I liked this one! All around a solid read. I will definitely be recommending this one, and I'm excited for my library to get physical copies!

Creepy, unsettling, and quirky! T. Kingfisher is one of a kind and I'm always excited for the next release!

There is a cutesy vibe that makes this a little too “cozy” for my taste. Creepy cool scenario, though, and the ending is an original horrible saving grace.

As soon as the book started with Sam arriving at her mother's home and finding a Vulture perched atop her mailbox I was sucked in. I love how T. Kingfisher writes such realistic characters and is able to mix humor and macabre. She puts these weird things in the most mundane of places... Like how could a 30-year-old house in a suburban subdivision have anything like this happening? (it makes me feel like if I look out my window right now something weird could be happening just out of my line of vision.) There is a sort of building tension and feeling of dread as these at first small freaky things begin to happen to Sam and slowly get weirder and creepier. And for the most part, Sam is able to just brush it aside with an almost completely logical explanation and just keep going... At least until something appears... and there is no more brushing anything aside anymore.. and while that seems like one of the most horrible things that could happen it actually just the beginning.

T. Kingfisher writes the best books, and I can't wait to see what she comes out with next!! Thankfully I have some of her backlist books to read to tide me over until then...

A House With Good Bones was exactly the right kind of spooky that I was looking for. I wasn’t sure what to expect going into it, but I loved every word of it!

Youtube Short goes up March 7th
Blog goes up March 21st
Instagram post (double slide) goes up March 21st

I am the type of person that loves the gross and unusual - so when I saw the cover for A House with Good Bones I went ‘Oh no!’. Vultures are one of my favorite birds and they’re almost always associated with bad things. I should have known better. T. Kingfisher has done it again with this fantastic horror that looks at family, the burdens you inherit and how to facing those down.
Sam is returning the the home she lived in with her brother and mother and grandmother after being furloughed from her job as an entomologist at a dig site (Hello dream job? Is that you?). She’s incredibly logical so when strange things start to happen around her she brushes them away or stretches to find a rational explanation. Logic and reason start to fray however and eventually the past comes back to haunt her and her mother.
I’ll go ahead and say I think this book is a bit slower paced than some of T. Kingfisher’s other work so it might not be quite the hit for some readers. However, for me it read like a perfectly paced horror movie - and that was just what I wanted. The book is full of the interesting, and realistic side characters you’d expect from a Kingfisher novel. The book is as clever as Kingfisher’s always are and it says things that honestly resonated so deeply with me it hurt.
T. Kingfisher lives in an area somewhat local to my own so when she started to describe the ingrained white racism of Sam’s grandmother I went ‘My god, it’s like she knows my family.’ That casual Southern Racism and obsession with class and appearance. The hit that perfect mix that made me uncomfortable and frustrated and all the feelings with the main character. I really, really connected with that.
This was just another fantastic read from T. Kingfisher. I cannot wait for more, and I can’t wait to get the physical copy of this to reread it, let’s be honest.

5 beautiful Black Vultures out of 5

As usual, T Kingfisher delivers a story that grabbed me almost immediately and didn’t let go. Full of humor and delightful characters, I could hardly stand to put it down so I could sleep.

I loved this. A haunted house story done in a way I’ve never seen before!

Sam returns to her childhood home, where her mom is acting strangely and redecorating. Sounds innocent enough, but with Sam, we uncover what is happening.
Scary, funny, and with a fun narrative style that I really enjoyed. I’d recommend this highly!

“I got into archaeology because live people were too much trouble.”

T. Kingfisher has long been a buy-on-sight writer for me. Under that name she’s written mostly fantasy but in recent years she’s moved into horror and done her usual excellent job with it.

If there is a theme across all her work, it is “sensible, intelligent person ignores tropes and just gets on with things.” Sam is an archaeologist specializing in insects who’s on leave while her current job is on hiatus so she takes the opportunity to visit her mom, a fellow wild spirit living in Sam’s late grandmother’s house.

Only all the repainting and redecorating she’s done over the years are gone now, she’s lost weight and is acting anxious. Sam’s grandmother’s oppressive, abusive spirit seems to embody the building. And there’s vultures all around the house. And swarms of ladybugs. And creepy things happening while Sam is asleep…

I love Kingfisher’s delight in writing smart people. Sam is an archaeological entomologist and her interest in insects is fun, informative and comes in handy.

This is a lighter horror book than her last couple, closer to Kingfishers’s natural bent toward humor (which is perfectly fine with me). But there is still the creeping dread as things get worse and worse. A great, fun read.

