The Other Black Girl meets Midsommar in this spine-chilling, propulsive psychological adult debut from highly acclaimed author Vincent Tirado, in which a married couple moves into a gated âcommunityâ that slowly creeps into a pervasive dread akin to the social horror of Jordan Peele and Lovecraft CountyâWe Came to Welcome You cleverly uses the uncanny to illuminate the cultish, shocking nature of systemic racism.
Where beauty lies, secrets are heldâŠugly ones.
Sol Reyes has had a rough year. After a series of workplace incidents at her university lab culminates in a plagiarism accusation, Sol is put on probation. Dutiful visits to her homophobic father arenât helping her mental health, and she finds her nightly glass of wine becoming more of an all-dayâand all-bottleâevent. Her wife, Alice Song, is far more optimistic. After all, the two finally managed to buy a house in the beautiful, gated community of Maneless Grove.
However, the neighbors are a little too friendly in Solâs opinion. She has no interest in the pushy Homeowners Association, their bizarrely detailed contract, or their never-ending microaggressions. But Alice simply attributes their pursuit to the community motto: âInvest in a neighborly spiritââŠwhich only serves to irritate Sol more.
Suddenly, a number of strange occurrencesâdoors and stairs disappearing, roots growing inside the houseâcause Sol to wonder if her social paranoia isnât built on something more sinister. Yet Solâs fears are dismissed as Alice embraces their new home and becomes increasingly worried instead about Solâs drinking and manic behavior. When Sol finds a journal in the property from a resident that went missing a few years ago, she realizes why they were able to buy the house so easilyâŠ
Through Solâs razor-sharp tongue and macabre sense of humor, Tirado explores the very real pressures to assimilate with oneâs surroundings to âsurvive,â while also asking the question: Is it survival when youâre no longer your true self? Because in Maneless Grove, either you become a good neighborâor you die.