House of Yesterday
by Deeba Zargarpuron November 29, 2022
Genres: Young Adult, Contemporary, Paranormal
Pages: 320
Format: eARC
Source: Publisher
Rating:
Taking inspiration from the author's own Afghan-Uzbek heritage, this contemporary YA debut is a breathtaking journey into the grief that lingers through generations of immigrant families, and what it means to confront the ghosts of your past.
Struggling to deal with the pain of her parents' impending divorce, fifteen-year-old Sara is facing a world of unknowns and uncertainties. Unfortunately, the one person she could always lean on when things got hard, her beloved Bibi Jan, has become a mere echo of the grandmother she once was. And so Sara retreats into the family business, hoping a summer working on her mom's latest home renovation project will provide a distraction from her fracturing world.
But the house holds more than plaster and stone. It holds secrets that have her clinging desperately to the memories of her old life. Secrets that only her Bibi Jan could have untangled. Secrets Sara is powerless to ignore as the dark truths of her family's history rise in ghostly apparitions -- and with it, the realization that as much as she wants to hold onto her old life, nothing will ever be the same.
Told in lush, sweeping prose, this story of secrets, summer, and family sacrifice will chill you to the bone as the house that wraps Sara in warmth of her past becomes the one thing she cannot escape...
Content Tags:
Perfect for readers who want:
- Diverse reads that focus on different cultures.
- Thoughtful explorations into generational trauma and family secrets.
- Contemporary paranormal with slightly spooky vibes.
- Sweet (but complicated) boy-next-door romance.
- Strong, supportive family bonds.
Many thanks to Farrar, Straus and Giroux for an eARC in exchange for an honest, unbiased review. Quotes taken from an unfinished product and may differ from the final version.
I know this isn’t my typical type of read, but something about this book just grabbed my attention. These days, I’m a sucker for any sort of exploration of grief and all the many different ways that looks in literature. Specifically, I was very curious about the idea of intergenerational grief and all the squishy, complicated, messy human emotions and dynamics that go along with it.
House of Yesterday is a heartfelt exploration into what it means to be a family—how culture is passed on, and the way ghosts (and secrets) can haunt a family. It’s a beautifully written YA coming of age story.
I had actually hit a pretty hardcore reading slump before picking up this book, and boy did it break me out of it! I was so curious about where the mystery was going and what secrets Sara would uncover (and, more importantly, what it would mean for the rest of her family). The paranormal elements were enough to give me goosebumps, but not so overdone that they were ridiculous. I actually really enjoyed the atmosphere Zargarpur created with them!
Zargarpur creates a tense, spooky atmosphere in this paranormal mystery, where nothing is quite as it seems and everyone has their own secrets to protect.
That maybe sounds a little more sinister than I intended it to. Hmm. At its core, this is a story about multigenerational trauma, not really a ghost story. But make no mistake, there is a spookiness at the heart of this story, too. Zargarpur does a great job of ratcheting up the tension until it gives readers goosebumps, and I was 100% here for that.
When Sara finds out that the new house her mother is working on flipping is haunted, it’s not nearly as concerning as the fact that the place is somehow tied to her grandmother. Unfortunately for Sara, her grandmother is in the late stages of dementia, with more unclear days than lucid ones, so asking her for the truth isn’t really an option. Meanwhile, the potential secrets of the house become an obsessive distraction from Sara’s own secrets, like her feelings for her neighbor and her feelings about her parents’ failing relationship.
Despite being a contemporary story through and through, the paranormal aspects add some much-needed tension and suspense. If you’re like me and don’t tend to love slice-of-life contemporaries, there is plenty here to grab your attention and keep you coming back for more. Even the ghosts in this book have their own secrets.
“You know, this is how all those Netflix horror films start.” I rock on the ball of my foot and decide to wait in the car. “Maybe I should just . . .”
My hand is on the handle, all I need to do is—The car beeps. Locked.
” . . . or not.”
“Don’t be a baby,” Madar calls as she huffs up the winding walkway to the front door.
There’s a sweet little budding will they/won’t they romance in this, for those who love the trope . . . complicated by the fact that, despite being childhood friends, the two have hit the stage of their life where they’re growing and changing, and not always in ways that are bound to bring them together.
Sara has been best friends with Sam for most of their lives. It helps that they live next to each other, of course. Traditional guy-next-door trope, right? Except Sara has done her best to push Sam away without telling him why, and the idea of spending time with him is incredibly stressful for her. Like many things in life, it’s complicated.
