Very clever, unconventional in places—particularly a fine use of two column for fictional reasons—brutal, dark, modern interpretation of a haunted house story centering queer people. Alice, a trans woman, Ila, a cis lesbian (questioning, me thinks) went into a particular haunted house 3 years ago and emerged traumatized and with permanent, hateful scars related to their identities.

The structure shows both characters living fairly ideologically opposed lives, clearly influenced by unresolved trauma; essentially haunted by the events. Then, as they converge, we get the perspectives of the house, various flashbacks interspersed, a convergence of past and present, and abstractions that culminate satisfyingly, and, finally, an epilogue. The structure is exceptional and functions well.

The prose are contemporary genre fiction, have good flow, and are pretty clear. Functional but I think stylistically indistinct. It’s also a bit padded. Thematically, this worked quite well, though I think meanders too much in regards to aforementioned padding at the start. The meat and potatoes of this thing is in the back end, and it really picks up, pace wise.

It’s a feat that it manages to navigate to the ending that it does. The metaphors and allegories are mostly clear and very novel to me. How it ties into intersections of fascism, who and how people are hurt by the interactions—what it says about western culture, I think works, and does it well. It’s an excellent debut. Not being a horror reader really, I can’t really speak to genre specific things. It feels subversive and compelling and completely new to me.

It has a note at the start; a content warning situation, and that is warranted. There’s sexual assault and brutal damage to bodies and wildly harmful slurs in it. All of which is pertinent to the story being told. Do be in a headspace to handle the most brutal things done to queer identities and bodies, though.