Dear writers: Please be aware of ongoing scams by agent impersonators. Use extra caution with any unsolicited offers from agents. Reputable agents will not ask for upfront fees of any kind. For more information, look at sites such as Writer Beware (https://writerbeware.blog/). Please always check email addresses/spellings. All official emails from Donald Maass Literary Agency will come from an address that ends in @maassagency.com (2 A's, 2 S's in MAASS).

Starred Review: COLD EMPTY ROOMS by Andy Marino

Nov 092026
 

Cover for the book COLD EMPTY ROOMS by Andy Marino. The cover features the title, with the word "Empty" appearing as if behind a thin layer of fog. The cover also shows a house made of mostly wood. It appears as if it may be small like a doll house, sitting on the floor and in front of a dull green wallpaper. Yet the house itself is in the style of a real house, not the cartoonish or cute aesthetic of a typical dollhouse. It is faded, weather-beaten wood. The interior lights shine through the windows of the house.BookPage: Downtrodden lovers Mara and Soren are the first to find the house, abandoned and in dire need of restoration. In it, they see a kind of salvation, a safe place for all misfit things, a utopian sanctuary for a new community. Soon, other wanderers arrive, all seeking shelter and acceptance from an outside world that doesn’t want them. But as more people experience the house’s power, strange new mysteries appear, like rooms filled with bones, dark symbols on walls and an empty baby cradle. What the house offers isn’t clear, but what’s happening to all its residents involves one commonality: pain. Cold Empty Rooms (Run For It, $19.99, 9780316594141) is unsettling from beginning to end, and author Andy Marino’s sen­tence-by-sentence writing is wonderful. Even when it’s terrifying, Cold Empty Rooms is simultaneously tender, personal and elegant.

 November 9, 2026  Tagged with: ,