{Whatcha Reading?} A White Room by Stephanie Carroll

I'm a sucker for haunted house books, so this book's description of twisting furniture and a house that conspires against the heroine immediately drew me in. The spectres are all in Emeline's own mind, but her story is every bit as haunting as any ghost story I've ever read. I would've devoured it in one sitting if  my Kindle hadn't shut itself off at one of the most crucial points. (I really should start to pay attention to those warning beeps and plug it into the charger when I hit a halfway decent stopping point!)

From the publisher's description --

At the close of the Victorian Era, society still expected middle-class women to be “the angels of the house,” even as a select few strived to become something more. In this time of change, Emeline Evans dreamed of becoming a nurse. But when her father dies unexpectedly, Emeline sacrifices her ambitions and rescues her family from destitution by marrying John Dorr, a reserved lawyer who can provide for her family.

John moves Emeline to the remote Missouri town of Labellum and into an unusual house where her sorrow and uneasiness edge toward madness. Furniture twists and turns before her eyes, people stare out at her from empty rooms, and the house itself conspires against her. The doctor diagnoses hysteria, but the treatment merely reinforces the house’s grip on her mind.

 

Emeline only finds solace after pursuing an opportunity to serve the poor as an unlicensed nurse. Yet in order to bring comfort to the needy she must secretly defy her husband, whose employer viciously hunts down and prosecutes unlicensed practitioners. Although women are no longer burned at the stake in 1900, disobedience is a symptom of psychological defect, and hysterical women must be controlled.

A novel of madness and secrets, A White Room presents a fantastical glimpse into the forgotten cult of domesticity, where one’s own home could become a prison and a woman has to be willing to sacrifice everything to be free.

 

The book isn't available yet, but you can sign up at Stephanie Carroll's website to be notified when it does come out this summer.