Elizabeth and Zenobia by Jessica Miller (review)

Elizabeth mourns her mother, who left, and she's worried about her father, who's so lost in sorrow that he floats through life, oblivious and empty. She hopes that settling in at Witheringe House, his childhood home, will help, because sure, when does going back to a creepy, dusty rambling estate where tragedy once occurred not snap someone right out of their misery? Elizabeth's best friend, Zenobia, who loves Edgar Allan Poe and all things creepy, and who might be entirely a product of Elizabeth's imagination, comes along too; that's just as well, since the evil in Witheringe House might be too much for Elizabeth to tackle on her own. There's an appealing ambiguity in what exactly Zenobia might be; it's clear that she's not like Elizabeth, but it's left vague whether this is some ghostly attraction of opposites or merely Elizabeth parceling out her personality. This Australian import is an ideal mix of eerie gothic mysticism and realistic interpersonal dynamics, and fans of Auxier's chilling The Night Gardener (BCCB 3/16) will find an excellent readalike here, right down to the eerie plant involvement in all that's going wrong. Final illustrations not seen.