This is one of those books while reading it that you’re not sure what genre/category to put it in. It’s YA but at times it feels like a mystery bordering on horror. Are her visions real? Is she having a mental health crisis? Are they ghosts or memories or demons?

I loved learning about Sara’s culture and family. It was amazing how they could be so close yet distant. So open and closed off at the same time. While Sara makes some questionable decisions (questionable, awful, dangerous, I’m trying not to judge too harshly) she is trying to make amends with her family. There are so many adults in her life that aren’t paying attention to her. They’re wrapped up in themselves and trying to deal with their own issues. She’s constantly making mistakes but she’s a 16 year old girl who seems to show signs of PTSD and no one is like hey we should get her some help. It’s really heartbreaking to read because it happens a lot.

I thought the author did a great job of showing what generational trauma can look like. Sara is trying to be a cycle breaker without even really understanding what she’s doing.

Wow… I didn’t expect this book to be so intense! And I mean it in a good way, guys. I have been reading romance novels at a stretch, so reading a book with a dark & mysterious theme was such a nice change, tbh. The premise was really intriguing, and I was deeply engrossed in Sara’s journey of uncovering her family’s long-buried secrets. Uhh, I don’t want to spoil the story, so I won’t be talking a lot about the plot.

The representation of the author’s own Afghan-Uzbek heritage was clearly visible through her writing style and the setting of the story. The paranormal aspect of the book, as well as the portrayal of the generational trauma, was really well-written, in my opinion. The issues that Sara dealt with in the book were really relatable at times – especially with the guilt we sometimes feel surrounding our family members. The author mentioned that writing House of Yesterday was for her, like a fever dream – and the book exactly felt that way. There were times when I felt a little lost in the story, mainly because of the paranormal aspect, but I liked how everything wrapped up in the end.

One of my favorite parts about House of Yesterday was Sara’s relationship with her grandmother. The way she dealt with her grandma’s deteriorating mental health was heart-wrenching and made me really emotional at times.

The book deals with a lot of heavy themes, so make sure to read the content warnings before starting it!! Overall, the book was a good read, and I am looking forward to more from the author!

I was so pleasantly swept up into this magical realism tale. I thought the author did a great job of balancing the ghostly visions with deep emotions. This allowed the story to come to life instead of being kitschy. Sara was dealing with the pain of her parents impending divorce, her grandmother’s battle with dementia as well as complicated friendships. I love how culture played an important role in Sara’s story as well as within the dynamics of her family life. I was not familiar with many of the beliefs and events that were mentioned but I enjoyed learning about them through the eyes of this family. This book is suspenseful, heartbreaking, and hopeful all at the same time. I highly recommend this one! I can’t wait to see what this author does next.

'House of Yesterday' by Deeba Zargarpur is hauntingly beautiful and will linger in my heart for years. Happy release day to the book!

I read this book in one sitting - it was that addicting and heart-wrenching. I spent most of the AM hours reading and spontaneously breaking into tears. The main character Sara is a 15 year old girl growing up with her large Uzbek-Afghan family in America. She's got an amazing and loving family so all's well right? Absolutely not.

This is an immigrant family with years of intergenerational trauma - we're not leaving this story scar-free! Her parents are separated (welp), her beautiful grandmother is ill (i'm still crying), she hasn't talked to her best friend in a year (covid vibes) and there's this crusty old house her mom is redeveloping that has decided to haunt her (a normal Tuesday for us depressed girls).

The house and its associated ghosts take Sara for a joyride on the highway of family lies, suffering, reflecting on grief and suffering and closure. The author found a way to maintain the spooky factor of this story with all the pain of life in between. I was equal parts crying and also making sure I wasn't seeing any shadows in my room.

I love books that depict real family relationships - the good, the bad, the confusing. Sara has nine aunts, one uncle, all their spouses, and their army of kids. Her interactions with her grandmother, her khalas, and her cousins just made the grief and love in this story that much more real. The best part is that with the pain, with the tears, comes the healing. There is so much hope and a reminder that love is powerful and that your relationships and reliance on friends and family can change your life for the better.

This story will haunt me for a while and then some.

(Also, Sara may be forgiving but I don't have to be and I'll fight her dad anyday.)

House of Yesterday is perfect for everyone. It shakes up what you thought you felt about your family and existence, forces you to face them and takes you on a ride of pain and healing like no other.

Thank you Macmillan Children's Publishing Group, Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR) and Netgalley for providing me an eARC of this book!

