"We Are a Haunting" by White delves into the complexities of identity and memory. White's narrative intertwines past and present, though the execution can be disorienting. The writing carries a lyrical quality, yet some plot threads feel unresolved. The book explores themes of trauma and growth, offering a unique perspective that requires careful consideration, but its fragmented structure might not resonate with all readers.

This is a multi-generational family saga centered in NYC (with references to the Islands and beyond) and examines the Black experience as they navigate life and death amid the challenges of impoverished inner-city living. The central characters are grandmother, Audrey, her daughter, Key, and her son, Colly – however, the novel is buoyed by colorful neighborhood characters to build a very insular community – and essentially, this community is like a character itself as it suffers too as it falls into dereliction.

Trauma, despair and grief weigh heavy on characters and while we witness Colly grapple with the loss of his mother, we learn of pain and hardship of his ancestors and others – Generational trauma is prevalent and seemingly perpetual; the novel delves into the many ways he and others attempt to cope.

Although magical realism is used to convey the stories of the ancestors via seances and premonitions, the characters’ experiences, observations, and reactions are grounded in reality. The characters are marginalized people pushed to the outer edges of society through no fault of their own. They have limited tools, agency, and resources and are on the cusp of despair - yet they persevere and endure.

This is a character-driven novel and while beautifully written (the lyrical prose, choice of musical references, historical references, and scene setting are stellar), it seemed a bit disjointed at times which disrupted the cadence of the story(ies). Sadly, I found myself vested in only a few characters initially, but as I continued to read, my interest waned – it may be a personal shortcoming of mine; others may remain vested.

Thanks to Astra House and NetGalley for the opportunity to review.

The non-linear structure of this story almost threw me, but as I familiarized myself with the characters, even as time moved backwards then forwards, I was able to see the tapestry of connectivity, the evolution of our characters in their time and place, how events thus shaped them and their ensuing interactions.

White's story definitely has haunting throughout: in the family, their loss, interactions, actions, and experiences. From mother to child, father to home, grandmother to comfort, there is always something that rears its haunting head. The style and tone flowed and changed as needed, told in slang, music, and dress. Embedded within each character's arc is the overarching racial experience, but White does not let this mire his characters or reader. It is there because it is and he writes it because it is.

I enjoyed this multigenerational story even though I did feel at times that a linear plot and timeline would have made the story move faster and easier.

A resonant story about a black family in Brooklyn, "We Are a Haunting" opens with adolescent son Colly mourning his mother Key, who has died of cancer. Colly chats with his mother as if she is still alive and the conversations chain him to the life he once had. The rest of the family is similarly bereaved. Colly's grandmother Audrey is struggling to manage her own memories of her daughter while staying afloat financially. His father is barely there, a somber outline in a chair. His stubborn sister Toya spends as much time as possible at Nana's (Audrey's) instead of home with her father. Author Tyriek White invites the reader to absorb a family in trauma and to luxuriate in the Brooklyn of their lives: Gersh Park, Broadway Junction, the 3 train, Stanley Avenue.

Of the three timelines that saturate the story — 1988 when Key begins her career as a doula (see Beyond the Book), 2007 when Key dies, and 2016 when college-educated Colly returns to the city that raised him — I was especially fascinated by the late 80s, when AIDS is rampant in New York and Key, in her caretaking role, shows tireless stewardship for the pregnant and vulnerable. She thrives in this role while also making note of how it is part of the history she comes from to soothe the discriminated-against helpless: "We have been just like this for centuries, boiling water, laying out rags, soothing a young girl with coos and whispers, all the while at the helm of a war being waged against their existence."

That there are women like Key who know what they are doing in the delivery room is remarked on by a nurse, as if below-standard care is the acceptable norm. But Key is more than a doula. Ample chapters are devoted to her supernatural gift for listening to the dead, which she makes use of even as it leaves a mark upon her. The experience is bruising: "I taste blood…I hear water, first the slow wash of a tide, then rushing, as if caught in a heavy stream that keeps pulling me under. There are voices, pulsing from beneath the water, some wall I can't see."

