House of Cotton

In Brashears’s haunting and macabre debut, a young Black woman navigates her own grief while shouldering the burdens of others. Magnolia Brown, 19, is living life hand-to-mouth in Knoxville, Tenn., when a representative for Cotton and Eden Productions, a shady side project of a local funeral parlor, offers her an unorthodox modeling job: she’ll be made up to impersonate deceased loved ones so that bereaved family and friends can say their farewells over Skype. Meanwhile, Magnolia copes with the recent death of her beloved grandmother, Mama Brown, who raised her after her father was killed on a construction site and her mother got in trouble with the law. Now, Mama Brown’s ghost appears to Magnolia, claiming she’s haunted by a boogeyman-like Bible salesman who scared her as a child. Magnolia is a wonderfully complex character, sympathetic to the bereaved but not sentimental (“There ain’t no Bloody Marys or Candymans,” she tells Mama Brown. “Only men who too happy to find a woman alone”), and fiercely independent as she gratifies her sexual desires via Tinder hookups. Brashears skillfully portrays the ease with which Magnolia pivots from her interventions in the spirit world to her interactions with Cotton and Eden’s paying customers. This is a fine testament to resilience. Agent: PJ Mark and Hafizah Geter, Janklow & Nesbit Assoc. (Apr.)