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Housemates: A Novel
Two young housemates embark on a road trip to discover themselves in a fractured America in this sparkling novel of love, friendship and chosen family, by the award-winning author of The Third Rainbow Girl
What does it feel like, standing in the moments that will mark your life?
When Bernie replies to Leah's ad for a new housemate in Philadelphia, the two begin an intense and defiantly uncategorizable friendship based on a mutual belief in their art, and one another. Both aspire to capture the world around them: Leah through her writing; Bernie through her photography.
After Bernie's former photography professor, the renowned yet tarnished Daniel Dunn, dies and leaves her a complicated inheritance, Leah volunteers to accompany Bernie to his home in rural Pennsylvania, turning the jaunt into a road trip with an ambitious mission: to document America through words and photographs.
What ensues is a three-week journey into the heart of the nation, bringing the aritsts into conversation with people from all walks of life—“the absurd dreamers and failures of this wide, wide country”—as they try to make sense of the times they are living in. Along the way, Leah and Bernie discover what it means to to pursue their own ideas and dreams, and to embrace what they are capable of both romantically and artistically.
Housemates is a warm and insightful coming-of-age story of youth and freedom, a glorious celebration of queer life, and how art and love might save us all.
What does it feel like, standing in the moments that will mark your life?
When Bernie replies to Leah's ad for a new housemate in Philadelphia, the two begin an intense and defiantly uncategorizable friendship based on a mutual belief in their art, and one another. Both aspire to capture the world around them: Leah through her writing; Bernie through her photography.
After Bernie's former photography professor, the renowned yet tarnished Daniel Dunn, dies and leaves her a complicated inheritance, Leah volunteers to accompany Bernie to his home in rural Pennsylvania, turning the jaunt into a road trip with an ambitious mission: to document America through words and photographs.
What ensues is a three-week journey into the heart of the nation, bringing the aritsts into conversation with people from all walks of life—“the absurd dreamers and failures of this wide, wide country”—as they try to make sense of the times they are living in. Along the way, Leah and Bernie discover what it means to to pursue their own ideas and dreams, and to embrace what they are capable of both romantically and artistically.
Housemates is a warm and insightful coming-of-age story of youth and freedom, a glorious celebration of queer life, and how art and love might save us all.
384 pages, Paperback
First published May 28, 2024
814 people are currently reading
41500 people want to read
About the author
Emma Copley Eisenberg
8 books532 followersEmma Copley Eisenberg is the nationally bestselling author of the novel Housemates, nominated for a Lambda Literary Award in Lesbian Fiction and the VCU Cabell First Novelist Prize, as well as the nonfiction book The Third Rainbow Girl, a New York Times Notable Book and Editor’s Choice and a finalist for an Edgar Award and an Anthony Award. She’s received fellowships and residencies from Yaddo, Bread Loaf, Tin House, The Millay Colony and others, and her fiction, essays, and criticism have appeared in such publications as Granta, The Paris Review, The Believer, Esquire, the Virginia Quarterly Review, The New Republic, Harpers Bazaar, and The Cut. She lives in Philadelphia, where she co-founded Blue Stoop, a community hub for the literary arts. Her next book of fiction, Fat Swim, will be published on April 28, 2026.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 1,535 reviews
January 6, 2024
I wrote this book! I hope you enjoy
March 9, 2025
help, i've fallen victim to my own high expectations and i can't get up.
i should have loved this: a book set in my favorite city (hi philly, hi name drop of a shop down the street from my apartment) about my favorite trope (road trips) published by my favorite imprint (hogarth) in my favorite niche subgenre (character-driven lit fic about miserable young artsy people).
unfortunately, to steal a love island-ism, this is only my type on paper.
it's the kind of overwritten, under-edited style that just doesn’t work for me. i can’t stand a sentence that reads well when skimmed and collapses under pressure, and this is chock full of them.
we've got characters who are “only 20, in their second decade of life without having racked up any years yet” (they have already checked the box on two decades).
a description of authors "like" ernest hemingway who have wives “with names like mary or martha or pauline,” literally the names of hemingway’s wives in order when you google them.
two characters whose conflict comes from having moved in together for the first time, but also somehow previously raised a cat in their shared campus apartment.
a man who is described as talking on one of the first cell phones 15 years before they were commercially available and 5 years before they were even invented.
the phrase “their ponytails waiting.”
these are the darlings that escaped the slaughter.
there's a lot to like here: promising characters, ambitious themes, unique turns of phrase. above all, if you've spent any time in the universe unto itself that is the hypocritical / dreamy / strange utopia of queer share houses in west philly, you will be stunned at how well it's captured here.
sadly, it brought one of that world's pitfalls along with it — a lack of self awareness.
bottom line: a really exciting but really debuty debut.
