I had such high expectations of this book since I knew it was taking on some tough issues.

This book is very choppy and leaves the reader having to look very hard between the lines for the meanings I was hoping for. It has a bit of a haunting feel, but the characters fell a little flat for me, due to slowly moving through the choppy plot. The bright spot is that dialog makes the characters feel real (a bit crude and graphic, but real).

I was very appreciative of having the audiobook version of this book. The narrator brought more emotions to the characters and without that I may have not finished the book.

Thank you to MacMillan Audio and Netgalley for providing me a copy of this ARC for my honest review.

This book is recommended if you enjoyed the novel Luster, which I did and it intrigued me to try this one. First I want to say how much I LOVE the southern vibes in this book. It starts off very strong with a bit of a plot, setting the scene and us getting know our main character, Magnolia.

Meeting Cotton and his Aunt Eden, open up some bizarre opportunities for her when she is hitting quite a roadblock and tough moment of her life. She is offered a 'modeling/acting' job at a funeral home to have makeup done to become a loved lost one for closure to paying clients. To me this feels like such a far stretch, how can 1 person get completely done up to match every client they get.

Besides that part, the characters are written so well, and I did enjoy them and their weird quirks. About 33% into the novel I feel it becomes very heavy the characters and there is no long any plot really. It kind of fizzled out a bit, but I loved the writing and the characters.

House of Cotton by Monica Brashears was such a wonderfully written story that comes together in the end. The story follows Magnolia as she is living paycheck to paycheck when she meets Cotton. He tells her how that she looks like Josephine Baker and this gets her thinking that she would work for him. She never realized that Cotton's job offer was to look like the deceased people that are asking Cotton and Eden (his aunt and make up artist) to have one last moment with their loved one's. Magnolia finds out that is pregnant and with the help from Eden she has an abortion. This sets off a chain of events that Magnolia never thought was possible. Magnolia starts to see and have conversations with her dead grandmother Mama Brown, Every time Magnolia is visted by her Mama Brown is looking worse and worse. Somehow Magnolia also brought an evil spirt named Crickett, when she aborted her baby and now he is taking Mama Brown's body parts one by one. This book also visits Magnolia's past living with her mother Cherry and her live in boyfriend. The storyline was so unlike anything that I have ever read. I am glad to have gotten an advance reading copy of this. Truely a beautiful story from begining to end.

House of Cotton
by Monica Brashears
3/5 ⭐

At age 19, Magnolia is left to fend for herself after her grandmother, Mama Brown dies. Working nights at a gas station, she encounters a strange man named Cotton. Cotton offers Magnolia a modeling job that pays well so she has no choice but to accept. The modeling job is actually a deceiving hustle where Magnolia impersonates dead people with the help of Cotton and his Aunt Eden. At first, the task is easy, joining online calls to help families find closure for their deceased loved ones. Then the requests become more lewd and unusual. Mama Brown begins to haunt Magnolia for her evil doings. Can Magnolia regain focus on herself and her reality, before it is too late?

This debut novel by Monica Brashears romanticizes death, promiscuity, and deception. The best way to describe this book is meaningful, gothic fiction. Was this my favorite book? No, but do I recommend it? Yes. The writing is beautiful and poetic. The story is rich and unique with bizarre characters. The narrator has the perfect Southern sweetness and melody. Even during the vulgar parts, I found myself entranced by her voice. Monica Brashears has a lot of potential as an author and I will be interested to read what she writes next.

Triggers: rape, abortion, abuse, and addiction

Thank you to @netgalley and @Macmillan.Audio for the ALC in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own. The book was released on April 4, 2023. Already bought my physical copy!

I received a free copy of this audiobook from the publisher through netgalley.com. I am leaving this review voluntarily.

Magnolia is a mixed race woman who was raised by her grandmother. Her mother is an addict. When her grandmother passes away she finds herself at the mercy of men.

First it's the landlord who says he can "help" her with her rent. Then she meets Cotton who wants her to dress and pretend to be people's lost loved ones.

At first she loves that she is making good money but soon she finds herself wondering what she is doing and finding herself in situations that remind her too much of her mother. Gathering her strength she starts to understand that she is worth more. She starts to believe in herself, takes off the rose colored glasses and sees what is going on and how she is a part of it. It's an interesting story. The ending got a little muddled but I think ultimately Magnolia gains strength from playing these characters and from conjuring her gran to help guide her. There are so many layers to this I will be thinking about this book for a while.

When I started this book, I expected this to be fairly cookie-cutter. The plot seemed to be unfolding much the same as other books I've read: a look into the plight of vulnerable, African-American women in a world that doesn't look close enough to help. Then the twists began. Dark twists, unexpected twists, soon I could not begin to guess what would come next.

If you are looking for a tantalizing dark tale, to step into another skin... and then another, read this book.

Wow, this was a strange novel. It looks took me a while to get into, but I ended up loving it. The prose is beautiful and the plot was unique.

