House of Cotton

Finalist for the 2024 NYPL Young Lions Fiction Award • NPR Best Book of 2023 • An enchanting Black Southern gothic debut, perfect for readers of Mexican Gothic…

“Fresh, haunting…In her roller-coaster ride of a gothic debut novel, Monica Brashears upends expectations at every turn.” — The New York Times

“Every page, every scene, every sentence of Monica Brashears’s debut novel House of Cotton dazzles and surprises. An intense, enthralling, and deeply satisfying read!” — Deesha Philyaw, author of The Secret Lives of Church Ladies

“A new, dazzling, and essential American voice.” — George Saunders, author of Lincoln in the Bardo

One night, while working at her dead-end gas station job, Magnolia Brown encounters a mysterious, slick stranger named Cotton. He offers to turn her luck around with a lucrative “modeling” job at his family’s funeral home—where she will pose as clients’ dead loved ones. She accepts. Despite earning more than she’s ever made, Magnolia finds that her problems are fattening along with her wallet. And when Cotton’s requests become increasingly strange, Magnolia discovers there’s a lot more at stake than just her rent.

This roller-coaster ride of a novel upends expectations at every turn. A bold new talent in the gothic tradition but with a style all her own, “Brashears offers a fresh new perspective on Appalachia and the American South, and Magnolia’s rich voice will echo with readers long after the pages are closed” (Shelf Awareness).