I really liked this book! It was such a fun read to prepare for my pride month marathon. I adored the queer representation and the photography aspect of it all. I definitely want to read more books by this author in the future. Recommended if you like road trip books and lots of queer rep!

The characters in “Housemates” had some moments of nuance that were beautiful and challenging and realistic but the way the author structured the book was tricky for me. I didn’t expect so much character/narrator backstory before Leah and Bernie went on the road trip which meant I was speeding past some thoughtfully written observations/descriptions. I also felt out of the loop on why there was a narrator that was separate but connected to the main characters. It made it harder to piece together which character was feeling what at times because the narrator’s perspective was included. I wish the ending had felt either more wrapped up or more forward looking. It felt abrupt in a way that left me a little confused.

I think i missed the memo on why this an excellent book…. It’s not a bad book, i just had a lot of expectations going in.
Fat and queer bodies reps.
thank you NetGalley for the free eARC!

I feel like this book is going to dominate the "Best Of" lists this year, but unfortunately I had a really hard time connecting with the writing. It felt a little too detached and emotionless for me, even during moments that should have tugged at the heartstrings. BUT I think I'm going to have an unpopular opinion on this one.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House for sending me this book!

Suuuch a unique and emotional little novel that pulls inspiration from two real-life 20th century queer artists - photographer Berniece Abbot & her partner, writer Elizabeth McCausland - and reimagines them and their artistic collaboration in modern day Philadelphia as the characters of Bernie & Leah. It is not apparent from the book blurb that that Bernie and Leah are fictional, futurized versions of their real life counterparts. I wish Eisenberg had included this knowledge in an introduction rather than a thoughtful post hoc authors note, as it is a dimension that elevates the story from memorable fiction to a tender homage to forgotten queer history.

About half of the novel concerns the messy, beautiful, tumultuous queer drama of Bernie & Leah's lives as two of five housemates in a lively post-grad apartment. The other half tracks Leah & Bernie on a rambling artistic road trip, fondly reminiscent of Thelma and Louise & the overall genre of queer-coded rand trip, through the countryside of rural Pennsylvania as they work to execute a bold artistic vision. Though the first half is entertaining, the story really comes to life when the pair hits the road. Despite the whole novel being deeply rooted in Philadelphia and Pennsylvania at large, their time in the city lacks a concrete sense of place. Possibility this is because white queer leftist experiences are awkwardly universal - I couldn't stop imagining Bernie & Leah's house & life in the city as copypasted onto my vaguely similar experiences as a white queer leftist in Somerville, Massachusetts.

Throughout the novel, Eisenberg invokes bold and refreshing commentary on gender, queerness, fatphobia, and the role of identity in shaping both art & activism. The only piece that really didn't land for me was the odd framing of the story through the perspective of unnamed neighbor watching Bernie & Leah and imagining their lives. While technically I can read this as an allegory for Eisenberg themselves shaping a narrative from the lives of the historical figures being referenced, it adds a level of abstraction that doesn't otherwise fit with the grounded nature of the novel.

I wish I was still following Leah and Bernie around Pennsylvania, watching them fall more in love with themselves and each other. Housemates is a book that will stay with me for a long time.

I love a road-trip novel, and this is (mostly) a good one.

I liked the concept behind this one a lot, and the writing and dialogue are quite good. Structurally the book has some major problems though, and it really affected how I felt about it in the end.

I will echo the issue other readers put forth about this book, which is the baffling inclusion of the unnamed narrator. This feels like a miss in terms of storytelling. It feels gimmicky and needlessly takes away from the narrative of the two protagonists, and I kept waiting for it to mean something, for this person’s identity to be revealed, for…anything that justifies their presence, and there’s just nothing. It makes the end of the book a bit of a letdown and makes it feel unfinished.

On the positive side, Bernie’s story arc and the issues with her deceased mentor’s work and its effect on her own work is fascinating and made for great content. Leah’s character is a lot less interesting because she isn’t given the same type of intriguing backstory, though she’s no less likable.

The book is worth reading purely for the road trip content, and also for the well-drawn and sympathetic protagonists. With a bit of structural cleanup, this is probably a 4 or 5 star book.

There are many layers to this book. It’s narrated by a character largely removed from the main action, an older woman who is mourning her partner, whom she refers to as her “Housemate.” This narrator observes Bernie and Leah, roommates-turned-artistic collaborators-turned couple, who are the novel’s main driving force. They meet when Bernie answers an ad for another queer roommate, and though there are flirtations between various of the five roommates, Bernie and Leah are drawn to each other especially through the legacy of Bernie’s complicated photography mentor.