(2.5 / thanks to the author for the copy)
i should have loved this: a book set in my favorite city (hi philly, hi name drop of a shop down the street from my apartment) about my favorite trope (road trips) published by my favorite imprint (hogarth) in my favorite niche subgenre (character-driven lit fic about miserable young artsy people).
unfortunately, to steal a love island-ism, this is only my type on paper.
it's the kind of overwritten, under-edited style that just doesn’t work for me. i can’t stand a sentence that reads well when skimmed and collapses under pressure, and this is chock full of them.
we've got characters who are “only 20, in their second decade of life without having racked up any years yet” (they have already checked the box on two decades).
a description of authors "like" ernest hemingway who have wives “with names like mary or martha or pauline,” literally the names of hemingway’s wives in order when you google them.
two characters whose conflict comes from having moved in together for the first time, but also somehow previously raised a cat in their shared campus apartment.
a man who is described as talking on one of the first cell phones 15 years before they were commercially available and 5 years before they were even invented.
the phrase “their ponytails waiting.”
these are the darlings that escaped the slaughter.
there's a lot to like here: promising characters, ambitious themes, unique turns of phrase. above all, if you've spent any time in the universe unto itself that is the hypocritical / dreamy / strange utopia of queer share houses in west philly, you will be stunned at how well it's captured here.
sadly, it brought one of that world's pitfalls along with it — a lack of self awareness.
bottom line: a really exciting but really debuty debut.
(2.5 / thanks to the author for the copy)
June 3, 2024
I have to give this a 5 star rating because it was truly an *experience* reading this book. I mean everything from the physicality of the story (the descriptions of land, food, creating art, peoples' bodies, spaces) that rendered such vivid images on the page to the way I was completely lost in the story immediately. I loved learning about these characters and journeying with them!
Plus, Emma Copley Eisenberg can WRITE. There were so many good passages that I had to underline; thoughts about art, capturing moments, seeing vs creating, being a witness to love and life and terror and so much that we've all felt since 2016 (cannot believe that was 8!!! years ago). I just felt a lot while reading this book, both for these characters and with them.
Good art can be a mirror, a window, or both. And I think many readers will see themselves in this in a myriad of ways, and those who don't will surely find something to enjoy and appreciate about it as well. I surely did!
Plus, Emma Copley Eisenberg can WRITE. There were so many good passages that I had to underline; thoughts about art, capturing moments, seeing vs creating, being a witness to love and life and terror and so much that we've all felt since 2016 (cannot believe that was 8!!! years ago). I just felt a lot while reading this book, both for these characters and with them.
Good art can be a mirror, a window, or both. And I think many readers will see themselves in this in a myriad of ways, and those who don't will surely find something to enjoy and appreciate about it as well. I surely did!
June 18, 2024
I wanted to love this so, so bad. Queer love story unpacking the "heart of America" is a blinking sign with my name on it. I eat that up for breakfast.
Instead I was let down on every single one of the pages. Bad writing, I didn't feel immersed or like the story was tactile, instead it was bad poetry. Characters whose personalities are all one note and interchangeable. The "road trip" is a three week journey around Pennsylvania that takes up way too little of the book. Who the hell is the third person narrator and why are they also a terrible first person narrator. And the story was not easy to get through! It plodded along at a strange pace, lingering indiscriminately on small moments and brushing over the interesting or complicated.
I figured that not being generous with my rating might alert other readers who are as excited as I was to reading this, as a warning that they were about to read something that is bordering on not good.
Instead I was let down on every single one of the pages. Bad writing, I didn't feel immersed or like the story was tactile, instead it was bad poetry. Characters whose personalities are all one note and interchangeable. The "road trip" is a three week journey around Pennsylvania that takes up way too little of the book. Who the hell is the third person narrator and why are they also a terrible first person narrator. And the story was not easy to get through! It plodded along at a strange pace, lingering indiscriminately on small moments and brushing over the interesting or complicated.
I figured that not being generous with my rating might alert other readers who are as excited as I was to reading this, as a warning that they were about to read something that is bordering on not good.
May 25, 2025
How do you talk about a book like Housemates, once you’ve finished it?
This is a road trip novel following two young artists, Leah and Bernie. They meet as housemates, and then leave their town with the intention of documenting what they see, and how it makes them feel.
What I found, as I flipped through the pages, is that this is a book celebrating being messy and queer and fat. It’s about art—both making and absorbing it. But, impossibly, the author does something else that I found extraordinary. It celebrates being alive, during a time where many of us have forgotten how.
Revitalizing.
This is a road trip novel following two young artists, Leah and Bernie. They meet as housemates, and then leave their town with the intention of documenting what they see, and how it makes them feel.
What I found, as I flipped through the pages, is that this is a book celebrating being messy and queer and fat. It’s about art—both making and absorbing it. But, impossibly, the author does something else that I found extraordinary. It celebrates being alive, during a time where many of us have forgotten how.
Revitalizing.
May 28, 2024
I didn’t like it. Both overwritten and, in its overwrittenness, vague. So often flowery physical descriptions were given instead of concrete information about the characters. Halfway through the book I felt like I knew very little about any of them, and therefore cared little. The books journey toward Capital-T Truth felt hollow. I also found its description of queer people and attempted use of current events to be kind of clumsy.
