Audiobook Review: Pool House by Mary H.K. Choi, Narrated by Joy Osmanski

Pool House by Mary H.K. Choi,

Narrated by Joy Osmanski

Blurb from Goodreads:

Stevie Moon cannot escape her mother. Abandoning college plans to work a dead-end job, her days are a purgatorial bore. Many dream of moving to L.A. and into the spotlight, but Stevie can’t wait to move away from it, and her mother’s orbit, to start over.

Delilah (not her real name) or “Moon” (as everyone calls her) is many an out-of-work actress, a former alcoholic, whatever a mistress becomes when she’s widowed, and a mother. Reeling in the aftermath of her lover and TV husband’s death, Moon struggles to process her grief. And the last thing she expects is for Stevie to leave her too.

Unable to afford their home, Moon and Stevie rent it out and live in their glass pool house. But when Adam, Moon’s former TV son and Stevie’s forever crush, arrives for the funeral, the three are pulled into a messy orbit, moving back into the ‘Big House’ and playacting a picture-perfect family even as tensions rise and relationships unravel.

POOL HOUSE is a course charted through the wilderness of motherhood, a story about the challenges of navigating class, fame, burgeoning sexuality, and grief as two women grapple with what it means to grow up and grow older in Tinseltown.

 Wow! This was much darker than I anticipated but fascinating and so well written.  I was rooting for everyone and the ending shocked me. This felt genuine although so deep seated that I just want to sprinkle a lot of therapy on everyone involved.  This author is excellent and the narrator is excellent as well. Give this a try! 

Pool House comes out tomorrow on June 9, 2026 and you can purchase HERE.  

Stevie has been usurped.  She’s rounded the corner  at Ralph’s to catch Moon, her mother, speaking to a young tattooed Asian woman in the cereal aisle.  The angle of the other woman’s head and the way Moon uses her hands as she speaks, gaining speed, indicates that some deep and abiding imprinting is taking place.  Moon has orchestrated this. Trawled rock n ’roll Ralph’s as she cringingly still refers to the grocery store on sunset.  Switching her famous face on for a dopamine hit. A hoovering vortex of want.