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House of Cotton
House of Cotton | Monica Brashears
A stunning, contemporary Black Southern Gothic debut novel by a breakout new Affrilachian writer A new, dazzling, and essential American voice. --George Saunders, author of Lincoln in the Bardo, winner of The Booker Prize Mystical, carnal, and written in fire, House of Cotton ushers Monica Brashears straight onto American lit's mainstage, which she should grace for a long time." --Jonathan Dee, author of The Privileges, winner of the Prix Fitzgerald Nineteen years old, broke, and effectively an orphan, Magnolia doesn't have much to look forward to. She feels stuck and haunted: by her overdrawn bank account, by her predatory landlord, by the ghost of her late grandmother Mama Brown. One night while working at her dead-end gas station job, a mysterious, slick stranger named Cotton walks in and offers to turn Magnolia's luck around. He offers her a lucrative "modeling" job at his family's funeral home. Magnolia accepts. But despite things looking up, Magnolia's problems fatten along with her wallet. When Cotton's requests become increasingly weird, Magnolia discovers there's a lot more at stake than just her rent. Sharp as a belted knife, this sly social commentary cuts straight to the bone, revealing the aftermath of the American plantation and what it means to be poor, Black, and a woman in the God fearing south. Impossible to put down, Brashears's House of Cotton will keep you mesmerized until the very last page.
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BiblioBoyd
House of Cotton | Monica Brashears
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Mehso-so

Not a go-to genre for me, but it kept my interest throughout. I‘m not really sure what to say about this one. The beginning of the novel reads like a historical fiction, and then the main character pulls out her phone and searches Tinder—which was a bit jarring. In the end, I found the storyline to be quirky enough that I was able to overlook its flaws.

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LynnMPK
House of Cotton | Monica Brashears
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Mehso-so

This is a literary fiction book mismarketed as horror. The author is definitely talented (and it‘s a debut!) but I just didn‘t connect with it. It‘s not something I would normally pick up but I found it to be highly readable.

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ImperfectCJ
House of Cotton | Monica Brashears
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Pickpick

This definitely has some of the hallmarks of a debut, but I really enjoyed it. Brashears digs deep into motivation and emotion, the things we cling to at our detriment and others', the things we avoid facing and the ripple effects of avoiding facing the things that need facing. At its essence, this feels like a coming-of-age novel. A little more bodily fluids than I prefer, but not distractingly more. I like novels focused on Appalachia.

51 likes2 stack adds
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Addison_Reads
House of Cotton | Monica Brashears
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Mehso-so

While I didn't like this book as much as I had hoped, there were still some aspects I thought were brilliant.

House of Cotton is more of a character study focused on Magnolia than a gothic horror novel. She finds herself alone and without any money when her grandmother dies and what follows is her struggle to survive as a young woman in the South.

It's dark, gritty, and has some supernatural components with even more trigger warnings.

underground_bks I felt similarly and also gave it a so-so! 1y
50 likes2 stack adds1 comment
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AnnRaz
House of Cotton | Monica Brashears
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“The most traumatic events happen on the most insignificant days.”

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AnnRaz
House of Cotton | Monica Brashears
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Enjoying this one

6 likes1 stack add
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underground_bks
House of Cotton | Monica Brashears
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Mehso-so

In this gritty, ghostly Affrilachian gothic debut, Magnolia, in the wake of her grandmother‘s death and possibly pregnant, takes an offer to “model” as the late beloveds of the rich at a funeral home run by the strange Mr. Cotton. The voice and VIBES are all there, and this book has much to say about grief, death, race, class, and sex in the Bible Belt, but the plot was about as substantial as its ghosts and the ending was abrupt and unsatisfying.

Suet624 Great review. 💕 2y
underground_bks @Suet624 thank you! I wanted to do it justice while also sharing my critiques! 2y
31 likes3 stack adds2 comments