Review: A Guest in the House by Emily Carroll

I received an ARC of this graphic novel from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review.

A Guest in the House is a domestic horror graphic novel set on the edge of a lake in a small town. Abby is the new second wife of the widowed town dentist, and a new stepmom to Crystal. Abby’s new life isn’t what she expected, and when she starts learning unexpected information from her husband’s dead wife, Sheila, her situation only gets more complicated and frightening.

Carroll writes an excellent slow-burn women’s horror story, with complicated main characters. I enjoyed that the tale is really Abby and Sheila’s, so they got the complexities in motivations and personalities while Crystal and David are less developed, reflecting Abby’s perspective as new to this family dynamic. Crystal is a wounded teen who doesn’t like her stepmother, while David is a mild mannered misogynist who may or may not have killed his former wife. As Abby interacts more with Sheila, what she experiences could be her own mental health spiraling, or it could be Sheila’s ghost: it’s wonderfully hard to tell throughout the story.

Carroll uses black and white panels vs color as evocative contrasts during Abby’s journey. Her inner fantasy life is in wild color, while her daily mundane life is black and white. As the horror level ratchets up, the color bleeds into mundane life more and more often. I wasn’t sure how well psychological horror would translate to graphic novel, but A Guest in the House does a fantastic job of including creep factor. I will say the artwork is diminished a little by e-book formatting (particularly the richly illustrated two-page spreads), so if you pick this one up get a physical copy. I enjoyed it and would read other work by Emily Carroll anytime.