Ever since I read The Hollow Bones I have loved this authors work. This wasn’t my favourite but it was still worth a read.

This book nailed the atmosphere. It was eerie and mysterious and kept me on the edge of my seat the entire time. The writing was lyrical and drew me and kept me turning the pages into the drama conclusion. I struggled with connecting with the characters but the story itself made up for it. Overall, a decent read, and I’ll look forward to more from the author in the future.

When a work trip is delayed, Samantha decides to visit her mother. The vulture sitting on the mailbox should have been warning enough to turn around. The family home was originally owned by Sam's grandmother, not a lovely person but she did grown amazing roses that are still growing 20 years later. Creepy things happen but it is not to the second half that events ratchet up. The story is told in Sam's cynical dry humorous voice, which makes the horror more shocking.
Another wonderful read from T. Kingfisher
3.5 stars

"A House with Good Bones" by T. Kingfisher is a horror novel set in an ordinary North Carolina suburb where family secrets come to light.

"A House with Good Bones" promises to deliver a tale of family secrets, unsettling changes, and an ever-increasing sense of dread in a seemingly ordinary suburban setting.

4.5/5.0

I will read anything and everything written by T. Kingfisher and this from one of my favourite authors certainty did not disappoint.

Actual rating: 3.5/5

I read this book all the way back in June when the sun was shining and spooky season was definitely not on my mind, but with Halloween upon us, it's finally time to share a few thoughts on this!

I discovered Kingfisher's books last year, when I read the amazing Nettle and Bone, and I decided to catch up with a few more of her books: so, enter A House with Good Bones. Right from the beginning, I realised this would be quite different from my previous read and I wasn't really sure what to expect but one thing was certain: that house was well and truly haunted.

I warmed up almost immediately to Sam as a main character. For starters, she's an archeoentomologist, something that immediately set her apart and allowed her to share fascinating tidbits on insects throughout the novel. Sam's quirky and extremely funny, providing a humourous commentary throughout, which somewhat tempered the creep and chills evoked by the book's events. The book is narrated entirely from Sam's POV, and much of it is just her inner monologue so by the end I felt as if I knew her pretty well, even though I couldn't say the same of the other characters.

While recovering from her most recent dig, Sam decides to visit her mother, but immediately realises that something is wrong. Sam's relationship with her mum was another element I really appreciated, since it seemed to be very genuine and based on true love and care for one another. I also enjoyed the sharp contrast this made with the relationship they both had with Sam's grandmother and her (very difficult) character.

All the elements to the story are very carefully laid out, slowly but surely drawing the reader in thanks to the author's masteful storytelling. Still, despite this, something felt missing for me to feel the truly haunting side of this story, the ending leaving me somewhat unsatisfied. I felt as though there were at once too many elements colliding and, at the same time, things were rushed along to reach the conclusion swiftly. The build-up felt definitely far too long compared to the final shenanigans, switching from Sam's sarcastic monologue to pure horror in a very short time, giving the impression of a much-too-fast tonal shift and a serious pacing issue.

Even though this book didn't fully hit the mark for me, it's still a pretty engaging and quick read to get you in the spooky mood this Halloween. I'll definitely be reading more from the author in the future!

Did not finish this one yet, but plan to come back to it another time. I feel like Kingfisher's storys are always able to leave me equal parts scared and have just enough humour to balance it.

Whether the plot works for me or not, I always love the tone of T. Kingfisher novels. This one is no different. This was definitely one of the ones where the plot wasn't my favourite, but I absolutely loved the characters and the writing. Sam and Edie were fabulous, Phil was lovely, the vultures were great. I enjoyed the bits about Jack Parsons and his associates very much and there were some creepy images here, particularly towards the end. Overall, while this wasn't one of my favourite T. Kingfisher offerings, I had a really fun time with it and would definitely recommend it to those who like suburban, magical (and pretty cozy) horror.
I received a free copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for a fair and honest review.

As a fan of Kingfisher I really wanted to like this, but it just didn't work for me. The story and main character felt somewhat unimportant and I was unable to settle into the reading with the quick disjointed shift from humour into dark horror near the end. Having said that, as always there is never anything lacking when it comes to the vivid imagery and atmosphere created.

