We Came to Welcome You: A Novel of Suburban Horror

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The Other Black GirlmeetsMidsommarin this spine-chilling, propulsive psychological adult debut from highly acclaimed authorVincent 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 andLovecraft CountyWe Came to Welcome You cleverly uses the uncanny to illuminate the cultish, shocking nature of systemic racism.

Where beauty lies, secrets are held...ugly 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 littletoofriendly 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 spirit...which 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 selfBecause in Maneless Grove, either you become a good neighboror you die.

Reviews

"A sinister and compelling psychological chiller about the perils of assimilation in a community that doesn't want you. Difficult to read at times, but that's simply because Vincent Tirado's writing is so raw, so corrosive, so undeniably brilliant. We Came to Welcome You is nasty, playful, and deeply unsettling." Eric LaRocca, author of Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke

Author Bio

Vincent Tirado is a nonbinary Afro-Latine Bronx native. They ventured out to Pennsylvania and Ohio to get their bachelors degree in biology and masters degree in bioethics. Their debut YA novelBurn Down, Rise Upwas the 2022 winner of the Pura Belpr Award and was a finalist for the 2022 Stoker Awards and 2023 Lammy Awards. Their sophomore YA novelWe Dont Swim Herewas called a chilling ghost story byPublishers Weekly.