The Ghosts of Rose Hill / R.M. Romero / Book Review

When biracial Jewish girl Ilana Lopez gets sent to live with her aunt in Prague for the summer, she knows it is a punishment. She is supposed to focus on her studies, not beach days with her friends and certainly not her music, a hobby that will never lead to a solid career. 

But Prague is a city of ancient mysteries and magic, and Ilana's aunt isn't as strict as her parents might have thought. When Ilana discovers a forgotten Jewish cemetery behind her aunt's home, she knows what she has to do: restore and refresh these forgotten graves. 

In this old cemetery, Ilana meets Benjamin, a boy who died almost a hundred years ago. Benjamin doesn’t remember much of his past, but he sees Ilana as hope for the future. 

Benjamin isn't the only one interested in Ilana’s work. There's another man, a man without a shadow, who has heard her music and just might want her soul. If only he can snatch it. 

Thoughts

This book is beautiful poetry made all the better for embracing its truly speculative elements. It is mystical. It is whimsical. It is rooted in culture and history and a historical place. It just lacked the touch of narrative chemistry that would have made it stand out for me. 

Pros

• Artist's Dilemma: It's the age-old dilemma (and a narrative that Western culture can't seem to let go of). Is art worth pursuing if it will make no money? If it won't provide a steady future--won't provide a house, food, support for a spouse and children? This debate is a classic quandary and no less relevant today than it has been in the past. It's great to see a piece of poetry as beautiful as this hash out the arguments of a worldview set against itself (that is, the worldview of those who would choose the practical over the artistic). 

• Lyrical Description: This story, as ethereal as it is, is perfectly suited to the long-form poetry within these pages. It is a story enmeshed in place, an ancient and still somehow timeless city, and the lyrical descriptions that build up this city are unparalleled. It is immersive, and only poetry could do it justice. 

• Perfectly Paced: This story is slow to develop and evolve--as, I think, it should be--but the format of free verse poetry makes it an incredibly fast read. Therefore, what might otherwise have been a difficult to slog through is balanced perfectly. Form and function come together to allow this ethereal tale to find its perfect balance. 

Cons

• Free Form: I have a lot of respect for poets, and I have a lot of respect for the free form poets I know. I don't usually take issue with free form. Here, however, the unstructured nature of this poetry felt just a little bit... lazy? I don't like to say that at all, but this was a book that could have benefited, at least a little bit, from some structure. Maybe mixing up poetic forms, even, could have added some necessary structure instead of having all of it be so ungrounded and loose. Some of these poems just felt like prose passages that somebody had hit "indent" through until it looked like a poem. And that's fine. It just wasn't always great. 

• Poetry Drowns Drama: This book is undoubtedly lyrical and poetic. I praised it for as much up above. But at the same time, this lyricism drowns some of the more dramatic scenes. There were a lot of opportunities for high-tension and high-stakes sort of drama—in the plot if not in the actions of the rather level-headed characters—but the lyrical nature of the poetry overshadowed this potential. This book was missing that necessary spark of dramatic investment. I just didn’t care too much. 

• No Chemistry: Similar to the point above, character chemistry is another casualty of the poetic form employed here. The characters are fine enough. They stand on their own. Their stories are unique and interesting, but when it comes to the love story developing between the two main characters, it just... didn't hold any interest for me. The romance happened. I had no objection to it. But emotional investment? That wasn't the case. The chemistry wasn't there, at least not on the page. 

Rating

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

6/10

Those looking for another whimsically dark long form poem after Christina Rosetti's Goblin Market should check out this new poetic narrative. Those who appreciated the beach and waves of Hannah Reynolds's The Summer of Lost Letters will like this new book so grounded in its old setting. 

Details

Publisher: Peachtree Teen
Date: May 10, 2022
Series: N/A

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Note: I was provided with an ARC by the publisher through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions here are my own.