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A Guest in the House
In Emily Carroll's haunting adult graphic novel horror story A Guest in the House, a young woman marries a kind dentist only to realize that there’s a dark mystery surrounding his former wife’s death.After many lonely years, Abby’s just gotten married. She met her new husband—a recently widowed dentist—when he arrived in town with his young daughter, seeking a new start. Although it’s strange living in the shadow of her predecessor, Abby does her best to be a good wife and mother. But the more she learns about her new husband’s first wife, the more things don’t add up. And Abby starts to wonder . . . was Sheila’s death really by natural causes? As Abby sinks deeper into confusion, Sheila’s memory seems to become a force all its own, ensnaring Abby in a mystery that leaves her obsessed, fascinated, and desperately in love for the first time in her life.Emily's masterful balance of black and white, surreal colors, rich textures, and dramatic lettering is assured to bring this story to life and give readers a chill up their spine as they read.
256 pages, Kindle Edition
First published August 15, 2023
94 people are currently reading
13980 people want to read
About the author
E.M. Carroll
54 books2,325 followersE.M. Carroll was born in June 1983 in London, Ontario. They started making comics in 2010 and their horror comic "His Face All Red" went viral at Hallowe'en 2010.
Since then, E.M. has published several books, created comics for anthologies, and provided illustrations for other works. E.M. has won several awards, including an Ignatz and two Eisners. They are married to fellow Canadian artist, Kate Craig.
Emily's work now uses the initials E.M. Carroll. Visit their growing exhibits at EMCarroll.com.
Since then, E.M. has published several books, created comics for anthologies, and provided illustrations for other works. E.M. has won several awards, including an Ignatz and two Eisners. They are married to fellow Canadian artist, Kate Craig.
Emily's work now uses the initials E.M. Carroll. Visit their growing exhibits at EMCarroll.com.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 1,904 reviews
August 16, 2023
Girls be like “I'm fighting demons” and the demons be homosexuality.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 22, 2023
I just got smacked in the face so hard with ‘wtf did I just read’ and I’m gonna need a minute to wrestle that back down to and let it settle.
ETA: I’ve had some time to think and it’s just growing more confusing in my head. To get it straight: the art and the pieces of the story that are clear and the vibe are all fucking amazing. It’d be an easy five stars if it wasn’t so hard to piece together what exactly it’s saying.
So I’ll try to put it together in real time in the hopes of someone who got the parts I didn’t helping me figure it out. Eventually.
First of all, is this gay? I feel like this is gay but have so little proof.
Second, is the ghostie friend in Abby’s head or a separate spirit attached to Abby that started to haunt Crystal too? Or what feels least possible, is she actually Sheila? Abby picked up what Crystal was throwing down about her mom and then succeeded in seeing that version of ‘Sheila’ including black hair on a woman who was clearly blonde in all photos. Crystal was a kid going through a super confusing scenario. She lost her mom but how? Her father was clearly lying and Crystal likely knew more than he was saying. Trying to reconcile all that while young and creative likely will lead to a haunting of one kind or another. Abby only sees ghost!Sheila after Crystal describes and she sees Crystal’s art.
After that she sees the ghost as an entirely fictional version of Rapunzel (after seeing a child’s drawing and fixating on it first) and integrates that into her own dreams (fulfilling a long time fantasy perhaps and there’s the gay? Idk I can ruminate on that later). She only wants the ghost to appear to her that way and the ghost listens. Everything the ghost tells her is something Abby already knows or has guessed at or questioned outside of their conversations. The ghost feeds on her doubts and her shame more than anything else and all of the ghost’s changes happen after something. Rapunzel’s tower is also Sheila’s lighthouse.
Abby’s husband interrupts her, talks down to her, doesn’t respect her. She fully believes he only chose her because she’s quiet and unassuming, traits she shows over and over again to hate in herself. It’s so easy to make the jump from what Abby shows of her husband to believe he’d kill a wife he argued with all the time according to Crystal. Crystal says her dad hated her mom and it’s easy to believe that he’d lied about how she’d died to cover his own tracks. Abby also describes her husband as calm and nice several times, has conversations about he doesn’t want to be the angry version of himself he was before. It can be read two ways and because Abby is an unreliable narrator it’s easy to believe his anger was violent, could murder, rather than the possibility that he and Sheila simply didn’t get along and they were both in hell and hellish because of it.
I kind of ran out of steam there and semi-convinced myself that the ghost doesn’t exist at all and that all of the spooky shit is inside Abby’s head as she’s shown over and over to be at least a little psychotic. She’s wound up tight and hates so many things about herself and looks in the mirror and envisions ripping her throat out. She talks of an imaginary friend, Lady Jane Grey who was killed rather young and is pictured with a slit throat. She used to dream of slaying dragons and reveling in the spilled guts. She lost her mother, which is a complex situation that barely gets touched on at all. She’s unhinged in a very suburban housewife horror kind of way.
