venneh 's review for:

House of Beth by Kerry Cullen

4.25

dark emotional mysterious reflective medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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This is a pretty fantastic debut. We get a woman running from a queer relationship in the city that is in the process of failing, and her trying to lean into the Christian tradwife homeschooler for a widower and his two kids, and the ghost of the dead wife who watches this woman step into her life, and both of them starting to unravel the mystery of her death. Honestly, it doesn't wrap as clearly as I would have liked it to, and it feels like there was almost too much happening towards the end. Still a pretty great debut and one I'll be interested to see what the author does next.