Home isn't always where we start—sometimes it's where we land when everything falls apart. This truth resonates throughout "Dwelling," where Evie's world crumbles alongside New York City itself.

The way Kivel portrays Evie's eviction captures that gut-punch feeling of displacement so vividly. Her journey to Gulluck, Texas feels both desperate and brave—exactly what you'd do when you've lost everything except worry for a sister in a psychiatric commune. Their relationship tugged at my heart; those bonds that stretch but never break despite distance and circumstance.

Gulluck itself? What a delightful oddity. The literal shoe-shaped building had me laughing out loud (a children's nursery rhyme come to life!), but it's these touches that make the town feel both cozy and slightly off-kilter. When fantastical characters started appearing, I'll admit I was thrown—the shift toward magical elements wasn't what I expected. Yet somehow, these surreal touches enhanced the story's exploration of belonging.

I experienced this as an audiobook, and Christine Lakin's narration deserves special mention. There I was, wandering through Home Goods, completely transported to Evie's world instead of looking at throw pillows. Her performance brought the quirky residents and Evie's growing connections with her cousin's family to vibrant life.

What makes "Dwelling" special is how it reminds us that home isn't necessarily about property or ownership—sometimes it's found in unexpected connections, in strange little towns with their own logic, where we discover pieces of ourselves we never knew were missing.

Special thanks to Macmillan Audio and NetGalley for my advanced listening copy. As always, the thoughts shared here are completely my own.

The narrator did a great job enunciating every word and I was able to listen on 1.25 speed and it felt like it was normal conversation pace.
The contents of the book itself are why I am giving it 3 stars, it just was not for me. It was part fiction part fantasy? Some of it didn't make sense and I was confused towards the end on what was happening.

mysterious reflective slow-paced
Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.25 Stars

This was a weird one, and I say that with so much love.
I can appreciate that the at times surreal and erratic story structure might not be for everyone but it was 100% for me. I like that it left me with questions, left me thinking about the little threads that were not all neatly tied up at the end. I like that Evie is deeply flawed, and unlikeable. I enjoyed the disjointed inclusions of locations and plot points that feel like they evolve out of nowhere.
The prose itself was well executed, the characters dynamic, and the setting so very surreal.
Not sure who I would recommend this to at the end of the day, but if any of the things I've said appeal to you at all I think its worth taking a look.

A surreal and bizarre hero's journey that follows Evie, a graphic designer whose life has been uprooted by a dystopian housing crisis that feels a bit too close to reality and devolves into a fantastical fairytale about family, grief, and finding your true calling.

I appreciate books that build into their absurdity slowly at first and then step off into the deep end. It may not be for everyone, but this is ultimately a fairy tale at heart. The narration was monotone in a way that fed into Evie's character in an interesting way. I felt lulled into the story as it took on a life of its own and grew bigger and bigger, which mirrored Evie's casual acceptance of the magic in Gulluck so well, as well as her falling in love so easily.

Magical, silly, fun, earnest, and hopeful. It's not for everyone, but I enjoyed this. I would have enjoyed this a bit more if I had a better understanding of what the fairtales were referencing, but it was a delightful read to go into blind.

Thank you to Macmillan Audio and Netgalley for the Advanced Listeners Copy in exchange for an honest review.

This was entertaining but so so weird. There were many times I found myself stunned by the absurdity until I reminded myself it was intentional. Honestly, it's not my cup of tea but I can see how it will be well loved by the right audience.

Dwelling is definitely a unique experience. I don’t really want to get into the plot because I feel like this is a book that you just have to experience to enjoy.

This book is about the housing crisis in the US, but it’s explored in a very humorous and honestly just straight up weird way. I cannot stress this enough…this book is weird! I liked that aspect of the book, but you shouldn’t go into this expecting this to be a serious literary book, because it definitely isn’t! But if you like books that are weird and humorous, you might enjoy this.

I listened to the audiobook and really enjoyed the narrator, I think she did a great job and I really enjoyed listening to this as an audiobook.

Thank you to Netgalley and Macmillan Audio for providing me a copy of the audiobook in exchange for my unbiased review.

Was this a fever dream?! A shroom trip!? Lead poisoning!? Either way I don’t care. What I thought was going to be a not so unrealistic dystopian-ish future took some weird turns. We live in shoes now? We talk to lions now? What is happening!? I was kind of just along for the ride in listening to this book. It was entertaining and interesting enough but I’m at a loss. I don’t understand. Someone smarter than me might be able to purse through the literary trip I just took. The narrator was good, a bit monotone and led my way to a nap at least once.