So moving on,
If Beth is Sheila the story makes in a lot of ways. When Beth shows up she forces her way into the house, doesn’t ask Abby’s name, asks about her husband (who Abby refers to as Dr. Smith and David and Beth immediately calls Dave), if she has kids, ends the conversation abruptly the second Abby starts to talk about herself, then points out the Lighthouse Sheila painted and says it should go in the hall. She also points to the door harp chime and says it belongs on the door before leaving, which is something a nosy neighbor might do but also a little possessive. I’ll be honest, all of this read the first time like she was vetting Abby for some kind of con. It just didn’t feel genuine, just plumbing for information. The introduction of counterfeit bills at ValuSave further pushes the idea that something’s wrong and fake. Abby stared down at her drawer for a long time for it to not be important in some way. Beth makes tentative plans for Canada Day but then never checks in again. When Beth finally appears again she points out Abby never drives Dave’s car like she’s been watching and just hasn’t checked in again which is sus as hell. She calls Crystal Crys, which has never happened before. She could just really enjoy giving strangers nicknames, but it makes the most sense she’s actually Sheila. She just happens to stumble upon Abby when she pulls over toward the end and her car is never shown so my first thought when Lorena explains the house Beth said was hers had been empty for a long time was that Beth was also a ghost of some kind. She may yet be so long as Crystal can see ghosts too. Crystal recognizes her as her mom, though. Crystal is fully ready and willing to run away with this woman.
Finally, those last few pages. She kills Beth/Sheila. She asks the ghost who she is. The ghost asks her back. Honestly, that kind of feels like the major point here. Who is Abby? The parts are named Abby, Sheila, A Lady and Her Knight, and Intruder. These could just as easily be Abby’s roles or the roles she’s attempting to fill as anything else. She doesn’t know who she is. She’s unhappy in her own skin. She questions her place and her worth. By the end she’s alienated herself from her own life. Things in the house aren’t where she left them. There’s an intruder but it may well be just her getting lost. She wants to fit, but has been weighed down by this idea of who she needs to be to survive quiet and unassuming and small, idolizing her sister who was loud and outgoing and a risk-taker. She dreams of slaying dragons and puts on armor that she pulls tighter and tighter. Dave tells her to not interfere with Crystal’s grief, but Abby knows full well how that goes because she’d been there herself and it clearly fucked her up. She’s twisted herself all up just trying to reconcile her own grief and possibly trauma and now she doesn’t know who she is, who she could be, what she wants.
Wait, maybe there’s the gay. I don’t know.
If I think about this any longer right now I might lose it, though. I think that may might maybe possibly make me like it a bit more, though.
ETA: I’ve had some time to think and it’s just growing more confusing in my head. To get it straight: the art and the pieces of the story that are clear and the vibe are all fucking amazing. It’d be an easy five stars if it wasn’t so hard to piece together what exactly it’s saying.
So I’ll try to put it together in real time in the hopes of someone who got the parts I didn’t helping me figure it out. Eventually.
First of all, is this gay? I feel like this is gay but have so little proof.
Second, is the ghostie friend in Abby’s head or a separate spirit attached to Abby that started to haunt Crystal too? Or what feels least possible, is she actually Sheila? Abby picked up what Crystal was throwing down about her mom and then succeeded in seeing that version of ‘Sheila’ including black hair on a woman who was clearly blonde in all photos. Crystal was a kid going through a super confusing scenario. She lost her mom but how? Her father was clearly lying and Crystal likely knew more than he was saying. Trying to reconcile all that while young and creative likely will lead to a haunting of one kind or another. Abby only sees ghost!Sheila after Crystal describes and she sees Crystal’s art.
After that she sees the ghost as an entirely fictional version of Rapunzel (after seeing a child’s drawing and fixating on it first) and integrates that into her own dreams (fulfilling a long time fantasy perhaps and there’s the gay? Idk I can ruminate on that later). She only wants the ghost to appear to her that way and the ghost listens. Everything the ghost tells her is something Abby already knows or has guessed at or questioned outside of their conversations. The ghost feeds on her doubts and her shame more than anything else and all of the ghost’s changes happen after something. Rapunzel’s tower is also Sheila’s lighthouse.
Abby’s husband interrupts her, talks down to her, doesn’t respect her. She fully believes he only chose her because she’s quiet and unassuming, traits she shows over and over again to hate in herself. It’s so easy to make the jump from what Abby shows of her husband to believe he’d kill a wife he argued with all the time according to Crystal. Crystal says her dad hated her mom and it’s easy to believe that he’d lied about how she’d died to cover his own tracks. Abby also describes her husband as calm and nice several times, has conversations about he doesn’t want to be the angry version of himself he was before. It can be read two ways and because Abby is an unreliable narrator it’s easy to believe his anger was violent, could murder, rather than the possibility that he and Sheila simply didn’t get along and they were both in hell and hellish because of it.
I kind of ran out of steam there and semi-convinced myself that the ghost doesn’t exist at all and that all of the spooky shit is inside Abby’s head as she’s shown over and over to be at least a little psychotic. She’s wound up tight and hates so many things about herself and looks in the mirror and envisions ripping her throat out. She talks of an imaginary friend, Lady Jane Grey who was killed rather young and is pictured with a slit throat. She used to dream of slaying dragons and reveling in the spilled guts. She lost her mother, which is a complex situation that barely gets touched on at all. She’s unhinged in a very suburban housewife horror kind of way.
