Tiny Threads by Lilliam Rivera #eightiethbookof2024 #arc #tinythreads

CW: alcohol and drug abuse, violence and rape

Samara has landed a great new job with illustrious fashion designer Antonio Mota. So what if he’s a little volatile? So what if she can’t sleep? So what if she keeps seeing a woman from an old photograph everywhere she goes? She just has to get through the big fashion show to prove she has what it takes to make it in California.

Whew. This was exhausting. That was a very simple synopsis but this is a complicated story. Samara is completely unlikable and unreliable. She drinks and takes pills and you can’t believe anything she sees because it might not be real. Brandon, her potential love interest, is a little creepy and I just wanted her to stay away from him and in general make better decisions. But this is a propulsive novel. I couldn’t stop reading it. I guess I wanted to see what bullshit she would get away with at work.

It’s marketed as a mystery/thriller, but I think it’s more psychological horror. People looking for an actual mystery or thriller won’t find that here but it’s worth reading. I think the author is trying to make a statement about racism and misogyny but it doesn’t quite come together.

I wish the ending was a little more fleshed out and not as rushed, but I liked the inclusion of the ghosts of previously mistreated women and their part in the denouement and assumed fate of Brandon.

Thank you to @delreybooks and @netgalley for the advance copy. (pub date 9/24/24)

This book kept me up all night turning pages! Samara leaves the East Coast to move to sunny California in the hopes of praying her dream of becoming a full time fashion writer. When she gets hired by House of Mota and begins working for the eccentric Antonio Mota fashion designer extraordinare, she believes she's finally living her dream. But there are strange things going on at the House of Mota and Samara connection to reality is slipping away. She begins drinking just to cope and her down spiral begins. As each day passes she becomes more paranoid and overwhelmed and it appears that something sinister is afoot. This book has some really important implications about women's rights from past to present and what it means to be a woman following your dreams for something more than societal expectations of happiness. An overall solid read.

I uploaded my review to Goodreads. I will upload it to Amazon on publication day.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Lilliam Rivera for providing me with a complimentary digital ARC for Tiny Threads coming out September 24, 2024. The honest opinions expressed in this review are my own.

This is the first book I’ve read by this author. I really love horror books and Spanish books in general, so I was excited to receive this from NetGalley. I thought the story had a lot of action and horror in the beginning. I’m just not sure it was completely my cup of tea. The writing was a little repetitive to me. Samara was going through it and some things I could understand, but there were some things she did that weren’t exactly likable to me. It felt like she was definitely the main character and there wasn’t really anyone else who stood out. I wish there were more fleshed out characters. I would check out other books by this author.

I read Tiny Threads at the height of New York Fashion Week, which, LOL could not have been more perfect.

Tiny Threads is Devil Wears Prada...with horror, but not. Samara has wanted to work in fashion for most of her life. She's escaped her home, moved across the country and has taken a stressful job with Antonio Mota. Samara handles her stress....incorrectly. She self-medicates, drinking at work, drinking when not at work, drinking, drinking, drinking. Then the visions start happening. Is this real, or just a symptom of her drinking?

It's catty, it's scary, it's wonderful.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for the opportunity to read and review this book.

A young writer’s new high profile job working for an iconic fashion designer slowly becomes a nightmare as she starts hearing and seeing things and her dreams bleed into reality. Is the stress of the job too much or is something more sinister at play? Though the pacing was a bit off (slow start, rushed ending), the story kept my attention and I found it hard to put down.. I look forward to more books by this author! Thank you to NetGalley for the chance to read and review this book.

I will say, I’ve never heard of a plot line like this, where there is horror in the fashion world. But, I feel like this story did not hit that mark. I agree that there is a lot of repetition in this story, and that can be a bit predictive. And I feel like the ghost could’ve been represented better.

Thanks to NetGalley and Del Rey for the ARC of this title.

I read this in one long-ish sitting and that felt like the perfect way to devour this. It feels like there are probably one too many threads being tracked in this book, and the important-to-the-plot ones don't get enough development, which makes the ending setpiece of the book feel like it comes a little out of nowhere when it gives you more detail on a character that's previously only been hinted at. Still, this feels nicely time for September/October release, and feels satisfying enough as horror fiction.

Tiny Threads - The Devil Wears Prada, but make it horror.

I am a HUGE fan of TDWP so I immediately was intrigued by the premise of this book. Fashion, a bit of romance and a whole bunch of paranormal hauntings. It sounded directly up my alley.

