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Sol and Alice have just moved into their dream home, or so they thought. Maneless Grove, a gated, tight-knit community that insist that everyone must join the HOA. The Maneless Grove HOA will add meaningful relationships, endless opportunities and many amenities to your life. All you have to do is sign your rights away!

The people in Maneless Grove are different. You hardly ever see them, except for a few that seem to always pop up out of the blue. Also, one of them always seems different… different height, weight, coloring, just different. These people are weird.

Sol, fighting through a possible alcohol addiction and trying to get her job back at Yale, keeps hearing voices and seeing strange things. A scientist by nature and profession, Sol goes on a hunt to determine what is really going on in Maneless Grove. Sol notices that her beloved wife seems different too. She is not her usual self and isn’t speaking her native Korean anymore, either.

What is going on in Maneless Grove? Is Sol’s new home haunted and what secrets is this community hiding?

☁️☁️☁️ɱყ ɬɧơųɠɧɬʂ☁️☁️☁️

Oh. My. God. I LOVED this SUPERNATURAL #LGBT horror! By far, my favorite horror of the year! This was SPINE-TINGLING, spookiness at its best! I loved Sol’s character, she’s just awesome — her anxiousness, boldness and unabashed opposition of the Maneless Grove HOA and its members! However, I was disappointed in the ending. I just did’t get it. I felt it did not align with Sol’s character., nevertheless, it was worth the read! I can not wait to read more by this author!

If you loved We Were never Here, another LGBT 2024 Horror, you will love this!

This was my first book read by Vincent Tirado and I'm looking forward to reading more of their books! I really liked this book. Like many have said, it does have Get Out vibes. It had some really creepy parts to it! I was able to listen to it as well and thought it made the book even better. I did not see the ending coming at all! Highly recommend.

Like many have said this book gave very much Get Out Vibes and I had to put the book down several times because I was getting too scared. The way Tirado writes is mesmerizing and I want to read more by this author!

This book honestly just made me mad!
To start with the author did an incredible job with the creepy stepford, everything-looks-the-same, general eerie vibe. I was honestly creeped out and extremely sucked in to figuring out what was going on.

What completely ruined it? The MC, or possibly the author coming through via the MC. Either way the MC may be the most racist person I've come across, in real life or in fiction. The MC can't have a single thought without her also making sure that we're aware she's a black Latino lesbian, it's constant and extremely annoying. At one point she thinks "all white people look exactly the same anyway." That's so grossly racist no matter what race or ethnicity you're talking about!
At one point she's lost and walking through her own neighborhood, where everyone has been extremely nice and helpful, if a bit weird, and she keeps thinking she couldn't possibly ask for help because obviously her neighbors are only interested in shooting her... I was rolling my eyes so hard at all of this I thought they might fall out of my damn head.

The MC is also having this huge major life crisis with her career that's "absolutely ruining everything" yet she's doing nothing about it and barely even thinks about it. Every chapter it's talked about how she might lose the job she loves, but then we just move on and the MC is more interested in the fact that her neighbor looked at her weird that one time so she must hate her because she's "too black and bitch."

Lastly, her relationship with her wife and dad. Her dad is a homophobic POS that she visits weekly so that she can get yelled at and berated for her life choices. She refuses to stop seeing him because he did one tiny nice thing one time in her life amidst all the constant abuse...it's just pure idiocy here to not cut out the toxicity and I'm not here for it. But everyone has that toxic person in their life, what I can't get over is how the MC treats her wife. She refuses to truly confide in her wife and talk about all these issues she's dealing with because her wife just couldn't posssibly understand all the prejudice and racism she had to grow up with... Her freaking KOREAN wife. It's just so absolutely ridiculous. The MC has a pretty intense drinking problem, which at first I appreciated the rep, but at one point her wife comes home slightly drunk and she thinks "wow, I guess there's different standards for us!" Hmmm yeah, pretty sure it makes perfect sense that the non-alcoholic can get tipsy where the raging alcoholic should really NOT. Of course the MC can't talk to her wife about maybe not being drunk around her, ohhh no that'd be much too mature of a conversation to have.