Very Contemporary Novel (trademark) — putting kind of a flimsy love story up against all of the horrific things (economic, social, fascism) that make up modern life. My problem with this type of book is the characters are “motivated” primarily by malaise, maybe sex if that. It just feels lifeless, and thus its evocation of police brutality, or empire, or transphobia feels like a cheap dance for the attention of the main audience for these books— self-conscious progressives with little to say.
Very Contemporary Novel (trademark) — putting kind of a flimsy love story up against all of the horrific things (economic, social, fascism) that make up modern life. My problem with this type of book is the characters are “motivated” primarily by malaise, maybe sex if that. It just feels lifeless, and thus its evocation of police brutality, or empire, or transphobia feels like a cheap dance for the attention of the main audience for these books— self-conscious progressives with little to say.
September 19, 2024
I was looking forward to this read SO much but it kind of disappointed me. I chose to read it as satire of the sort of leftist, queer, activist, artistic bubble people can live in but I’m not fully sure it was meant that way. But it was a little on the nose sometimes so I think it was? (Also - I definitely live in that bubble so the call is coming from inside the house here). I’m just sad that I just didn’t really connect to this - it felt a little futile in the end. But I love the representation of flawed, queer characters questioning their purpose and art. It felt very real. I just didn’t *love* the plot.
June 17, 2024
some of the most insufferable prose i’ve read in a minute. also, i would love to know why some authors feel the need to write without quotation marks. it’s not a quirky or fun stylistic choice, it’s just annoying.
July 15, 2024
It is courageous to write a new novel based upon people in history, not only because you might well get them so very wrong, but also because there are readers, like me, who will almost always refuse to even skim the pages. With Housemates, I didn’t know there was this “taken from real life” element, nor for that matter was I familiar with the lesbian couple of the 1930s onward who inspired the author, and whom she reimagined and reconfigured as the contemporary queer couple her story revolves around. As it turned out, easily my favourite thing about this book was learning about the women who inspired it.
Housemates focuses on a young woman named Bernie, loosely based on Bernice Abbott, a news and social justice photographer who lived from 1898-1991. Bernice Abbott’s real life partner, art critic and writer Elizabeth McCausland, is recreated as the character Leah, one of many queer housemates living together in west Philly. That’s easy enough to glom onto, but hell if I know who the novel’s elderly all-watching narrator is meant to be. I’m going to let that rest. I had simply read that the plot centered around a “queer roadtrip”. Sign me up, I thought, rummaging around for road maps, unaware that no one was going anywhere for at least the first third of the book.
That said, I liked the opening, seen from the pov of introverted Bernie being interviewed as a prospective tenant for a room that’s opened up in a large shared home. I wasn’t entirely sure if the group of women/enby housemates speaking with Bernie were meant to be taken seriously - a couple of them came across as almost caricatures of 2020 queer culture, self serious and openly judgmental - but I quickly warmed to one potential roomie-down-the-hall, Leah, a nonbinary newspaper writer vacillating between appealing self confidence and relatable insecurities. She is smart, but stuck in her work. She’s in a relationship, or/. She is generally content with her larger body, but stung by the way she’s sometimes addressed - or ignored, due to her size.
I also liked the early portions of the novel dedicated to Bernie’s burgeoning friendship with an unlikely guy, a photography teacher whose work has been lauded, but is known as something of a lech. Or, as things evolve, worse than that. But Holy Gods does this tale take forever to get a move on. For endless pages before the promised car journey, the writing is already rife with potholes, stops and starts, endless detours. Relationship issues that aren’t compelling, roommate drama that fizzes out, somehow both too much and not enough of the sexually abusive professor; initially he’s believable, if not particularly likable, but soon enough he’s a cliche. There is. So much. Political posturing. I almost gave up during a side track to an imagined meeting with Valerie Solanas, real life author of Scum Manifesto (Scum=Society For Cutting up Men), the woman who shot Andy Warhol in 1968. (Still though, imagining Valarie Solanas conducting a haunted house tour? That’s half a star right there).
Finally finally - and completely bizarrely, suddenly funded for no real reason by the Philadelphia newspaper Leah works for - Bernie and Leah get in the car. The road trip from Philly turns out to be only to visit a few Pennsylvania small towns. Not necessarily a bad thing, but by the time they loaded up Bernie’s (pleasingly antiquated) photography gear and got going, I couldn’t help hoping for new backdrops. The queer writer-photographer duo take on Maine, Mississippi or Wyoming. Ideally a trip through more than one state. Alas. Not to be, though I was somewhat assuaged by a turn in the plot that expands on the photography teacher’s early critical success.
Ultimately, I was disappointed in how much of Housemates had nothing to do with experiencing life on the road, seeing new places, meeting new people. Worse still, I went half up a wall with the endless listing of facts, the dry retelling of queer history. I don’t like feeling preached to, even by folks whose beliefs I agree with. There are so many more vibrant, alive ways to incorporate real events into fiction. Seeing that Housemates has hit a couple of best seller lists, indie and national, I felt this twisted mix of yay-go-lesbians and F*CK, what about queer novels that are living and breathing and funny and heartbreaking and not just proselytizing?? I’ll take Rubyfruit Jungle for 200, Alex. Or let’s just say thank the Gods and Goddesses for Emily Austin, and leave it at that.
