Welcome to Litsy!

My reading concentration took a major hit due to the leveling up of authoritarianism and political violence (Padilla/MN targeted killings/militarization of protests) this week. Great to see the mass No King nationwide protests, but overall this has been a dark dark week for this country. As far as current reads: Jeff Strand's fun macabre middle grade Finder's Keepers, Rivers Solomon's Model House, Lethem's Fortress of Solitude.

Incredible haunted house story which deals with family secrets. Not for the faint of heart and there‘s lots of abuse and neglect both real and perceived. Sibling rivalries and misunderstandings also run rampant. Lots of hurt.

Rivers is an auto read author for me. I never come away unscathed from their books but they are always ALWAYS worth it. Haunted homes, haunted families, haunted mother/child relationships - yes.

Thank you #ToB25Longlist and @Megabooks for bringing this book to my attention.
It‘s a dark, unsettling story of childhood trauma in a haunted house.
The siblings Ezri, Eve & Emannuelle have escaped their childhood home but return when their parents go missing. Finally they uncover the truth about their home and their youth.

I had no idea where the book was heading but I loved it despite the sadness and darkness.

If you have any issues with trauma, this hits hard. I thought it was well done and explored many topics faced by marginalized communities. It is not your average horror novel. It is very clever and does not back down from the uncomfortable. I read it in solidarity with Trans Week of Visibility + Action.

This was a disturbing book. Some houses are haunted by spirit entities, and some are haunted by the living. Haunted with hatred, fear, racism and violence.
This one gives me very Jordan Peele vibes and I would love to see it adapted onto the big screen.

This was an unsettling, painful story of childhood trauma, family secrets, and a house that haunts the siblings who've escaped it. When their parents go missing, Ezri, Eve & Emannuelle gather in Dallas for the first time in years. Ezri finds the bodies of their parents, an apparent murder-suicide. The truth about their complicated relationship with their mother and each other gradually comes to light, as does the horrifying truth about their home.

I liked this so much. 3 siblings reunite after the death of their parents in the home they grew up in. The home they all believe is haunted. This is about how as adults we can be haunted by the trauma we experience as kids from haunted houses, from parents, from racism. There was a lot in here and it ends up being darkly brilliant. The writing is strange. Sentences will start out lovely but will end jarringly. It disorients you. Pick!

As a Gen X gay man, I found myself a bit confused by the pronouns & gender references, as well as some of the terminology—like “xe.“ I must have missed the memo on that one! While it may not be the most crucial part of the story, it did occasionally distract me and take away from my overall enjoyment.
Yeah, I know, soon I'll be yelling at clouds.
But if you can stick with the story until the end, the resolution is absolutely worth the journey!

I have mixed feelings about this title from the #ToB25 longlist. In many ways, I love this novel. I love the uncertainty about the narrator's reliability and what it says about trauma and family and internalizing/blaming oneself for bad things that happen and how predators use this to their advantage. But the path it takes is through some terrain reminiscent of the 1980s pulp novels I read from my mom's bookshelf, which takes away from the effect.

DNF around 100 pages.

Wow. Just wow. This book takes a haunted house story and puts it through a funhouse mirror. I don‘t want to say too much. Just read it.

Ezri has returned to Dallas with their daughter to be with their sisters when both parents die suddenly and violently at home. The three siblings untangle the knots of childhood trauma as they deal with their parents‘ deaths and the house that may have caused them.

A brutal, brilliant, unsettling masterpiece that upends the typical haunted house novel. The story focuses on Ezri and their two sisters, who grew up in a McMansion in a white suburb of Dallas, where strange and increasingly terrible inexplicable things happened. There's a lot here about trauma, memory, racism/segregation, and parenting. As a parent, I found this book very impactful but simultaneously difficult to read. CW: childhood sexual abuse

Very dark!

"Maybe my mother is God, and that's why nothing I do pleases her. Maybe my mother is God, and that's why even though she never once saved me, I keep praying that this time she will."

Wow, what a beginning that this book is absolutely living up to.

#BlackBooks #QueerBooks #Horror

Wow. This is a truly gifted writer, some heavy topics, and unique style. Dealing with race, gender, spiritual and other abuse - it is effortless in its disjointed prose. A family, a house that anchors trauma. The neighborhood, the forces of external traumas. A family and a weaving of personas. Beautiful only in a way storytellers can make ugly into captivating.Trigger warnings for abuse in novel.

#HauntedShelf @PuddleJumper #HexesandCrows @Catsandbooks

This might not be my favorite book by Rivers Solomon, but I am still a fan. They have such a unique writing style that always impresses and surprises me while reading. I'll admit, I don't always connect all the dots right away, but their books leave me contemplating things for a long time after I've read the last page, and that for me will continue to bring me back to their writing.

3.5/5

Ezri returns to their childhood home where they and their siblings grew up as the only black family in a white suburb to find their parents dead in an apparent murder suicide. The siblings are forced to confront their pasts to determine what really haunted that house their entire childhoods.

As with many of Solomon's reads this dealt with a lot of difficult topics including racism and child abuse. It was a good book, but a hard read.

A haunted house story unlike any other. Ezri moved to England to escape the house they grew up in. But now all 3 Maxwell siblings have to return to the house that still haunts them in order to move on. But is the house really haunted--or is something else going on? Every trigger warning imaginable on this one. The exploration of trauma and sibling relationships was expertly done, and the twist at the end took me truly and horrifyingly by surprise.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ “Nightmare Momma,” or the “Woman with No Face, or the house itself? What‘s real, what‘s not? There is so much pain. Ezri and their sisters return to their mysterious childhood home after both parents are found dead. There‘s a lot to unpack, and it‘s challenging to describe. Literally and figuratively harrowing. Stunning writing.

My #WeekendReads

Finished product! 🎧🧩 #audiopuzzling

🎧🧩 This book. Wow. Just can‘t stop listening.

#audiopuzzling #dogsoflitsy

Ezri is returning to their childhood home when their siblings are concerned about their parents, who turn out to both be dead. From there, we see the dynamics in the family and the particular struggles of genderfluid and possibly autistic Ezri with the background of a haunted house story. I was fully riveted by this and found the reveal about the house harrowing and satisfying to the story.

This quick listen is less the haunted house story that I expected & more on family pain, lingering trauma & racism, gender/sexual fluidity. When the Maxwell family moves from NYC to an affluent area of Dallas, they are the only family of color. Now, 35 years later, oldest child Ezri returns to unite with siblings along with their child, Elijah. Shifting from past & present, this engaging listen has big clues making the final reveal not a surprise.

My spooky/paranormal themed October TBR

#FrightClub #HauntedShelf @Jadams89 @PuddleJumper

#bookspin #doublebookspin #bookspinbingo @TheAromaofBooks

The three Maxwell sibling have been staying away from the house they grew up in for years. Something unexplainable took place there. Is the house itself evil? Now they are forced to come back and face their past.
I found parts of the story interesting, but overall it didn‘t quiet work for me. It was not a book I was eager to get back to.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the advance copy.