Thank you to the publisher for the advanced copy!

This was such a powerful and profound read. Centered around two young housemates who go on road trip around central Pennsylvania, embarking on a coming of age journey for them both.
Having grown up in Pennsylvania, I could relate to so many things the girls were seeing. The writing was so elegant and beautiful. The way the author talked about life was so different than anything I have ever read. We see the state of Pennsylvania was the eyes of these two characters as they use their art to convey it to an audience. We see the characters go through many events that became huge parts of the recent history.
The book remained me a lot of normal people in this way and told in the third person perspective of someone watching them both.
Bernie and Leah are such special characters and seeing their journey set in such a special state (I’m bias) was truly beautiful to read about.

Bernie and Leah road trip to retrieve the photos and negatives photographer Daniel Dunn has bequeathed Bernie in this gently satirical and entertaining look at the world. These characters and this situation will no doubt resonate with many readers. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC. Good storytelling from Eisenberg.

This beautifully written book had me reflecting on myself. A book about openness and art and finding the beauty in the little things. Two queer women take a road trip and fall in love on the way. Reading this filled my heart with so much joy.

Housemates is the story of a group of queer women who share a home. When Bernie, a new roommate moves in, she brings her photography equipment, an interest that was sparked by a professor in college. When he dies and leaves items to her, she and one of the other women travel to his home. They agree to photograph their trip and their friendship develops into a relationship. This is more of a road trip and friendship book and less of a romance story. I didn't think I was the right audience for this book, but I do love a thought-provoking narrative and this one fits the bill. Really well done.

I REALLY enjoyed this queer road trip story about art and openness and allowing yourself to be in the world in a way that feels expansive and real. I love stories about art, what can I say? And about young people contending with what it means to make things now. Loved the writing. Loved the characters.

Thanks to NetGalley for my review copy!

I didn't love this book. I think it was just a tad too slow for me. I liked the beginning but I really struggled to deeply understand how all of the perspectives connected in this book. I felt like there was such a large disconnect between the narrator and the characters that it really threw me off.

Housemates follows two queer artists as they roadtrip through Pennsylvania to photograph and write about its more rural areas.

3.5 stars.

Overall I thought this book was beautiful. I loved the cast of complete oddball characters and the setting with these 20 somethings living in a rundown house together with their cat. There were a lot of very poignant comments about America and society in general. In particular, there was great commentary on what it's like to be fat and queer in this country.

Where it lost me a little was the unnamed, mystery narrator. We didn't get much of an explanation as to how she fit into the story, and especially in the first few chapters, she felt very stalker-y. There were also times that it didn't feel super clear that we had shifted back into her POV and it took a second to catch up. It just took me out of it a bit.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC!

Far and away one of my favourite books of 2024 so far! What a beautiful reflection on the complexity and existential nature of being human in 2024, and especially about the complexity, joy, and messiness of being fat and being queer. I think this book is also a really lovely reflection on the beauty and value of art and creativity, and also of friendship. The author's writing is so descriptive and visceral and embodied. I loved the weirdness and quirkiness of this story, and of the kind of disembodied, (maybe?) omniscient narrator. This is the second queer road trip novel I've read this year, after Alison Cochrun's Here We Go Again, and they were both 5 star books for me, despite being so, so different from each other. I will definitely be going out to buy a copy of Housemates on release day!

4.5/5 stars! This was a beautifully written book about the life experience. Passion, grief, happiness, emotion. I thoroughly enjoyed the way the characters were dynamically portrayed. Thank you to the publisher for this e-ARC!

I loved this novel! Eisenberg uses a unique structure with three points of view. The novel opens from the perspective of an unnamed, older person who had been a photographer but was currently alone after her partner, dubbed "The Housemate," died about fifteen years prior. While at a coffee shop in 2018, she sees two queer young women looking at a physical map of Pennsylvania and talking about a road trip.

The young women are Bernie and Leah, a photographer and a writer, who conceive of taking a road trip and making art that is a combination of Bernie's photography and Leah's writing. Bernie is girlish, thin, and from a working class background in central Pennsylvania. Leah is boyish, fat, and from a well-off Jewish New York family. They met when Bernie answered Leah's ad for a 5th housemate to share the 3-story Victorian in Philadelphia that Leah lived in with her girlfriend and two other queer friends.

We learn both Bernie's and Leah's backstories, how Bernie learned large format photography from a famous photographer/professor, and how Leah is interested in so many things a professor once gave her feedback that her work was "exhaustive and exhausting," a phrase that echoes in her head. Through it all, Eisenberg describes Bernie's admiration of Leah's fatness, and Leah's attempts at acceptance of it. There is anti-fatness, in how Leah struggles and how the world treats her, a nonbinary fat person, but by the end, when the unnamed photographer/narrator is taking their photograph, Leah acknowledges her fatness and seems to better accept who she is.

