Description
In this darkly funny gothic tale, a reclusive mother and her saturnine daughter move into a haunted building brimming with eccentrics—and secrets.
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.
Reviews
"Equal parts ghost story, mystery, and family drama—a little Only Murders in the Building, a little Pushing Daisies.... What unfolds is a quirky, surrealist tale that has some of the most engaging character work I’ve seen in a long time. It is just a goddamn delight through and through." — Christina Orlando, Reactor
"Amber Sparks' long-awaited debut novel is almost here: 'a story about secrets, and buried trauma and little goth children’.... ‘In my writing, there’s a ghost in everything, because IRL there is a ghost in everything,” Sparks adds. “Even if the ghost is just me, haunting myself and my fiction forever.’" — People
"The long-awaited debut novel from Sparks looks like a delightfully autumnal read, about a mother and daughter who move into an apartment building that used to be a sanatorium and the weird people (living and dead) who they encounter there. Everything about it reminds me of Ray Bradbury and Annie Hartnett and I already know I’m going to want to stay in the Pine Lake Apartments forever (and maybe I will???)." — Drew Broussard, Literary Hub, "Lit Hub’s Most Anticipated Books of 2025"
"As a longtime fan of Sparks, when her debut landed on my desk, I stopped everything I was doing to read the first few chapters, where an unforgettable cast of characters call a peculiar apartment complex home. If you love And I Do Not Forgive You and The Unfinished World, you’ll love Happy People." — Adam Vitcavage, Debutiful, "Most Anticipated Debut Novels of 2025"
"Sparks works within a highly stylized mix of quirky and eerie—but from within her own idiosyncratic vision, she celebrates the power and strangeness of weird women and girls. For anyone who has ever wished they made Nancy Drew novels for grown-ups." — Kirkus Reviews
"Playful . . . beneath the spunky girl detective plot is a finely crafted novel about fraught relationships, both between a mother and daughter and between the living and the dead. It’s a cozy supernatural delight." — Publishers Weekly
"Amber Sparks is one of my favorite living writers, and Happy People Don’t Live Here is just as searing, funny, and unforgettable as I hoped. In the world of Amber Sparks, ten-year-old girls are extraordinary and ghosts are regular as rain. This is an enthralling novel about how mothers haunt their daughters and vice versa, and the beautiful fact of love after death. Alice and Fern feel like they have always existed and always will. Get ready for your new favorite novel." — Marie-Helene Bertino, author of Beautyland
"Strange and surprisingly uncanny, Amber Sparks’s new novel is a twisty, delicious trip down the rabbit hole. Every family story is a haunted house, and this one gives us everything spooky and so much more. A beautiful book, and a slippery one, too—Sparks has built something terribly, wonderfully fascinating with Happy People Don’t Live Here. A stunner." — Kristen Arnett, author of Stop Me If You’ve Heard This One
"With the fantastical inventiveness of Karen Russell and the cutting social wit of Shirley Jackson, Amber Sparks spins a moving tale of a mother and daughter finding their way amid a community of (mostly) loveable weirdos. A smart, funny, and unforgettable debut from one of my favorite writers!" — Matt Bell, author of Appleseed
Standalone Ebook
9781324094401
COMING SOON