I was drawn into this one by the promise of a queer road trip. Initially, I was hooked, especially since Eisenberg’s prose is keenly observant, often profound. I loved the narrator’s descriptions of her grief tinged with the homophobia that shaped her relationship. However, as the book went along, I found that it tried to tackle too much without fully achieving most of its goals. The frame narrator felt underdeveloped, the road trip through central Pennsylvania short (though they do stay at a “Patel motel,” something I want to track literary references to!) and a bit heavy-handed. The Me Too accusations against Bernie’s mentor (who treated her fine) also deserved some more exploration.

It felt like this book was for and about the kind of people for whom Trump’s election in 2016 was a major perception-shifting moment (no shade, but that is not me). Within this, though, Eisenberg critically examines whiteness, including in how class and fatness differentiate Bernie and Leah, and I found that compelling if, again, a bit underbaked. Ultimately, this is about sticky, uneven relationships anchored by artistic collaboration, itself uncomfortably magical, and trying to understand yourself in relation to another person and a sprawling country.

This was a pretty interesting read. At first I was bit confused, but as the story progressed I began to connect with the characters and their journey. It was nice to go along on a road trip that felt authentic and cathartic. By the end, I felt like I had good understanding of the characters and their lives. Definitely a sweet story I would recommend others check out.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the arc.

Bernie and Leah are contemporary artists trying to find ways to make their marks on the world, but in very different media. Bernie is a photographer, trained in large format photos by a master of this lost art, her former professor, Daniel Dunn. She has a good eye and has made some images that got good reviews, but she hasn’t made enough to support herself with her art. Instead, Bernie’s working at a coffee shop and a library just to make ends meet. She’s recently been accepted to live in a big house in Philadelphia, sharing with four roommates, including Leah. Leah is a journalist, and also a grad student. They’re non-binary, and have a relationship with another housemate, Alex. That said, there’s some frisson of attraction between Bernie and Leah nearly from the start and they intrigue one another.

Bernie has recently been notified that Professor Dunn has bequeathed his estate to her. They haven’t spoken in some time, and he became an alcoholic recluse following accusations of impropriety with other female students. Bernie has mixed feelings about the inheritance, needing the money, but repulsed by gaining anything from Dunn’s legacy. Leah has a grant to write about people and places that are far more interesting than the vignettes they submit for a small paper. Leah thinks the trip to collect what Bernie can from the inheritance might provide inspiration for both of them to get back to their artistic endeavors.

Over the course of a few weeks, they tour the highways and byways of Pennsylvania, pausing often to set up the camera for Bernie to document whatever catches her fancy. Leah thinks that their writing could supplement the clarity that Bernie’s images evoke. Changing Pennsylvania, their collaborative work, is meant to be a visual and verbal mobile art installation that will serve humanity as it educates about art. This brainchild is mostly Leah’s, but Bernie is definitely on board. They develop a strong connection to one another, one that Leah really wants and one that Bernie’s afraid to trust. She’s sure that returning to the house will mean a return of Alex to Leah’s bed.

This was an interesting take on twisting real life queer pioneers into a contemporary fiction novel. It doesn’t actually behave like a romance, though there are romantic elements, and a lifelong love that develops between Bernie and Leah. Bernie is modeled after acclaimed photographer and documentarian, Berenice Abbott, while Leah is modeled after Elizabeth McCausland, a famous art critic who was Berenice’s life and art partner in the early to mid-20th century. The story here isn’t meant to be biographical, but there are elements that somewhat parallel the kind of “housemates” life that Berenice and Elizabeth may have experienced in the 1930s when they met, as they needed to create space for their love in a way that wouldn’t ruffle other’s feathers. There’s also a character, Ann, telling part of the story, narrating as if watching Bernie and Leah, finding their growing love in the open, in contemporary times, to be a balm over her own tainted memories of the “housemate” she wasn’t allowed to publicly claim, despite their years of “quiet” or clandestine love. Ann felt modeled after an older Berenice, to some degree.

I liked the story. It has a lot of social justice themes and some bold takes on how queer persons with privilege should use it to the betterment of all their community. Leah and Bernie certainly echo their real-life counterparts, because those women were committed to striving for equality for all. The format of the book was a bit off-putting to me, with no quotes and the constant changing of POV. Pacing and transitions were a little odd, with all the head-hopping and flashback/flashforward moments. I sometimes struggled to determine if the characters were speaking to each other, or just considering what they might say if the event they pulled together the courage. This was especially true for Bernie’s parts because she really thinks a lot about what she’s going to say before she opens her mouth.