T. Kingfisher continues to write the creepiest books around. I grew up in an old house, though not a family one, and I thought I was OK with sinister noises and bumps in the night (my mum claims there was a presence when we moved in).
This was next level creeped out. Which is what I wanted, I think??

Kingfisher's writing is just not for me. I love the premise of so many of her books but they always seem to fall flat.

Sam is an archaeoentomologist, a scientist analysing the bugs found in archaelogical sites. When her next dig is surprisingly postponed, she decides to visit her mother Edith in North Carolina. When she arrives, she notices soon that something is odd: the house has been redecorated back to how it looked when Sam's grandmother was living there and her mother is behaving strangely. Is there truly something to be scared of or is her mother having dementia? When Sam goes digging for answers, she might not like what she finds.

So far, I had only read Kingfisher's fantasy stories like A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking and Nettle & Bone. So I was curious as to how her writing style and especially her humor would translate to a horror setting. I'm glad to say, it worked very well. The book was funny but not in a slapstick kind of way horror comedies sometimes get. Sam's dry narration and propensity to get herself into awkward situations had me laughing out loud multiple times.

The way Kingfisher pivoted between quirky, funny scenes and genuinely terrifying horror was masterfully done. In that aspect, I really liked how Kingfisher toyed with conventional horror tropes, like making the haunted house a cookie-cutter in a cul-de-sac as opposed to a Gothic mansion. Sam is our typical skeptic, sure that everything has a rational explanation, until the horrors get too apparent to ignore. I also really liked that the biggest creep factor in the book were Gran Mae's meticulously kept roses. As someone who lives in a rural area with lots of grannies with prized roses, this aspect was both hilarious and a different kind of terror.

Sam's character was the highlight of the book for me. Her sense of humor and her choice words about her abusive, racist grandmother were refreshing to read about. It was also nice to see a fat, older woman as the protagonist in a horror book and to see fatphobia challenged. The side characters of Sam's mom, Edith, her handyman, Phil, and the kooky neighbor Gail were also equally enjoyable.

While the Lovecraftian horror element wasn't as pronounced as I would have liked it to be, A House with Good Bones was still a fast, enjoyable horror read. I recommend it to fans of the Southern Gothic genre. 4/5 stars.

This is a perfectly written, slow, creeping horror story. It had me turning the pages, apprehensive about what was coming next.

Super logical Sam is faced with inexplicable situations when visiting her mum. Her mum is acting really weird and not at all her self, and Sam is running out of logical explanations.

There are bugs EVERYWHERE. Sam is a bug nerd, and I loved this aspect, but the bugs were a lot.

Also there are roses. Creepy, perfect roses which Sam's grandma kept and was obsessed with.

Read it, but not at night, unless you want creepy crawly nightmares.

Yet another fabulous T. Kingfisher book that I loved completely, the humour I love was was there , the horror , the perfect writing and Hermes Is just fantastic, you need to read to find out why

I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

I really, really enjoyed this.

When I was a child, we did the typical thing that girls do at sleepovers: Tell creepy stories. We were all obsessed with Twilight, because we were young and stupid, and at a vampire-themed birthday party/sleepover, my friend Christina started telling a story about black roses. Specificially, cursed black roses, that grew hands in the night and strangled bride after bride. Later that year, when my family went on vacation to the beach, an event happened that has been called "the Great Ladybug Plague".

This book brought all of that back.

I have avoided books by Kingfisher because I just knew that they would scratch a specific itch in my brain and I wanted to save them so that I could look forward to reading them. I finally took the plunge with this one, and I am so glad that I did. Her writing style is just perfect; I loved every single sentence so much. Our main character, Sam, and her internal voice felt like listening to a beloved friend infodumping on you, in the best way possible. I absolutely hate insects and am deadly afraid of them, but I just loved listening to Sam going in about different bugs. You could feel her passion through the pages, and it made her so alive and three-dimensional, which is a feat in such a short book. All of the characters felt real, like they jumped from real life into the pages of this book, and I greatly enjoyed all of them, especially Gail and her pet vulture, Hermes. I mean, she has a pet vulture (!), and yet she still felt like someone I could meet in my neighborhood.

The plot also kept me guessing, and I am glad to say that I could not predict a single twist that happened in this book, but that it all came together just beautifully. I think that on a re-read, I could probably see foreshadowing all over the place, because when things happened, they made SENSE. There was no twist for shock value, just beautifully set-up movements of story that all came together to make a concise, fascinating story that just made sense. I also applaud Kingfisher's talent at making a horror book still be funny. I truly believe she is a very special kind of writer, and I cannot wait to see what she comes up with next.

