Book Title: WHITE RABBIT
Character Name: Penelope Willows
Interviewer: How would you describe your family or your childhood?
I live with my mother who is named Louie. She has brown hair and brown eyes and works at Pete’s Place on Tuesday and Thursday and at Benjamin Franklin’s on the weekends. She likes to take pictures of the ocean and smokes cigarettes when she’s feeling sad. I find them in the toilet when she forgets to flush. I have an aunt named Sharon who lives in West Virginia. Everyone calls her Apple because her hair is very red. She took me to Minnesota once. I ate chicken nuggets from McDonalds for the first time.
Interviewer: What about your dad? What’s he like?
I do not want to talk about him.
Interviewer: What is your greatest talent?
I can spell all the words on the even pages of the Webster Dictionary. Not many people know how to do that.
Interviewer: You’re eleven years old. Do you have a best friend?
My best friend is the ghost of Sylvia Plath. She once lived in the same house I live in now.
Interviewer: What do you like to do together?
We like to sit on the rocks beside the ocean and think about all of the things that live in the sea. There are over one thousand new marine species discovered each year. Julien told me that once when we were playing Rummy. He was losing and telling me this made him feel better.
Interviewer: Do you have any enemies?
I do not have any enemies, but I do not like the color red. If someone is wearing a red shirt or red shoes, I cannot talk to them.
Interviewer: I don’t understand.
The color red gives me the jeebies.
Interviewer: Do you have any pets?
I have a cat named Monet. He used to belong to Mrs. Thompson until he decided that he likes me better than he likes her. I thought this might make her sad, but it doesn’t. Monet is grey and white and likes to catch mice and leave them dead on the porch. Mom does not like when he does this, but I always tell him thank you so he knows that he is a good cat.
Interviewer: What do you want to be when you grow up?
I do not know the answer to this question.
Interviewer: Would you like to be a teacher?
No. I would not like this. I don’t like people very much.
Interviewer: How about a doctor? Your mother says you’re very smart.
No. I do not want to be a doctor.
Interviewer: What makes you happy, Penelope? What brings you joy?
I like when Monet sits beside me on the couch and he starts to purr.
Interviewer: And what do you like to do for fun?
I like to go to the museum with Mom and count all the bones in the whale skeleton that hangs from the ceiling. There are three-hundred-and-fifty-six of them. Mom sits on the bench while I count. Sometimes I make a mistake and have to start again.
Interviewer: What is something that makes you sad?
I don’t like this question.
Interviewer: Can you try to answer it?
I am sad that Winthrop High School did Hairspray for the spring musical. Dad always hated that show.
Interviewer: What is the most pressing problem you have right now.
Mom says we are going to West Virginia next week to visit my grandmother and aunt. West Virginia is far away. I know this because I went last summer and it took six hours and eighteen minutes to get from here to Wheeling where my grandmother lives. There is only a half tank of gas in Mom’s truck. This will not be enough to get us to West Virginia, and this makes me nervous.
Interviewer: Surely your mother will stop for gas on the way there.
Sometimes she forgets about things like this.
Interviewer: What will you do in West Virginia?
I will see my grandmother who sits in a big green chair, and we will eat Kentucky Fried Chicken and mashed potatoes. Apple wants to take me to get a manicure, but I don’t like it when people touch my hands.
Interviewer: Will the ghost of Sylvia Plath go with you?
Yes. She likes West Virginia, too.
Interviewer: One last question, Penelope. What is something you are proud of?
I am proud that I fixed the masks that hang in the attic. Dad left them dry and broken, but I fixed the cracks and made them right again. Now, when I go to talk to them, they are happy to see me. Thank you, they say. Thank you, Penelope, for making us whole.
WHITE RABBIT by Abigail Rose-Marie
Narrator: Lauren Ezzo
A haunting novel in which a girl grapples with her father’s sudden departure and her new companion—the ghost of Sylvia Plath—in a crumbling seaside house that holds more secrets than memories.
In a yellow house perched on the crumbling edge of Massachusetts Bay, eleven-year-old Penelope Willows is living in the shadow of loss. Her father is gone, leaving behind only whispers and shadows, while her mother drifts further away each day, lost in her own grief. Left alone in a home that seems frozen in time, Penelope clings to her routines, counting everything she can—logs by the stove, soup cans in the pantry—hoping to hold the world together.
But this is no ordinary house. It once belonged to the poet Sylvia Plath, and her presence lingers in every corner, her ghost becoming an unexpected companion to Penelope. As the days stretch on, Penelope begins to hear the echoes of Plath’s poetry in the wind, feel her sadness seep into the walls, and see her ghost in the mirrors and empty rooms.
When Penelope’s mother begins to withdraw further into her own world, leaving Penelope more isolated than ever, the girl’s grip on reality starts to fray. Haunted by the absence of her father and the presence of a ghost, Penelope must navigate the treacherous waters of memory, madness, and the fear that she, too, will be lost to the abyss.
Coming of Age [ Union Square & Co., On Sale: July 14, 2026, Hardcover / e-Book / audiobook, ISBN: 9781454966258 / eISBN: 9781454966265 ]
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About Abigail Rose-Marie
Abigail Rose-Marie is a writer from Grand Rapids, Michigan. She holds a Ph.D. in creative writing from Ohio University and an MFA from Bowling Green State University. She currently lives with her wife and their very spoiled pets in Utah.
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