HOUSE PETS

Rising comics and illustration star Bianca Bagnarelli makes her English debut with a haunting short story collection, blending the edges of realistic and speculative fiction.

A contemplative exploration of loss, family ties, and the inescapable loneliness of contemporary life. Bagnarelli sheds light on all the empty spaces formed by grief and isolation in our everyday lives.

This short story collection delivers a universe at times familiar, at times verging on the fantastical. The stories range between the mundane and the slightly unnerving, always skirting around the edges of tragedy and grief.

A stranger’s knocks interrupt dinner—a teenager frightened by a wolf sighting…or a trick to get the home owners out of the house to stage a robbery? A grieving mother drives her way into oblivion, while a roadkill rabbit keeps her company on the passenger seat, transporting her momentarily to her life before loss. Sisters facing an unspecified apocalypse weigh the option of walking out on their bedridden elderly father, in the same way that he walked out on them when they were first born.

Bianca Bagnarelli’s impeccable linework, cinematic framing, and atmospheric lighting play up her knack for capturing the small moments and meaningful details that make up a good story–it is a pleasure to witness her flesh out the nuance and texture of the worlds she is building.