Hugo 2024 Novella: Rose/House by Arkady Martine

Embodiment is an interesting idea in intelligence. Our only experience with natural intelligence are beings who cannot be separated from their bodies. We might imagine souls or ghosts or some Cartesian dualism but every actual mind that we know of comes with a body and nervous system and sensory apparatus that extends far beyond a brain. Our bodies are tied to our sense of self.

We aren’t tied to a singular place though. We may love our homes or crave to return to them but we are distinct from a location. The titular house in Arkady Martine’s novel is an intelligence that is both embodied and located. It is a house, an experiment in architecture, an art installation and a mausoleum, housing the remains of the famous architect who had built the house as a final project.

Dr. Selene Gisil has been tasked with visiting the house once a year as the only person given access to the house and all the art and records of its now dead builder. This stricture is not just a legal one but something the house itself can enforce. Consequently, when the house calls the nearest police station to report a murder within its environs, Selene Gisil is not only the obvious suspect but the only person who can allow the police into the house to search for clues.

Martine weaves together a locked room murder mystery with a musing about identity and haunted places. I’m not sure it really ends in a satisfying way, nor am I sure that is a problem with the story. It is a creepy, thoughtful story that is well worth a read.

As I said in my review of Thornhedge, this is a difficult category to judge. Rose/House in particular is very much a novella rather than a curtailed novel or a short story that sprawled too far.