We Came to Welcome You: A Novel of Suburban Horror

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 community that slowly creeps into a pervasive dread akin to the social horror of Jordan Peele and Lovecraft CountyWe Came to Welcome You cleverly uses the uncanny to illuminate the cultish, shocking nature of systemic racism.

Where beauty lies, secrets are heldugly 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 arent helping her mental health, and she finds her nightly glass of wine becoming more of an all-dayand all-bottleevent. 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 Sols 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: Invest in a neighborly spiritwhich only serves to irritate Sol more.  

Suddenly, a number of strange occurrencesdoors and stairs disappearing, roots growing inside the housecause Sol to wonder if her social paranoia isnt built on something more sinister. Yet Sols fears are dismissed as Alice embraces their new home and becomes increasingly worried instead about Sols 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 easily

Through Sols razor-sharp tongue and macabre sense of humor, Tirado explores the very real pressures to assimilate with ones surroundings to survive, while also asking the question: Is it survival when youre no longer your true self? Because in Maneless Grove, either you become a good neighboror you die.