Like other reviews have said, this is absolutely a dark and heavy story. Strongly recommend reviewing and minding the content warnings. It features graphic depictions of trauma throughout and how the ways we suffer in our childhood shape us into adulthood.

It also explores how the narratives we tell ourselves after experiencing trauma shape and affect the rest of our lives. This takes the forms of exploring psychosis, disassociation and other tactics many survivors of child abuse use to make sense of their lives later on.

I definitely think it can be can be considered a horror in that it has the effect of disturbing, shocking and scaring the reader as they learn of the ways these children have suffered. With this said, it's a horror in a fully unexpected way and people expecting a really traditional horror novel may be disappointed.

I think that the ways that a story of racism and child sexual abuse become a haunted house story make for truly compelling and creative storytelling .

Those who have grown up with similar traumas will see themselves reflected in this story in a way that's likely to be very painful but may also be cathartic. For everyone else, this is a story that sticks with you in many ways. I expect to think about it for a long time.