E.M. Carroll’s Lambda Award-winning graphic novel A Guest in the House is being reprinted in paperback from Macmillan’s new adult graphic novel imprint 23rd St. Books. Today, The Beat can reveal haunting new art from Carroll for the paperback edition, which is an early release from 23rd St. before its official launch in fall 2026.
A Guest in the House follows Abby, who just married a recently widowed dentist after he moved to town with his young daughter. Abby wants to do right by both of them and strives to be both a good wife and a good parental figure, but she knows she’ll never quite live up to the woman they both lost. If that isn’t enough pressure, as Abby attempts to settle into her new life, the memory of her husband’s late wife, Sheila, seems to haunt her every move.
Here’s the full synopsis:
After many lonely years, Abby’s just gotten married. She met her new husband—a recently widowed dentist—when he arrived in town with his young daughter, seeking a new start. Although it’s strange living in the shadow of her predecessor, Abby does her best to be a good wife and mother. But the more she learns about her new husband’s first wife, the more things don’t add up. And Abby starts to wonder . . . was Sheila’s death really by natural causes? As Abby sinks deeper into confusion,
Sheila’s memory seems to become a force all its own, ensnaring Abby in a mystery that leaves her obsessed, fascinated, and desperately in love for the first time in her life.
As seen in the opening of the book above, Carroll illustrates the majority of A Guest in the House in monochrome, but turns to vibrant colors to explore Abby’s inner world. The same is true of the new, never-before-seen art they created for the paperback edition, seen below. These panels aren’t in the paperback itself, but were created separately to celebrate its release.
“Making comics can be such an isolating process (at least, how I make them), that when one is really in the weeds of a new story, it’s easy to lose sight of how it will be received once it is out there in front of readers,” said Carroll in a statement for The Beat.
“Knowing that there has been such a positive response to this book, enough for it to be released as a paperback edition, is incredibly moving to me—one of those things where I wish I could go back and show my past self, when they were in the thick of it, how beautifully it all turned out. I’m hopeful that this will introduce even more people to the story, and to the lovely new edition that 23rd St. Books has designed for it,” they continued.
A Guest in the House is now available in paperback from 23rd St. Books for $19.99.