Unfortunately, this one fell flat for me. Initially the pacing is quite slow, a lot of our MCs backstory and some character building and setup. Once it gets going it was sort of a downward spiral, for both myself and the MC, Samara. I found her incredibly difficult to relate to and her choices to be both nonsensical and annoying. She copes with the stress of her new job by more and more excessively drinking, then becomes upset when her performance at work deteriorates, and then drinks more and more and the cycle continues. It was an abnormally rapid and unwarranted descent into alcoholism that just didn't feel believable.

There wasn't a single character in the story that was likable. Honestly, everyone sucks. The ending felt convoluted and rushed with several themes just slammed together seemingly trying to make a statement about racism, sexism, power, greed, the struggles of Latina women, the corrupt fashion industry? I'm honestly not sure.

The creepy scenes, however, were very well done. The tension was there, the atmosphere was spot on and the imagery was great. I just wish the story had given me a little more to tie it all together into a more well rounded book.

Social horror is an exciting new sub-genre, and I was excited to read this. I'm also loving this recent trend of established YA authors writing adult fiction, there have been some great books lately!

Unfortunately, I did not love THIS book. The writing was so clunky!!! The dialogue is wooden, stilted, and unnatural - no one talks like that in real life. It’s trying sooo hard to make Samara seem like some sort of cool urban downtrodden alcoholic chick. Or maybe it was trying for something else entirely.

I hated Samara and I hated all of her idiotic assumptions and mistakes. I hated her neediness and how insulted she was that all her new coworkers didn’t want to be besties. I hated the constant references to alcohol. (Like, YES we get it, she’s an alcoholic in denial! You can stop telling us now.) I hated her “ritual” when she first moved in to her apartment <spoiler>masturbating in some vague hope that it will presage lots of good sex. That was just weird. </spoiler>.

On her second day to work she wears fucking DENIM PANTABOOTS and I started to wonder: "am I supposed to hate her? is that the POINT??" A few days after that, Samara does her damndest to throw her perceived nemesis, lead seamstress Dolores, under the bus, and then backpedals when bossman Antonio is having none of it, and then sulks about her failure. Bitch. Was I supposed to hate her or feel bad for her? I hated her.

I hated that this supposedly great fashion house is named "The Saprophyte." (Number of times I had to read "The Saprophyte" = 13) Samara's entire personality is: desperate pick-me, drinks too much, misses Abuela Lola. (Number of times "Abuela Lola" shows up = 79) And most of all I hated the persistent use of “Jersey” instead of “New Jersey.” <i>No one from New Jersey calls it “Jersey.”</i> (Number of times I had to read "Jersey" = 29. Twenty nine fucking times I cringed and seethed.)

At one point I was so bored with this book that I set it aside and spent some happy time googling Vernon CA, which says a lot about how slow this plot moves. Vernon is a real city next to Los Angeles, it's primarily industrial, with just a few hundred residents. And there really IS (well, was) a weird pig mural, and the muralist (Lee Grimes) really did die while painting it, and there really are occasional bursts of awful slaughterhouse stench in the area. I had assumed that Rivera was making all of that up!

Slowly, Samara starts to come completely unglued, and ghosts start chasing her, and I was cheering on the ghosts: <i>yes! put an end to this story! take her down!!!</i> Normally I enjoy downward-spiral books, but in this case I just wanted it to be over, because I didn't care about Samara or her visions.

Rivera is trying to do something powerful here, she's trying to talk about persistent racism and erasure in our society, but it didn't work for me. I'll give her an extra star for the effort, so I rate this book two stars.

Kudos for the cover art, however. Isn't that deliciously creepy? It also is very similar to some art described in the book - I always appreciate it when the cover art makes sense and shows that the designer actually read the book.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced copy of the e-book.

Based on the summary given for the book, I was expecting more of a magical realism novel, but this turned out to be more of a psychological thriller, ghost story, and environmental disaster tale. Latino fashion student Samara seems to be happy to be moving to California from Jersey to work for a famous designer, but as the story unfolds, the stress of an upcoming fashion show is definitely getting to her; she’s self-medicating too much; and she might be having hallucinations. Or is she? Interspersed within the entire story is the tale of an industrial town, Vernon, California (a real place with only a population of 200, and totally fictionalized for the novel). There’s a dark history here that seeps into Samara’s psyche.

The premise was initially interesting, but the pacing was way off. The story dragged midway and I wasn’t as invested in the main character as I hoped I would be. The ending was surprising once the action picked up at about three-quarters through. Yet, I felt I needed to know Samara’s fate. 3.5 stars

Literary Pet Peeve Checklist:
Green Eyes (only 2% of the real world, yet it seems like 90% of all fictional females): YES Dolores has hints of green in her light brown eyes.
Horticultural Faux Pas (plants out of season or growing zones, like daffodils in autumn or bougainvillea in Alaska): NO But fictional Vernon is portrayed as desolate, needing trees and greenery and having a pervading odor, the “Vernon perfume.”