This turned into more of a rant than I expected. I'm just really peeved that the atmosphere totally sucked me in, but this was the most insufferable character with the emotional range of a toddler.

We Came To Welcome You by Vincent Tirado

We Came To Welcome You is a fast paced horror psychological thriller. When Alice and Sol move into their dream house, they are ready for their dreams to come true. The house is perfect. It’s in a cute community, in their price range, and is everything they have been dreaming of. Well that is except that the house is in a neighborhood that is part of an HOA. Alice and Sol want a garden, to be able to fly pride flags, and to decorate their new home the way they want. Both are dealing with different issues personally, including Sol having both a very big problem with alcohol and a small problem of being on academic probation from her job. Add on a homophobic father, and pushy neighbors, an hoa, and drama mixed with lies, what marriage could handle these twists.

Is the HOA just a bunch of typical suburban zealots that want cookie cutter families , or are they something more dangerous. Is Sols hallucinations real, or a product of her drinking problems. Are these people evil? Dangerous? Or are they just pushy people that expect everyone to comply and conform.? And what’s with these creepy children of the corn like children?
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This book had lots of potential with the premise. The evil HOA that wants to change you to make you fit into their mold. It had lots of minority groups, with a sapphic couple as well as a gay couple, but for the most part it was a group of people that are overbearing and creepy. Where the book lost its mark is that it obsessed over race, dragging that out constantly. Parts were very creepy, and had the author concentrated more on the creepiness and less on the entire story being about how racist the entire town was, it would have been so much better. Had the author continued with the creepiness, I feel like the author could have written something as creepy as September House.

Overall the book was ok. The beginning had me hanging on to every word , but at some point it just lost the momentum and I started getting bored, feeling like it was more rants than anything else.

Content Warnings: Misogyny, Racism, Gaslighting, Childhood Trauma (Abuse, Religious), Anxiety, Depression, Suicide/Self-Harm, Alcoholism

This book had some major pros. The concept was creepy and well-described. Our main character, Sol, and her wife, Alice, raise very valid points about sexism, racism, misogyny, misogynoir, homophobia, and different issues within the Queer community. I also liked Sol overall. Yes, she could get exhausting, but she WAS exhausted due to the mental illness, childhood trauma, and gaslighting she faced in her community and at work. I also liked Alice.

The pacing was the main issue I had with the book. The beginning was solid, but somewhere around the middle it just started to feel repetitive in terms of the scares, what was happening, etc. Things picked back up again when Sol accidentally joined the cult through breaking a statue, but it quickly fizzled again. I also hated the ending. While it is definitely creepy, I felt like it was rushed and put Sol basically in the same position she was so desperate to escape earlier. Same constraints, just different branding. That easily could be part of the commentary in the book, but it just needled me wrong.

You have to read this book, y'all. It's WILD. Vincent Tirado's WE CAME TO WELCOME YOU is a disorienting, tense, and utterly terrifying suburban horror novel that has given me about 20 new reasons to never move to the burbs and justified my deep suspicion of HOAs. This is one of those books that gets into your bones,

'We Came to Welcome You', by Vincent Tirado, confirms our suspicions about Homeowner Associations — they most certainly are evil, and more nefarious things go on than just policing the height of your grass. Sol Reyes finds this out for herself after she and her wife move into a neighborhood that is just a little too idyllic and feels more than just off. Every home is exactly the same, even down to the decor in the living rooms. No adult ever seems to be home, except for her mysterious neighbor, yet there’s a child who is often found standing in the middle of the street, and there are teenagers who congregate in the woods. And what’s going on with the trees and shadows?

In addition to being a captivating horror story, the novel also explores Sol’s identity in a world where she is Black, gay, Latina, and a woman — a world where there doesn’t seem to be a place where she fully belongs. She suffers from anxiety and past trauma that shape her perceptions of those around her, and she copes through isolation and occasional alcohol abuse. Put all of this into play while she is at risk of losing her professorship at Yale, and we find that Sol is not in a good place, both inside and out.