This felt like two stories smooshed into one. I love the first story and was so ready for it to take me away, and then the second story happened and I just couldn’t get into it. What is the point, where is the plot going, what did this even mean?? I really enjoyed the narrator.

Wow. I don’t know what I expected when I started this, but it was not this. This book was so weird in the best way.
The description calls it a fairytale, which it is in the sense that the MC experiences extreme adversity, has to go on an impossible adventure, and learns new things about themselves along the way. BUT it has a sprinkle of dystopian that also felt like it could happen tomorrow.
The setting is NYC and the world is for the owners, aka everyone who rents is now homeless. The former tenants are scattering - clinging to any hope they have of a place to live. And I think it calls into question what a home means and highlights what so many of us are looking for - stability, family, and belonging.

I loved this. For concept alone I gave it five stars.

Thank you NetGalley for an Advanced Listener copy in exchange for an honest review.

Evie’s landlord evicts her from her home in The City, and she relocates to Gulluck, TX because few options to live close to family exist. She and her sister, Elena, lose their mom to ovarian cancer and their dad to heartbreak and nutrient deficiency. The trauma from their deaths causes Elena’s hallucinations and violent behavior; as a threat to herself and others, they move her into a New Age facility in Colorado for patients requiring treatment for their mental health. As such, when Evie can’t make rent, she hopes her distant Aunt Terry and their family in Texas will provide a temporary living situation. Terry works as a real estate agent and, with limited options, convinces Evie to rent a shoe-shaped house in Gulluck, a town where magical realism comes to life (e.g., the shape-shifting fish under wraps). With a shortage of work projects, Evie quits her remote marketing job and embraces her endowed fate brought by her house; as a transplant, she forms her life to fit her home’s story and learns to design and make shoes. Her shoemaking course instructor notices Evie’s natural penchant for constructing footwear and inducts her into a secret “league of immortal shoemakers.” With the help of her boyfriend, Bertie the Keymaker, who crafts a skeleton key, Evie plans to break Elena out of the inpatient facility because of their sudden suspicious shift to emulate a cultish commune. Together, the women trek to New York to retrieve their family’s locked-up belongings and return to Gulluck, their newfound haven.

Pulling from different folk stories involving living in a shoe for a house and shaping keys based on the story of the door, Kivel’s debut begins squarely in the fiction genre and layers in magical realism in part 2 and a quest in part 3. In other words, Kivel’s critique of the housing market in America jumps off of the page in the initial part of Dwelling; later, Kivel shifts to using aphorisms and poetic lore in her assessment of one’s place of residence and resiliently rebuilding a home despite its destruction. Some of the metaphors or themes are lost to me, such as the Gulluck’s secret fish, the undying shoemakers, and Elena’s mental health. Still, I appreciate the author’s folding in of different genres. If one can suspend their belief of reality and embrace the fantastical that leaves questions unanswered, Dwelling can help expand the imagination.

My thanks to Macmillan Audio, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, and NetGalley for an ARC. I shared this review on GoodReads on July 13, 2025 (https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/7670105430).

Thanks to MacMillan audio for giving me the chance to listen/read this before it's publication date,. The first half of this book/story starts off great. As a reader, I'm thinking this is going to be about a housing crisis, but with a twist. I like the first half, but then did not finish it. This one didn't work for me.

Dwelling blends surreal fairy tale elements with themes like grief, capitalism, and the housing crisis. Some moments are brilliant and thought-provoking, but the story did not flow well for me. The narrative felt disjointed, making it hard to stay emotionally connected or fully invested, which is why I gave this 2-stars.

Great concept, just not my kind of execution.

Thank you NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for the chance to listen to this title in exchange for my opinion.

My feelings about Dwelling are all over the place. Overall, it’s deeply insightful and a storytelling format I don’t see often. I found Evie extremely relatable in many ways. She’s going through loss, familial struggles and a big move.

I was so caught up in her story and insights that when the fantasy came into play, I honestly had forgotten we’d see it and it felt a bit jarring. That said, I think it would have read smoother had I recalled it was coming.

Also as a result, it did feel like two different stories because the first half of the story didn’t really offer up fantasy.

I will definitely be rereading to grasp it better as a whole.

Even though I requested this book from NetGalley after reading the plot summary, enough time passed that I essentially went into it completely blind. And doing so meant that I was shocked that this was a fairy tale. When i first started listening, I was like oh this is going to be some kind of absurdist spec fic or something. It'll all sound ridiculous, but also hit close to home. Then a shoe, a bear and a key maker showed up and I was like, wait a minute.

