This was a moving ghost story that explores Jewish and Czech history and folklore.

Ilana, a biracial Jewish girl is sent from her home in Miami to her aunt in Prague. Her parents' intention is for her to focus on studying, as they are not willing to accept her desire to pursue music. Ilana was a compelling character - likeable and sympathetic whilst still very much a teenage girl.

Whilst in Prague, Ilana discovers an abandoned Jewish cemetery and begins tending for the graves there. It's there she first meet Benjamin, a ghost from the early 20th Century. These events are used as heart-wrenching exploration of death and remembrance, and, in particular, the horrors of the Holocaust and the scars it left behind.

The story is written in prose but don't be put off by this. I admit I probably wouldn't have given it a chance it hadn't been available as 'read now' ARC, but I actually found it really easy to read, and Romero uses her words and imagery magnificently.

Overall, a beautiful, haunting story I highly recommend.

I received a free copy from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Ilana Lopez is a biracial Jewish girl of immigrant parents who want more for her. A stable career, a good man, and a good income.

Ilana dreams of becoming a violinist. And she is talented. But her parents don’t believe she understands how difficult the life of an artist can be. So to teach her that they send her to Prague for the summer to stay with her artist aunt. There she is to study hard for her SAT exam and hopefully learn a lesson.

And she does. She learns about history and music and ghosts and more.

Behind her aunt’s house is an old Jewish cemetery. Overgrown with weeds and left to nature. She is determined to clean the cemetery and while there she meets Benjamin. A boy her own age. Except he is rather dead.

But they talk and while she cleans his grave, he shows her a different side of Prague. One where ghosts live. Everyone is enchanted by her and none so much as the old man Rudolph, who has no shadow, which is odd. He is obsessed with her and her music, even giving her a violin. He then offers to share his magic so she and Benjamin can be together. But Ilana finds out a secret and she is willing to lose this boy she has come to love if it means he can be free.

This is a very different story. A bit of magic, myth, and just a brilliant writing style.

NetGalley/May 10th, 2022 by Peachtree Teen

To start off, I should say that this type of book isn't what I usualy read or what I feel drawn to.

The book itself is well written and story is a very interesting one. I loved how the main heroine in the end learned how to fight for what she loves and fight for a life she needs.

Overall, I liked the story. It wasn't nothing too grand, for me, because as I said before this type of book isn't my favourite, but in the end it was ok.

I'd like to thank the publishers for sending sending an arc of the book through Netgalley!

The Ghosts Of Rose Hill is a unique story with a writing style I'm not used to but fell in love with pretty fast. It took me a while to get through the book but I really enjoyed the read.

The story follows a 16 year old Ilana as she goes to Prague and meets the ghosts of Rose Hill and falls in love with Benjamin a ghost who is stuck at the age of 16.

I loved how multidimensional each character was and how beautifully their character arcs were constructed. The author has also done a fabulous job with remaining true to the Jewish heritage of the character.

Overall it's a stunning read that everyone should put on their TBR right now!!

"Maybe
my father is still running from Prague.
Maybe
my mother is still fleeing Havana.
Maybe
my entire family is still trying to escape history.
(But if that’s true, what am I doing here, drowning in it?)"

Thank you NetGalley and Peachtree for the chance to read and review The Ghosts of Rose Hill by R. M. Romero.

I was a little confused when I started the book. I liked it, but I was like, is the formatting just off? Well, turns out NetGalley put it in the poetry section for a reason.

Do I like modern poetry? No. 9 times out of 10 I don't care for it and I have to think of something nice to say because I like the poet. In this case, it weirdly works, and while individual quotes won't work for you, the overall effect of the book does. It makes it soft and slow and perfectly conveys a haunting, and the darkness behind it.

Ilana has been banished from Miami for the summer. Her parents have taken her violin and want her to focus on studying for the SATs for the summer in Prague with her aunt.

"I fight with my parents. I dream about monsters. What else do you do when you’re sixteen?"

They also hope that the life of a writer will scare Ilana away from becoming a musician and turn to a more sensible career. Ilana instead tends to a cemetery and meets a Jewish ghost named Benjamin, who shows her around Prague and the ways in which it's haunted by more than just ghosts.

"I want to clean Benjamin’s grave, lay a stone there for him.
(Flowers would wither
and fade. A stone is eternal— like memory,
like love.)
But how can I honor a disappearing boy when I don’t even know where he’s buried?"

