Room For Rent

Nya has one semester of college left and almost no money. That is why she stays in a rundown house with cheap rent, even though her roommate Sidney is odd in a way she cannot name.

Then small things begin to happen. Each is easy to explain away, the sort of event a person could persuade herself she imagined. But nobody else lives in the house, so the cause cannot be anyone else.

A broken lease is out of reach for Nya, and she has no proof of anything. Like many students in her position, she works out the sums and decides to hold on until the term ends.

The first half of the book is a slow build of domestic unease, told close to Nya as the pressure tightens room by room. After that the book moves past it.

The mind games turn out to be preparation for something larger in Sidney's plans, and Nya has lived with them for months by the time she sees the difference. The pace is patient, and the setting grows steadily more claustrophobic.