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OLDER FICTION
Romero, R. M.

The Ghosts of Rose Hill

452 pp. | Peachtree | May, 2022 | Trade ISBN 978-1-68263-338-0 $18.99 | Ebook ISBN 978-1-68263-446-2 $11.99
(2) YA In this verse novel, Cuban American Jewish teen Ilana Lopez spends a summer with her aunt in Prague. She finds an abandoned Jewish cemetery and, while cleaning it up, encounters Benjamin, the ghost of a long-dead boy her age; and Wassermann, a man with no shadow. Accustomed to hearing stories from her family's past ("I'm Jewish-- / we're good at remembering"), Ilana is unbothered by Benjamin's ghostly state, and a romance blooms between them. But something sinister is at play: Wassermann is a vodník, a folkloric river spirit who consumes souls, and it will ultimately be up to Ilana to defeat him. The straightforward free-verse poetry is infused with Ilana's embrace of her background (most explicitly her Jewish background) and her ­awareness of her people's transient, precarious history (does her heritage "mean / moving across borders / like water / moves across stones / Or does it mean knowing / the ­Wassermanns of the world / are always one step / behind you?"). Creepy though the premise is, the thought-provoking novel is more fable than horror, as its protagonist finds a balance between past and present.
Reviewer: Shoshana Flax | Horn Book Magazine Issue: May, 2022

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