Tirado creates a complete, fully developed character in Sol. She is created with much care and detail, and it would be unfortunate for any reader not to feel empathy for her. We can see the daily struggles she goes through because of her race, and we gain an appreciation for her anxiety, trauma, and alcoholism. Those who say she is unlikable, whiny, or shoves her race and being gay in your face (she's none of those) really missed an opportunity to understand a beautiful person. Tirado affirms this through showing Alice’s, her wife’s, unconditional love for her. Opposite to Alice, these readers missed an opportunity to experience a world that is all too real for many of us.

The horror elements of this novel are carefully layered in intensity. I was very drawn into the novel — when I was reading, my watch would often alert me to my high heart rate! I was totally freaked out, yet I couldn’t turn away from what was happening in this creepy neighborhood. Also, what happens outwardly to Sol pulls strings on her inner demons, whether it’s reminding her of the trauma she went through with her parents when she came out, her complicated relationship with her father, or the allegations of plagiarism against her. As a result, we see Sol as a dynamic character who changes and grows, being twisted this way and that. This psychological horror is thrilling in large part because the reader becomes so entangled with Sol’s mind.

One criticism that I have is the ending. While it is a clever twist that could be a lot of fun, it’s totally out of step and character with the rest of the novel.

Overall, this is a wonderful and haunting horror novel. I highly recommend it not only for the thrills but also for its deep character study and social commentary from a nuanced viewpoint. This novel is newly out in stores and on Kindle, so give it a read. I’m sure you’ll find the novel to be both satisfying and exciting!

I received an ARC of this book in exchange for my honest opinion. Many thanks to Vincent Tirado and William Morrow.

I've submitted this review to Amazon, but it hasn't been posted yet. I'll have this book up in my Twitter and Facebook feed today (9/8/24). Thanks!

Thank you to Netgalley, Libro fm and William Morrow for the ARC/ALC!

Initially, the slow pacing of this story didn’t bother me, as I was enjoying the groundwork being laid for this spooky neighborhood etc. But the longer I listened, it became increasingly difficult to keep my attention on the story because nothing really seemed to be happening. I loved the premise, and related a lot to Sol, in her feeling like she didn’t fit in, but this story just wasn’t for me.

This book reminded me of a thriller/ fantasy movie like Crazies where the town or in this case the neighborhood are like walking zombies so to speak. We have Sol and her wife Alice who just moved into the neighborhood and Sol is already on alert given her past she has trouble trusting people and her current work issues have made that worse. Then she starts to notice really strange things happening and starts to go a bit crazy or so that’s what they want her to feel.

I liked the story thought I feel it was a bit slow moving and I would love to have seen more activity happen either more interactions, details, or issues to really make this story crazier.

Thanks to William Morrow Books, NetGalley, and Harper Collins for this copy of "We Came to Welcome You."

I think this is the first time I've seen a book officially described as "suburban horror" but it fits this book so very well and it's now an "official" horror subgenre for me.

Sol and her wife Alice move into their dream neighborhood, which is almost TOO perfect.

Then there's the very restrictive, specific Home Owners Agreement that they're being pressured to sign.

Conformity, peer pressure, and how much of ourselves we're willing to change or hide in order to "fit in" or "belong" are woven into this spine-tingling, chilling story.

And the ending - let me know when you read it - 👀!!

After Sol and Alice move into their new gated community, things begin to go their way. But are all these benefits really worth their pushy, weird neighbors and creepy house?

Look. I wanted to like this book. I really did. Conceptually? A+ It had all the potential but failed in the execution. It didn't make sense even according to its internal logic: the characters' behavior didn't make sense, the big bad didn't make sense, and the ending especially didn't make sense. There were plot points that were never addressed or wrapped up or explained satisfactorily. I also didn't enjoy the writing style--the extent of a lot of the foreshadowing was "x couldn't happen for y reason," and a few paragraphs later, wouldn't you know, x happens! The pacing struggled in the middle too.

Maybe this book's for you, but it wasn't for me and it's such a bummer.

The pacing in We Came to Welcome You is incredibly slow, making it difficult to engage in this story. Also, although I liked Sol and her wife, I still found it challenging to form any real connection with them. These things significantly dampened my overall experience with the book.

