Evie is expelled from her New York City apartment when a new mayor forces renters out, and driven mostly by chance, ends up in Gulluck, Texas, living in a building shaped like a shoe. She will discover strange creatures, a secret association, distant relations, and semi-magical occurrences on the path to rebuilding a family and finding her purpose.

DWELLING is off-kilter: zany things exist and occur, which initially charmed and eventually bloated and dragged. I found the book too committed to realism to be generatively weird. I was interested in a book (even a satire/fairytale) set in north Texas, but the setting (as with other elements) felt arbitrary. To me, it felt like the book basically contains all of whimsical features in the blurb, but doesn't quite knit them together in a satisfying way.

For those who enjoy the genre of contemporary fabulism, like Hilary Leichter, Helen Oyeyemi, and Ling Ma, this is a pretty good addition about the housing crisis!

i loved this book so much! it is a wildly imaginative story set in a world that’s literally falling apart. Evie, left alone after losing her family and everything else, escapes a crumbling New York City to a strange Texas town called Gulluck. there amidst albino cicadas, quirky townsfolk, and even a giant fish, she begins a surreal search for belonging and meaning. the story feels like a mashup of fairy tale weirdness and sharp social commentary. it tackles big themes like the housing crisis and personal loss but does it with humor and a magical, offbeat vibe. the setting was so bizarre yet oddly relatable, and Evie’s journey is packed with existential questions and unexpected moments of hope.

If you’re into stories that blend real-world struggles with a dose of the absurd, Dwelling is worth checking out. it's fresh, funny, and hits hard in all the right ways. ❤️✨

thank you Farrar, Straus and Giroux for my copy!

I recently finished an interesting fantasy book. Dwelling by Emily Hunt Kivel was not what I was expecting, but I was pleasantly surprised.