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 the VIBES are all there, and this book has a lot to say about grief, death, race, class, and sex in the Bible Belt South. The writing is strong and beautiful—a writer to watch.
House of Cotton by Monica Brashears, (List Price: 27.99, Flatiron Books, 9781250851918, April 2023)
Reviewed by Megan Bell, Underground Books in Carrollton, Georgia