The romance is very sweet and almost non-existent, focusing more on the friendship, which I preferred. There were definite moments of this relationship that had me frustrated over how the characters behaved, but you know what? They’re both kids. They have every right to make mistakes (and hopefully learn from them). Heck, I still don’t have everything about romance figured out and I’ve been married for 14 years! So I think there are plenty of things in this back-and-forth situation that readers will be able to relate to.
Plus, the two of them together? They’ve just got an awesome dynamic, even when it’s awkward and they’re trying not to.
Oh no.
Oh no.
This has to be a joke.
It can’t be—
“Must you always find new ways to torment me, neighbor?” Sam’s mouth cocks into a half smile as he rubs his face. He’s so sweaty, his shirt is nearly see-through.
Surprised, I do what any normal girl does when confronted with her former childhood best friend. I pelt my dusty gloves at his face and scream, “Have you no decency? This is a place of work!”
“What are you talking about?” Sam looks bewildered and swats the gloves away.
“I can’t work like this.” I immediately do an aboutface.
“I think your gloves got something in my eye!”
“Good!” I shout without looking back.
Throughout the course of this book, Sara is trying to come to grips with who she is . . . both as an almost-adult on her own, but also as a daughter and granddaughter, as someone who inherits things from her family, for better or worse.
This theme plucks so hard at my heartstrings, because our family tends to be either our first love or our first trauma. Sometimes both. It’s more than just genes that we inherit from our ancestors. Sometimes we inherit trauma. Sometimes we inherit secrets. I absolutely loved the way the book explored this and how Sara had to come to grips with the fact that some of what she had grown up believing may not have been true. But then, of course, where does that leave her, when what she thought was her foundation was at least partially a lie?
I am Sara Rahmat and not.
I am American and not.
I am Afghan-Uzbek and not.
I am the product of a grand love story and not. I am and I am not.
My Baba jan used to remind me, history is what makes us, and without it we are doomed to lose our way again and again. But as moonlight from my bedroom window scatters my thoughts, I realize it is this history that has set all of us spinning so far off course.
Sara isn’t the only one trying to find herself over the course of this book, and one of my favorite things about the story is the way the family comes together to support each other and that all the characters are struggling with their own identity crises.
Because what’s more relatable than an identity crisis, am I right? We’ve all been there. Heck, most of us are probably still there. Since this is a YA, it’s easy to dismiss Sara’s struggles as being a stumbling block for the young, but Zargarpur does an amazing job of challenging that assumption and showing that everyone has their own ghosts they’re trying to exorcise, regardless of their age.
The most beautiful thing about all of this is that none of them are alone in their struggles. Okay, sure, their initial reactions are to push others away, which is where Sara finds herself, even as she desperately wants someone to help. That’s a pretty natural reaction. But in the end, they’re surrounded by family that’s going to throw them a lifeline whether they like it or not,
After such a beautifully written, emotionally gut-wrenching novel, the ending felt a bit rushed and seemed to sweep some pretty big revelations under the rug in favor of a neatly wrapped up happy ending.
The idea of a happily ever after ending is less necessary in young adult fiction than, say, middle grade fiction, so I was a little confused (and kind of disappointed) that a book that was so raw and honest for the majority of it chose this approach. However, I know a lot of people who want their books to wrap up like this, so this is really just a matter of how you like your tea. I like mine spilled and just a little bit shady, okay?
The lead-up to the end was a little confusing and crossed over from creepy paranormal to . . . something else? But there didn’t seem to be any real fallout from the revelations and things Sara learns, which means that I had all these emotions from reading her story and absolutely no outlet for them. No one else in the book seemed to share these feelings, either, which was kind of a bummer.
About Deeba Zargarpur
DEEBA ZARGARPUR is an Afghan-Uzbek American. She credits her love of literature across various languages to her immigrant parents, whose eerie tales haunted her well into the night.
If given the choice, Deeba would spend her days getting lost in spooky towns with nothing but a notebook and eye for adventure to guide her.
Her debut YA novel, House of Yesterday, releases from FSG BYR on November 29, 2022.
Her debut MG novel, Farrah Noorzad and the Ring of Fate, releases from Labyrinth Road in Summer 2023.
Deeba is represented by Elana Roth Parker at Laura Dail Literary.
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This sounds really good! I can see why a neatly tied up ending might not be the best idea, but overall it sounds like a winner😁
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It definitely was! Even if the ending was a little disappointing to me, the book was fantastic!
I like a book with secrets! Fantastic review!
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