I just love T. Kingfisher, I really do.

There is something very special about T. Kingfisher's brand of horror, and A House With Good Bones captures that quality extremely well. A House With Good Bones contains fairly ordinary people in ordinary settings where nothing exceptionally outlandish happens–at first–and a slow creep of dread slowly settles in, but you are almost always caught off guard by it because of how well the story is able to incorporate humor and endearing characters that make it impossible to put the book down.

This is very classic T. Kingfisher horror and so for me that means it's brilliant and I love it. If you have read and enjoyed any of T. Kingfisher's other horror books (or even non-horror ones), then you will definitely want to check this one out as well because it is very much written in the same style and with all the trademark humor, creepiness, and intelligence as her previous books.

In A House With Good Bones, we follow Sam Montgomery as she makes her way back home during some time off from work to check in on her mom after her brothers calls and tells her that their mom seems to be... a little "off." Sam arrives home in North Carolina and soon realizes that things with her mom are, indeed, a bit odd. Things in the house also seem to be just a little bit odd, and Sam can't figure out why her mom seems to be acting a lot like her Gran Mae used to act–especially since neither her mother nor Sam herself particularly liked Gran Mae.

T. Kingfisher is an absolute master at creating the most creeping, slow burn horror. I remember when I first read The Hollow Places by Kingfisher, the first book of hers that I read, and I was so immersed and blown away by how unbelievably unnerving and creepy the story was and how her writing was able to make me feel so incredibly uneasy, and that is the case in A House With Good Bones as well. There's not all that much in the way of action in the first portion of the book, but there is still so much that happens with regard to the weirdness of Sam's mother's actions and the house itself. Not to mention the fact that there is a weird amount of wild vultures in the neighborhood that seem particularly interested in Gran Mae's house, which also lays out a perfect atmosphere for this eerie story.

Sam is an incredible protagonist, and her humor and deadpan narrative delivery remind me a lot of the protagonists in The Hollow Places and The Twisted Ones. She is an entomologist living in Arizona, but often travels for various archaeological digs, and her entomologist expertise definitely comes in handy in this book in some very surprising ways, but also in ways that I found very interesting. I love when characters are specific experts in a topic and I get to learn a little bit secondhand from their narrative, which happens quite a bit here–but I promise it's all interesting and not at all dry. Sam is the perfect horror companion because she's very rational and always looking for a reasonable explanation for things, especially since she is scientifically-minded, as well as because of her ability to have a very dry-witted remark for just about everything. I laughed as much as I felt creeped out in this book, and that is my favorite type of story because I love humor and being entertained, but I also love getting creeped out by things. I felt like I was friends with Sam in this book, and that made for an even more enjoyable experience.

I can't tell you anything that happens because it absolutely needs to be a surprise, so just know that as you form theories and opinions about what's happening, you are probably somewhat on the right track... but also a little wrong and there will be big surprises to keep things interesting. I genuinely could not put this book down. In a time when I've been struggling to get through a single book in any short amount of time, I read this book so quickly and so easily that it helped remind me why I love reading so much. Although there is a lot more I could potentially say about this book, I'm going to stop here and keep things relatively brief because I'm not sure what else I could say that wouldn't just be outright overenthusiastic gushing about it, and at this point I think my point has been made.

Overall, it's another five stars from me for A House With Good Bones. This was brilliant, entertaining, timely, and has so much to love about it. I cannot recommend A House with Good Bones (or any T. Kingfisher book, really) enough.

Ah! I always find myself feeling strangely refreshed after reading a Kingfisher horror novel. They’re witty and humorous in the kind of way that goes “it’s either crack a joke right now or scream bloody murder and screaming feels extra counter-productive” (which, let’s be honest, is exactly how I would address a terrifying situation). The protagonists are smart and a little weird and usually hard-done-by in a way that makes them both resilient and relatable. We get little passing “racism is bad” quips that fit the vibe of “I grew up white in the south and I still got out as soon as I could” - as in we don’t ignore the racist systems or histories and the white characters are embarrassed and horrified by the casual racism perpetuated by their older relatives.