So moving on,
If Beth is Sheila the story makes in a lot of ways. When Beth shows up she forces her way into the house, doesn’t ask Abby’s name, asks about her husband (who Abby refers to as Dr. Smith and David and Beth immediately calls Dave), if she has kids, ends the conversation abruptly the second Abby starts to talk about herself, then points out the Lighthouse Sheila painted and says it should go in the hall. She also points to the door harp chime and says it belongs on the door before leaving, which is something a nosy neighbor might do but also a little possessive. I’ll be honest, all of this read the first time like she was vetting Abby for some kind of con. It just didn’t feel genuine, just plumbing for information. The introduction of counterfeit bills at ValuSave further pushes the idea that something’s wrong and fake. Abby stared down at her drawer for a long time for it to not be important in some way. Beth makes tentative plans for Canada Day but then never checks in again. When Beth finally appears again she points out Abby never drives Dave’s car like she’s been watching and just hasn’t checked in again which is sus as hell. She calls Crystal Crys, which has never happened before. She could just really enjoy giving strangers nicknames, but it makes the most sense she’s actually Sheila. She just happens to stumble upon Abby when she pulls over toward the end and her car is never shown so my first thought when Lorena explains the house Beth said was hers had been empty for a long time was that Beth was also a ghost of some kind. She may yet be so long as Crystal can see ghosts too. Crystal recognizes her as her mom, though. Crystal is fully ready and willing to run away with this woman.
Finally, those last few pages. She kills Beth/Sheila. She asks the ghost who she is. The ghost asks her back. Honestly, that kind of feels like the major point here. Who is Abby? The parts are named Abby, Sheila, A Lady and Her Knight, and Intruder. These could just as easily be Abby’s roles or the roles she’s attempting to fill as anything else. She doesn’t know who she is. She’s unhappy in her own skin. She questions her place and her worth. By the end she’s alienated herself from her own life. Things in the house aren’t where she left them. There’s an intruder but it may well be just her getting lost. She wants to fit, but has been weighed down by this idea of who she needs to be to survive quiet and unassuming and small, idolizing her sister who was loud and outgoing and a risk-taker. She dreams of slaying dragons and puts on armor that she pulls tighter and tighter. Dave tells her to not interfere with Crystal’s grief, but Abby knows full well how that goes because she’d been there herself and it clearly fucked her up. She’s twisted herself all up just trying to reconcile her own grief and possibly trauma and now she doesn’t know who she is, who she could be, what she wants.
Wait, maybe there’s the gay. I don’t know.
If I think about this any longer right now I might lose it, though. I think that may might maybe possibly make me like it a bit more, though.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 13, 2025
every few years emily carroll comes out of the woods with some new and fresh thing to traumatize me with
April 30, 2023
TW//
A Guest in the House was an entertaining read for the most part. I really liked the mystery surrounding the dead woman and it kept me eager to find out how it would all come together.
The drawings were beautiful yet creepy and I loved when the pictures would take unexpected dark turns.
However, the characters were bland, especially Abby. She’s very much a boring housewife and the majority of the story focuses on her. Her husband was an awful person, but the way that he was written was like he was a dull man with hints of a toxic personality. I wanted more out of these characters.
I also struggled with how confusing some parts of the story were. It took me a while before I understood the colored portions of the graphic novel and it took me nearly forty five minutes after I finished the story to understand what the ending meant.
Despite my issues with this graphic novel, I still think the story was fairly decent. A Guest in the House would make for a good horror movie if certain parts of the story are expanded on for the movie.
Thank you to Fierce Reads for providing me with an arc of this graphic novel at Emerald City Comic Con.
A Guest in the House was an entertaining read for the most part. I really liked the mystery surrounding the dead woman and it kept me eager to find out how it would all come together.
The drawings were beautiful yet creepy and I loved when the pictures would take unexpected dark turns.
However, the characters were bland, especially Abby. She’s very much a boring housewife and the majority of the story focuses on her. Her husband was an awful person, but the way that he was written was like he was a dull man with hints of a toxic personality. I wanted more out of these characters.
I also struggled with how confusing some parts of the story were. It took me a while before I understood the colored portions of the graphic novel and it took me nearly forty five minutes after I finished the story to understand what the ending meant.
Despite my issues with this graphic novel, I still think the story was fairly decent. A Guest in the House would make for a good horror movie if certain parts of the story are expanded on for the movie.
Thank you to Fierce Reads for providing me with an arc of this graphic novel at Emerald City Comic Con.
December 30, 2023
11/18/23: When I reached the ending, I initially felt taken aback and confused about how we got there. However, upon sitting with it and reflecting on the rest of the book, I’m incredibly impressed with how much of it was actually foreshadowed. This is the type of book that you have to reread and piece together yourself, which in my opinion, is one of the most satisfying types of books to engage with. The illustrations are also absolutely stunning and in reflection of the ending bear so much significance in terms of how its style contributes to broader narrative. Really impressed and will definitely be rereading!
Content warning(s): Discussion of potential suicide and childhood neglect
12/30/23: I haven't stopped thinking about this graphic novel since finishing it for the first time, and so, I did something I rarely do, especially so quickly: I did a reread, keeping in mind the ending this time. And since I haven't seen too many theories/speculations about this graphic novel, or interviews from Carroll revealing some answers, I wanted to write mine down.
Fantasy is, obviously, a core theme in this graphic novel that is much discussed in other reviews. However, as I was reading, I found myself wondering: Why does Abby have these fantasies in the first place? The answers that I have landed on are loneliness, secrecy, and, by extent, repression. The inability to speak one's truth to anyone except oneself. All of this leads to a mediocre life filled with surface level relationships for Abby that she's unhappy with, and, so, the only place she can find solace in then becomes her fantasies.
