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I have another fantastic Kingfisher novel to share with you today.
Several of you have enjoyed and recommended this book to me for a while and I can see why, thank you for the encouragement.

Sadly, this one was a little slower and a tad bit less exciting to me than the others I’ve read but it still had my curiosity piqued throughout, led by a whole host of hilarious and hair-raising happenings.

If you’re looking for a quick, one-of-a-kind story to get lost in, this is one to check out.

Enjoy!

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A House With Good Bones by T. Kingfisher

Four Stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐

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After a concerned call from her brother, Sam, an archaeoentomologist on leave from work (and with nowhere else to go,) returns home to check on their mother.

Living in the house inherited from Sam’s grandmother, a strict woman with a sharp tongue and cold demeanor, she finds her usually upbeat mother anxious and jumpy.

Something is definitely going on.

The house looks as it did when her grandmother was alive.
Ladybugs flood Sam’s room at night, when all other bugs seem to have vanished.
And a horror she refuses to acknowledge visits her while she sleeps, combing its monstrous fingers through her hair.

The longer Sam sticks around, the more she learns of her family’s dark past.. a past that refuses to stay buried.

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My Review:

Right away we step into T. Kingfisher’s signature writing style: dark, filled with humor, and completely quotable.
The strange, unsettling atmosphere and believably amusing characters make her books a thrilling ride you won’t want to put down.

“The dead have to keep their feet on their floor. Let the living put their feet on the table if they feel like it.“

Now, this book wasn’t my favorite of hers. The beginning is repetitive and chock full of seemingly unnecessary details that I’m not sure ever led to anything. Although, I do have to hand it to her, she has this unique way of making “nothing” feel remarkably insidious..

“I wanted this, very much, to not be happening.
But that’s life for you. Hate it, complain about it, it’s still happening.”

Unfortunately, it wasn’t until about the halfway point that things got creepy in the best kind of way. The pace picks up. The story becomes this twisted, living thing you’re locked into, determined to know just WTH is going on—Just what is with her mother’s suffocating anxiety and the recent changes she’s made to the house? Then there’s the thing that visits her while she sleeps, combing her hair with skeletal fingers. The vultures. And a child’s small, pale hand reaching from beneath the roses in her high school graduation photo. It’s so eerie.

“All I knew was that I could not move. If I moved, if I acknowledged it in any way, then it could get me.”

While I did enjoy this read, with all its Kingfisher strangeness, it wasn’t until the very end of the book that it became the kind of horrifying that I love—a nightmare of the very best kind.

“It’s like the dark has weight here, I thought, then wished I hadn’t.”

Hopefully this will be the beginning of a trilogy or series and some of the ten billion questions I’m left with will get answered. (Can we get a prequel here?) But even if it doesn’t, this is still a book I would recommend to those who enjoy laughing in the dark.. You may want to check those Trigger Warnings first though.

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And that’s that, my friends.
Thank you for stopping by and checking out my review, I hope it was.. entertaining? informative? not mind-numbing?
Stay safe, keep warm out there, and always—Happy Reading.

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