Ilana meets the 3 other ghost children, all Jewish; it was a rabbi who had cast the man without a shadow out of his original home. While she wants to join them and be understood for her music in their home, she slowly comes to understand what it means to be a vodnik and why the ghosts are fading.

"If you must live with a monster, it’s safer to be adored by him above all others."

Can't wait to see more by this author in the future!

Thank you to NetGalley and Peachtree Teen for the eARC of the ebook!
I typically don’t like poetry or books written in prose. I find that books like that can be hard to read and connect with. I didn’t have that issue with this book at all. It was beautiful. The story was poignant and well rounded. I felt Ilana’s emotions though all of it. The use of prose added to tone Romero was trying to achieve. The Ghosts of Rose Hill has been one of my favorite reads this year. Again, thank you for the opportunity to read it.

This book has an interesting concept. It is good for readers who enjoy books written in poetic verse.

it's how I chose to live now,
honestly and with courage.

Contender for best book of 2022. Can confirm: must-read.

Sent away to Prague, Ilana discovers a forgotten Jewish cemetery, where she meets the ghost of Benjamin, and comes to learn the terrible truth of the man who offers his home as a shelter to the ghosts of the forgotten children of Prague.

Written in verse prose, The Ghosts of Rose Hill is a shattering tale of discovering your own strength and laying your demons to rest. Inspired by her experiences restoring Jewish cemeteries in Eastern Europe, R. M. Romero presents Prague as a fairy tale cityscape, haunted by the ghosts of Nazism and Communism. The story is flooded with allusions and allegories to myth, legend, history, folktale, and is so rich in feeling and atmosphere.

As Ilana confronts the man responsible for the suffering heaped on Benjamin, Pearl, and all the other forgotten ghost children for so many years, I just broke completely. There were lines where I couldn't stop crying, the terror of the black house and Ilana as the hero returning to set them all free. It's so powerful and moving, and I think it will speak to anyone who understands the dynamics of childhood abuse, even without a personal connection to the religious and racial discrimination explored in the legacy of the story.

It's no exaggeration to say reading The Ghosts of Rose Hill was a life-affirming experience, and I know it will be one of my favourite books of the year.

I am grateful to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an ARC of The Ghosts of Rose Hill. These opinions are my own.

Thank you to Peachtree Teen ​and NetGalley for providing me with an advanced copy of this book.
What an enjoyable read. It wasn't as I expected. The author's writing style was unique and stands out to me. The ghost-romance was strange, at times; however, it didn't heavily affect my overall experience. I would recommend it to anyone looking for an unforgettable reading experience. Just be aware of the heavier content/topics (Nazis).

3.5 Stars, rounded up to 4 for review purposes.

This book reminded me a lot of VE Schwab's City of Ghosts + Gallant + but make it poetry. Set in the city of Prague and told from the POV of a biracial Jewish girl. This story touched on identity struggles of a young teen while also connecting us to historical events of her heritage. While I did enjoy this YA novel in verse, I didn't absolutely love it. It was a lush story, but read more like a condensed novel than a novel in verse to me.

This book gave me "Call me Athena" vibes. La historia esta contada de una manera similar, cosa que llamó mi atención. Otra cosa querescato fue que el género era fantástico, el fantasma me agarró por sorpresa y la idea de hacer "el coco" fue bastante original.
Ahora, el final me pareció medio raro, como que no se terminó de definir o por lo menos no se entendía bastante bien.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.
This book could have been so good, if not for the format it was written in. Similarly, the author could have written a very pretty poetic short story. The poetic format made the scenes and dialogue's drama seem muffled. The whole story felt like I was building up to something that never happened. Now, the idea for the plot was good, even if Ilana falling in love with a ghost was weird, to say the least. But the execution was just not it. I also thought Ilana was annoying and talked weirdly, but again that could have been because of the poetic format.

“The Ghosts of Rose Hill” is an enchanting story told in verse prose and inspired by the author’s experiences restoring Jewish cemeteries in Eastern Europe.

Ilana Lopez, a biracial Jewish girl, is sent to live with her aunt in Prague after her parents decide that her dream of becoming a violinist is not the right choice for her, and instead wish for her to pursue a more stable career.

In Prague, Ilana discovers a forgotten Jewish cemetery behind her aunt’s cottage. As Ilana decides to restore the cemetery, she grows close to Benjamin, a boy who died over a century before. Benjamin introduces Ilana to an unknown Prague, one where ghosts walk the streets alongside the living.

