Noelle West Ihli
Room For Rent
Let me start this with some unpleasant honesty: I was not expecting to enjoy this book. After being so angry at Ask For Andrea and DNFing it (you see, I went in blind after hearing how everyone, absolutely everyone loved it — everyone who loved psych thrillers! — I had no idea what it was going to be about, but it turned out to be PARANORMAL not PSYCH and it was such a letdown for me then, if it makes sense? I expected psych, but it was a ghost story, nooooo.), I really didn’t expect much from this one. Yet I wanted to read it. And I did.
And. It was unique. It was weird. It was so well written. It was creepy af, the creepiness level of this book was out of this world. The creepiness was also atmospheric. It was palpable through the Kindle’s % as I kept reading. It was good. It was more than good. It was perfect. It was anxiety-inducing. As someone who is crippled by real-life anxiety, I love non-real-life-related anxiety. It makes me feel good, it makes me feel safe, it makes me feel alive.
I absolutely loved Nya, the main character. Her struggles are written in a way that anyone who has struggled with basic necessities being met, will find it relatable.
I’m sure some will say that the ending was predictable, but I feel like it was not *predictable*. It was, like, the scene was set up and built stone by stone, revealing clue after clue, piecing a puzzle together. It was never meant to be a breathtaking shocker of a twist. It was a slow-burn-reveal of a twist. although I’m not sure why I’m using the words “slow-burn”, as nothing was really slow about this book, even the pace was perfect.
Yeah, and returning to Ask for Andrea once again, there was one moment when I was about to look up what others have said about this book, as I was starting to get seriously worried that this might be yet another sneaky ghost story. But. Nope. No ghosts, none at all! Only crazies. Human and alive, and crazy af.
Oh, and a bonus surprise. When I was done reading, there was a QR code that led me to… a bonus chapter. I have just downloaded it to my Kindle. Like, 10 minutes ago. I will read it, of course. But not tonight.
The book’s pub date is set to October 13, soooooo. Friday the 13th. You know what to do. This is definitely something worth reading. As you know what to do, here is the (aff)link to the book: https://amzn.to/48S7Vau
p.s.
and I really feel like I should apologize for my hate for Ask for Andrea, for bringing it up and for mentioning it here, yet how this book made me feel is something so so so different from what that book did… oh well.