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing this eARC.

House of Yesterday follows Uzbek-Afghan teen Sara, who copes with her parents' impending divorce and her grandmother's illness by unraveling secrets about her family's history that are hidden in a property her mother is renovating for the summer.

This book was gorgeous. It digs into themes of family and memory and loss, and Sara's journey is one that definitely had me tearing up at various parts in both sorrow and joy. I do think it has a bit of a slow start, especially for readers who have a lot to learn about Sara's culture, but overall House of Yesterday was a riveting and heart wrenching read.

Once I saw the cover and knew that this book has Afghan Rep, I definitely sign up without checking the whoke synopsis 😭💙

My thoughts:
I mean, Can I be frank enough?? I just have no idea where to start😭 This book hooked my heart!!!
I can't tell how much I care about the characters and was so thrilled to see how the story would go. It was out of my expectations!!! 🥹 I couldn't put the book down, couldn't stop myself from turning the pages.
This book has a compelling plot and it was super fun seeing how Sara's communication goes with those unseen objects. Just, I feel annoyed by how Sara treated Sam sometimes. I love how the whole family is united and it's happiness to see such a lovely family who cares about each other.

I, myself, do love ghost stories a lot and was hoping to get to know one but also scared at the same time.

I mean I'm sorry for how I set my review randomly, trust me, I just don't know how to express my love and how glad am I with this book😭🫶🏻

3 words for House of yesterday:
Thrilling, Heartbreaking, and Captivating

Sara Rahmat's life is slowly falling apart at fifteen years old.  Her parents are going through a divorce, her Bibi Jan's memories are being taken by dementia and there is a huge rift between Sara and her best friend, Sam.  Sara is hoping to get through the summer uneventfully and is forced to help with her mom's house flipping project. Upon entering the abandoned house on Sumner, Sara is overtaken with emotion. Then, Sara spots a young girl who bears a strong resemblance to her family, only to have the young girl disappear.  As summer continues, Sara is drawn to the Sumner house and the family mystery that she feels destined to uncover there. However, in her obsession, Sara pushes away her family, her friends and even some parts of herself. 
Told in a lyrical prose, House of Yesterday is a haunting, contemporary young adult story that covers so much more than coming of age.  The overarching theme seems to be the question of 'who am I?' Sara asks this constantly as she tries to unravel the mystery of Sumner house.  As Sara says:
 " Who am I?
I am Sarah Rahmat and not.
I am American and not.
I am Afghan-Uzbek and not. 
I am the product of a grand love story and not. I am and I am not. "

The writing so perfectly captures the lost, unknown, angry and in-between feeling of being a teenager through Sara's point of view.   While Sara is trying to heal her own internal wounds, it seems like she is making a mess of everything in the outside world, but all she really wants to do is pay homage to the past and her families roots.  I'm glad that both Sara's parents, large extended family and friends were supportive, understanding  and had her back through everything that she was trying to deal with.  I loved the mystery of Sumner House and how the memories of Sara's family played out as she brought the house objects from her grandmother's past.  I also loved the heritage of Sara's Afghan- Uzbek family.  Without it being the center point of the story, traditions, values, language and the immigrant experience was weaved throughout.  I absolutely devoured this book and loved the mix of paranormal and very real issues of growing up. 

This book was received for free in return for an honest review.

The truth has three sides. Memory is fallible. Families do what they think are best for us. Families try to spare us the dark side of life. Sometimes families just lie.

Families keep secrets. They may not even mean to, but maybe one day someone says, “This isn’t something we should talk about right now,” and then it’s never spoken of again, and then it becomes a tacit, silent agreement between all parties to never speak of it again. Before you know it, a generation or two has passed, and that secret has either become a family legend or a secret kept so well no one ever knew it ever existed.

“The House of Yesterday” is an elegantly put together paranormal-urban fantasy that relies heavily on a neat bit of serendipity: Sara’s family owns a house-flipping business on Long Island, New York, and they get a wonderful house with good bones that they want to flip pretty quickly. However, on the very first day Sara and her mother enter the house to take the very first pictures before renovations start, strange things start to happen at the house. These things start small but grow very quickly, all centered around Sara as she comes to realize that at some point in time, her beloved grandmother (who now has dementia) lived here and once had a daughter that no one else in the family has ever heard of nor ever seen. It becomes clear the house will not let Sara rest until she solves the mystery of what happened to little Malika, the family member none of them ever knew.

