Paul Simard’s life is a mess. When his mother dies, and his boyfriend moves out, the only thing Paul has left is his hoarder house cleaning business, and that’s not exactly a recipe for dating success. But after Paul gets a call to clean out the home of some elderly biologist, nothing will ever be the same. You see, 928 Avirosa isn’t just your normal cleanout. Something in the house is…alive. It’s not just the fungal carpet or the mushrooms growing over every surface, or even the disturbing smell. It’s the woman’s voice he hears inside his head. The creeping sense he’s been invaded. The powerful connections to memories and people he’s never seen. Yes. Something in that house is alive. And it wants to speak to him. Before long, Paul understands the house hoards more than just secrets – and Paul’s life depends upon uncovering its answers.
After a string of books I was disinterested in, and having to switch to audiobooks to accommodate my listlessness, this novella got me to sit my ass down and read it. While I’m struggling right now with sitting and reading (this would usually take one sitting but I did it in three), I read this quite quickly. It was so satisfying!
The body horror was great. You sit there and you think, oh my god, these growths are terrible, and then you sympathize with the growths. It makes the reader empathize greatly with the people who hoard— hoarding isn’t just a TV spectacle or a tragic yet disgusting affliction. It’s emotions wrapped up tight in belongings.
Our character Paul reflects on it as he does his final housecleaning, finding that his empathy grows with each artifact of this woman’s life that he finds. Stepping into the shoes of someone who mourned so strongly affects not just him, but to the reader, and then the reader sits back and questions, “Could I get here, too?”
For 83 pages, it’s got a lot of story happening. I loved it.