Thanks to NETGALLEY for providing an advance copy for an honest review.

This is a little outside of what I usually like to read, but figured I'd give it a go anyway. I thought the author lost me completely at chapter twenty - I'm not good at suspending belief. But dammit if chapter twenty didn't tie everything together nicely. I loved everything about this book. The cover is eye-catching, the writing is great, the author's imagination is wonderful, even the vultures are endearing. And I have things in common with a main character - I'm fat and drive an aging Subaru. This is a book that I'm going to be thinking about for a while.

This was an amazing read! I absolutely loved the MC, her narration was hilarious. This book had me creeped out, but also laughing. It was such a unique gothic horror and I LOVED all the NC references (Cheerwine, Food Lion, Siler City, Raleigh, etc) NC REPRESENT! This is a must read. Releasing in March.

Fantastic and unsettling. Kingfisher provides another domestic horror novel where thongs are not what they seem. Will be recommending it a lot!

Overall, I enjoyed this. The characters felt authentic and unique. The main character Sam was smart (extra points for being a woman in STEM), relatable, and sarcastic. As a native North Carolinian, I loved Kingfisher's snarky and accurate observations on our state, and about Southern culture in general as told through Sam's narration. I appreciated the author's use of the Gothic to discuss family trauma and Southern racism. Tonally, the book is more horror-comedy than traditional Gothic horror (think <i> Jennifer's Body, </i> not <i> Shaun of the Dead) </i>.

<i> I received an arc from Netgalley. </i>

I’m not 100% sure how I feel about the book as a whole. I can’t tell if I should take the ending for face value or look into it for deeper meaning. I’m rounding up to 3.5 stars.

This was a really fun horror novel- which sounds like quite the juxtaposition, but it had a nice balance of funny lines and thrills.

The pacing at the beginning was a little slow, with the main character Sam's inner monologue feeling a bit repetitive, but it picked up at the very end. There was a familiarity to Sam's wit (hi, it's me!) and found myself actually laughing out loud at times throughout the book.

Also, as someone born and raised in the South, I found the theme of unresolved cultural issues to be both accurate and an interesting plot point.

Thank you to NetGalley, T. Kingfisher and Tornightfire for the ARC of the book!!

Thank you to TOR and Netgalley for this ARC!

I was really excited to check out T. Kingfisher's newest novel since her novella, <i>What Moves the Dead</i>. While this one didn't quite pull me in nor impress me the same way as the novella, I still found it a very satisfying and enjoyable read that I devoured extremely quickly.

This book utilizes some of my favorite horror elements/tropes, leaning into nature/the environment, as well as physical aspects and manifestations of horror. When I was reading and realized just how much these elements were going to be utilized, including with <spoiler>insects and birds</spoiler> I was so excited and was immediately drawn in!

I think where this novel fell a bit short for me is that it tries to juggle two reveals/'monsters' that, though they are connected, did not seem to work together for me. In particular, the first reveal, that of <spoiler>the grandmother briefly coming back to life as roses/branches/etc</spoiler> did not work for me. Although initially I found it intriguing, it devolved into something a bit too fantastical and hyperbolic/ridiculous for me to find creepy or unnerving in any way. I will say that I think the overall tone of this novel is lighter, and so I did not expect a super dark or dreary novel in general, but this part in particular still felt a bit off to me. However, the other reveal, that of <spoiler>the underground children, worked better for me, though I wish we would have focused on them for longer rather than having it be what felt like a last minute jump scare</spoiler>

I also think that with the attention to utilizing the environment and such representations in the book as elements of horror, I was surprised by the more fantastical moments, especially because this book is advertised as Southern Gothic, and it concluded in a way that felt like it had gotten far away from that genre. That being said, I really did enjoy this read, and T. Kingfisher does a great job of adding distinct details that force the reader to pause and reflect on before continuing. If you read this novel, and not think too hard about some of its details, I think it will be enjoyable for sure! It was just in that reflection and consideration of details after I finished, where parts began to unravel for me.

Sam, a science woman return home where she grew up to discover changes in the house and her mother. Strange things happen, but she believes everything has a rational explanation. Soon she will discover not everything can be solve by science. The book is a horror story, but it is also about family and generational gaps that affect all the members, the grandmother, the mother and Sam.