Things got extra weird when the switch flipped from “vaguely unsettling” Southern Gothic to “absolute bonkers” horror (but that’s just the nature of the genre and Kingfisher still handles that better than most), but it maintains the elements of horror with a bit of that token ridiculousness. Because no one wants to be reunited with their dead racist, abusive, gaslighting grandmother.

Roses Watered With Blood

Writing under the pen name of T Kingfisher, Ursula Vernon is an accomplished story-crafter with a long list of award-winning works for young people as well as many titles of adult horror and fantasy. After reading her last book, What Moves the Dead, I expected a creepy, disturbing, pulse-throbbing ride from her latest book. I was not disappointed!

The concern that brings Sam to check in with her mother during a break from field work is, sadly, not unusual. My siblings and I went through a 'something's not right with mom' crisis, so I identified with Sam's dilemma right away. The development of brain disorders in an aging loved one can be fraught and tragic, but it is a normal problem. The changed condition Sam finds her mother in isn't as simple as a slide into dementia, however. The way her mom tiptoes around in the house, once her Grandmother's, seems much more sinister.

Sam is immediately creeped out, but she settles in, determined to find out what's making her mom act so strangely. She's practical and she really loves her job, so at first, as she and Mom settle into a routine, she tries to keep up with insect identification tasks she's been assigned while waiting for the dig site to open up. I respect those qualities in her, though I wouldn't have stayed in that house after the first incident with the ladybugs. I admire her interest in insects, extinct or otherwise, but I much prefer them extinct.

By a certain point, I wanted to shake her and warn her that anyone alive in that house should get out while they still can, so she needs to grab her mother and drag her away, whether she wants to go or not. But, of course, it doesn't work that way in books. I had to suffer along with her instead, because I had to know what was going to happen in this suspenseful thriller.

The characters were all well fleshed-out and colorful, amusing and worth rooting for, even the neighbor witch-lady and her foster-vulture. It was a fun read, and the humor was well-balanced with the frightening elements. Kingfisher is a wonderful writer with a perfect knack for giving her readers hours of immersive and entertaining terror.

Thank you to the author and to NetGalley for the opportunity to read a free advance reader's copy of A House With Good Bones. Their gift has no obligations attached and this is my honest review: it's a scary read!

A House With Good Bones by T. Kingfisher is a fast paced gothic horror. If it's blood, guts, and gore you are looking for then this is not the book for you. It is very atmospheric and creepy and many of the bug descriptions will have your skin crawling.

This is my first T. Kingfisher novel and I will definitely be picking up more of her work in the future. I loved the comedic charm that the female main character possessed. At times I would get so enraptured in the witty thoughts of said character I would forget I was reading a horror novel until it quickly transitioned into the creepy crawlies! I would highly recommend this book to someone who might be new to the horror genre.

T. Kingfisher does it again! I loved this funny creepy ghost story so much. Sam has to live at home with her mother again due to her archeological dig being postponed. Upon arriving she immediately notices that things in her childhood home are very different than they used to be. This includes how her mother is acting which has her researching dementia. The truth is so much more sinister. I loved the blending of sarcasm, wit, creepy bug references (you will want to have Google close by because looking up the different species is so much fun!), and horror. I read this in two sittings only because I started so late the first night. I didn't want to put it down. This book feels like a mash up of her book What Moves the Dead with a dash of Grady Hendrix humor and a sprinkle of creepiness like We Spread by Iain Reid.

“A haunting Southern Gothic from an award-winning master of suspense, A House With Good Bones explores the dark, twisted roots lurking just beneath the veneer of a perfect home and family.“

Gah. This book came at the perfect time.

I needed something twisty and turn-y and wonderfully creepy.

This book was all these things AND a WHOLE BAG OF ALL DRESSED CHIPS.

First off, the cover is fantastic. I love the tiny skulls hidden in the wallpaper, and the shadow.

