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Book Review: A Guest in the House by Emily (E.M.) Carroll
Title: A Guest in the House
Author: Emily (E.M.) Carroll
Published: First Second, 2023
Rating: 4.5 of 5
Page Count: 255
Total Page Count: 522,490
Text Number: 1901
Read Because: fan of the author, hardback borrowed from the Timberland Regional Library
Review: Our protagonist finds her new marriage haunted by memories of her husband's first wife. I've been mildly dissatisfied a number of "speculative metaphors for issues of female/queer identity" narratives lately, specifically graphic novels. I'm thinking of The Low, Low Woods, Squad, The Deep Dark: all phenomenal concepts sincerely explored; but all too simple or too solved in a way that, instead of the conceit extending the issue of identity, it somehow pulls it neat and tight and resolved, which doesn't resonate with me.
And then A Guest in the House, which is distinctly not that. If anything, the resolution is too many twists not quite resolved, but I'll take that over the alternative. I still have a grip on the story, and the fact that there is no clear, solvable line from haunting to identity to plot reveals to resolution is what I've been missing in other similar stories. It keeps things weird, keeps things thorny and complicated, which does resonate. When I Arrived at the Castle does it better, is more consistent in tone & better plotted, but I like the contrast here of the protagonist's pedestrian daily life and the strangeness of her inner world.
Author: Emily (E.M.) Carroll
Published: First Second, 2023
Rating: 4.5 of 5
Page Count: 255
Total Page Count: 522,490
Text Number: 1901
Read Because: fan of the author, hardback borrowed from the Timberland Regional Library
Review: Our protagonist finds her new marriage haunted by memories of her husband's first wife. I've been mildly dissatisfied a number of "speculative metaphors for issues of female/queer identity" narratives lately, specifically graphic novels. I'm thinking of The Low, Low Woods, Squad, The Deep Dark: all phenomenal concepts sincerely explored; but all too simple or too solved in a way that, instead of the conceit extending the issue of identity, it somehow pulls it neat and tight and resolved, which doesn't resonate with me.
And then A Guest in the House, which is distinctly not that. If anything, the resolution is too many twists not quite resolved, but I'll take that over the alternative. I still have a grip on the story, and the fact that there is no clear, solvable line from haunting to identity to plot reveals to resolution is what I've been missing in other similar stories. It keeps things weird, keeps things thorny and complicated, which does resonate. When I Arrived at the Castle does it better, is more consistent in tone & better plotted, but I like the contrast here of the protagonist's pedestrian daily life and the strangeness of her inner world.