House of Cotton
Books | Fiction / Southern
3.3
Monica Brashears
FINALIST for the 2024 NYPL Young Lions Fiction Award • NPR BEST BOOK OF 2023 • An enchanting Black Southern gothic debut, perfect for readers of Mexican Gothic... "Fresh, haunting...In her roller-coaster ride of a gothic debut novel, Monica Brashears upends expectations at every turn." —The New York Times“Every page, every scene, every sentence of Monica Brashears’s debut novel House of Cotton dazzles and surprises. An intense, enthralling, and deeply satisfying read!” —Deesha Philyaw, author of The Secret Lives of Church Ladies"A new, dazzling, and essential American voice." —George Saunders, author of Lincoln in the BardoOne night, while working at her dead-end gas station job, Magnolia Brown encounters a mysterious, slick stranger named Cotton. He offers to turn her luck around with a lucrative “modeling” job at his family’s funeral home—where she will pose as clients’ dead loved ones. She accepts. Despite earning more than she’s ever made, Magnolia finds that her problems are fattening along with her wallet. And when Cotton’s requests become increasingly strange, Magnolia discovers there’s a lot more at stake than just her rent.This roller-coaster ride of a novel upends expectations at every turn. A bold new talent in the gothic tradition but with a style all her own, “Brashears offers a fresh new perspective on Appalachia and the American South, and Magnolia’s rich voice will echo with readers long after the pages are closed” (Shelf Awareness).
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More Details:
Author
Monica Brashears
Pages
304
Publisher
Flatiron Books
Published Date
2023-04-04
ISBN
1250851920 9781250851925
Community ReviewsSee all
"Not for me."
M
Maya
"Great writing. Wasn’t hooked by the plot. "
Julie Accardo
"This is going to be one of those books that sticks with me for a long time as I pick apart all of its layers. I have taken a few days since finishing the novel just to collect my thoughts on it and my thoughts are still scattered... <br/> House of Cotton centers on 19 year old Magnolia Brown, just after her grandmothers death. She is all alone in the world with $19 in the bank, a bad job working the night shift at a gas station, and an unsavory landlord breathing down her neck about rent. On the night of her grandmother's funeral she encounters a strange white man who fluffs her up with compliments and offers her a job as a model. With financial tensions building she decides to take a job with the stranger, which offers a chance to save everything, but at what cost...<br/> Monica Brashear's slowly takes the reader on a gothic mystery tour of the south but not in the way most people would expect. There is not cold case or crime to solve, the mystery for the reader is simply in what will happen next and where all of this is going. She skirts the line between sexuality and the macabre with a fine toothed comb, that makes this book truly unexpected and exceptional. Overall, you have a story of grief, and coping with loss, but under its skin you have social commentary on race, class, sexuality and coercive control. <br/><br/>Thank you to Flatiron books for an ARC of this book as well as some Carolina Nettle lipstick. I look forward to reading more from this author in the future. This book is set to be released April 4th 2023."
Nicole Falche