We Came to Welcome You

A Novel of Suburban Horror

By: Vincent Tirado

Narrated by: iiKane

The Other Black Girl meets Midsommar in this spine-chilling, propulsive psychological adult debut from highly acclaimed author Vincent Tirado, in which a married couple moves into a gated “community” that slowly creeps into a pervasive dread akin to the social horror of Jordan Peele and Lovecraft County—We Came to Welcome You cleverly uses the uncanny to illuminate the cultish, shocking nature of systemic racism.

Where beauty lies, secrets are held…ugly ones.

Sol Reyes has had a rough year. After a series of workplace incidents at her university lab culminates in a plagiarism accusation, Sol is put on probation. Dutiful visits to her homophobic father aren’t helping her mental health, and she finds her nightly glass of wine becoming more of an all-day—and all-bottle—event. Her wife, Alice Song, is far more optimistic. After all, the two finally managed to buy a house in the beautiful gated community of Maneless Grove.

However, the neighbors are a little too friendly in Sol’s opinion. She has no interest in the pushy Homeowners Association, their bizarrely detailed contract, or their never-ending microaggressions. But Alice simply attributes their pursuit to the community motto: “Invest in a neighborly spirit”…which only serves to irritate Sol more.

Suddenly, a number of strange occurrences—doors and stairs disappearing, roots growing inside the house—cause Sol to wonder if her social paranoia isn’t built on something more sinister. Yet Sol’s fears are dismissed as Alice embraces their new home and becomes increasingly worried instead about Sol’s drinking and manic behavior. When Sol finds a journal in the property from a resident that went missing a few years ago, she realizes why they were able to buy the house so easily…

Through Sol’s razor-sharp tongue and macabre sense of humor, Tirado explores the very real pressures to assimilate with one’s surroundings to “survive,” while also asking the question: Is it survival when you’re no longer your true self? Because in Maneless Grove, either you become a good neighbor—or you die.

©2024 Vincent Tirado (P)2024 HarperCollins Publishers

It had good bones.

I really liked the premise of the story, however... don't waste your credit. The narration is just weird. Half human/half A.I. Finally the main character was way over the top with the victim mentality. It became more of the focus of the story. When wrapped up with the ending...it just made me think of the new social horror that was being spread.

A deeply troubling social paranormal horror.

I did love this novel, the horror was effective and enjoyable. I had more than a few moments of utter disgust at the body horror. All this being said the ending is one that’s leaving me scratching my head a bit. There are a few loose treads that get tied up in unsatisfying ways and a lot of lore that never gets explored. I’m not sure if the author intends to write more, if so I’d absolutely read any connected stories. But as a stand alone I do feel a bit like the ending betrays the core values of the main character.

Needs a different voice actor

Actually, not finished with the book yet. But I find the voice actor so distracting from the story. I didn’t even look to see who the voice actor is, but their phrasing and intonation were confusing to me. She almost sounded like a robot, maybe it is, an AI generated voiceover, I don’t know. She pronounced cupboards, cup. Boards and soldering, sold-uring. That’s just so far. I just had to put this review in because I don’t know if I’m gonna finish the book now.

Mediocre

Sounds like the story is read by AI. The story itself is surface level, predictable. Zoned out for 3 chapters and didn’t miss a thing. Unless you get this story free, don’t bother.

Narration sounded off

The Narration was rough. The desire to finish the story was all that kept me going, and in the end I feel like I missed something anyway. The narrator did not sound realistic, until the very end when she introduced herself. It sounded like a different person. The story was read in a way that most humans do not speak. Some reviews claim AI, which I can see. It was very much like a computer was reading the story to us. The story itself was fine, but I’d recommend reading the physical copy

Internal dialogue not always relevant

lots of internal conversation about racism, not evidenced in the story, just consistently anticipated and thought of. Generally, didn't add to the story, imo. The premise of the story was intriguing.

A DNF Book for Me

I got about 6.5 hours into the book and decided it was one to put down. The main character manages to make herself the victim in every single scenario.

Every person in this book is deemed either racist or homophobic, and the main character doesn’t let you forget she’s a victim of both in every part.

The story itself is really good, but from what I read there was race or homophobia brought up so often and I don’t believe it had anything to do with the actual plot.
She literally decided she was never going to see a therapist again because upon the first 10-20 minutes in the first session the therapist didn’t know she was part black.

The AI type narration isn’t so bad, it’s definitely noticeable but doesn’t sound awful. The voices are nice and it comes out fairly smooth.

Overall, try it out but personally one of my very rare DNF books.

The Narration is awful.

I liked the book, would've been better reading it my self because the narration is so bad it ruins the overall effect. It's robotic and goes in and out of normal.

The terrible narrator. Had to be AI! Terrible to listen to

I love Stephen King and I felt like the author was going for his type of writing. Fail!

Is this an AI narrator?

The narration sounds like a computer talking. The dialogue is not as bad, but the bulk of the audio sounds like some AI voice. It's like a human did the dialogue and computer did the rest. If this is true, Audible should be making that clear. It was an annoying narration and I feel like I was scammed. The story was actually pretty engaging, but I would skip it because the computer voice was awful.