There are several points in Abby's story where she either is told directly not to tell the truth or chooses not to face the truth. Explicitly, there is the scene with her older sister—who is the only person that Abby seems to have been close with, or at least, to have admired, likely because of how seamlessly she fit into normative social standards women are expected to achieve (particularly with beauty and relationships)—where Abby is told not to tell their mother (who is strikingly referred to as a "dragon," a symbol that frequently comes up in the graphic novel) that she is going out. Another explicit scene is where Abby is asked by Crystal to not tell her father about the photograph of Sheila that Crystal has. It is assumed that Abby keeps all of these secrets, and the only time she ever shares one of her own is when she confides with Crystal that she had an imaginary friend growing up. This is also, notably, the first time in Abby's entire life that she has ever told anyone about this, speaking to the overarching idea that Abby buries her truths deeply. The fact that it is a secret related to her fantasies specifically also feels incredibly intentional on Carroll's end.
And then, there are the truths that Abby either refuses to face or that only seem to live within her subconscious. There are several points in the graphic novel where Abby speaks to the fact that she does not fit into her role of wife and mother. Through her comments about her romantic and sexual relationships with men as well as her fantasies about Sheila, it is implied that she experiences little attraction for men (if any, since she seems to mostly be attracted to the attention that her husband gives her rather than her husband himself) and a repressed attraction for women that she refuses to face. However, she never shares this with anybody (understandably, as it is the 90s), but even in terms of speaking about her self-doubt about her role as wife and mother, she never allows for anyone to see this part of her aside from the fantastical Sheila. There are also, several times, where Abby is shown wondering about Sheila (particularly, the details around her death) and doesn't bring them up to her husband, unwilling to look at the truth and instead fantasizing one of her own. The few times she does try to talk about her husband to Sheila, her questions/comments are subtle and frequently shutdown. The only time any of her doubts or suspicions surface is in her internal conversations or in her fantasies.
And so, even when confronted with the truth about Sheila at the end, Abby still refuses to face it and is in essence killed by her fantasies. A lot of readers, including myself, felt as though the ending happens quickly upon the first read, as it is revealed that Sheila is, in fact, alive and not at all how Abby had seen her in her imagination. In fact, at least for myself, I felt somewhat disappointed upon seeing Sheila now, as she is merely a regular woman with her own struggles and not a far-fetched, idealized princess. But upon a second reading, I feel as though how quickly the ending moves serves a purpose. Abby has an opportunity to talk to the real Sheila here, if she wanted to, and learn the truth behind what happened to her. Instead, though, she looks to the fantastical Sheila for answers, leading to a physical conflict between Abby and the real Sheila that is implied to lead to Abby's death. In the last panel though, the real Sheila is hugging Abby, and it is her fantasies that are running a sword through them both—killing Abby, and the fantastical image of Sheila that she has held this entire time. It is not only her fantasies that kill Abby here, but by extent, all that she has repressed and her inability to talk about any of it, these secrets and hidden truths that have pigeonholed her into a life that she disliked but only took action about through fantasy. Abby often refers to herself as a ghost, and while explicitly it seems like the fantastical ghost is the titular guest in the house, it is Abby herself who is the guest, not quite belonging and counterfeit if following in line with other themes in this graphic novel. A life led by repression and fantasy then becomes equivalent to death. It is her inability to face herself that, really, kills Abby.
I also find it interesting that the other character in this graphic novel who dies is Abby's husband. He, too, seemed to withhold truths, to the point of pretending that Sheila had died, rather than facing the complications of what having her in his life after divorce would look like. He also tries to life a fantasy and is ultimately drowned in part by Abby but also by the fantasies themselves.
This is all speculation, of course, but I couldn't help thinking about this upon rereading this graphic novel and wanted to write it down somewhere.
I have some tangential short thoughts on Abby's relationship with her mother that I want to share as well, as there is not much revealed about her mother, only implied, referencing again these ideas about repression: Like mentioned earlier, Abby's sister refers to her as a "dragon," which is a frightening, antagonistic symbol throughout the graphic novel. It is implied that Abby's mother had been distant from her, if not potentially neglectful. Before she kills her husband, he mentions that her mother would often fall asleep in places (which, in my mind, I immediately associated with substance issues, as the frame with her mother shows her smoking), including the bathtub . This stood out to me because fantastical Sheila told Abby that she was killed in a bathtub. But prior to this, Abby believed that Sheila had died by suicide. There are several fantastical figures that Abby imagines throughout the graphic novel that are shown to have neck wounds around the throat. This might be a far-fetched theory, but since it is never revealed how Abby's mother died, I wonder whether it was her mother who had actually died by suicide in the bathtub, specifically through a neck wound. Regardless of the truth, this is another aspect of her life that Abby represses and refuses to address, and if nothing else, her mother does seem to be a major source of Abby's loneliness/feelings of abandonment, which she wants to later save fantastical Sheila from.
Anyway! That is all from me for now. I think regardless of the truth, Carroll is a masterful artist and storyteller, and I really look forward to reading more from her, as her work has certainly been thought-provoking for me.
Content warning(s): Discussion of potential suicide and childhood neglect
12/30/23: I haven't stopped thinking about this graphic novel since finishing it for the first time, and so, I did something I rarely do, especially so quickly: I did a reread, keeping in mind the ending this time. And since I haven't seen too many theories/speculations about this graphic novel, or interviews from Carroll revealing some answers, I wanted to write mine down.
Fantasy is, obviously, a core theme in this graphic novel that is much discussed in other reviews. However, as I was reading, I found myself wondering: Why does Abby have these fantasies in the first place? The answers that I have landed on are loneliness, secrecy, and, by extent, repression. The inability to speak one's truth to anyone except oneself. All of this leads to a mediocre life filled with surface level relationships for Abby that she's unhappy with, and, so, the only place she can find solace in then becomes her fantasies.