In the background of this book there is a heartrending and dramatic subplot about the separation of Sara’s parents, how much pain her mother is going through, and how much Sara blames herself for the situation they are now in. Another subplot involves her best friend, Sam, whom she hasn’t spoken to since the night her dad left her mom and for some reason she can’t get herself together enough to mend their friendship, even though he keeps reaching his hand out to her.

This book draws you in with its promises of ghosts and secrets and deep emotions, and it keeps you there with all of those things plus how invested you get in solving the mystery of the house (or, in exchange, if Sara’s mind and memories are medically fallible and someone needs to get her professional help) and with how deeply Sara really does love her family and wants to heal it however she can. So much of what she loves has been broken that she just wants to fix something for once. It just so happens her opportunity comes at a high, paranormal price.

It’s a beautiful book, full of melancholy, grieving, loss, and hopelessness. There are times when you don’t know if this is going to end well at all. I wouldn’t hold out for a happy ending: it’s more of a it-will-be-okay-someday ending. But it’s well worth reading simply for the beautiful intergenerational relationships and lovely prose.

Thanks to NetGalley and Farrar, Straus and Giroux for granting me access to this title in exchange for a fair and honest review.

File Under: Coming of Age/YA Paranormal Fantasy/YA Fantasy/Ghost Story/Standalone Fantasy/YA Fiction

3.5
HOUSE OF YESTERDAY follows Sara who, after her mother buys a house to flip, is thrust into the mysteries of her family, particularly her grandmother who is suffering from dementia. Throughout the story, Sara learns a lot about her family and the secrets her grandparents kept. It took me a bit to get into this one and understand the course of the story, but I enjoyed learning more about Sara's family alongside her. This was a quick, fast-paced book, but some parts of the story didn't flow, especially regarding some of the flashbacks; the jumping back and forth could get overwhelming. Sara as a character wasn't super likable because we didn't get a lot of time with her just being a teenager--she was constantly having to act on these ghost stories, so I didn't feel particularly motivated to root for her. There was also some drama with her childhood best friend and her parents' divorce, and all of these elements could get hard to focus on because they were related but not; there was a lot to keep track of. Overall I did enjoy this and would recommend it, especially if you enjoy family dramas and ghost stories.

I loved the haunting eerie vibes of this book a lot! The air of mystery was really appealing and I enjoyed the ghostly walk through the House of Yesterday. this book explored family and grief and loss in such a unique way and it was told very visually. It almost felt like I was dreaming when reading it. Everything had like a layer of mysterious creepy haze around it which was pretty cool.

The characters were interesting and I really liked the bits of Uzbek-Afghanistani culture sprinkled in. I deifnitely wish there had been more, but understand since it wasn't meant to be centered on the culture. I'm also grateful that there was zero romance. I'm always happy when it's strictly platonic relationships. They tend to hit harder anyway!

While it did drag a bit around the halfway point, the climax was very fun to read, especially because it was so heavily family oriented and the memories were so interesting. I think this is a really good read for someone who likes a little air of mystery, some self discovery, and a little bit of family drama!

I absolutely devoured this book.
My ratings on books are typically about how I feel during and after the book, so buckle up for this one.

I am pretty sure I’ve never resonated with a character as much as I did with Sara.
The author did an incredible job of weaving the painful past with the crumbling present time of Sara’s life.

I felt her pain; I’ve had the same experience of your whole life unraveling around you, watching your dreams fade away, life feeling terrible and bleak while trying to grab onto something to keep you from drowning. Which is often anger. Anger at everyone around you. Sarah is struggling to keep her family together and believes she can if she can just solve the mystery of her Bibi Jan’s earlier years.

I was so happy to read about those who were trying to reach for her- to give her the life line she needed even though she was being unkind to literally everyone.

Feeling that type of grief and anger is crushing and all consuming. Deeba Zargarpur wrote that emotion into her story woven with aspects from Sara’s Afghan-Uzbek heritage.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the eARC of this novel. 3/5 stars.

Sara, and Afghan-Uzbek teenager, is struggling with MANY changes in her life. She wants to see her family whole again, with separated parents (due to domestic violence) and her Bibi Jan suffering from dementia. While helping with a house her mother is flipping, Sara starts to discover family secrets due to some magical, almost Jinn like influences and visions. This completely changes her, and it results in her losing touch with reality.