Note: The people complaining about the lack of quotation marks apparently don’t read British fiction but
- I actually prefer it.
Also. Why didn’t I quit after this:
“Leah massaged the sweet skin of Jigger’s primordial pouch”
(Jigger is a cat, if you were wondering, and now I’m finally out of here.)
Housemates focuses on a young woman named Bernie, loosely based on Bernice Abbott, a news and social justice photographer who lived from 1898-1991. Bernice Abbott’s real life partner, art critic and writer Elizabeth McCausland, is recreated as the character Leah, one of many queer housemates living together in west Philly. That’s easy enough to glom onto, but hell if I know who the novel’s elderly all-watching narrator is meant to be. I’m going to let that rest. I had simply read that the plot centered around a “queer roadtrip”. Sign me up, I thought, rummaging around for road maps, unaware that no one was going anywhere for at least the first third of the book.
That said, I liked the opening, seen from the pov of introverted Bernie being interviewed as a prospective tenant for a room that’s opened up in a large shared home. I wasn’t entirely sure if the group of women/enby housemates speaking with Bernie were meant to be taken seriously - a couple of them came across as almost caricatures of 2020 queer culture, self serious and openly judgmental - but I quickly warmed to one potential roomie-down-the-hall, Leah, a nonbinary newspaper writer vacillating between appealing self confidence and relatable insecurities. She is smart, but stuck in her work. She’s in a relationship, or/. She is generally content with her larger body, but stung by the way she’s sometimes addressed - or ignored, due to her size.
I also liked the early portions of the novel dedicated to Bernie’s burgeoning friendship with an unlikely guy, a photography teacher whose work has been lauded, but is known as something of a lech. Or, as things evolve, worse than that. But Holy Gods does this tale take forever to get a move on. For endless pages before the promised car journey, the writing is already rife with potholes, stops and starts, endless detours. Relationship issues that aren’t compelling, roommate drama that fizzes out, somehow both too much and not enough of the sexually abusive professor; initially he’s believable, if not particularly likable, but soon enough he’s a cliche. There is. So much. Political posturing. I almost gave up during a side track to an imagined meeting with Valerie Solanas, real life author of Scum Manifesto (Scum=Society For Cutting up Men), the woman who shot Andy Warhol in 1968. (Still though, imagining Valarie Solanas conducting a haunted house tour? That’s half a star right there).
Finally finally - and completely bizarrely, suddenly funded for no real reason by the Philadelphia newspaper Leah works for - Bernie and Leah get in the car. The road trip from Philly turns out to be only to visit a few Pennsylvania small towns. Not necessarily a bad thing, but by the time they loaded up Bernie’s (pleasingly antiquated) photography gear and got going, I couldn’t help hoping for new backdrops. The queer writer-photographer duo take on Maine, Mississippi or Wyoming. Ideally a trip through more than one state. Alas. Not to be, though I was somewhat assuaged by a turn in the plot that expands on the photography teacher’s early critical success.
Ultimately, I was disappointed in how much of Housemates had nothing to do with experiencing life on the road, seeing new places, meeting new people. Worse still, I went half up a wall with the endless listing of facts, the dry retelling of queer history. I don’t like feeling preached to, even by folks whose beliefs I agree with. There are so many more vibrant, alive ways to incorporate real events into fiction. Seeing that Housemates has hit a couple of best seller lists, indie and national, I felt this twisted mix of yay-go-lesbians and F*CK, what about queer novels that are living and breathing and funny and heartbreaking and not just proselytizing?? I’ll take Rubyfruit Jungle for 200, Alex. Or let’s just say thank the Gods and Goddesses for Emily Austin, and leave it at that.
Note: The people complaining about the lack of quotation marks apparently don’t read British fiction but
- I actually prefer it.
Also. Why didn’t I quit after this:
“Leah massaged the sweet skin of Jigger’s primordial pouch”
(Jigger is a cat, if you were wondering, and now I’m finally out of here.)
September 28, 2024
There were a few things I liked about this book even though as a whole I thought it was just okay. First, I appreciated a focus on relationships and friendships that aren’t predicated on marriage/amatonormativity/the relationship escalator. I thought Emma Copley Esienberg also did a nice job writing about the anti-fat bias her character Leah faces and how Leah contends with it. Finally, as someone happily living in Philly right now, I vibed with the Philly references.
Unfortunately I didn’t love the prose in this book. It just felt a bit too vague and at times some of the emotions came across as forced. There was a lot of writing in my opinion that was posturing toward something deep, though perhaps more tangibly exploring the characters’ backgrounds and their motivations would have helped me feel more connected.
PS: Unfortunately since the beginning of this week I’m not receiving any notifications from anything happening on Goodreads to my email… contacted GR help but no successful solution so far. So apologies if I’m not responding to things, but I’m still here!
