AUDIO BOOK REVIEW: House of Cotton by Monica Brashears

Publication Date: April 4 2023 Format: Audio Genre:  Southern Fiction Narrators: Jeannette Illidge

Publisher: Macmillan Audio Length:  10 hours 41 min Buy: Kindle | Audio

Synopsis

Magnolia Brown is nineteen years old, broke, and effectively an orphan. She feels stuck and haunted: by her overdrawn bank account, her predatory landlord, and the ghost of her late grandmother Mama Brown.

One night, while working at her dead-end gas station job, a mysterious, slick stranger named Cotton walks in and offers to turn Magnolia’s luck around with a lucrative “modeling” job at his family’s funeral home. She accepts. But despite things looking up, Magnolia’s problems fatten along with her wallet. When Cotton’s requests become increasingly weird, Magnolia discovers there’s a lot more at stake than just her rent.

Sharp as a belted knife, this sly social commentary cuts straight to the bone. House of Cotton will keep you mesmerized until the very last page.

Review: 

I received a free copy of this audiobook from the publisher through netgalley.com.  I am leaving this review voluntarily. 

Magnolia is a mixed race woman who was raised by her grandmother. Her mother is an addict. When her grandmother passes away she finds herself at the mercy of men. 

First it's the landlord who says he can "help" her with her rent. Then she meets Cotton who wants her to dress and pretend to be people's lost loved ones. 

At first she loves that she is making good money but soon she finds herself wondering what she is doing and finding herself in situations that remind her too much of her mother. Gathering her strength she starts to understand that she is worth more. She starts to believe in herself, takes off the rose colored glasses and sees what is going on and how she is a part of it. It's an interesting story. The ending got a little muddled but I think ultimately Magnolia gains strength from playing these characters and from conjuring her gran to help guide her. There are so many layers to this I will be thinking about this book for a while. 

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