Thank you to Random House/Ballantine/Del Ray and NetGalley for a free advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review!

The first chapter had me hooked. I couldn't put Tiny Threads down due to the creepy angst ridden life of Samara. This is a needed statement on surrounding yourself with friends and family you can trust. As Abuela says question everyone!

I wasn't sure what to expect when I picked this one up, and I can honestly say that what I got was nothing I could have imagined. On one hand, I'm still thinking about this book which says something, but on the other hand, I'm still not sure how I feel about it. It's not bad; it's just really different and a little unsettling.

Our main character is Samara Martin, a young Cuban-American woman born and raised in New Jersey. After living at home for far too long, Samara feels like she's finally hit her stride. After landing a high-paying job with a noted (and very temperamental) fashion designer in California, she's ready to move away from home and find a new life away from her controlling family. She's also ready to leave a few dark secrets and a drinking problem behind, and what better way to do that than moving across the country?

Now, things are looking up with a successful career, a luxurious new home, and a potential new beau who just so happens to be very wealthy. But, as one would expect after reading the synopsis, as Samara settles into her new job and home, she soon discovers that not everything is as perfect as it seems. Why is the head seamstress so cold toward her? Who is the mysterious woman she keeps getting glimpses of, and what is making those weird sounds inside her apartment every night at precisely 2:00 AM?

Samara is a captivating character in that she exudes strength and confidence, but as a reader, we know that there is something lying just beneath the surface that, once triggered, could make her completely unravel. We know off the bat that she may have a drinking problem, and it becomes abundantly clear that it's not just her overbearing family in New Jersey that she is running from. For a while, I wondered if we'd ever find out why, and finally, at the very end, we learn what she is trying to leave behind.

The supporting characters in this book are equally compelling and play a significant role in the narrative. The story not only sheds light on women's struggles but also delves into the unique challenges faced by women of color in a male-dominated society. It's a message that's both important and enlightening. While I wasn't always sure how I felt about the story while reading, I can admit that it has a very important message that, sadly, will likely go over the heads of many.

I also have to say that while reading, I kept thinking that this book's content would be perfect for a Darren Aronofsky movie. The unraveling of Samara's psyche made me often think of "Black Swan." It's tense, but at the same time, I kept asking myself, "WTF is going on?" right up until the final chapter, when it all came together.

While not completely blown away, I will admit that this book is well-written and unforgettable. With its richly drawn characters, shocking conclusion, and important message, this is one I would recommend to anyone who loves high-brow horror. If you're a Darron Aronofsky fan, this is definitely the book for you.

Really well written, with an amazing sense of place in the city of “Vernon”, where a famous fashion house sits side-by-side with a looming slaughterhouse complete with a weird mural of doomed pigs. There’s an increasing sense of impending horror, but the story moves slowly, and by midpoint I was really waiting for something to happen. Characters are mostly thinly sketched, and the story’s a bit repetitive until we get to the big climax. Despite some flaws, I’m adding a star because I was really drawn in by the sense of place, the skillful building of a real sense of dread, and by the excellent writing. Looking forward to what this author does next.

I was really looking forward to reading this book. The description of its storyline as about fashion, psychological trauma, magical realism, and horror was so intriguing. From this perspective, it was one of the most unusual books I have read in a long time. There were many threads connecting, fraying, and.sliding away from each other so that I couldn't stop reading.

That said, there were several things that didn't quite work for me. First, was the development of the main character, Samara. I initially found her to be sympathetic: hard-working, ambitious, willing to take risks to achieve her dreams, kind... Then she started drinking excessively and taking drugs and her personality pretty much disintegrated. I realize that was the point of the book. However, that disintegration caused me to believe her visions were not real. Her excessive need to be liked and generally whiteness also got annoying. Again, I think the author did this purposefully to make the reader doubt the reality of what she was experiencing, just as Samara was voicing those same doubts. I just stopped liking her and kept thinking that if she just quit the bad habits, the visions would go away. Ultimately, I wasn't convinced that the visions were real. The secondary characters were not much developed either so that the reader's attention is pretty much only on Samara.

Secondly, the "threads" weren't completely tied together. It wasn't until the very end of the book that the climax of sexual violence was revealed. The prologue sets the stage for this, but it is pretty much not referred to again until the end. Seems like that theme should have been threaded through more of the ongoing plot.