There are several points in Abby's story where she either is told directly not to tell the truth or chooses not to face the truth. Explicitly, there is the scene with her older sister—who is the only person that Abby seems to have been close with, or at least, to have admired, likely because of how seamlessly she fit into normative social standards women are expected to achieve (particularly with beauty and relationships)—where Abby is told not to tell their mother (who is strikingly referred to as a "dragon," a symbol that frequently comes up in the graphic novel) that she is going out. Another explicit scene is where Abby is asked by Crystal to not tell her father about the photograph of Sheila that Crystal has. It is assumed that Abby keeps all of these secrets, and the only time she ever shares one of her own is when she confides with Crystal that she had an imaginary friend growing up. This is also, notably, the first time in Abby's entire life that she has ever told anyone about this, speaking to the overarching idea that Abby buries her truths deeply. The fact that it is a secret related to her fantasies specifically also feels incredibly intentional on Carroll's end.
And then, there are the truths that Abby either refuses to face or that only seem to live within her subconscious. There are several points in the graphic novel where Abby speaks to the fact that she does not fit into her role of wife and mother. Through her comments about her romantic and sexual relationships with men as well as her fantasies about Sheila, it is implied that she experiences little attraction for men (if any, since she seems to mostly be attracted to the attention that her husband gives her rather than her husband himself) and a repressed attraction for women that she refuses to face. However, she never shares this with anybody (understandably, as it is the 90s), but even in terms of speaking about her self-doubt about her role as wife and mother, she never allows for anyone to see this part of her aside from the fantastical Sheila. There are also, several times, where Abby is shown wondering about Sheila (particularly, the details around her death) and doesn't bring them up to her husband, unwilling to look at the truth and instead fantasizing one of her own. The few times she does try to talk about her husband to Sheila, her questions/comments are subtle and frequently shutdown. The only time any of her doubts or suspicions surface is in her internal conversations or in her fantasies.
And so, even when confronted with the truth about Sheila at the end, Abby still refuses to face it and is in essence killed by her fantasies. A lot of readers, including myself, felt as though the ending happens quickly upon the first read, as it is revealed that Sheila is, in fact, alive and not at all how Abby had seen her in her imagination. In fact, at least for myself, I felt somewhat disappointed upon seeing Sheila now, as she is merely a regular woman with her own struggles and not a far-fetched, idealized princess. But upon a second reading, I feel as though how quickly the ending moves serves a purpose. Abby has an opportunity to talk to the real Sheila here, if she wanted to, and learn the truth behind what happened to her. Instead, though, she looks to the fantastical Sheila for answers, leading to a physical conflict between Abby and the real Sheila that is implied to lead to Abby's death. In the last panel though, the real Sheila is hugging Abby, and it is her fantasies that are running a sword through them both—killing Abby, and the fantastical image of Sheila that she has held this entire time. It is not only her fantasies that kill Abby here, but by extent, all that she has repressed and her inability to talk about any of it, these secrets and hidden truths that have pigeonholed her into a life that she disliked but only took action about through fantasy. Abby often refers to herself as a ghost, and while explicitly it seems like the fantastical ghost is the titular guest in the house, it is Abby herself who is the guest, not quite belonging and counterfeit if following in line with other themes in this graphic novel. A life led by repression and fantasy then becomes equivalent to death. It is her inability to face herself that, really, kills Abby.
I also find it interesting that the other character in this graphic novel who dies is Abby's husband. He, too, seemed to withhold truths, to the point of pretending that Sheila had died, rather than facing the complications of what having her in his life after divorce would look like. He also tries to life a fantasy and is ultimately drowned in part by Abby but also by the fantasies themselves.
This is all speculation, of course, but I couldn't help thinking about this upon rereading this graphic novel and wanted to write it down somewhere.
I have some tangential short thoughts on Abby's relationship with her mother that I want to share as well, as there is not much revealed about her mother, only implied, referencing again these ideas about repression: Like mentioned earlier, Abby's sister refers to her as a "dragon," which is a frightening, antagonistic symbol throughout the graphic novel. It is implied that Abby's mother had been distant from her, if not potentially neglectful. Before she kills her husband, he mentions that her mother would often fall asleep in places (which, in my mind, I immediately associated with substance issues, as the frame with her mother shows her smoking), including the bathtub . This stood out to me because fantastical Sheila told Abby that she was killed in a bathtub. But prior to this, Abby believed that Sheila had died by suicide. There are several fantastical figures that Abby imagines throughout the graphic novel that are shown to have neck wounds around the throat. This might be a far-fetched theory, but since it is never revealed how Abby's mother died, I wonder whether it was her mother who had actually died by suicide in the bathtub, specifically through a neck wound. Regardless of the truth, this is another aspect of her life that Abby represses and refuses to address, and if nothing else, her mother does seem to be a major source of Abby's loneliness/feelings of abandonment, which she wants to later save fantastical Sheila from.
Anyway! That is all from me for now. I think regardless of the truth, Carroll is a masterful artist and storyteller, and I really look forward to reading more from her, as her work has certainly been thought-provoking for me.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 7, 2025
The real horror was comphet all along
January 26, 2023
This book totally ruled. Emily Carroll is in a different league when it comes to graphic horror. Her work is instantly recognizable, grotesquely physical, and scary as hell. I can't wait to own a copy of this.