The main character has my undying devotion. I love that she’s got a weird job she loves. I love that she communicates with people around her (no Misunderstanding Tropes here). I love her skepticism, and her hilarious inner dialogue.

I loved the setting. Normally, you get a good, old, gothic house for a good, old gothic tale. Nope. It’s cookie-cutter housing in the ‘burbs for this tale.

I loved the quirky neighbours. I loved the galloping vultures. I loved the post-it notes. I even loved the mewling fetuses.

I might have liked a final showdown with Gran Mae, but other than that, sign me up for this author’s entire back catalogue.

I’m here for it.

9/10

Thanks to NetGalley, Tor Publishing Group, and Macmillan Audio for this ARC.

A great premise but unfortunately not such a great book. The storyline started out with a bang but ended in a whimper.

I love gothic horror. I’m not a huge blood and guts fan, but I love the uncomfortable uneasiness that comes with gothic horror. There’s also the element of suspense that usually comes into play that also keeps me engaged.

As Sam steps through the doors of her mother’s home, she keeps hearing her brothers words “mom seems off” in her mind. Nonetheless Sam is excited for her extended visit. She can’t wait to enjoy some boxed wine while watching murder mysteries. But the moment she steps through the door, things just feel off. Her mom is jumpy and seems to think something is watching her. One day, Sam ventures to the backyard and finds a jar of teeth beneath her deceased grandmothers prized rose bushes Sam starts to wonder what is going on. As Sam keeps digging, will she realize that some secrets are better off left buried?

I love a good gothic horror and this one delivered! I have read one other T. Kingfisher book (What Moves the Dead) and have loved them both! They are exactly what I look for in a horror book, lots of suspense and lots of dark, twisty details. This book was so fun! I absolutely loved the ending of this one – just wow! This book kept me engaged throughout and I was rewarded with the delightful ending. I loved all the characters and I really enjoyed the blurbs before the chapters – it was fun to see how they played into the upcoming chapters. I can’t say enough good things about this one. If you love gothic horror, then you will love this one.

T. Kingfisher is now an auto-buy author for me. Check out this book March 28th!

Tons of thanks to the publisher, Tor Publishing, Tor Night Fire, @tornightfire, and Netgalley, @Netgalley for this e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

Unfortunately this book didn't work for me. I read a lot of great reviews about Kingfisher's books and this one sounded right up my alley. I'm a huge fan of the Haunted House horror trope. But the book didn't deliver on its premise. The characters are shallow and even boring, there's no tension building and the ending was quite predictable. I generally appreciate when humor is introduced in a horror book but in this case It felt like being in an English class with a bunch of teenagers trying to impress the classmates with hilarious puns. Sometimes (always?) less is more. I still want to try another of her books because I know she's a great genre writer.

Sam Montgomery travels to see her mother expecting a certain kind of visit. One that involves some quality time between the two of them in her mother's cozy and cluttered home. From the moment Sam enters the house things seem off. Her mother's house is oddly clean, organized, sterile, and her mother is acting skittish, strange. As Sam notices more and more of her mother's stance behavior, she experiences unexplainable things, making her wonder if this change in her mother has something more to do with something paranormal in the house.

I am a sucker for haunted house stories. I love a good gothic tale. T. Kingfisher does a nice job of including chilling moments with a good dose of humor. It's a nice bit of tension and then release. Sam is a great narrator. Her voice is clear and unique. Her wit is exactly what this story needed.

The only reason I'm giving this story a 4 and not a five is because of the pacing. It took me a while to get into this story, but once I did, it was a solid creepy tale.

I received a copy of this book through NetGalley for an honest review.