Additionally, the fashion aspect was minimal. The book was described as about the " dark side of high- stakes fashion". Samara's boss, Antonio, is verbally abusive, but his behavior really didn't expose a dark side of the industry beyond the pressure to produce extraordinary designs season after season. He and his fashion shows also had nothing to do with the climatic events. Further, Samara makes a critical mistake and faces derision from her colleagues. Again,this hardly demonstrates a sinister "dark side"of the industry". Antonio doesn't even experience a "come-uppance" as a result of his abuse. I would have liked to know much more about Antonio's designs and his artistic vision as well as the marketing of his brand.

Readers who like horror featuring heroines who mentally disintegrate will likely enjoy this book.

I couldn't wait to get my hands on Tiny Threads after reading the blurb. Social horror set in the world of high fashion?! Yes please! I wanted it to read like The Devil Wears Prada as directed by Guillermo del Toro. Unfortunately, though, I didn't enjoy this nearly as much as I'd hoped I would.

Tiny Threads is about a young Cuban American woman named Samara, who travels across the country to start her dream job with renowned fashion designer Antonio Mota. But she can't quite stand up to the enormous pressures of her new career, the demands placed on her as an important fashion show draws near. She begins hearing strange noises and experiencing unsettling events she can't explain. Are they a sign of her unraveling psyche, or is something more sinister going on deep in the halls of the house of Mota?

Thematically, Tiny Threads is so interesting as it delves into issues of race and class and explores the ways that the few succeed on the backs of the many -- hiding ugly truths behind glitzy, glamorous lies. It's set in the "exclusively industrial" city of Vernon, California, which really opens the narrative up for Lilliam Rivera to explore these themes. But overall, this was a frustrating reading experience because I could clearly see what Lilliam Rivera was trying to do, the connections she was trying to make -- but the execution just wasn't quite there.

All the way through, it feels like the book isn't exactly sure what kind of story it wants to tell. The pacing is uneven, spending a lot of time on Samara's self-destructive tendencies and the day-to-day minutiae of her job. Is it a character study about a woman hallucinating and having a psychotic break? Is it a commentary on how young people cope in stressful careers? Is it a supernatural horror novel? By the time a decision is made, the book is over. It could have been all of things things, but it never quite came together. And there's not nearly enough build-up throughout the book to support the conclusion.

Tiny Threads is a book that has a lot to say, but for me, it could have said those things more effectively. Thank you to Del Rey for the early reading opportunity.

Big thanks to Penguin Random House and Netgalley for sending me an advanced copy of Lilliam Rivera’s new psychological horror novel Tiny Threads. I previously reviewed Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s Silver Nitrate, and a representative from Penguin Random House sent Rivera’s book due to my interest in Moreno-Garcia’s book. I’m so glad that they sent this book because it was an entertaining and creepy read. Initially, I was a little concerned that a book about the fashion industry might not be that appealing to me; however, as I began to read, I really identified with Samara’s quest to redefine herself through her work for the designer Antonio Mota and a relocation to southern California, away from her family and possible past traumas that she is unwilling or unready to address. Samara does have a personal connection with the town of Vernon, an industrial/textile manufacturing town that has recently undergone some gentrification, partly the result of Antonio’s relocating his fashion empire here. Samara’s grandmother was also a seamstress in the town, and Samara’s memories of her grandmother and her stories play an integral role in the novel.
Antonio’s House of Mota brand is not all that it seems to be, and while Samara does make some friends in her new place of employment, the Mota’s toxicity gradually reveals itself through unrealistic expectations and temper tantrums. Furthermore, Samara notes the divisions in place between the designers and production staff and the seamstresses, most of whom are Latina workers. She also begins to recognize other Latinx workers in areas like the slaughterhouse. Nevertheless, she seeks to include them in Mota’s re-launching of his line as Antonio attempts to reestablish himself as a player in the fashion industry. As part of Samara’s work, she has access to the Mota archives, where she learns more about the history of Vernon and the women whose labor helped to make Mota a well-recognized brand. As she explores Vernon’s history, Samara begins to hear and see strange things, starting with her visit to Marisa’s gallery, a local Vernon artist. Marisa’s art contains images of Latina’s cut in half, both shocking and intriguing Samara. This, along with her struggle to adapt to the toxic work culture, seems to be what begins Samara’s descent into mental instability… that and her drinking problem. Samara’s challenges and desire to prove herself were both relatable and hard to watch. I related to her challenges of dealing with a difficult to please boss who expects much but doesn’t offer much in direction or feedback. I also related to her desire to carve out an identity as a writer and designer in a new field for her. What was sad to watch was how Samara’s desire to fit in and adhere to the Mota house’s toxicity gradually allowed her to lose her own identity. I think this is also where her drinking really picked up as she sought to cover up both her own personal trauma from the past, as well as the generational/cultural trauma from the many different Latinas who helped to shape Vernon and make it a textile capital. Marisa’s art, as well as the haunting visions and sounds Samara experiences throughout the novel, both disturb and remind Samara of these unspoken violence throughout history.
In addition to the cultural trauma, Samara also experiences misogyny and assault as a woman. Beyond Marisa’s striking images, Samara also encounters men who, as her Abuela reminded her, present a kind of mask that hides their true intentions. Rivera’s use of animal imagery, from wolves to pigs, throughout the novel helps to illustrate this kind of false or hidden duality. In addition to the animal symbolism, I really enjoyed Rivera’s use of Spanish throughout the novel as well as the pop culture and literary references to music, songs, and poetry. During my reading, I was checking the meaning of words and phrases, as well as looking up some song lyrics and authors she mentioned in the book. Like the town of Vernon, Little Threads has a lot to offer if you are willing to delve below the surface. While what you may find is not always pleasant, in Samara’s experience, Rivera’s novel reminds us of the importance of opening that door and exploring the past as well as how creative folks like Samara and Marisa can provide a voice to those who are denied voices due to cultural, gender, sexual, or economic violence. While I loved this book, the one thing I would have liked to see revisited somewhat is the introduction/prologue. There’s an implication that the boxing match the woman watched took place at Samara’s new apartment building, but I was hoping that there would be more mention of this event. It’s a shocking way to begin the novel, but there wasn’t more explicit mention of it. I think that some of the other events that Samara experiences, which I won’t reveal, were connected to this beginning, but I was hoping for more specific references. Nevertheless, this was an entertaining book that I couldn’t put down. I know that Rivera writes for different audiences, but I’m hoping that she produces more psychological horror like this one.