March 2, 2025
emily carroll the artist that you are. people complaining about the ending are very silly to me. not knowing who or what the ghost is is the point. why obsess over the things your husband is keeping from you when the things you’re keeping from yourself are so much more interesting? luv a bluebeard inversion.
March 15, 2024
emily carroll you are the only person in the world who understands me
December 31, 2023
This was one of my favourite books I read in 2023. The artwork, as usual for Emily Carroll, is stunning. The story is unsettling and captivating. And that ending! I stayed up reading because I had to know what happened next, and then I finished the book not sure how to interpret those final pages. I ended up researching reviews to find different theories. When I woke up the next morning, I immediately picked it up and read it cover to cover again, and while I still have questions, I now have my own theories!
As I read through Goodreads reviews, I became aware of two things. One, people hate an ambiguous ending. And two, somehow many (most?) readers completely missed the queer content of this book, even though it’s not at all hidden. As I said in my Our Queerest Shelves post about this book, “It’s disappointing that we still live in a world where queer people are apparently harder to see than ghosts.”
Full review at the Lesbrary.
As I read through Goodreads reviews, I became aware of two things. One, people hate an ambiguous ending. And two, somehow many (most?) readers completely missed the queer content of this book, even though it’s not at all hidden. As I said in my Our Queerest Shelves post about this book, “It’s disappointing that we still live in a world where queer people are apparently harder to see than ghosts.”
Full review at the Lesbrary.
November 11, 2023
Gorgeous, creepy illustrations in this mysterious graphic novel set in a small lake country Ontario town. A woman married to an older man whose first wife *apprently* died of cancer begins to wonder if something more sinister actually happened. Classic Emily Carroll. 😱😱😱
Also, for anyone wondering if this is queer: YES!
Also, for anyone wondering if this is queer: YES!
December 30, 2023
Abby lives with her older husband and his daughter in a lakeside house. She’s lonely, insecure, and plagued by gory fantasies. The spectre of David’s former wife, Sheila – an artist whom Abby imagines as intimidatingly beautiful – looms large (yes, there are strong echoes of Rebecca here). Abby’s dreams and visions intensify; she becomes obsessed with the image of a drowned woman. What really happened to Sheila? And who is the ‘guest’?
As sometimes happens with graphic novels, the story feels like it’s stretched a little thin. At the end, I was left wishing there could’ve been more meat on the bones of certain characters. However, the art here is stunning, much more advanced and elaborate than in Carroll’s debut collection Through the Woods. Abby’s day-to-day life is rendered in simple shades of grey, while her dreams come to life in glorious bursts of colour; dripping shades of turquoise, bloody reds. A Guest in the House is an effective and visually impressive fable, and a real pleasure to read, even if it lacks the impact Through the Woods had when I first read it.
As sometimes happens with graphic novels, the story feels like it’s stretched a little thin. At the end, I was left wishing there could’ve been more meat on the bones of certain characters. However, the art here is stunning, much more advanced and elaborate than in Carroll’s debut collection Through the Woods. Abby’s day-to-day life is rendered in simple shades of grey, while her dreams come to life in glorious bursts of colour; dripping shades of turquoise, bloody reds. A Guest in the House is an effective and visually impressive fable, and a real pleasure to read, even if it lacks the impact Through the Woods had when I first read it.
November 17, 2023
I AM NOT OKAY!!!
WHAT IN THE WORLD DID I JUST READ???
SO SPEECHLESS RIGHT NOW!!!
I thought I was getting a simple, kind of scary, story about a dead woman haunting her ex-husband, the daughter she had with him, and his new wife.
What I got:
(A) Within the first 125 pages, the MMC, David, lied three different times to, the MFC, Abby.
(B) David gaslighting Abby on way too many occasions.
(C) David’s daughter, Crystal, acting shady and lying too.
(D) A mistrustful neighbor.
And…
(E) An unreliable narrator, aka, Abby.
Ooh. And multiple people die in the end.
🤷🏽♀️🤷🏽♀️🤷🏽♀️.
This is what I get for looking for something light to read. To give my brain some rest after devouring The Inheritance Games series. 🤦🏽♀️🤦🏽♀️🤦🏽♀️. 🤭🤭🤭.
All in all, though, I was intrigued and impressed. There was some slight confusion about certain aspects of this book. A few places within the art as well as the end. But. An interesting time was had here. 😊😊😊.
WHAT IN THE WORLD DID I JUST READ???
SO SPEECHLESS RIGHT NOW!!!
I thought I was getting a simple, kind of scary, story about a dead woman haunting her ex-husband, the daughter she had with him, and his new wife.
What I got:
(A) Within the first 125 pages, the MMC, David, lied three different times to, the MFC, Abby.
(B) David gaslighting Abby on way too many occasions.
(C) David’s daughter, Crystal, acting shady and lying too.
(D) A mistrustful neighbor.
And…
(E) An unreliable narrator, aka, Abby.
Ooh. And multiple people die in the end.
🤷🏽♀️🤷🏽♀️🤷🏽♀️.
This is what I get for looking for something light to read. To give my brain some rest after devouring The Inheritance Games series. 🤦🏽♀️🤦🏽♀️🤦🏽♀️. 🤭🤭🤭.
All in all, though, I was intrigued and impressed. There was some slight confusion about certain aspects of this book. A few places within the art as well as the end. But. An interesting time was had here. 😊😊😊.
