A review by readingpicnic
Housemates by Emma Copley Eisenberg

adventurous funny hopeful medium-paced
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group for a free digital ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.
This book felt so comforting to read, like a warm gay hug. The characters felt so complete and real, like queer and trans people that I’ve met in real life, and the lack of quotes with the dialogue worked very well actually; I never got confused about when someone was speaking. This was such a creative book, and unlike anything I’ve read before with its narrator being an older queer woman basically stalking (?) the two main characters, Bernie and Leah. I was unsure how the narrator pulled this off and knew so much about their journey, other than the few times she admitted that she lost track of them, but it was still interesting narratively. Sometimes I would forget about this other main character until she came in with an “I” statement and threw me off, since she’s kind of always hovering in the background in a way that she’s not always visible and apparent to the reader, much like her hidden presence in relation to Bernie and Leah. The generational differences in the queerness between the narrator, Bernie, and Leah was also commented upon by the narrator at times, mostly with envy at how their queer relationship was easier in many ways, not quite as taboo as it was for the narrator and her partner. Even though the story of the narrator and her “housemate,” or partner, was only revealed to the reader in brief snippets, these still felt so raw, heartbreaking, and essential to the story. It was so satisfying how everything connected and fell into place every time the narrator would make direct contact with Bernie and Leah. 
The narrator’s perspective on Leah and Bernie’s relationship and dynamics with a whole life of queer experience behind her helped break up the story with some analysis of characters’ thoughts and actions from an impartial, or at least outsider POV, which I don’t often see in novels. I don’t know much about photography, but the descriptions of it in the book were very cool and kept my interest, so I’m sure they’re even cooler to someone who knows about photography. I also liked that there was lots of dialogue talking about more socially unrespectable behaviors, like nose and skin picking, but in a way that wasn’t shameful, just honest. There were also some nasty thought processes and descriptions, but I liked and appreciated those too. The conversations around class were especially poignant in comparing Bernie’s lack of money and two jobs to Leah and her friend group, who all came from wealthy backgrounds and could pursue higher education, startups, passion projects, etc., and it was interesting how the narrator pointed out how money and fame played into Bernie and Leah’s relationship, especially when Bernie started to have money of her own and didn’t depend upon Leah as much financially. Overall, this felt like a nuanced look into the lives of a messy group of queer and trans 20-somethings figuring out what they want from their relationships. I understand why people have been loving this book so much, and I know I’ll be thinking about it for a long time. This is the type of book that I need to sit with before starting a new one since it was chock full of so much goodness that I want to sort through. 
Expand filter menu Content Warnings