I was really curious about how I would feel about reading a story told through verse prose. For one, I was not expecting to like it so much, and I think there wouldn’t be a better way to tell this specific story.

“The Ghosts of Rose Hill” reminds me in some aspects of a fairytale. It is beautiful, magical, and whimsical, but also dark and tragic. But it is also much more than that. It explores themes of trauma, specifically generational trauma, and self-discovery. It reflects on how history and memory, both personal and of cultural groups, can influence identity.

Thank you to @netgalley, @peachtreeteen, and @rmromeroauthor for providing me with an eARC in exchange for an honest review!

The Ghosts of Rose Hill is a haunting and cinematic read. It had a bit of a slow start, but I felt fully invested once Ilana arrived in Prague and the city began to work its magic. Romero builds off well-known myths into an original tale all their own. The writing style beautifully captured the ominous sacredness of cemeteries. I loved that Romero used their experiences restoring Jewish cemeteries for this book; this added details which really shone through. I would recommend The Ghosts of Rose Hill for those who love myths with a twist, exploration of diaspora, and lyrical prose.

The Ghosts of Rose Hill releases on May 10, 2022. Thank you to R.M. Romero, Peachtree Teen, and Netgalley for a free ARC in exchange for an honest review.

For publisher: My review will be posted on Instagram, Goodreads, Amazon, Storygraph, and Barnes & Noble etc

I really enjoyed this magical fantasy read, set in contemporary Prague. It is a historical fiction in some way with the reference to the Holocaust and the early 20th century. I absolutely loved the representation - Latina Jewish! Fantastic. However I did find the 'romance' to fall a bit flat and did not feel any chemistry or really understand why it was there. The reference to myth and inclusion of myth was really interesting to read.

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.

While I did enjoy reading this one, I'm not exactly sure what I read. I was a little confused by the book. But I still enjoyed it.

The highlight of the Ghosts of Rose Hill is most definitely the writing. It's beautiful, lyrical, and I like how the author weaves Prague and the Jewish history of the city. It made the overall reading experience better than it was.

All the characters felt surface-level and there wasn't much personality in Ilana to make me feel attached to her. I thought the cemetery-restoring would be interesting but ultimately it let me down. I also feel like the romance wasn't necessary — it felt forced and while we get to see Ilana and Benjamin go around the city and spend time together, I didn't really feel like there was enough growth and development for them to actually fall in love yet.

I feel like the magical elements also fell a little flat for me. I don't know, I feel like that aspect would have been better in prose than poetry, just so that everything could be fully explained, instead of being just a little bit vague.

Still, this was a nice read to pass the time and I like the glimpses of Prague that it gives us.

This was an absolutely magical reading experience, enhanced by beautiful verse writing. I loved every minute of this story and thought it was told in the most wonderful language. The descriptions of the setting of Prague were so vivid and fantastical that I longed to be there myself.

As well as being magical and stunning, the novel deals with themes of identity through its central character Ilana, a biracial Jewish teenager who is sent to live with her Aunt in Prague. Upon doing so, Ilana learns more about her culture and heritage. When she falls in love with a ghost, she learns more about Jewish history and embarks upon a journey of self-discovery. The novel deals with difficult themes in a poignant and sensitive way.

I also enjoyed the mythical aspect of the novel, and the retelling of monstrous stories featuring monstrous creatures. Although she faces monsters, Ilana shows great bravery in strength, making sacrifices to overcome evil. I was delighted to follow her on her journey to self-discovery and watch her stand up for her dream of becoming a musician.

I absolutely adored this beautiful book!

I genuinely am not sure where to start with this book other than I absolutely loved it so much.

I’m generally not a fan of novels that are inverse because it’s just a hard format for me to follow, but I started this and I couldn’t put it down. The story was so beautiful and made me cry several times, especially the last few chapters.

I so so loved Ilana and Benjamin and their relationship. I thought the cleaning of the cemetery and them bonding over that and their Jewishness was beautiful, even if it was heartbreaking that Ben was a ghost.

If I went on, this review would get extremely repetitive because all I can say about this book is that it was so so beautiful. The story, the message, the artwork, the ending, every single thing. If I had to nitpick ANYTHING, I wish there had been a more closed ending with her family and friends, but that’s just because I like more closed ended books.

Other than that, this book is possibly my favorite that I’ve read of the entire year and I want to recommend it to any and everyone.