After Key's death, an acutely afflicted Colly repeatedly touches his emotional wound. I felt within him a sense of having been betrayed by those who had left him, and give White credit for showing the particular sensitivity of an adolescent boy. Colly's mother's absence doesn't paralyze his youth or precocious artistry. He channels his pain and expresses himself in ordinary ways. Laughter and fun with close friend Zaire. Romantic fantasies of Naima, who lives on the Upper East Side.

"You didn't belong here," Colly says to his mother's ghost. "You spoke too frankly, laughed too earnestly, and felt too deeply. You opened yourself up to the world like a pomegranate." In the times that we see her alive, it is her openness that allows Key to dream of and speak to the dead. She asks, "Do the dead still have a right to this world?," which reminded me of a line from the Toni Morrison novel Song of Solomon: "You can't just fly on off and leave a body." While Morrison's imagery of body-as-freight is powerful, so is the way White takes on the difficult task of normalizing the supernatural for those who are skeptical of such things.

One profound experience in Key's life occurs when a woman named Stephanie beckons her. Stephanie's mother, Rosa, died in a candle fire and she is bereft in the aftermath. Key obliges her request to speak with the dead and the story slips back into ancestral time. White, to his credit, avoids the various Catholic and Protestant tropes focusing on the physical presence of God or His mythological wrath. Instead, there is dispensation for those who have died, and for the people who see them there is grace.

When Key has been dead for a year, Colly is at a party with college students, and he overhears someone talking about how trauma can leave a chemical mark in a person's genes and be passed down generationally. Trauma begets trauma. Sadness 30 years earlier is sadness today. It's a powerful idea that White traverses. Key, the good mother, is sensitized to the trauma of the dead. Colly, the kind son, is sensitized to the trauma of his mother. Absence can be pathological. It's less about being cursed and more about being damaged in your cells. It is upon the living to endure the cumulative absences of those who have loved us dearly but are gone in an instant.

We Are a Haunting is a lyrical literary debut with a sprinkling of magical realism.

It follows three generations of New Yorkers over thirty years. Grandma Audrey lives in Brooklyn and is on the verge of losing her apartment. Before she passed, her daughter Key could speak to the dead. Key’s son Colly grieves his mother’s death and learns he has a similar gift, all while navigating a world filled with injustices.

The writing in this debut novel is poetic. It’s more slice-of-life and focuses on moments of these characters’ lives. The timeline skips around with each character’s pov.

It discusses a range of topics, including systemic issues and generational trauma.

At times, I struggled with this book’s lack of a plot. I normally prefer character-driven fiction, but this one meandered quite a bit and was difficult to follow.

Although, I can see this book resonating with many readers.

3.5 rounded up.

Thank you to Astra House for providing an arc via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

https://booksandwheels.com

I thought that this was a really promising debut that did a good job of blending the literary/historical fiction with the elements of magical realism. Those elements were really interesting and for the most part, well executed. I found myself more engaged in the first half of this book than the second, and the main relationship between Key and Colly was beautifully rendered. I did find that some of the peripheral/ghost/flashback voices started to blend together a bit for me and I would have liked to see a bit more variation between the voices. Ultimately I think it had its flaws, but White is a writer to watch and I think the novel overall is a success. I'm not sure it has the local or topical interest to get a lot of attention at my library, unfortunately.

“we are a haunting” is a story of a black family in brooklyn throughout several decades with a hint of magical realism. some of the women in this family are able to commune with the dead, but it is not a central part of this novel. each character has a very distinct voice and they feel very developed and fleshed out. brooklyn is shown in a very interesting way, it’s flaws at the forefront; rent control, gentrification, racism.

this novel is very poetic, and tyriek white would make a phenomenal poet. however, the poetic prose is a bit too much at times and the plot gets lost. almost nothing really happens, and the moments we are shown are a bit abstract and mundane.

thank you to netgalley and the publisher for an arc in exchange for an honest review!

Magical Realism about families is my favorite thing to read. This book had potential, but was very hard to follow. It was written with too much poetic prose. Some readers may like that, but when it interferes with how the story flows, it can be a burden. I also felt like so much more could have been told about the families. It wasn't a bad story at all, just a little hard to follow.

thank you for the advanced copy!!!

i thought this was pretty dang powerful!! it took me a min to get into it and it was a bit confusing at times to keep up with where/who in the story it was switching to but i can still really appreciate what it was trying to do and found it to be a really special tale of family, connection and history. unique and indeed 'haunting' at times.