I think fans of speculative fiction, or those who enjoy twists on the historical archive of queer pioneers, would enjoy this story.

this was one of my most anticipated reads of the year, but i'm dnfing at 54% in.

unfortunately, it was a letdown for me and i tried, i really tried, including waiting for release day to see if consuming this on audiobook would help.

here were my issues:

1. the writing. there are no quotation marks. none. this style makes for a very confusing read for me, personally. i also felt like the writing felt very much like i was reading a technical paper written in school.

2. how weight/fatness was written about. more writing issues included the very strange way that fatness was written about. here's an actual quote: "But there was Leah's hand. Small nails, rounded pudgy fingers with little pockets of luxurious fat stuffed under the skin between the joints." as a person who is fat, i'm certainly okay with acknowledging weights of characters, but this writing felt fetishistic to me, almost?

3. i dnfed about 54% in when there was this line: "Leah had spent more than one hour of her life googling "Emily Ratajkowski breasts" and masturbating to the results." literally, what is this. emily ratajkowski is a real person. why would you write this?

4. for a "queer road trip book" the actual roadtrip doesn't start until a good 30% of the way in. at that point in the story, there was a side plot about a disgraced photographer that served as a mentor to one of the main characters, but i felt extremely icky reading this as the reason he was canceled was because he was preying sexually on his students. and yet his chapters felt weirdly romanticized with part of the roadtrip including a jaunt to a cabin where he'd left the bulk of his life's work to one of the main characters.

5. even despite all of this, i felt extremely disconnected from all the characters and it felt next to impossible to be engaged. big disappointment for me.

Happy pub day to housemates! tldr; go buy and read this book (especially for Pride Month).

In the beginning, I had conflicting feelings. I wasn't drawn to either of the main characters, Bernie or Leah, two queer mid-20s trying to figure out their lives in West philadelphia. Part I of the book felt choppy at points and the mysterious omniscient narrator confused me. This narrator seemed to be stalking Bernie and Leah - excuse me? There were flash backs that didn't seem to transition well. As I said before, choppy.
By Part II when we get to the crux of the book and they are on the road trip across pennsylvania creating art and a big portion of the trip talking and sharing deep thoughts, i fell in love. I loved the dialogue, and the setting of a road trip is described perfectly as I've driven a lot of those roads of rural PA.
By the last few pages, I was tearing up. This is a beautiful coming of age story, reckoning with queer identities, body dysmorphia, love, romance, and the ultimate question - will we ever be good enough?

Thanks Netgalley for providing this ARC.

Housemates feels like it was written specifically for me, in this moment of my life. And maybe it feels especially personal because I am a fat queer person who lives in Philadelphia, but I think that the heart of this book also transcends those identity markers. The representation is incredible, yes, and you can’t extricate the queerness or fatness from these characters, but I really think this book will affect many others in the way it has affected me. The writing is gorgeous, the characters feel so fleshed-out and real, the story is both nostalgic and fresh. I truly foresee this becoming a classic queer novel, one that perfectly captures the feeling of a specific period of time. Housemates is a marvel in its simplicity and tenderness, and I will be recommending it to every single person I encounter for the foreseeable future. Thank you to Random House for the ARC and the chance to meet Leah and Bernie early and spend a little extra time with them.

Two young queer artists go on a roadtrip to make cool art!

Housemates brings you along in this journey towards identity, creativity, reinvention, and acceptance. Leah and Bernie, our main characters, are queer artists figuring out what they want their lives and art to look like. This story focuses heavily on the creative processes of both our writer, Leah, and our photographer, Bernie, as they figure out how to translate the world into art that means something and produces change. It's also successful in its exploration of queer friendships and relationships (as well as the messiness that can often come from them!).

One of the strongest topic this novel discusses is how fatness changes the experience of being a human both internally and externally. Some of the most powerful chapters explored how Leah felt about being perceived, interacting with the world around her, how limiting and dehumanizing it often felt. I really identified with a lot of it; the exploration of this theme provided the space and language to process a lot of my own emotions about it.

The only reason I couldn't give this book a five-star rating is because the narrator's story and our main characters' story didn't feel like it came together in any meaningful way (or at least it wasn't clear to me). Of course, there are parallels between their stories, but I was hoping it was building up to something emotional or impactful. It didn't. More often than not, it took me out of the story.

Another thing to note is that this is written without the use of quotation marks. I don't mind that at all, especially when the text is still clear in terms of who's speaking and what's being said. However, I know some people have strong opinions about it, so it's best to know it in advance.