This was amazingly immersive. None of the characters were perfect, the main character especially. She was horribly flawed and at times I was yelling at her in my head, but I still wanted her to fight through the addiction, the constant need to lower herself and the misogyny.

I loved how the past bled into the present. History repeating itself over and over. Women being treated like livestock and considered property.

Samara was a wonderful main character. We see through her eyes how the world of fashion and factory are blended together. Someone makes the clothes. The group of seamstresses was another favorite. Dolores, the stern head seamstress, trying to keep the women safe.

I’d go in cold on this one. So good!

I was unable to finish this book and thus will not be posting a full review. I found the story to be less than realistic and the writing cumbersome. Thank you for the opportunity.

3.5 stars

Tiny Threads is a psychological suspense/gothic horror novel set in a gentrifying city where upscale fashion clashes with the gory face of industry. I struggled to engage with the narrative, especially the prose, initially, but as the story progressed I was drawn into the mystery of Samara’s hallucinations (?) and what led her to leave her life in New Jersey.

Rivera expertly crafts a creepy atmosphere full of glitz, glam, and ghosts. I loved the juxtaposition of the fashion house and the slaughterhouse, highlighting the sinister and gory underbelly of Vernon’s history. I think the factory was underutilized as a character in the plot, and wish there was more of a direct connection between Samara’s grandmother and the Celis family.

Overall, this story shines an important light on racism, classism, and gender power dynamics. It’s perfect for readers who love paranormal suspense thrillers and unreliable narrators.

Thank you to Netgalley, Del Rey, and Random House for the e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to Del Rey and Netgalley for providing me with an eARC in exchange for an honest review!

I've seen a few people describe this as "The Devil Wears Prada if A24 had produced," which feels like an apt description of what the goal of this piece was (plus some hard-hitting explorations of racial exploitation and generational trauma). I think Rivera does a great job of cultivating a slow-rising sense of dread throughout.

I struggled with the pacing of this. While some of the cyclical events are necessary to help create the aforementioned tension/dread, the middle of this book felt repetitive to the point that it dragged. Once you hit the 70% mark or so, and the simmering tension explodes in a heart-clenching sleep paralysis sequence, I was locked in and ready to go—but again, it took about three-fourths of the book for me to get there. There was a lot of telling over showing; that said, it was nice when the "told" moments helped to pick up the pace.

I found it difficult at times to sympathize with Samara, in spite of her incredibly relatable challenges as a BIPOC woman in a primarily white workplace, because she seemed so disdainful of her workplace and coworkers while also demonstrably not doing her own job well. I do generally enjoy prickly/"unsympathetic" women in fiction, so I wonder if this is something that will improve for me on a reread.

I did enjoy the ending, and the way Rivera comes full circle on her themes! Overall I would still recommend this to people looking for some slow-simmering horror. 3.5 stars.