchange for an honest review which I have provided. No money exchanged hands, I review books for fun because I love to read. I am not interested in monetary gain. Any piece of this ARC that was quoted, is not part of the finished product and should not be perceived as such.}