A House Unsettled

Delaney’s eerie, Canada-set debut centers 17-year-old biracial (Black and white) Asha Walker, who relocates to her estranged mother’s majority-white New Brunswick hometown to escape scrutiny following her father’s recent embezzlement conviction. When Asha and mom Traci move into a crumbling mansion owned by Traci’s late aunt, they’re longing for a new start. Though Asha hopes this change will be the perfect chance to reinvent herself, New Brunswick presents her with overwhelming interpersonal challenges. She feels unwelcome due to the town’s history of racial prejudice; her presumed-white and Lebanese neighbor, alluring Cole Levesque-Gerges, sparks unexpected feelings; and the arrival of Traci’s deceptive beau strains the pair’s already tense relationship. What’s more, she’s unsettled by increasingly chilling encounters with the spirits of her family’s dark past, which inhabit her new home. Though themes such as colonialism, police violence, and white privilege are only summarily explored, leading to underdeveloped messaging, and sporadic pacing causes narrative disconnect, Asha and Cole’s clash over their respective lived experiences is intensely rendered. Delaney capably crafts a creeping sense of horror that infuses this pensive paranormal tale with dread. Ages 14–up. (Oct.)