3.0
Happy People Don't Live Here
ByPublisher Description
In this darkly funny gothic tale, a reclusive mother and her saturnine daughter move into a haunted building brimming with eccentrics—and secrets.
Just past the edge of summer, Alice and her daughter, Fern, arrive at the Pine Lake Apartments—a former sanatorium occupied by an ensemble of peculiar neighbors and a smattering of ghosts. Among the living: the Mermaid Lady, who performs in a nightclub fish tank; the building’s handyperson, moonlighting as a medium; and an awkwardly charming professor of medieval studies. Fern alone is acquainted with the undead, who pass like troubled clouds through the apartments, humanity mostly lost ages ago. For the determinedly private Alice, Pine Lake seems the perfect place at the edge of the world to hide herself and her daughter—until the day Fern finds a dead body in the dumpster.Intent on solving the mystery of this discarded corpse, Fern eagerly puts her encyclopedic knowledge of detective novels to good use while dodging warnings from her increasingly paranoid mother. She soon comes to realize that within the strange tapestry of Pine Lake residents, nothing is ever quite as it seems. Her investigation digs up long-buried secrets, including her mother’s, that implicate each of her neighbors . . . and conjures a new one from beyond the grave.
The hotly anticipated debut novel from “master of the fantastic” (Roxane Gay) Amber Sparks, Happy People Don’t Live Here is an unforgettable portrait of family—whether by birth or by chance or by choice—and the sometimes dangerous myths we make to keep ours together.
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Meet readers like you in the Fable For You feed, designed to build bookish communitiesHappy People Don't Live Here Reviews
3.0
“I loved this book. When I started it it took a while to get used to the writing style as it is very different from what I’m used to but overall it was a very good intriguing book. Definitely worth the read”
“Amber Sparks is one of my favorite authors, so I was so excited to read her first novel. I adore her writing style, but this book probably could have been a short story (which is her specialty). That said, I really liked the main characters and loved the exploration of mother-daughter relationships. It’s worth a read if you like whimsical books, but do not go into it expecting horror.”
“Fantastic Stranglings Book Club pick for November 2025? I liked this more than I thought I would but I’m not a big fan of 3rd person story telling/writing style.
The time frame is too short for much character growth but I did love all the characters and the story line with the setting was great.”Start a Book Club
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