October 16, 2023
I’m not entirely sure I know what happened but I think I’m ok with that
December 2, 2023
the art style is 5 star material, but the story itself was slightly too trippy to maintain my attention. i was definitely creeped out by some scenes/illustrations though! i just prefer Through the Woods as well.
June 22, 2024
I had to think about it all a lot and then read it again.
What a great, dark story it was, with a pinch, a big pinch of silent despair.
I love stories with twists, stories with unreliable narrators, he said/she said kind of stories and here I had it all.
I wish A24 made it into a movie.
What a great, dark story it was, with a pinch, a big pinch of silent despair.
I love stories with twists, stories with unreliable narrators, he said/she said kind of stories and here I had it all.
I wish A24 made it into a movie.
September 26, 2023
ABSOLUTELY stellar work.
February 6, 2023
No one does creepy and sexy quite like Emily Carroll. A Guest in the House is the story of two women, one living, one dead, connected by their marriage to a mediocre man. Both spooky and sexy, with gorgeous illustrations and a storyline without clear answers, this is Emily Carroll doing what she does best.
September 2, 2023
My brain hurts but also I loved it???
The art was gorgeous and phenomenal but I simply am ~confused but what actually happened in the story.
The ending I’m deciding to accept is that there seems to be some obvious nods at queerness and possibly ignoring ones queerness to enter an easier black and white heterosexual life (as depicted in the color differences in the panels of Abby’s real-life and Abby’s dream world). I think from what I can tell the ghost never actually existed (I mean this could be proven further considering the ghost is in color and the only things depicted in color in the story are things in Abby’s mind) and the ghost is actually a representation of Abby’s queerness haunting her as she attempts to live a “normal” (heteronormative) life. But if this is the case I have no idea what happened in those last two pages…
I could be way off and if that’s the case then I genuinely have no idea what I just read but at least the art was STUNNING!
The art was gorgeous and phenomenal but I simply am ~confused but what actually happened in the story.
The ending I’m deciding to accept is that there seems to be some obvious nods at queerness and possibly ignoring ones queerness to enter an easier black and white heterosexual life (as depicted in the color differences in the panels of Abby’s real-life and Abby’s dream world). I think from what I can tell the ghost never actually existed (I mean this could be proven further considering the ghost is in color and the only things depicted in color in the story are things in Abby’s mind) and the ghost is actually a representation of Abby’s queerness haunting her as she attempts to live a “normal” (heteronormative) life. But if this is the case I have no idea what happened in those last two pages…
I could be way off and if that’s the case then I genuinely have no idea what I just read but at least the art was STUNNING!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 18, 2023
I’m extremely confused
Read
February 24, 2025I'm drowning in my adoring fascination for this book. My jaw dropped from the artwork on page 2. And it only got more meaty and gorgeous from there. A graphic novel gothic complete with ghosts, sexual repression, hallucinations, and the most complex and open-to-interpretation ending I've perhaps ever come across in my life, Emily Carroll has created my newest obsession. I immediately ran to go purchase a copy so I can use post-it notes to annotate and try to connect all the strings of this intricate spider web of a tale.
If anyone wants to join in a riveting discussion of this book's themes of grief and homosexuality and motherhood and daughterhood and loneliness and try with all their might to try to make some sense of this, please hit me up.
CW: suicide (past), death of mother (past), death of sibling (past), murder, drowning, derealization/unreality, hallucinations, sexual content (vague, brief), blood & gore, violence, death by cancer (mention, past)
If anyone wants to join in a riveting discussion of this book's themes of grief and homosexuality and motherhood and daughterhood and loneliness and try with all their might to try to make some sense of this, please hit me up.
CW: suicide (past), death of mother (past), death of sibling (past), murder, drowning, derealization/unreality, hallucinations, sexual content (vague, brief), blood & gore, violence, death by cancer (mention, past)
September 30, 2023
Stunning and haunting. The artwork was beautiful and weird and I loved the gothic elements. I still can't wrap my head around the ending, but that comes with the gothic territory I guess. I also love others' interpretations of the ghost and queerness. May have to re-read this again one day.
May 21, 2024
What starts off as a seemingly ordinary story develops into something darker and takes a few left turns that I didn't see coming.
Especially that ending!
Especially that ending!
October 14, 2025
⭐️ 4 stars ⭐️
A beautiful, creepy, dark horror comic. And utterly confusing.
I had to search up theories after finishing it, because I needed to know what it all was supposed to mean. I needed a version at least, because all my brain was saying was whatthefuck over and over.
The entire thing was absolutely gorgeous, from the writing to the art style. I loved the contrast between Abby’s gray monochromatic life and her vivid colorful dreams.
It’s spooky and sad, gave me chills at times, and even if I don’t really understand it, I can’t say I didn’t thoroughly enjoy it.
Perfect for fans of creepiness, awesome art styles, ambiguous endings, and a bit of queer rep.
«There’s a rock in my chest lately. Feels like it’s tied to the bottom of my tongue.
If I focus, maybe I can haul it up into my mouth. Maybe I can spit it out.»
A beautiful, creepy, dark horror comic. And utterly confusing.
I had to search up theories after finishing it, because I needed to know what it all was supposed to mean. I needed a version at least, because all my brain was saying was whatthefuck over and over.
The entire thing was absolutely gorgeous, from the writing to the art style. I loved the contrast between Abby’s gray monochromatic life and her vivid colorful dreams.
It’s spooky and sad, gave me chills at times, and even if I don’t really understand it, I can’t say I didn’t thoroughly enjoy it.
Perfect for fans of creepiness, awesome art styles, ambiguous endings, and a bit of queer rep.