Side note: as a Black person, it is exhausting to keep seeing these kind of books published. Listen, kudos to the author for their adult debut but can we stop putting Black characters through so much trauma? Especially when it deals with racism. Am I dismissing that these thing happen? No. But first time home buyers and first thing happens is micro-aggressions and racism? and only to the Black wife?

I wont discourage other readers, if this is your kind of story, then give it a read.

Something about taking along time to read a book instead of NEEDING to know what’s going on… makes me feel like I just didn’t like it that much.

This one had good bones. The premise was interesting.
Sol and Alice move into a new neighborhood and the hoa will not leave them alone. Sinister things start happening and they need to figure out what the hell is wrong with this neighborhood.

Something about the writing made this feel a little choppy and slow.

The characters are not lovable and borders into the extremely annoying side lol

Thanks to netgalley and William morrow for an eARC.

Living in a neighborhood that has an HOA myself, this book freaked me out in the best way! I feel like this would make such a great movie and I would repeatedly watch it, behind a pillow of course lol

Sol Reyes and her wife Alice Song have finally purchased a house and it's in none other than the beautiful, gated community of Maneless Grove. Maneless Grove seems to have it all with their cookie-cutter houses and friendly neighbors. Not everything is as it seems; however, and Maneless Grove may be more sinister than Sol or Alice were expecting.

I had a hard time setting down We Came to Welcome You. It gripped me right away. I had to know what was going on in this gated community. Although I am tired of the unreliable narrator trope, Sol didn't prove as unreliable as other narrators in books with similar alcoholic tendencies do. Although I enjoyed the writing and narrative of the majority of the book, I found the ending leaving me wanting more. I don't think some elements of the ending were as explained as they could have been. I was already reading it with a headache at the very end so perhaps I missed something too.

This is Vincent's second novel and first adult novel. I can't wait to read more from them in the future. I did listen to a little bit of this, but read the majority. Like I said I couldn't put it down so luckily Spotify has it in their audiobook catalogue so I could continue my reading binge for a bit. If audiobooks are your reading style of choice, I also really liked the portion of the audiobook I listened to and would recommend it.

Thank you to William Morrow and Netgalley for a copy in exchange for review consideration.

I found the writing to be a bit stilted; I didn't always feel the flow of the dialogue and the internal monologue. I think this is probably going to find it's audience, I just don't think it's me.

There are two things in horror that I crave more than anything ever: Reality TV/TV sets, and suburban horror. There is something so insidiously creepy about horror set in the suburbs, it's like....just so interesting. I find folk horror gives me the same feeling, where there's just something not right here. This was a great mix of horror and thriller and commentary. This was a spectacular debut into the adult sphere and I cannot wait for more from this author!

Sol and Alice buy a home in a gated community. Sol feels something 'off' with the house, the area, the very nosey HOA, immediately. Alice is seemingly happy with the place and trying to settle into a less anxious lifestyle for them both. Sol is on leave from her job due to an accusation of plagiarism, and Alice is working hard at a promotion. Sol begins to see things and hear things. Alice is blaming it on Sol's day drinking due to her depression from the job situation. Sol knows what she is seeing is real, but yet she doubts it at the same time. What is actually going on in their new community? Why won't the HOA accept no for an answer that they won't be joining? Where are the voices coming from? Things just keep getting more and more odd. Then Sol finds a journal that begins to explain what's happening in this community.

The story is being told basically in two pov's, with the first being Sol and Alice's life and in between chapters there's an entry from the journal that Sol found. That did help to keep things in the story straight.

I would say the story is a bit horror, a bit thriller, a bit science fiction and just straight up drama. I would've liked to understand what happened a little bit better in the end, but it just didn't ever seem to wrap up nicely.

Thank you to NetGalley, Vincent Tirado, and William Morrow publishing for allowing me this arc e-version to read in exchange for my own opinion.

This was good and creepy! I enjoyed a lot of what it set out to do. The POV got weird for me to follow at a few points. I'm not sure if it was third person or what but there were a few sections I had to read a few times to understand who was saying what which got frustrating.