Unfortunately I didn’t love the prose in this book. It just felt a bit too vague and at times some of the emotions came across as forced. There was a lot of writing in my opinion that was posturing toward something deep, though perhaps more tangibly exploring the characters’ backgrounds and their motivations would have helped me feel more connected.
PS: Unfortunately since the beginning of this week I’m not receiving any notifications from anything happening on Goodreads to my email… contacted GR help but no successful solution so far. So apologies if I’m not responding to things, but I’m still here!
October 11, 2024
I’m mad that I wasted minutes of my life reading this. I was bored the entire time, and I truly don’t understand the rave reviews (sorry). I felt it was dull and the characters were all one note and void of any dimension. I also felt there was no chemistry between the two main characters yet they somehow fall in love. And the random, all-knowing narrator??? It made no sense to me. Totally appreciate the queer/art representation…however, it just wasn’t for me.
June 2, 2024
stunning! the way the author pays attention to the physicality of every element of the story was such a treat. From the bodies of her characters, their animals, inanimate objects, and even the landscape itself, you get a really rich, almost tactile experience of the world she created. Book of the summer methinks
July 13, 2024
“housemates” is a great example of “all vibes, no plot” and if you don’t mind that you just might enjoy this book. unfortunately for me that is the very last thing I’d want from a road trip novel. the trip itself took a while to set up (the first 30%) which made being bored during even more of a let down.
for a story centered around bernie and leah’s relationship, the author really sacrificed their character development by spending so much time on secondary characters like the narrator and daniel dunn. I couldn’t tell you how or why leah and bernie fell in love, but I remember several flashbacks from a nameless outsider who felt detached from the book the entire time. on a similar vein, “housemates” promises messy housemate dynamics but whenever conflict arose between them it wrapped up so quickly it almost didn’t feel worth mentioning.
despite the overly descriptive narrative I was still struggling to differentiate between bernie and leah halfway in because they felt so similar. I didn’t feel like I knew anything about either MC outside of their body types and art mediums. interestingly enough this author has some great pieces about fat characters in fiction (unrelated to her book) and yet this fat representation wasn’t anything to write home about.
last thing re: characterization - I think the blm protest mentions and free palestine meme posting were attempts to give leah some identity but it came off as cringey/pandering more than anything else. bernie’s moment about being american had a similar effect because it was just as fleeting.
this was a fun idea that lost direction along the way. thanks to netgalley and random house for the advanced copy. all opinions are my own.
for a story centered around bernie and leah’s relationship, the author really sacrificed their character development by spending so much time on secondary characters like the narrator and daniel dunn. I couldn’t tell you how or why leah and bernie fell in love, but I remember several flashbacks from a nameless outsider who felt detached from the book the entire time. on a similar vein, “housemates” promises messy housemate dynamics but whenever conflict arose between them it wrapped up so quickly it almost didn’t feel worth mentioning.
despite the overly descriptive narrative I was still struggling to differentiate between bernie and leah halfway in because they felt so similar. I didn’t feel like I knew anything about either MC outside of their body types and art mediums. interestingly enough this author has some great pieces about fat characters in fiction (unrelated to her book) and yet this fat representation wasn’t anything to write home about.
last thing re: characterization - I think the blm protest mentions and free palestine meme posting were attempts to give leah some identity but it came off as cringey/pandering more than anything else. bernie’s moment about being american had a similar effect because it was just as fleeting.
this was a fun idea that lost direction along the way. thanks to netgalley and random house for the advanced copy. all opinions are my own.
June 24, 2024
This was simultaneously too much and not enough.
If this was JUST about Bernie and Leah and the road trip I would have enjoyed it much more.
I did enjoy the descriptive and raw descriptions of queer bodies, but it did go overboard at times. I also did connect with the depiction of being and artist and producing art.
Don’t even get me started on the weird omniscient narrator - who are you? Why are you here? Go away!
If this was JUST about Bernie and Leah and the road trip I would have enjoyed it much more.
I did enjoy the descriptive and raw descriptions of queer bodies, but it did go overboard at times. I also did connect with the depiction of being and artist and producing art.
Don’t even get me started on the weird omniscient narrator - who are you? Why are you here? Go away!
May 12, 2024
Oh did I enjoy this book so much. This is the type of literary fiction novel I devour. Leah (writer) and Bernie (photographer) are on a road trip capturing rural Pennsylvania. Every moment of this book I felt like I was there with them. The details are so well done and not overly descriptive. It truly felt like I was watching a movie-that’s the best way I can describe it.
It was a melancholy read for me which I tend to really like — it’s the same feeling I had reading Normal People which is one of my favorite books. (It also does not use quotations, like that book which doesn’t bother me but I know can be an issue for some).
It celebrates life, love, queerness, bodies and art. It’s heartwarming and heartbreaking and all the emotions in between.
The only issue I had was trying to tie together the narrator and their connection / story to the greater plot. It was an interesting POV but I wasn’t entirely sure why we were hearing it through them, however it didn’t necessarily take anything away from the story.