I think this book is a great addition to your Pride Month TBR! Thank you to NetGalley and publisher for providing a review copy of this book.

i liked housemates but also found it forgettable. this book didn't quite stick with me like i wanted it to - some flat characters, disjointed time jumps, and a distant second person narrative device felt amateur despite some interesting themes around queerness, found family, art, and young adulthood. i enjoy ECE's non-fiction writing and didn't feel that this debut fiction was up to par with that.

A really fantastic story! This novel centers around Leah (writer) and Bernie (photographer) and their roadtrip that they take together to capture Pennsylvania. The plan is for Bernie to take the visual pictures in large format photos and Leah to capture additional context from her writing. Jointly, writing and photography will capture more than each can individually. The story is told through the perspective of Ann Baxter. Ann is an older woman whose personal life mirrors Leah and Bernie as Ann is a photographer and had a life partner (Ann refers to them as “the Housemate”, as that’s what homophobic critics called them) who was a writer. The story opens with Ann recounting how the Housemate’s death caused her to retreat from the world. Ann stumbles upon Leah and Bernie and her obsession with their lives pulls Ann out of her depression. Ann tells their story with occasional bits of commentary on her own life popping into the story.

I really enjoyed this novel! I live near Philadelphia and it’s always fun to read stories that take place in your “backyard”. I enjoyed the little interactions that Bernie and Leah had with people during their roadtrip. It honestly reminded me a little bit of Kerouac and Steinback’s roadtrip novels, but updated to today and with queer women as the main characters. Leah and Bernie are fascinatingly imperfect characters and I want to hear more about them and their careers. Also I want to know if Ann eventually moves in with them (kind of kidding, kind of not). I also want to know what happens with Violet and Lucy Vincent. And the other housemates. A wonderful novel that I encourage everyone to read!

Housemates by Emma Copley Eisenberg was an excellent story.
I found myself so absorbed by the writing and characters.
It's a fabulous story with characters that you can truly empathize with.
I loved how she brought these characters to life on the page.
The writing was fantastic. Emma Copley Eisenberg kept me hooked and flipping the pages.

Thank You NetGalley and Publisher for your generosity and gifting me a copy of this amazing eARC!

“There’s nothing to changing your life, it turned out. You just put a toe in and fell.”

‘Housemates’ by Emma Copley Eisenberg explores two queer housemates who embark on a three-week road trip across Pennsylvania to document it through their respective mediums: writing and photography. Unbeknownst to them, this journey will be a formative turning point in their lives as individuals and artists.

I was sold on a road trip because doesn’t that seem so fun? But this story touched on a lot more without making this a heavy read, which is why I think it will make a lot of summer reading lists. Also, the cover is *chefs kiss*

Bernie is the newest addition to the house in Philadelphia, where Leah, her girlfriend, and two other housemates reside. While Bernie navigates the recent inheritance of her disgraced professor, Leah and her connect through their mutual admiration for art. So when Leah gets a grant to pursue her project, it comes at the perfect time for them to pursue their aspirations while learning about themselves and the people of the state they call home.

Art is central to this story, which is one of the reasons I enjoyed it. Bernie is a film photographer, and film is one of my favorite hobbies. This made me remember why I loved it so much that halfway through reading, I bought another film camera. This is just a testament to Emma’s writing that she successfully conveys the beauty and complexity of the medium.

With Leah, I appreciated how Emma spoke about writing, body image, relationship with food, her insecurities and desires for how she wants to show up in the world in an honest tone that did not fall reductive to recycled sentiments.

The ending was great, as there's an ominous third party narrating that I loved seeing revealed. It is an ode to community, art, love, creating yourself, and a love letter to Philly.

Thank you, Hogarth, for the e-arc!

this book is a truly beautiful story, rich with characters on their journeys of self-discovery. the narrative offers a emotional commentary on america, society, and the struggles many of us face. definitely a powerful and insightful read!

many thanks to netgalley and the publisher for the arc!

Thank you to the publisher for the advanced copy!

This was such a powerful and profound read. Centered around two young housemates who go on road trip around central Pennsylvania, embarking on a coming of age journey for them both.
Having grown up in Pennsylvania, I could relate to so many things the girls were seeing. The writing was so elegant and beautiful. The way the author talked about life was so different than anything I have ever read. We see the state of Pennsylvania was the eyes of these two characters as they use their art to convey it to an audience. We see the characters go through many events that became huge parts of the recent history.
The book remained me a lot of normal people in this way and told in the third person perspective of someone watching them both.
Bernie and Leah are such special characters and seeing their journey set in such a special state (I’m bias) was truly beautiful to read about.