4 stars

T. Kingfisher is at it again with another creepy house and a whole bunch of understandably disturbed inhabitants!

Sam, the m.c., is back in the home she mostly grew up in to check in on her mom, whose recent behavior has her brother and her concerned. As soon as Sam gets to the house, though, she starts to notice some strange activity herself and wonder whether there are rational explanations or if something else is afoot. As a scientist and an academic, Sam really angles hard for the former, but, well, many signs point to the latter.

This author has such a knack for creating disturbing spaces, sensory experiences, and questions even within the minds of readers about what is real and not, and these characteristics all shine through in this latest effort. For me, there is a little bit of a slow burn happening. I would've enjoyed more action sooner, but the sinister build makes the journey enjoyable (in an obviously creepy way).

Fans of this author will not be disappointed with this one. I am endlessly excited to read what's next!

Sam is returning to her old childhood home, to stay a while with her mother. But the place she finds is unsettlingly unchanged since her -now deceased- Grandmother ran the kind of household that scarred two generations. Along with the fact that Sam's mother is behaving extremely oddly, she becomes determined to find a scientific explanation for what's happening.
This book is a very compelling and easy read, with a very likeable main character and a thrilling climax. I liked how the author explored the theme of family and generational trauma.

T. Kingfisher knows how to write creepy. A House With Good Bones is such a phenomenal exemplification of their very specific writing talents, and utilizes them incredibly well.

Thank you to Tor Nightfire and NetGalley for providing me with this ARC.
Actual rating: 3.5 stars

After reading What Moves the Dead, Nettle & Bone, and The Twisted Ones I’ve become something of a T. Kingfisher enthusiast, so I had to read her latest novella, A House with Good Bones. I love the author’s effortless writing style, which is somehow always a blend of conversational and fun, as well as eerie and suspenseful. A House with Good Bones is no exception to this rule, but this novella definitely leans more towards lighter, “fun” horror than outright scary.

“There was a vulture on the mailbox of my grandmother’s house. As omens go, it doesn’t get much more obvious than that.”

A House with Good Bones follows archaeological entomologist, Sam, as she goes back to her childhood home, originally belonging to her grandmother, to spend time with her ailing mother. As Sam spends more time in her mother’s home, it seems that there is more to her mother’s changed behavior than meets the eye. The longer Sam remains, the stranger things in the home become. This is the time when A House with Good Bones really excels, when it’s hinting at bigger, darker happenings. The suspense of what was behind Sam’s mother’s behavior and the odd happenings in the house, such as the house being watched by vultures, neighbors insinuating the house is haunted, and pictures falling off the walls and shattering, really had me dying to know what was truly going on.

I also really enjoyed A House with Good Bones’s look at family dynamics and how unhealthy relationships, as well as hauntings, can happen anywhere. One of the things I love about T. Kingfisher’s novels are that her characters are always anything but typical, they’re always quirky, original, and eccentric. I feel like in most horror books, readers automatically picture themselves in whatever horrific situation is unfolding and judge the characters’ poor decision making as unrealistic or just plain stupid. That is not the case with A House with Good Bones or The Twisted Ones, which both feature their offbeat protagonists acting in a very relatable manner—looking for rational reasons behind the ominous occurrences, realizing they can’t abandon their mother or dog, and so on and so forth. Both of these protagonists seek out help and accept it when it is offered too, none of this hiding deep, dark secrets and hoping everything will magically work out as things get progressively worse, which is something I really appreciate.

“It was just a little bit creepy. Which was ridiculous, of course. Creepy is for old Gothic mansions and run-down cabins out in the woods, not cookie-cutter houses in the middle of a subdivision.”

There is also a hint at a tiny bit of romance, or the very least, mutual attraction with a neighboring handyman, Phil, if readers squint. I found the exchanges between Sam and Phil pretty entertaining and even laughed out loud. Another neighbor lady, Gail, who has a pet vulture and a bit of a reputation, is also mysterious and interesting as well, even though she doesn’t have much page space. I always find it impressive how T. Kingfisher manages to flesh out her side characters in very little time at all.

Though the build up in A House with Good Bones was interesting and I had no real, solid guesses at what was truly going on in said house, I found that ultimately I preferred The Twisted Ones’s mystery and scarier tone. That novel actually had me outright scared, but A House with Good Bones never once frightened me, even in its spookiest moments. That being said, this novella still is a fun and quick read, with a different take on a lot of the supernatural and a female heroine who is smart and sympathizable. If you enjoy spooky tales that aren’t too scary or any of author T. Kingfisher’s other works, A House with Good Bones is an excellent and surefire addition to your to-be-read list.