This book started off a little boring but slowly picked up. In everything you just want to tell her to run away, just get out of every situation she is in. It's really very eerie.

This was definitely a weird little novel. It was beautiful, awkward, and devastating all at the same time. I think it was a bit heavier than I needed at the moment and my experience was dampened because of it, but that’s more my fault than the book’s. It’s an intensely literary novel, with rich prose and a storyline that bares the most intimate parts of our characters.

This book has that Southern Gothic vague and hazy horror mixed with the kind of blatant thoughts and feelings that only a teenager can feel.

Magnolia is a nineteen year old whose grandmother has just died. From the first pages of the book we are introduced to the struggles that Magnolia will now face without her grandmother around to protect her.

While on her night shift at the local gas station, Magnolia encounters a strange white man who comes in with hands covered in blood. She decides to keep her distance, as any reasonable person would, but he end up being odd but harmless, and offers her a modeling job at his business.

Now Magnolia knows better than to go to that white man's place of business but as the day stretches on and the predatory presence of all those no longer culled by her Mama Brown protection Magnolia gives in and makes her way to the location on the business card.

The business is not a modeling studio but a funeral parlor, and the job? Pretending to be loved one's dearly departed. Odd, but it pays well. And more importantly it has gotten Magnolia out of her living situation. As Magnolia becomes more and more tied up with Cotton and his aunt in the funeral parlor the more her living situation changes and yet her financial and even physical independence stay the same. Magnolia continues to be plagued by her past and copes with her issues by distancing herself mentally by imagining herself as something else, but her reality is now coming down hard on her in the form of her grandmother, who has returned as a ghost on this plane to help her granddaughter.

This story takes the fear and suffering of being impoverished, young, and Black for a woman in the American South. Magnolia's experiences from others in and around her community show the stark reality of her situation, and the way that she is perceived by others plays a focal point in how she behaves. There are parts of this book that are difficult to read because of this, but the progress of Magnolia's characterization and she learns to process her trauma and grief, both of which have come too soon and too hard for someone her age, is really well done.

Brashears has a unique voice that is visceral and captivating. If House of Cotton was about slightly different subject matter, I think i would have truly loved it. My reasons for not loving it are entirely due to my stage of life. I think a lot of people wouldn't have those same issues. That being said, I would be extremely careful in who i recommend this to. It puts the spotlight on triggering and morbid subjects. If you are looking to be horrified, this is the book for you.

I chose to DNF House of Cotton at 64%. I have nothing but respect for Breasheres writing. The subject matter was just more than I can handle.

Because I didn't not finished, my review is based off of the writing and vibes alone.

The writing in the book is superb. But I failed to grasp the true plot or rational of the story. I also felt the ending fell flat and was just like "oh, she changed her mind and left, the end"

There was deffiinately a speculative horror feel as you never find if Magnolia's vision were just in her head or not. That part of the story seemed more of her dealing with her grief and felt disconnected to the story of the job with Cotton.

Thank you to NetGalley and MacMillan Audio for an advanced audiobook for review.

A raw, heartfelt story that deserves amplifying. I will not deny that it is an intense story from the first page on, but it is this intensity that makes it all the more real and striking. Magnolia Brown is a compelling character, from the south, poor, uneducated, and facing more challenges at 19 than many will face in their entire life. If you're looking for something that will certainly give you pause and reframe the way you view things, this might be your next best read.

I recently listened to House of Cotton on audiobook. I didn't know much about the book going into it, but the summary sounded amazing and the cover was really calling my attention. Maybe I should've done a bit more research because this was quite the surprise.

This book follows a young woman who is struggling to get by and is approached by the eccentric owner of a mortuary who offers her a job modeling. While she initially assumes that it will be a standard modeling job, she finds that it requires quite a bit more than she bargained for. As she works for him, things get stranger and stranger and soon she is imitating dead people.

I don't really know where exactly to start with this review. The summary does not really adequately prepare the reader for what is going to happen. This book touches on a lot of difficult topics. Some parts felt like sharp social critique and other parts felt like they were added in just for shock value. Perhaps some of it went over my head, but I felt like some of the messaging might've been lost within the graphic and uncomfortable content.

Our main character is a tough character. She's clearly lived a hard life and seen some of the worst that society has to offer. No one has ever given her anything and she's really had to struggle to survive. That said, I'm not sure how I feel about her. I understand some of the choices she makes. The weird things she's being asked to do offer her a semblance of financial freedom, but they come with some pretty heavy strings attached.. It was also pretty hard reading about the way she approaches sex. Ultimately, I don't dislike her character, but I don't exactly like her either. I felt sad for her and angry for her too, but she was just not an easy character to read.

One thing that I did really appreciate about this story was the beautiful description. The author really did an excellent job of setting the scene. I could easily imagine what was going on and where it was happening which is part of what made this book so visceral and uncomfortable at times.