Overall I was disappointed by this novel. I can’t say much without spoilers, but I thought the message was problematic. This novel follows Sam who’s an archeologist and her apartment is under repair, so she goes back to her mother’s house in the south. Except Sam’s mother has changed. She’s lost a bunch a weight, says grace before eating, dislikes cussing, and hangs up photos of confederate soldiers in her home. Her mother was a liberal southerner and Sam’s Grand Mae is an abusive bigot. Along we this, when Sam’s dad died her mom and brother were forced to go back to their Grand Mae’s house. This is where Sam experiences fatphobia and her brother experiences abuse (both are, but there’s not much on the brother). Anyway, in the present day the house is doing weird stuff and Sam is becoming more concerned with her mother.

My opinions:
The bigotry in this is challenged, but not well because of the ending. The ending implies that Grand Mae is abusive and a bigot because she experienced abuse in the past. I think that is a shallow take on why people are fatphobic and racist. I may write a spoilery review after this comes, but overall I didn’t like the book. I may read Kingfisher’s over novel What Moves The Dead, but only because I bought it before I read this arc.

The pacing of this story was just enough to keep me reading instead of doing everything else. There's a good dose of humor with a little family drama thrown in for good measure. I really enjoyed the descriptions of the creepy little underground children.

This was a slow start for me, but once the unsettling moments started happening it pulled me in a lot more.

Sam is an archeoentymologist who is staying with her Mom for a few weeks. Her brother tells her something is up and that's very clear from her arrival. Edie has repainted the once fun brought colors back to drab boring ecru and put back up a bunch of her mother's old and somewhat racist decor. When Sam asks questions as to why her Mom plays dumb.

As we get more into the story with a mystery unraveling as well we get hot with the paranormal aspects of this book and they amped up my enjoyment factor.

The last 75% of the story was a rollercoaster and the guest just chilling in the kitchen was amazing. Solid read again from T. Kingfisher!

I loved the creepy atmosphere that this had! I did think the pacing was a little off for how short this book was. The first half was a little slow, but the second half was really interesting although I do wish there had been a bit more time spent on the climax of the story. As with most of T Kingfisher's books, I loved her writing and sense of humor that she adds into the story. As far as horror goes, this one is pretty light on the horror aspects, although some of the descriptions did give me the creeps! I do wish there was a little more fleshing out of certain ideas, like Sam's ancestry and some of the details surrounding the underground children, but overall, I really enjoyed this and I think it could be great for people who like horror that isn't too scary!

A House With Good Bones is a gothic horror that takes place in a new-ish neighborhood house (no old creepy mansion in sight!). Our main character Sam is a recently furloughed entomologist/archaeologist who decides to live with her mom for a few months to check in on her after Sam’s brother tells her something’s going on with their mom. When she arrives, she realizes the house she’s in isn’t the house she last saw- more so looking like how the house looked when it was her grandma’s. Her mom has also changed a lot- she took down all her artwork, painted the house, and won’t cuss.

This book is my first T. Kingfisher book I’ve read and I will definitely be reading her backlist after this! It gave me the creepy crawlies with the way Kingfisher wrote about bugs and wrote some sleep paralysis scenes.

Sam is a great protagonist and I loved her inner monologue! She’s really funny and nerdy and a little self-deprecating- all of my favorite things in a main character! The cast of side characters were also well written and I wish we could’ve gotten a little bit more back story from them, especially Gail.

The ending was a tiny bit rushed for me but that could be because I rushed through reading it to find out what was going to happen.

Thank you to NetGalley and TOR Nightfire for an e-arc of this book!

T. Kingfisher's latest is a tight, fast-paced horror dealing with intergenerational trauma in the American middle-class Southern experience. Our main character Sam is incredibly likeable, with enough of a life sketched into the margins of the central plot to feel actualized on the pages. I enjoyed the way Kingfisher described characters as acting 'off', and while I didn't *think* this was check-over-your-shoulder creepy, I did get up one night somewhere around the halfway mark and close my blinds on rather a sudden impulse.

This horror skims the waters of inherited trauma but doesn't make more than a shallow pass at the idea. I would have enjoyed a more realized connection and think it could have tied in nicely with Sam's role in the climax. For a short book, however, I think it did enough!

Bug girl rep! North Carolina rep!

