Disclosure: I was sent a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.
We hear in the news that there is a huge problem in our country with opioids. Perhaps you know someone who has been or is addicted to them. Perhaps you are like me and do not. But what is life like for the family members of the addicted? Today I am sharing a heart wrenching young adult novel about a girl who has to deal with her mother's addiction and find a way out of the mess her childhood house gives her. The book is The House No One Sees by Adina King. It is recommended for ages 14-18. I believe this is a very accurate recommendation. I would not have wanted Hazel to read this book before she was 14 due to the heavy nature of it.
Penelope Ross has always felt like a passenger in her mother’s fairytale - until the night of her 17th birthday, when she is forced to enter her own.
After a text from her estranged mother rips her away from a night with friends, Penny is forced into a kaleidoscope of memories locked inside the dark labyrinth of her childhood home. As Penny wanders between present and past—prose and verse—she must confront her mother's opioid addiction to mend her fractured past. But the house is tricky. The house is impossible. It wants her to dig up the dead to escape. And as Penny walks through herself to find herself, she is not sure she has the courage to free the light she trapped inside.
From Me:
This story begins with Penelope being out at a fair with her friends on her birthday. While in the fun house she gets a text from her estranged mother asking her for help at her childhood home. Penny goes without telling her friends. She is doesn't want to go into the house, but she does. The memories come flooding back. All the memories are written in verse, and present time is written in prose. In the house she feels trapped. Stuck in the memories from her childhood as well as her own feelings about her mother. Her mother is addicted to opioids. She spent much of Penny's childhood sleeping and high. Penny lived through a lot--much more than any child should. The reader learns the story in the verses. Penny feels like the house is alive and that no one can see it or her. She has to overcome some of her feelings and fears to escape the house.
The book can be confusing at first. I wasn't sure if she was disabled based on how her friends talked about her and to her. As the book went on, I realized in many ways she is mentally disabled from her past. The story is heart wrenching. It is hard to read with the mental abuse she went through. The story is deep and eye opening to someone who has not had to deal with drug addiction firsthand. It is obvious how awful it is to live like this. The story is well written and very interesting. Your heart will break for Penny. You will be scared for her and rooting for her. Throughout the book she goes into a land of a fairy tale she lived in or at least that is what she called it. She thought it was her mother's fairy tale but realizes it is hers. It is a world of her own making where the house is alive and talks to her. It is how she survived as a young child. She has to go through it to escape the house and get back to her life.
This book is one that would be interesting for a class discussion. It is about our current events with the war on opioids going on. It gives a view of the horrors of the drug and how it affects the people around ones who use it. It also is just an interesting book to learn about an experience in this world.
