The Cake House

The Cake House by Latifah Salom, 329 pages

Fourteen-year-old Rosaura's father committed suicide on the same day that her mother left him for another man. But because he killed himself in the front room of the other man's house, Rosaura now has to live in the home of this new man, with her increasingly drugged-up mother, a sexy new stepbrother, a shady new stepfather, and the increasingly violent ghost of her father. Salom's debut novel, The Cake House is spooky, unsettling, and laced with plenty of Shakespearean themes and references. It's a decent book, though it's probably a bit bleak for a summer read. Read it if you really like unlikeable characters.