Thank you NetGalley & Hogarth publishing for the e-ARC!
It was a melancholy read for me which I tend to really like — it’s the same feeling I had reading Normal People which is one of my favorite books. (It also does not use quotations, like that book which doesn’t bother me but I know can be an issue for some).
It celebrates life, love, queerness, bodies and art. It’s heartwarming and heartbreaking and all the emotions in between.
The only issue I had was trying to tie together the narrator and their connection / story to the greater plot. It was an interesting POV but I wasn’t entirely sure why we were hearing it through them, however it didn’t necessarily take anything away from the story.
Thank you NetGalley & Hogarth publishing for the e-ARC!
September 5, 2024
Dnf @58% this book was so boring it makes me not want to be gay anymore.
June 19, 2024
I liked the book but didn’t love it as much as I was expecting to. My main complaint would be the narrator - I don’t think it added a lot of value to the story and, if anything, it took away from the story for me at some points. Perhaps it would have been better if the book just started with the narrator’s perspective and ended with her attending their gallery or taking their photo or something, but having her be there omnisciently in the house “through the cracks of the bricks” or on the road trip with them felt a little weird. It also seemed like there was too much going on in the book at times and to me the passage of time or pacing at the end of the book felt a little off. I think I would have enjoyed it more if there was more road trip and less of everything else. I also really don’t like when the author said things like the “photo sharing app” or the “everything website” instead of instagram/amazon, or took time to explain song lyrics or the plot of a movie instead of just giving us the title. Reading other people’s reviews, it sounds like there were some interesting stylistic and structural choices in the writing (like not using quotation marks), which would have dropped my rating even more had I read the physical book and not listened to this on audio book, as I find that style very challenging to read. Overall, it was still a pretty good book and I appreciated how topical it was and the queer representation.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 13, 2024
loved this. this is one of the most immersive reading experiences i’ve had in a while, and the storytelling was wholly unique. if you like quieter books that make you think about the world in new ways, housemates needs to be on your radar!
September 15, 2024
the photographer in me is screaming
July 5, 2024
The narrator…. Just why…. Also I could not keep any of the characters straight because they were all so one-dimensional, including the two main characters. By the end I was still asking myself, which one is Leah? Which one is Bernie? And the answer was: it literally didn’t matter. But some interesting themes and scenes, maybe would have been better as short stories.
May 13, 2024
4.75 Stars
What a beautiful book! This was so honest, artsy, thoughtful, and moving.
Bernie is a photographer who hasn't taken any pictures in a while. She recently learned that her photography mentor who taught her everything she knows had been preying on some of his young female students. She's not sure how to feel about this. Bernie moves in to a house with 4 other queer people in Philadelphia, one of them being Leah, who Bernie feels instantly curious about, but Leah is dating Alex- another housemate.
When Bernie learns that her photography mentor has left her his negatives and cameras in his will, Bernie and Leah decide to take a road trip together. It's perfect timing for Leah, because they are a writer and have just received a grant, but they have also been feeling uninspired and want a collaborator. They love Bernie's photography and it seems like the perfect project.
Everything in this book from the physical descriptions to the character development is written with an almost brutal honesty. The people are all flawed, and some- like the photography mentor- have quite big flaws. But no judgment is given by the author, she leaves everything up to the reader.
I loved just how ARTSY this was. The way Bernie talks about her photography, how she chooses what to shoot, how she sets everything up. The way Leah takes notes on a physical notepad, the questions they ask, and the way Leah and Bernie relate to each other was so interesting to me.
I also loved the internal philosophizing that Bernie and Leah do during the road trip. In particular, how they think through the situation with Bernie's mentor:
There is romance and sex in this too, but it's not really a romance novel (genre wise). The characters care for each other, but they also mistreat each other, and (like everything else) the author presents everything to the reader without passing judgment.
There is also a narrator who occasionally makes an appearance. If I'm being picky, I found the narrator to be kind of unnecessary, and the ending felt a bit weak to me, especially compared to the rest of the book.
But overall, this was very enjoyable to read.
What a beautiful book! This was so honest, artsy, thoughtful, and moving.
Bernie is a photographer who hasn't taken any pictures in a while. She recently learned that her photography mentor who taught her everything she knows had been preying on some of his young female students. She's not sure how to feel about this. Bernie moves in to a house with 4 other queer people in Philadelphia, one of them being Leah, who Bernie feels instantly curious about, but Leah is dating Alex- another housemate.
When Bernie learns that her photography mentor has left her his negatives and cameras in his will, Bernie and Leah decide to take a road trip together. It's perfect timing for Leah, because they are a writer and have just received a grant, but they have also been feeling uninspired and want a collaborator. They love Bernie's photography and it seems like the perfect project.
Everything in this book from the physical descriptions to the character development is written with an almost brutal honesty. The people are all flawed, and some- like the photography mentor- have quite big flaws. But no judgment is given by the author, she leaves everything up to the reader.
I loved just how ARTSY this was. The way Bernie talks about her photography, how she chooses what to shoot, how she sets everything up. The way Leah takes notes on a physical notepad, the questions they ask, and the way Leah and Bernie relate to each other was so interesting to me.