Look, the cover is stunning. I loved the synopsis...but it fell flat for me. I know this is reflective of me not being the target audience, but it pained me that not ONCE did someone see Sara basically having hallucinations and a lack of clarity...and decide to have her see someone? or put her in in-patient? There's also no explanation for why there are memories or visions or ghosts that appear...even at the end when the mystery gets 'solved' no one really questions the vision or the ghost that appears...there's just...no explanation at all.

There are some really good lines, though, about family history and memories in this book.

Thanks so much to BooksForwardBFFs and Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR) for the copy of this ARC.

House of Yesterday is such a unique YA book, touching on the memories and trauma of the past and how they affect the present in a tangible way. The author drew from her Afghan-Uzbek heritage and used it to create a generational immigration story that's framed perfectly for a YA audience in this a coming-of-age novel. I loved the embodiment of the ghosts from the past and thought it added a very cool layer to this story.

I was really excited to read this one. It has important themes but I didn't like the main character. She was really mean to her best friend but I also felt like it was a very accurate portrayal of mental health and how it can effect relationships. I connected with her a little with her parents divorce. The ghost house/memories aspect was interesting. This was a fast read, little over 300 pages.

This was one of the best books I have ever read. As a Central Asian woman, I grew up never seeing real representations of Tajiks or even Central Asians - we were always grouped with Afghans or we were grouped with those from the Middle East. The author has an Afghan-Uzbek background but she is also ethnically Tajik which I was so thrilled to find out and I chatted with her for a bit and we had so many similarities in our foods and traditions and it felt like talking with a long-time friend. I absolutely loved this book - the author really captured the essence of grief in such a beautiful way and she also added in the ups and downs of having such a big family with so many secrets in the past and the struggles of growing up Central Asian in a place such as America and not entirely fitting in, having to change your looks and your clothing and to some extent, having to change your name because people don't want to try to pronounce it properly. Sara is annoying but then again, she's also a teenager who is suffering from her parent's divorce, her grand-mother suffering from dementia and forgetting things quicker than they thought she would, she's also suffering from seeing her father move on and act as if nothing happened between her mum and dad. I think Zagarpur did an amazing job with this one and I cannot wait to see what she has next in store and I am so excited to see a Tajik author break through the North American book scene!

3 out of 5 stars (3 / 5) Sara’s parents are going through a divorce. Her most reliable confidant (her grandma) is slowly retreating into dementia and is not the source of strength Sara desperately needs. While distracting herself in her mom’s renovation business, she finds secrets and a past that she is intent on uncovering.

Immediately, the writing caught my attention. It’s lush and beautiful, almost poetic at times. The family was very large with an Afghan-Uzbek heritage. I loved the bits of information that was given about the past and what they went through to immigrate. I wish there was more info!


“Yes, secrets can hurt, but sometimes, secrets are the very things that hold us together. In my life, I’ve learned that, perhaps, secrets are the only things that keep us from falling apart.”

Sara finds what leads to many secrets in the old house and this is where the story lost me. Sadly, the writing just didn’t carry the story. It became warped and weird to the point I had a hard time following it. Memories and flashes of the past were dropped in multiple times and instead of flowing well, it felt choppy. What started so strong left me wondering multiple times what in the world was going on? While unique, it was not something I enjoyed.

The writing truly was beautiful, the writer has such potential. This story was just not enough to accompany the writing. It was strange, to say the least, it didn’t make sense. I couldn’t grasp what the author was trying to say until the end. Once the end hit, I understood but she’d lost me so long ago that I was not committed. Sara as the main character was spoiled, dramatic and a smart-mouth. While others showed her such kindness, she acted out against them and I got tired of her antics. I was hoping for some character development by the end but it didn’t happen.

It has a beautiful cover and beautiful writing and I wish that was enough for me but it wasn’t. I’d give it two stars if it wasn’t for the writing but the writing at least deserves the extra star.


Thank you to Fierce Reads for the gifted copy!

The book releases November 29, 2022.

Sara is a teenager of Uzbek Afghan heritage. Ever since her parents announced they're getting divorced she's been struggling with trying to adjust to the changes and dealing with her own feelings of guilt for the role she might've played in their divorce. Normally Sara would get advice from her grandmother, Bibi Jan, but she's been deteriorating ever since she was diagnosed with Dementia. To offset her sadness, Sara has been helping her mother with her house-flipping business, taking care of the social media aspects of the business, while her mom does the logistics and manages the labor. While at one of her mom's latest home renovation projects, Sara uncovers that the house they're rebuilding holds many secrets, one that might even be linked with her own families past. Sara also comes face to face with the ghost of her grandmother and begins to realize that the answers to the secrets she hopes to retrieve may be trapped somewhere in Bibi Jan's memories. To better understand herself and her family's history, Sara has to bring these secrets into the light.