Horror with enough wit and comedy to not make it too horrific is a hard thing to accomplish but A House with Good Bones did just that, The horror and supernatural elements were really gripping and creepy but the characters felt real and Sam's disbelief at he house's haunting felt really natural. I read the entire book in one sitting and now want to read lots more from T.Kingfisher; any recommendations welcome :)

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for a copy of the novel in exchange for an honest review.

More T. Kingfisher! It has their trademark snark, as with last month’s read, but that commentary and wit worked much better for me in this setting. For once this was a creepy house while folks were still living there, and I could actually get along with the characters. There was a logical level of rationalization of said creepy stuff, before tumbling headlong into it. It was a fairly original cause, and it developed in a way I didn’t expect. I will be much more thankful of vultures going forward!

T. Kingfisher has quickly become one of my favourite writers over the last couple of years, her ability to turn ordinary, mundane settings into places filled with horror that gets under your skin has been superb; and I love that each of their horror stories has done something very different, and brought a new kind of horror to the table.

A House With Good Bones tells the story of Samantha 'Sam' Montgomery, a young archaeoentomologist who was ready to go and spend weeks on a new dig site identifying ancient insect specimens. However, when the dig is postponed Sam is left hundreds of miles from home, a home that she can't go back to thanks to having given up her lease for the dig. Faced with nowhere else to go, and wanting to spend some time with her mother after her brother giving her poor reports on her health, Sam heads to her childhood home in North Carolina.

A house that they inherited from Sam's grandmother, the house had been thoroughly claimed as their own over the years. The walls painted bright, cheerful colours, old photographs taken down in exchange for more enjoyable art, and a general happier atmosphere. But when Sam arrives her mother, Edith, has painted the house plain white, family pictures now hang on the wall, and her grandmother's pictures take centre place. As Sam observes her mother she sees other changes, Edith makes them pray before dinner, she tells Sam off for swearing, and she won't hear anything bad said about her deceased mother. Edith seems completely changed; not to mention the physical weight loss she seems to have gone through. Sam begins to worry.

But as she spends more time in the house she begins to think that something else might be wrong in her childhood home. Strange things start to happen. The garden is devoid of insects, but her room is swarmed by ladybugs in the middle of the night. Things seem to move and shift place on their own. And she begins to have strange dreams, vivid night terrors where a strange voice whispers in her ear, and something strokes her hair. Sam, ever the scientist, tries to find rational explanations for it all; but soon has to face the notion that perhaps her grandmother isn't really gone after all.

One of the best things about Kingfisher's work is that it takes time to build. You're allowed to spend some time getting to know the characters and the locations at first, seeing their ordinary lives and their mundane day to day activities, before the unusual begins to creep in. Small things start to happen that make you feel a little ill at ease, before she gives you a moment that absolutely makes your skin crawl and makes you say 'nope' over and over again. A House With Good Bones absolutely repeats this trick, as you spend a good portion of the book following Samantha, seeing her settle back into her childhood home, and watching her relationship with her mother.

We don't know this family, but through Sam it very quickly becomes clear that Edith isn't acting normally, and despite never having met the character before Sam's worry for her mother immediately sells to the reader how everything is off, how this isn't real. This undercurrent of things being wrong plays throughout the early parts of the book, so that even when we're spending time with Sam as she tries to do some of her work, or simply just watches TV and drinks wine it never quite feels normal. Then the really creepy shit starts and it makes your skin crawl all the more because this is a person that you've come to like, and because despite expecting something bad to happen you still aren't prepared for it.

This book definitely feels more in line with The Twisted Ones for me, as far as Kingfisher's other horror books go. It has that similar style where you're drawn into a fairly ordinary life, peppered with some unusual and interesting characters, and watch as your heroine tries to go about their life when these awful things start happening. That was the book that made me fall in love with this authors work, so revisiting that kind of feel, yet being absolutely its own thing, was wonderful.