Better? Leah asked, when they were standing in it.
Yes, Bernie said.
Why?
I'm not sure.
Try would you?
I guess because the parking lot, the asphalt, is most of the picture now. It feels more open, more free, more spacious. More like their party would have felt, maybe.
Leah did not understand this, but she wrote it down.
I also loved the internal philosophizing that Bernie and Leah do during the road trip. In particular, how they think through the situation with Bernie's mentor:
"How was it possible that men whose blood and energy could pool in such dark places, who could touch and drink and talk with such disregard and impunity, who said things that could fester in the mind for a whole life, could also make things that were so blindingly beautiful and true? Did their ability to make these things stem from the same source as their ability to ruin? Were these things connected? Were they opposed? Unrelated?"
There is romance and sex in this too, but it's not really a romance novel (genre wise). The characters care for each other, but they also mistreat each other, and (like everything else) the author presents everything to the reader without passing judgment.
There is also a narrator who occasionally makes an appearance. If I'm being picky, I found the narrator to be kind of unnecessary, and the ending felt a bit weak to me, especially compared to the rest of the book.
But overall, this was very enjoyable to read.
June 28, 2024
Housemates is a 'once in a lifetime' kind of book. A contemporary, queer triumph. It has everything you could ever want in a book. It's gay, it’s messy, there's found family, there's finding yourself, a celebration of our bodies and what it means to really live in them, a road trip, the meaning of art, the creation of art, failures and successes. All of this is woven together in a brilliant and thoughtful way. It is unlike anything I have ever read before and it will be in my heart forever. I will be thinking about Bernie and Leah for the rest of my life. I loved these characters, I loved their story. Housemates felt like home while I was reading it. This is one you're absolutely going to want to read.
Thank you to Hogarth Books for the eARC on NetGalley. I would also like to thank THE Emma Copley Eisenberg for getting a physical copy in my hands.
Thank you to Hogarth Books for the eARC on NetGalley. I would also like to thank THE Emma Copley Eisenberg for getting a physical copy in my hands.
August 29, 2024
Housemates is a story about two roommates, Leah and Bernie, who set off on a roadtrip through Pennsylvania together. The girls live in a house with other recent college graduates and are both seeking something from the trip once it comes to be.
The pace of this story is slower and while there is a journey, the book is more character-driven than plot-focused. Housemates is narrated by an observer and I wasn’t sold on this — At times, the narrator felt voyeuristic and left me wondering why the story was told this way.
I got vibes of Yerba Buena while reading Housemates though I liked YB more. I did enjoy the photography and writing aspects in Housemates and like the book cover too.
The pace of this story is slower and while there is a journey, the book is more character-driven than plot-focused. Housemates is narrated by an observer and I wasn’t sold on this — At times, the narrator felt voyeuristic and left me wondering why the story was told this way.
I got vibes of Yerba Buena while reading Housemates though I liked YB more. I did enjoy the photography and writing aspects in Housemates and like the book cover too.
September 6, 2024
Book Rating: I’m somewhere between 3-4 ⭐️🤷♀️
Audiobook Rating: 5/5
Housemates is Emma Copley Eisenberg's sophomore novel, and despite not really knowing how I felt about this one, I kinda want to go back and read it. The story is partially told through the eyes of a third party, but it is really about Bernie and Leah's story. It is very literary fiction style, and the book is without any quotation marks, so I'm rather glad I decided to listen to the audiobook. Eisenberg looks at queer relationships, art (especially large-format photography), friendship, and much more in this coming-of-age tale that is also clearly a love letter to Philadelphia.
The incredibly talented Marin Ireland narrates the audiobook, and she nailed her performance with perfect pacing and emotion. Eisenberg's detailed and atmospheric writing came alive thanks to Ireland, and I would say she is one of the main reasons I kept going. Housemates is a character study as well as a reflection on life and the prejudices around us. It would make an excellent book club pick as there is much to unpack here, and I think some of it probably went over my head if I'm being honest. The whole book was a vibe, and I would recommend it if you enjoy literary fiction that captures the brutality of our world while also showing us the exceptional side.
I received an advance listening copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.
Audiobook Rating: 5/5
Housemates is Emma Copley Eisenberg's sophomore novel, and despite not really knowing how I felt about this one, I kinda want to go back and read it. The story is partially told through the eyes of a third party, but it is really about Bernie and Leah's story. It is very literary fiction style, and the book is without any quotation marks, so I'm rather glad I decided to listen to the audiobook. Eisenberg looks at queer relationships, art (especially large-format photography), friendship, and much more in this coming-of-age tale that is also clearly a love letter to Philadelphia.
The incredibly talented Marin Ireland narrates the audiobook, and she nailed her performance with perfect pacing and emotion. Eisenberg's detailed and atmospheric writing came alive thanks to Ireland, and I would say she is one of the main reasons I kept going. Housemates is a character study as well as a reflection on life and the prejudices around us. It would make an excellent book club pick as there is much to unpack here, and I think some of it probably went over my head if I'm being honest. The whole book was a vibe, and I would recommend it if you enjoy literary fiction that captures the brutality of our world while also showing us the exceptional side.