The smallness of the present: the beat before you say a word. The quiet between breathing in and breathing out. That is as large as any turning point in history.

Three persons from three generations of a family of East New Yorkers has a unique ability to speak with the dead. In a thirty year spanning story about the struggles against angst, disdain and systemic neglect, they try to connect with their history. Audrey is on the verge of losing her housing. Her daughter Key, a practicing doula who uses her ability to connect to the dead and talk for them, loses to cancer. Her son Colly recognises his ability after this and gets the support of Key to navigate his life.

We Are A Haunting is the debut novel of Tyriek White. He attempts to weave a coming of age plot married with social critique with elements of magical realism thrown in. Magical realism is very effective in the hands of expert writers. Stalwarts like Marquez and Rushdie uses magical realism to enhance the ability of readers in comprehending the reality. When tried by lesser writers, it gets limited to a gimmick. The supernatural themes of this novel fails to complement the historic underlining of the plot or the systemic disparity faced by the characters.

The plot is non linear, running back and forth in time between three main characters. Chapters from the POV of Audrey is in third person, that of Key is in first person and that of Colly is a mixture of first and second person, the latter one addressing the dead mother. This structure is the saving grace of the novel as the gradual unfolding of events from different perspectives and from different time periods makes it interesting. Another important factor to note is the cyclic nature of events that subtly suggest that these characters are in fact thrust in a loop of similar events occurring repeatedly to them.

My biggest issue with the novel is the narration itself. Even when different chapters are narrated by different characters, there is no variation in their voices. And that common voice that narrates the whole story is very monotonous. The author tries to bring a very poetic and lyrical quality to his prose. He succeeded in the attempt by sacrificing the tightness of the plot. I never felt the impact on any characters of many life changing events that happens on the course of the story. I feel the main culprit is the obesity of the prose.

As a debut novel, We Are A Haunting provides an interesting plot that deserves a reading, but be prepared to endure a monotonous experience.

The ebook received from Netgalley for an honest feedback.

We Are a Haunting by Tyriek White is exactly what author Kiese Laymon says it says: So New York while paying homage to the South. What a stellar debut for Tyriek White! I am truly looking forward to reading more from this author after enjoying this supernatural family saga ripe with magical realism and social commentary about growing up Black & poor in America.

We Are a Haunting is set in 1980s East New York (Brooklyn) and tells a multi-generational story that starts with a young, Black doula named Key. Key, just like her mother, Audrey, has the spiritual gift of being able to speak to and for the dead. This is a gift, or a curse, depending on how you consider it, she passes down to her son, Colly. Told with intersecting narratives we follow the journey of Key and Colly from past to present. We journey with Key as she falls in love with her future husband and drug dealer, Dante and we follow Colly as he gets expelled from school and navigates his spiritual gifts while trying not to lose his mind. Colly's perspective is often told in the second person in conversation with the spirit of his mother whose presence is with him throughout the narrative. The presence of spirit guides is the foundation of the powerful novel- both seen and unseen forces.

When Colly returns to his neighborhood from college he finds the NYCHA project he grew up in in deteriorating condition. I love that the end of the narrative starts with reclamation and salvaging the parts of what remains. This is truly a poetic novel with layer upon layer of meaning. Each character, each encounter has something special to teach us and as a reader that truly felt like a treat.

Thank you to the author and publisher for the e-arc copy!

Once I fully got into this book I found the story compelling, but it took a while for me to find my grip on the story. The story is told in different times by different characters but the style in which it is written made it difficult for me to keep up with who I was reading about and when. The grip I had on the story was lost by the time I passed through the middle of it. I feel that this novel could use some editing, because the characters are compelling but it was hard to keep track of what was going on.


I received a copy of this book from NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

This was a tough one for me to get through as I frequently found myself losing track of the characters and their time in place. The style can be tricky, but I admit that this is a matter of preference more so than a reflection of the author's writing. As mixed up as I got, I appreciated the interconnectedness of the narratives and the overall picture they painted of a family and community. I only wish I had gotten a clearer view of the characters, but they were hazy and doing so felt like trying to grasp smoke.