A ROOM AWAY FROM THE WOLVES - Nova Ren Suma

A ROOM AWAY FROM THE WOLVES

by Nova Ren Suma

to be published September 4 by Algonquin Young Readers

Bina has never forgotten the time she and her mother ran away from home. Her mother promised they would hitchhike to the city to escape Bina’s cruel father and start over. But before they could even leave town, Bina had a new stepfather and two new stepsisters, and a humming sense of betrayal pulling apart the bond with her mother—a bond Bina thought was unbreakable.

Eight years later, after too many lies and with trouble on her heels, Bina finds herself on the side of the road again, the city of her dreams calling for her. She has an old suitcase, a fresh black eye, and a room waiting for her at Catherine House, a young women’s residence in Greenwich Village with a tragic history, a vow of confidentiality, and dark, magical secrets. There, Bina is drawn to her enigmatic downstairs neighbor Monet, a girl who is equal parts intriguing and dangerous. As Bina’s lease begins to run out, and nightmare and memory get tangled, she will be forced to face the terrible truth of why she’s come to Catherine House and what it will take for her to leave...

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Nova Ren Suma has been one of my favorite authors since her wild, beautiful YA debut, Imaginary Girls. Her last novel, The Walls Around Us, proved she's no fluke. Her newest, A Room Away from the Wolves, reinforces the depth of her talent and the power of her imagination.

A Room Away from the Wolves is the story of Sabina, a chronic liar and occasional thief, on the run from a shadowy past. Sent away from her mother's home, which now swarms with evil stepsisters, Bina arrives at Catherine House, where her mother sought refuge during her own youth. Catherine House and its other tenants brims with secrets, but Bina has some of her own.

A Room Away from the Wolves captivated me from the beginning. It is so many things at once – an ghost story, a modern gothic, a family story – and is by turns eerie and atmospheric, sweet, and downright bone-chilling.

Fans of Suma know that her books often exist in dreamy spaces, and reading A Room Away from the Wolves often feels like wandering through fog, unsure whether what you're witnessing is real. This makes for a thrilling reading experience as characters wander in – you're unsure whether you can trust them, whether you can trust Bina, whether you can even trust yourself.

The story teems with surreality, but most inexplicable of all is the magic of Suma's prose. She's always been a stunning writer, but A Room Away from the Wolves finds her at the height of her descriptive powers. (I'm afraid a certain scene involving a shadow will never leave my mind, will weave itself into my nightmares.)

If there's any criticism at all I can think of, it isn't toward anything contained within this book: it's the cover. As beautiful as it is, and as pivotal to the story the moment is that it depicts, it doesn't seem to me to reflect the full dynamic range of what this novel contains: the the eerie, the haunting, the beautiful.

A Room Away from the Wolves is not only another stellar entry in Suma's canon; it's, dare I say, her best yet.