The book also gives the reader a fat protagonist. So often you don't get that. There's a growing trend to have larger women take a leading role in books, though this often tends to be in romance novels from what I've seen. I'm not sure I've ever really seen a larger female protagonist in a horror book before; especially one who's smart, capable, and can kick arse when she needs to. And whilst there's no overt romance in the book, there's definitely every indication that she's won the handsome guy over and could have him if she wanted. She's smart, pretty, capable, fun, and fat; and that last one is something that we absolutely do not get enough of, and one that I love to see.

A House With Good Bones is an incredibly engaging and entertaining read. I quickly found myself sucked into the book, and kept reading because it was so hard to put down. And I know you should't judge books on appearance, but the hardback version of the book is a thing of beauty. The dust jacket has wonderful art on the cover, and the book beneath is a beautiful purple with a gold embossed cover. Even when you open it up you're treated to a gorgeous design on the inside covers. It's worth getting just for how pretty the book is; but, if you do crack it open and give it a read you're getting a phenomenal story too.

T. Kingfisher is one of my all-time favourite authors, however I've been avoiding her horror because I'm a bit of a wuss. I'm very glad I gave this book a chance because it has creepy, possibly magical roses, charming, possibly magical vultures, and a protagonist whose internal monologue was so convincing that I, also a biologist, had several laugh out loud moments at the relatability. It took me longer to finish than usual with her books, because I was only able to read it while the sun was shining – no staying up until past midnight to binge it. Again, I am a wuss, but I wouldn't have been able to sleep if I read it before bed, because the possibility of waking up to an insect swarm or “sleep paralysis” is not that unlikely where I live lol. Wonderfully creative and very enjoyable.

5 of 5 stars
https://lynns-books.com/2023/04/22/a-house-with-good-bones-by-t-kingfisher/
My Five Word TL: DR Review : I’m loving this author’s work

A House with Good Bones worked really well for me, it’s a Southern Gothic horror that manages to temper the creepy horror elements with a good dose of humour and brings us a wonderful central character who has a great outlook on life.

Sam is an archaeoentomologist – that’s a proper tongue twister that took me about 5 minutes to even spell correctly – the dig she is working on has been put on a temporary hold and following up on some concerns expressed by her brother about their mom’s slightly ‘off’ behaviour she decides now is as good a time as any to return to the family home and spend some quality time together. When Sam returns home though things are definitely off kilter. Her mum is behaving erratically and Sam worries about all sorts of scenarios, perhaps her mum is poorly or starting to experience dementia. What she doesn’t expect, with her straightforward, no nonsense, analytical brain, is a haunting.

There are so many unusual and quirky elements to this one and they all seemed to come together in a very pleasing way for me. The house and street where Sam’s mum lives is described with a certain charm. Her mum is a great character and the family dynamic between the two is refreshingly good. The tension is built up little by little and what starts out as slightly odd gradually becomes creepy before morphing into all out crazy.

Basically, as with many families, scratch the surface and uncover all sorts of skeletons. Sam’s gran was a strange woman, scary, intimidating, definitely not a soft and cuddly character. She made enemies out of most of her neighbours and ruled the roost with a firm hand. It seemed like Sam and her brother were only too keen to leave that particular nest that seemed to be lined with thorns rather than feathers. And, although Gran Mae has been dead for years it seems that she still has strong feelings on how things should be done.

To be honest Sam really won this particular show for me. She’s such a great character. Her determination to find reasonable explanations in the face of creepy situations, and not to resort to hysterics is such a winning element. On top of that she’s not the best at small talk or socialising and is constantly putting her foot in things which definitely made me smile more than once. She loves bugs and so isn’t freaked out by swarms of them simply handling things with calm resolve, she even takes the resident vulture population in her stride. And, she doesn’t want or need rescuing so, although there is a rather sweet friendship developing between her and the local handyman, she can stand on her own two feet thank you very much.

In terms of criticisms, I don’t really have anything, I did wonder at first why Sam’s mum didn’t try to talk to her earlier but to be honest – that conversation wouldn’t have gone well when I think about it.

Overall, I loved this in so many ways. Even the crazily twisted, over the top, nightmarish conclusion and I can’t wait to read more from this author.

I received a copy through Netgalley, courtesy of the author. For which my thanks. The above is my own conclusion.

As always, love the prose, love the characters, and adore adore the tone. I got a bit frustrated with the main character for a stretch in the middle when her scepticism just. Did. Not. Abade. In the face of undeniable evidence of something really weird going on.