Anyways, as the plot summary clearly states, this is a fairy tale somewhat centered around the housing crisis. And there are so many clever, amusing, unique and weird plot points and asides. My ADHD novelty-loving heart was here for it. The vibes kind of reminded me of a far more whimsical and light-hearted cousin of Mona Awad. I don't know how Kivel pulled that off considering all of the dark subject matter, but she did.

Christine Lakin narrated. She's one of those narrators who, when I hear her, I'm reminded that I like her quite a bit. She can do a nice mix of genres, which suits this story.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ALC. This comes out August 5, 2025.

This was like if big fish was a book, but the descriptions were mostly gone and story wasn’t good. The visuals are clunky. This could have been such a sweeping tale, right up there with Big Fish, Pushing Daisies, and other stories in the magical realism realm, but it just felt flat instead. What a bummer.

I received this book from NetGalley for a review. I expected weird girl lit fic and that is what I got, but there was also some magic in this story. I keep seeing this line, “a surreal fairytale set against the American housing crisis” and it explains the book perfectly. If you’re thinking, what a strange concept, you’d be correct.

Every renter in New York City is suddenly evicted and with no social supports. Evie is left homeless and hopeless, her only family a sister who is institutionalized. Thankfully, she remembers a distant cousin in a small Texas town. Once Evie arrives, she quickly realizes there’s something a little off about Gulluck. There’s a giant, magic, sleeping fish in the middle of the lake, and that’s just the beginning. Everything Evie needs to begin her new life finds its way to her and she discovers community like she’s only dreamed of. This is a story of grief, letting go, and new beginnings.

While I did enjoy this book, I wanted more. I read a lot of books with magic, and I didn’t like that there weren’t any explanations. Just, this random object is magic and this guy is the only one who knows for some reason—I want answers! I wish there was less magic or more magic. There was just enough for it to not make much sense. I wanted more from this book overall. I felt like it skimmed the surface, if that makes sense. All that being said, writing a fairytale for the American housing crisis is an interesting idea.

A surreal fairy-tale retelling set against the backdrop of the American housing crisis is a bold new idea... unfortunately this doesn't stick the landing and I'm left feeling a little confused but mostly disappointed.

Dwelling follows Evie after she is evicted from her apartment in New York City and goes searching for a distant cousin in Texas to live with as she tries to get back on her feet. Around her the economy as we know it begins to crumble as people struggle to find well-paying stable jobs as well as permanent housing.

A surreal take on the housing crisis? Yeah I was signed up for that, but I felt as though the book didn't deliver that. The first half of this I thought had a lot of potential. The bleak nature juxtapose with this over-the-top take on the housing crisis was interesting.

The second half of this completely lost me. The whimsical, non-sensical, nature of the story tonally clashes with the first half and makes the messaging of the first feel completely obsolete. It felt like I suddenly picked up a new book and I found myself bored and wanting it to end. The parts don't blend together whatsoever. This would've been better if it was but no joke Evie buys a shoe to live in and then goes on a magical prophecy journey that mirrors a story a secret society of cobblers told her. It feels like all of the set-up in the first half of this story was for nothing.

I'll also disclose that I probably wouldn't have finished this if I didn't have the audiobook.

What a wild ride! I liked all the wacky characters, the improbable twists and turns, the gathering up of friends, skills, and purpose. The narration was very good, made easier by the distinct voices the characters have on the page. A solid 4.4.
Part One: A mass eviction event in NYC finds loner Evie homeless along with all renters in the city. With nowhere to go, she remembers a distant cousin in Texas. Out there, the homes are super-large, all with built-on modules and levels. Despite this, her cousin only allows her to stay in their guest house but works hard to find Evie something else she can afford.
Part Two: Evie becomes a woman who lives in a shoe. Things take a fairy-tale turn into the surreal. It’s gradual and amusing as Evie figures out how to make it work for her so she can rescue her younger sister from a very shady mental institution.
Part Three: Evie takes a class at the local community college and finds her true calling, makes friends, and reunites with her sister.
Part Four: Evie and her expansive family-by-choice *may* live happily ever after….
My thanks to the author, publisher, @MacmillanAudio, and #NetGalley for early access to the audiobook of #Dwelling for review purposes. Publication date: 5 August 2025.

A lot of fun elements, but they didn't cohere well.



Review copy provided by publisher.

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