I don't usually read much YA, but I was instantly captured by the premise of House of Yesterday, an intergenerational ghost story and knew it would be an incredible read. What struck me first about the book was the emphasis on memories. Both happy and the one's that we try to forget because of how unpleasant they are, even the ones that escape us because of dementia. Sara is haunted by her desire to unravel these memories and to find the truth behind the secrets that she feels her family is hiding. Sara initially pushes away everyone who tries to help, her cousin's and Sam a boy she knew growing up. I was quite concerned for her often feeling her pain in trying to piece together the past. It's also the story of a girl trying to better understand herself, her Afghan Uzbek heritage and how she fits into the United States. It's confronting those things that we bury that are hard, and that burying hard feelings doesn't make them go away. Sometimes we need to face them to go on. It's an emotionally impactful story, a coming of age and dealing with the ghosts of one's past. While the story is haunted by grief and secrets, it does have an uplifting and satisfying ending. I'm especially excited to hear that Deeba Zargarpur is working on a middle grade book titled, Farrah Noorzad and the Ring of Fate which has Farrah discovering her distant father is a jinn king after she traps him in a magical ring. The story will release sometime in 2024 from a brand-new imprint dedicated to showcasing epic journeys (fantastical and emotional), Labyrinth Road.

**A huge thank you to Jackie Karneth at Books Forward for the E-ARC via NetGalley **

Really cool speculative contemporary aspect, especially as it shows how the past generations continue to affect the future ones and what it means to hold on to that history. I did have trouble connecting with the story as it felt disjointed at times and didn't evoke the emotions it was supposed to in me.

As someone who has a family member who had dementia, House of Yesterday was absolutely heart wrenching. The ways in which it almost steals away a person's essence and how the process of grief begins before they're gone. From the very beginning, House of Yesterday had my heart in my throat. But as Zargarpur's debut continues, I couldn't stop reading. I loved the ways in which House of Yesterday examines the past, immigration, and the power of stories.

Events in our life can crash into our family and leave us with broken pieces and unspoken words. Deeply rooted in Sara's family, House of Yesterday discusses the times immigrants have to (re)transform, to make new homes, and turn nothing into a life. If that wasn't emotional enough, Sara's story is a quest to unravel the truth against the forces of her family and friends who encourage her to leave it alone. To discover the secrets and memories a house can hold. Giving the title even more meaning, I could not get over how metaphorical and fabulous this idea is.

Family secrets, loads of guilt, the slow loss of a loved one, ghosts, and finding one's place in the world mix in the most wondrous ways to create a gripping read...the kind that will also require a tissue box nearby.

Sara is in a bad spot in life. Her grandmother is slowly drifting away mentally thanks to dementia, her parents are caught in a divorce, and the entire world seems to be slipping out from under her. To help clear her head and grab some air, she decides to help her mother renovate a house for flipping. But this house isn't what it seems. Secrets swirl like foggy mist as a haunting past knocks at every turn...and nobody seems to be able to or want to help.

This book is beautifully haunting. While rooting in Sara's realistic problems with her grandmother and parents, it lets the secrets slowly unfold. The author compares writing this to a fever dream, and the comparison is actually not bad. It carries so much uncertainty and lack of clarity that many moments and scenes are fogged, at best. Purposely so. Sara is dealing with an unknown, and nobody seems to remember anything about it. The clues she gets and the ghosts she deals with aren't exactly clear and crisp, either. Plus, there's her own emotions battling to stay afloat. The lack of clarity incorporates into the writing, enough to carry a dream-like haze...and it's just right.

The mix of harder issues and paranormal secrets flows very well. Sara has to deal with the mental loss of her grandmother, which touches upon the harsh reality of dementia. Then, the divorce weaves another message as Sara struggles to come to terms with the change, while learning to work through the self-inflicted guilt she feels at the situation. It's also nicely handled and will touch home with readers. While these very emotional aspects already create a good base for the read (and these do touch the heart), there's a spooky, paranormal flair, which slides in gently and in just the right way to haunt without overpowering the tale into a complete paranormal direction. There are some unclarities by the end of the read (a hole or two which isn't explained), but in general, it wraps up very well and leaves a lingering warmth of thought.

I was surprisingly drawn into this one (I wasn't sure it'd be my thing) and found it spooky and full of heart.