I will say that overall I found this book to be a very confusing experience. In some ways, I think that that might be intentional, but in other ways I wonder if the message would've been better understood had the story been a bit more tightly woven. The flashes between reality and dreams or hallucinations were sometimes hard to follow and all of the chaos made for a disorienting experience.

All in all, I'm not sure who to recommend this book to, but if you decide to read it, make sure you read the trigger warnings as there is a lot of dark stuff in this book.

As for the audiobook, I felt that the narrator did a good job. I was able to understand her and I felt she suited the story. It was easy to tell who the different characters were and I thought her pace worked well.

TW: Rape, Sexual Content, Illusions to Necrophilia, Drugs, Racism, Homelessness, False Imprisonment

Thank you NetGalley and Flatiron books for the opportunity to to review this audiobooks.
It was beautifully written with a dazzling blend of social commentary and magical realism. Magnolia has had a hard life and everyone around her is a different level terribleness but you find yourself rooting for her . I found myself wanting something more from the plot as a reader but in the story Magnolia got exactly what she needed for her next chapter

House of Cotton by Monica Brashears was intriguing in plot and the narration was excellent, but I struggled to get into the story in the way I had hoped to. I love Southern Gothic stories and typically find them delightfully creepy, but this one kind of missed the mark in setting the mood.

My favorite part of it all was the messaging and the direct hits on racism, patriarchy, generational trauma, and the way women’s bodies are objectified. The level of spicy scenes surprised me and was a fun twist. The word that kept coming to mind in this one was unapologetic - this book was exactly that.

I wish I had been able to grab onto the story more, I was struggling to sink in and would start / stop reading it too often. Overall, this will find the reader who wants a spice-infused take on race and gender, that dabbles in historical settings but doesn’t quite get to historical fiction level.

Thank you to MacMillan Audio and NetGalley for the advanced audio copy in exchange for my thoughts - I always appreciate you!

Content warnings: racism, sexism, abuse, sexual content (moderate)

Magnolia is down on her luck, and at 19 years old, her grandmother has just passed. Momma Brown was the only one that Magnolia could ever count on, and now is what she to do to make rent and take care of herself as well.
Enter Cotton, a very eclectic guy who offers Magnolia a modeling job and money that she can't turn down. The modeling ends up being far stranger than she expected and while she's at "House of Cotton", she has to grieve the ghost of her grandma and hold her own.

This is a great psychological thriller, and it's unlike anything I've ever listened to. The audiobook was so well done, and I really felt like all the characters were voiced perfectly.

House of Cotton has just released as of April 4th, and everyone should give this a read.

Thank you Net Galley and Macmillan Audio for the audiobook ARC, and allowing me to give my honest feedback.

Like southern Six Feet Under meets Mexican Gothic.
Descriptive, Slightly disturbing, unique, dark and bizarre set in a world that I could never quite understand.

Maybe it is too full of new life blooming for me to read a Southern Gothic horror.

HOUSE OF COTTON by Monica Brashear and read by Jeanette Illidge has a wonderfully bizarre premise of a woman down on her luck who takes a job modeling for a funeral home.

I honestly had to DNF this one right now. I think the main premise is a fantastically strange one that still appeals to me, but there is so much detailed, graphic depictions of sexual encounters that it just wasn't worth pursuing for me. I made it to 31% and after stopping and starting multiple times, I am giving up.

To be fair, the narrator did a beautiful job with the reading, imparting all the emotion of the difficult financial stresses and the hesitancy of taking this odd job.

I don't often share books that don't connect with me at this level due to the realization that this story just wasn't written for me. It does not mean it won't have value for someone else.

Thank you to @netgalley and @macmillan.audio for letting me give this one a try. It my issues don't bother you, and this sounds interesting, give it a try! It is out today!

✨Review✨ House of Cotton - Monica Brashears
 
Genre: Mystery Thriller, Adult Fiction
TW: Death, Rape (off & on page), Body Horror
Rating: ⭐️[1/5]
Review written by: J
Thank you NetGalley & Macmillan Audio for the Audio of this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Magnolia is a broke nineteenth year old who works night shifts at a gas station. One night a stranger named Cotton walks in the gas station and offers her a modeling job at his family’s funeral home. After her grandmother passing and her predatory landlord breathing down her neck for rent, Magnolia doesn’t question the job and decides to accept it.

The story is quite unique. It was intriguing and a bit bland all at the same time and at times I was unsure where the story was was going. I found myself constantly rewinding the audio because some points were thrown out of nowhere with zero continuous development which made the story very confusing for me and led me to question “why” every other chapter with no actual answer.

Also, the plot had potential but I feel like the story was vague overall. The author gave just enough details but for the most part she left it to the readers imagination for them to interpret it as they wish. And even though I enjoyed this mystery, I needed more from other aspects like character development, the reasoning behind some of Magnolia’s actions, as well as the ending.

Lastly, I believe this is the type of book that you either like it or you don’t which is what makes it a perfect for book clubs because you can discuss so much about it.