I received an advance listening copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.
May 24, 2024
4.25 / such a lovely queer road trip novel about all kinds of love and art!! In love with both the narrative and characters in this.
December 20, 2025
never has there been a more “3 star” book. this was a grand adventure for the characters and somehow kind of a nothingburger for the reader
May 28, 2024
thanks to Random House and NetGalley for the advanced digital arc of this one.
this one is out today.
--
this was one of my most anticipated reads of the year, but i'm dnfing at 54% in.
unfortunately, it was a letdown for me and i tried, i really tried, including waiting for release day to see if consuming this on audiobook would help.
here were my issues:
1. the writing. there are no quotation marks. none. this style makes for a very confusing read for me, personally. i also felt like the writing felt very much like i was reading a technical paper written in school.
2. how weight/fatness was written about. more writing issues included the very strange way that fatness was written about. here's an actual quote: "But there was Leah's hand. Small nails, rounded pudgy fingers with little pockets of luxurious fat stuffed under the skin between the joints." as a person who is fat, i'm certainly okay with acknowledging weights of characters, but this writing felt fetishistic to me, almost?
3. i dnfed about 54% in when there was this line: "Leah had spent more than one hour of her life googling "Emily Ratajkowski breasts" and masturbating to the results." literally, what in the fuck is this. emily ratajkowski is a real person. why would you write this?
4. for a "queer road trip book" the actual roadtrip doesn't start until a good 30% of the way in. at that point in the story, there was a side plot about a disgraced photographer that served as a mentor to one of the main characters, but i felt extremely icky reading this as the reason he was canceled was because he was preying sexually on his students. and yet his chapters felt weirdly romanticized with part of the roadtrip including a jaunt to a cabin where he'd left the bulk of his life's work to one of the main characters.
5. even despite all of this, i felt extremely disconnected from all the characters and it felt next to impossible to be engaged. big disappointment for me.
this one is out today.
--
this was one of my most anticipated reads of the year, but i'm dnfing at 54% in.
unfortunately, it was a letdown for me and i tried, i really tried, including waiting for release day to see if consuming this on audiobook would help.
here were my issues:
1. the writing. there are no quotation marks. none. this style makes for a very confusing read for me, personally. i also felt like the writing felt very much like i was reading a technical paper written in school.
2. how weight/fatness was written about. more writing issues included the very strange way that fatness was written about. here's an actual quote: "But there was Leah's hand. Small nails, rounded pudgy fingers with little pockets of luxurious fat stuffed under the skin between the joints." as a person who is fat, i'm certainly okay with acknowledging weights of characters, but this writing felt fetishistic to me, almost?
3. i dnfed about 54% in when there was this line: "Leah had spent more than one hour of her life googling "Emily Ratajkowski breasts" and masturbating to the results." literally, what in the fuck is this. emily ratajkowski is a real person. why would you write this?
4. for a "queer road trip book" the actual roadtrip doesn't start until a good 30% of the way in. at that point in the story, there was a side plot about a disgraced photographer that served as a mentor to one of the main characters, but i felt extremely icky reading this as the reason he was canceled was because he was preying sexually on his students. and yet his chapters felt weirdly romanticized with part of the roadtrip including a jaunt to a cabin where he'd left the bulk of his life's work to one of the main characters.
5. even despite all of this, i felt extremely disconnected from all the characters and it felt next to impossible to be engaged. big disappointment for me.
June 23, 2024
My low rating from this book stems from several reasons, but I think the biggest is that I’m just disappointed. I was hoping it would be a cool, queer road trip story but I found it instead to be slow, lifeless, pretentious, and frankly boring - had I not read this for my book club, I would have DNF very early in. I found it talked a lot about different current events but really didn’t say much about them, plus it was odd how some things, like Em Rata and Trump, were named but then it would say “the original social media site” instead of Facebook or fully describe a movie without giving the title. There were so many observations I could have done without - such as talking about skid marks in the toilet or the fixation and needless descriptions of Leah’s fatness. I know the author mentioned in the acknowledgements that the story is based on two real people but they didn’t want to write another story about them, but I just really really wish this book could have been just more than it was. Maybe it’s not for me, but I don’t understand the hype.
March 15, 2024
Very raw and impressive, the entirety of the book felt genuine. I didn’t know about Berenice Abbott and Elizabeth McCausland and their Changing New York series before reading it, but Housemates was firmly planted around 2016. The omnipresent narrator didn’t quite work for me and I’m not sure if it was meant to echo the real people who inspired the story, but it didn’t add enough to be worth it. Parts were overwhelming and it seemed like nearly every possible issue had to be addressed, but the overall story was subtle and I think it’s the type of book that can linger and the more you think about it, the more it grows. I appreciated how large the cast of characters was while still managing to make them seem unique and real. Overall, I enjoyed the experience of reading it.
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