A HOUSE WITH GOOD BONES – REVIEW

A House With Good Bones is a contemporary southern gothic tale from bestselling suspense author T. Kingfisher (Ursula Vernon).

Sam Montgomery is an archeologist who is assigned to a dig sight near her childhood home, but whenever her dig is put on hold, she moves back in with her mother for a few months. Upon arrival, Sam realizes something isn’t quite right with her mother. The house, which had once been warm and has been returned to the drab state it had been in whenever her mean and racist grandmother was alive.

That isn’t all, Sam realizes her mother is terrified in her own home, which causes Sam to begin digging for the truth, which makes her come face to face with her family's past.

While the publisher classifies A House with Good Bones in the genres of Gothic, Haunted House, and Horror, the book has a fair amount of comedy and is very light in the horror. The writer employs suspense extremely well, but If you come to this book looking for a ton of scares, you are going to be disappointed.

That being said, I thought T. Kingfisher’s prose and voice as Sam were so great. I thoroughly enjoyed the main character and felt for the situation she found herself in. I think the author did such a wonderful job of depicting what it’s like to have to deal with your family members and your family’s less-than-desirable past and a troubled legacy in a believable way that did not feel heavy-handed.

This may sound weird, but this book left me with 1998’s Practical Magic–yes, the witchcraft movie that stars Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman–vibes. It may just be me, but for whatever reason, as I read this, it kept conjuring up that movie in my mind.
This was a 4.5-star read for me. I read it in almost one sitting and could not put it down. I highly recommend, if you go in understanding you are in for a light/fun gothic horror read.

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for providing an advanced copy for an unbiased review.

Quite often when reviewing something, I use the term BONKERS, which refers to a complete inability to properly chart the vein of the narrative. This does not mean that a story is either well written or not - it just does not fit or compare to anything that I have consumed in the past.

In A House With Good Bones is bonkers, but I wish it was a better read.

Sam Montgomery is an archaeo-entemologist who is making a last minute stay with her mother after an unexpected pause in her worklife. Her mother, a semi-retired widow, has redone the place, almost in an eerily exact tribute to how her Grand-Mere had kept the house. It is a human truth that we all tend to revert to old dynamics and routines when we visit family and our childhood home - but this is even more creepy!

This first twist of this title is something that any seasoned lover of recent horror will see coming from the very first chapters. The second twist is when it feels like everything gets derailed and we ender Bonkers-ville.

BONES gives the reader enough breathing space to take in setting and family history; I wish the 2nd phase took the same time in its conclusion

Comparables: Hereditary; When Darkness Loves Us

Sam goes to visit her mother after some remains are found on her dog and her brother states their mother has been acting strangely - and she definitely is. It almost seems as if she’s reverting back to how she used to live when her own mother (Sams Grandmother) was alive.
If cozy horror were a thing, I feel like this would be it. It was fun and interesting and weird. I feel for Kingfisher’s writing and genuinely want to read more from them. It got a bit goofy, which took me out of the story a bit, but there were some genuinely creepy moments.

This was my second encounter with T. Kingfisher, and it certainly won’t be my last! She’s managed to thoroughly creep me out, and I loved every minute of it!

In A House With Good Bones we follow Sam, a 32 year old entomologist who’s decided to move back home with her mother while waiting for her stalled archeological dig to reconvene. But once Sam arrives back to her rural North Carolina town and her childhood house, she notices that her mother, and the house itself, are wildly different. The house has been stripped of all the color and kitsch her mother once loved, and so has her mother. What has been left behind is a shell, a shell that seems eerily related to her late overbearing grandmother. In a Southern Gothic tale full of ladybugs, roses, and teeth, Kingfisher tackles themes of generational trauma, racism, and power seized by the powerless. This book was truly creepy, and I’m glad I did not experience it on audiobook because there are some sounds I just don’t want to hear! When you get to the last 10% of the book you’ll know exactly what I mean!

All in all, I really enjoyed this and I can’t wait to dive into Kingfisher’s backlist!