I once thought he could be my knight in shining armour..
But that was never him, was it? Not him.
October 12, 2023
Abby has married an older man (she's late 20's, he appears to be 40-ish) who moved across an entire continent with his young daughter after his wife died. But even though Sheila has never lived in Abby and David's house, she is ever-present. As Abby learns more snippets about Sheila, her shadow becomes stronger, and terrifyingly real.I'm not sure what to make of this book. And yet, it's a fascinating story, and even though I can't actually figure it out at all, which usually makes me dislike a book, I really loved this.
It feels a bit like a re-working of Rebecca. Abby sees herself as a mousey nobody who is surprised to have managed to get married. She works at a convenience store, with no prospects for anything better. She can't figure out what David sees in her. And it's unclear what she sees in him, either, other than maybe security (he's a dentist), since she actually barely seems to know him. Abby's best self appears when she's talking to Crystal, David's daughter, because Abby understands loss and really wants to be a supportive stepparent, even as she feels clumsy at the interactions.
But that's where the similarities to Rebecca end. Abby may have a dull-feeling real life (drawn in black-and-white), but she has, or at least had, a rich inner life, where she was both a knight who slayed dragons, and a child who was protected by "Lady Grey." This inner life is illustrated in gorgeous, if a bit creepy, full color. The artwork is just terrific, and while I'm not a big horror fan, I may have to seek out more of Emily Carroll's books for the pictures.
I don't want to say too much more, because everything feels like spoilers. But wow, as Abby discovers some contradictory information, Sheila grows ever larger in her mind, and I could not stop reading until the final chilling pages ended the story. (But what was that ending? This book is haunting me now. Fitting for October, I guess.)
I'm going to have to read this a second time to see if I pick up any clues I missed on the first zoom-through. If anyone can "explain it all," please comment!
By the way, the hardcover book under the dust jacket has a completely different picture from the jacket illustration, but both are creepily beautiful.
January 11, 2024
LOL! Well that's messed up in a horrific and yet delightful way. Creepy fun.
March 24, 2024
Live your truth, queen.
August 1, 2024
An illustrated nightmare (compliment).
My yoga teacher recommended this to me a few days ago. We'd been chatting about nonfiction books about trauma, horror novels, and graphic novels. She had a "oh!! you need to read this!!!" moment, found the title of the book, and I was delighted to see that it was by the brilliant EM Carroll, author of Through the Woods.
In short: my yoga teacher was right. I read this at 3am during a bout of insomnia and going to the bathroom after was really scary-spooky. I read it on my phone in gray-scale (which my phone is set to during times I should be sleeping), and then reread it in colour.
Because let me tell you: this nightmare warrants a reread. There's twists, turns, and fantastic visual storytelling. There's red herrings and gothic tropes and characters telling lies and fantastic foreshadowing. This black and white nightmare has sparse flashes of colour, used sparingly and brilliantly to both misdirect and confirm our fears.
A few reviewers suggested that A24 should adapt this into a movie, and...yes please.
Recommended if you're interested in horror stories with open endings, enjoy ambiguous references gothic tales (Rebecca? Blackbeard? Jane Eyre?), and for seasoned graphic novel fans and newbies alike. 4.25 stars.
My yoga teacher recommended this to me a few days ago. We'd been chatting about nonfiction books about trauma, horror novels, and graphic novels. She had a "oh!! you need to read this!!!" moment, found the title of the book, and I was delighted to see that it was by the brilliant EM Carroll, author of Through the Woods.
In short: my yoga teacher was right. I read this at 3am during a bout of insomnia and going to the bathroom after was really scary-spooky. I read it on my phone in gray-scale (which my phone is set to during times I should be sleeping), and then reread it in colour.
Because let me tell you: this nightmare warrants a reread. There's twists, turns, and fantastic visual storytelling. There's red herrings and gothic tropes and characters telling lies and fantastic foreshadowing. This black and white nightmare has sparse flashes of colour, used sparingly and brilliantly to both misdirect and confirm our fears.
A few reviewers suggested that A24 should adapt this into a movie, and...yes please.
Recommended if you're interested in horror stories with open endings, enjoy ambiguous references gothic tales (Rebecca? Blackbeard? Jane Eyre?), and for seasoned graphic novel fans and newbies alike. 4.25 stars.
December 10, 2023
Clear gothic inspiration of Du Maurier's Rebecca, Carroll sets her variation in the Ontario woods, where Abby, a simple small-town woman marries a widower dentist, becomes a stepmother to pre-teen Crystal, and begins to question the story she's been told about the first wife after a series of strange occurrences.
There's a rich inner life to Abby, revealed in full color display (reds, pinks, and blues, Abby envisioning herself armored as a knight, slaying dragons) that juxtaposes to the "real life" passive and drab Abby, drawn in black and white. Mysteries build upon each other, leaving the reader with bigger questions and plenty to parse and contemplate in the end.
4.5 stars - found this one through a "Best of 2023" list (unfortunately can't recall which one)
There's a rich inner life to Abby, revealed in full color display (reds, pinks, and blues, Abby envisioning herself armored as a knight, slaying dragons) that juxtaposes to the "real life" passive and drab Abby, drawn in black and white. Mysteries build upon each other, leaving the reader with bigger questions and plenty to parse and contemplate in the end.
4.5 stars - found this one through a "Best of 2023" list (unfortunately can't recall which one)
October 8, 2025
no one does it quite like emily carroll
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