There is the epic road trip and the landscape and beauty of Pennsylvania, a bonfire made of the photography of a terrible man, and the magic of finding other queer people where you don't expect to. The language Eisenberg uses throughout is beautiful.

What I didn't know is that there was a real Berenice Abbott and Elizabeth McCausland, a lesbian photographer-writer couple in the 1930s who did a series on "Changing New York" and which I now need to read more about.

Thoughtful, honest, and moving. Queer road trip novel? I was already sold, but the writing, God, it destroyed me. I cannot wait for everyone to read this book. I just know everyone is going to be obsessed with it.

I absolutely loved this.

It was slow, contemplative, and rich with mundane detail. At first, I was a little off-put by the frame of it: an elder queer photographer having an almost supernatural access/fascination bordering on obsession with Bernie and Leah, but ultimately it fit. It made the pace, the details, and perspective make sense.

I loved the prose, the treatment of power and abuse, the interrogation of what we owe our communities, and the sweet, messy, (im)perfect queer relationship(s) at its core.

One of my favorite reads this year and I'll be checking out this author's other stuff.

Thank you so much to the publisher and Netgalley in exchange for my honest review!

"What if this what it is all about: changing the point of view, making it so something can be regarded instead of imagined. You take the thing you think is inside you and then you put it outside of you so you can read about it or listen to it or look at it. That’s all I had ever wanted to do.”

This is a really great story about feeling aimless and purposeless but also feeling like you're about to burst with strong opinions and beliefs. It's a story filled to the brim with tiny observations on fully formed characters. It's about the times in your life when you find someone who reflects you back at yourself in a way that kicks off some new fully formed version of you and this person together. It reminded me of the times in my early 20s when I thought, I feel like I have a unique perspective on this situation that people should know about. Except, in this book, this perspective is actually translated and executed in a way that impacts tons of people.

Bernie and Leah are two of the most unique and vivid characters I've read in a while. They embark on a road trip together, which takes up half of the book, in which Bernie photographs rural Pennsylvania with a large format camera: one that comes with a hood you throw over yourself while you fiddle patiently with various knobs to get the right shot. Bernie drives because Leah can't. Leah is the more talkative and bold of the pair. She asks Bernie direct and probing questions. When the two make stops, Leah is the one that asks questions and gets to know people. When the two finish their road trip, Leah writes captions that accompany the photos Bernie took.

It's a road trip story told by a mysterious narrator who speaks about Bernie and Leah as if whispering the story of a myth to a hushed crowd.

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group for the ARC.

"Housemates" is a visceral journey through life, love, and the artistic soul. It delves into the intricate dance of relationships, exploring the tumultuous landscape of contemporary society marked by the onset of Covid, the turbulence of Trump's America, the impassioned movements like Black Lives Matter and #metoo, and the evolving dynamics of the LGBTQ community. Through a unique narrative voice, the story captures the essence of our collective experience during a decade of rapid change, prompting readers to reflect on the shifting norms and uncertainties of our times.

Bernie and Leah, the central characters, are portrayed with a raw authenticity that makes them both relatable and compelling. Their flaws, strengths, vulnerabilities, and passions resonate deeply, drawing readers into their complex emotional world. "Housemates" is a poignant exploration of human connection and resilience, offering readers a thought-provoking glimpse into the intricacies of modern relationships.

Thank you Random House Publishing Group and NetGalley for this prepublication copy of “Housemates”

Three stars (3.5?)

This was a really interesting and thought-provoking book. I appreciated how artistic the writing was and the philosophical questions the main characters ponder.

Housemates follows two… “friends”/housemates/lovers/creative partners as they go on a road trip across Pennsylvania as Bernie photographs will a medium-format camera and Leah writes. I think the most poignant parts of this book were the sense of reconnection with live post-covid/pre-covid and the artistic writing style. As a recent grad (!!) some of the lines about living in a random, kind-of-run-down house were quite resonant.

My qualms with these book were the writing is very free-flowing and loose, which sucks you in and allows for some deep contemplative writing, but sometimes is confusing and disorienting. I also wasn’t sure the role of the narrator, who she was, or what her connection was to the main characters.

Read for: roadtrip vibes, deep thinking, queer main characters, and art
Avoid for: debut novel vibes, funky writing, confusing POV

I loved this inventive, emotional story of art, friendship, love, and embodiment. Housemates is, perhaps most of all, a love letter to Pennsylvania, and the author's love for the state shines through,

The stalking vibes in the first few chapters made this hard to get into, but I liked the focus on artistry, self-discovery, and queer friendships.

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.

<blockquote>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.</blockquote>

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:

<blockquote>"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?"</blockquote>

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.

such a lovely take on queer relationships, friendships, what it is to be an artist, how male artists can get away with things others cannot, and the transformative power of a road trip. this book has cemented its place in my heart and is definitely a favorite read of the year so far. will continue to reccomend it

Loved the whole road trip aspect. Was mildly confused by the woman on the outside of the story which is probably my own fault lol.