Ahhhhh my first T. Kingfisher book! I wasn't approved for the last one, so you can imagine my elation at this approval. I was 100% not disappointed at all and this lived up to the hype.

Our protagonist, Sam, returns back home after her dig gets cancelled (in short form, she's a bug archeologist). She quickly realizes that something is off and not quite right. Her mom is starting to act more like her deceased grandma and denying it. The neighbors rescued vultures start watching the house. Bugs start crawling swarming. I don't want to give too much away, but you'll feel a little squirmy after reading this.

I expected this book to be creepy, but I did not expect it to be funny too. I love the writing style, I loved the plot, and I loved the characters.

Seriously, this was such a fun read. I will recommend this book to everyone. I'm not sure I'll ever look at roses the same though.

Thank you NetGalley and Macmillan-Tor/Forge, Nightfire for the ARC!!!

Another win for T. Kingfisher! A spunky, relatable protagonist, a creeping evil, and a fresh look at the garden witch and unexpected horrors, this book was as horrifying as it was lovely. Full review to come on Rue Morgue.

T. Kingfisher has succeeded yet again in taking very specific fears of mine and turning them into reality. Horror insects AND horror vultures? Throw in a dash of good old-fashioned southern gothic terror mixed with the more contemporary but equally chilly suburban gothic and you've got a story to stoke the fires of fear in the strongest of hearts. As usual, Kingfisher does an incredible job of balancing humor and heart with the darker elements of folk horror. I was quick to add Sam to the ranks of my other beloved Kingfisher protagonists, and was impressed by the level of research that went into her entomologist background even as it made my skin crawl. Sam's relationship with her mother is strong and sweet and anchors the supernatural goings-on in real human issues, as the two of them struggle to escape the shadow of Sam's grandmother's abuse. Kingfisher is also a brilliant side-character creator: Gail, Phil, and even the curmudgeonly Mr. Pressely felt exactly as real as the hodge podge crew of southerners I used to people-watch at my Virginian family's barbecues.

I didn't find this as sleep-ruining as some of Kingfisher's other books (looking at you, Twisted Ones), but it will certainly give you the right kind of shivers just in time for Halloween.

Once again Kingfisher delivers a beautifully written novella. I found the atmosphere to be spooky and creepy which added to the story. It was plenty creepy as well. Characters are interesting and I particularly like the relationship between mother and daughter. I like the author's writing style and how well they describe creepy settings. Kingfisher is becoming a favorite horror author of mine. Her stories are sweet and spooky. Perfect for Halloween time or anytime.

Thank you, Macmillan-Tor/Forge, Tor Nightfire, for allowing me to read A House With Good Bones early!

There is a reason T. Kingfisher is an award-winning author. She is always hits it out of the park and A House With Good Bones is no exception.

The familiar setting of a relatively modern housing development takes a turn for the very, very weird just when you're starting to wonder where the horror is. Classic Kingfisher, if not quite as scary as The Hollow Places.

Thank you Net Galley for the free ARC. I love this author and this book did not disappoint. When her archaeological dig is put on hold, Sam visits her mother who lives in an old house that used to belong to her grandmother. Strange things start happening, like a vulture sitting on the mailbox and invasions of ladybugs in the bedroom. Sam's mom is acting weird, what is going on?

I just started reading T Kingfisher this year and I think I’ve found a new favourite! She takes seemingly innocuous things and turns them into horrific stories. I love the nature motifs she uses and this follows in the footsteps of What Moves the Dead and The Hollow Places.

This story follows Sam Montgomery who is an archaeoentomologist. Basically this means, she is a bug archaeologist and is an expert on all things creepy crawly. When a dig is postponed, she goes to stay with her mother in the interim.

The house her mother lives in carries a lot of conflicting and upsetting childhood memories concerning her long deceased Gran Mae. Somehow Sam’s mother is still feeling the influence of Gran Mae and Sam has to get to the bottom of what’s really going on.

A quick and atmospheric read, A House With Good Bones is a perfectly spooky read and I kind of want a pet vulture now?

"We stopped checking for monsters under our bed when we realized they were inside us." (Charles Darwin)

Samantha "Sam" Montgomery knows creepy and crawly up close and personal. She's an archaeoentomologist currently living in Tucson, Arizona. Bugs are her thing. Sam is the expert when it comes to identifying insects that burrowed their way into ancient civilizations and cultures. Even things with hard shells that scurry along the floorboards nowadays get her attention.

But she's currently on hiatus from her recent dig. A perfect time to visit her mother, Edith, in North Carolina. After a long, long drive from Arizona, Sam crashes out at her mother's house. Sam notices that there's a noticeable change in her mother. Edith was always a carefree soul. Now she is overly nervous and cautious about everything. And everything within the house seems to have reverted back to when Gran Mae lived there over twenty years ago. Could Edith still be mourning her mother after all this time? Or is Edith showing signs of dementia?

That's when Sam goes up into the attic looking for a replacement for the eerie painting that now hangs over the fireplace. And things eventually will go bump in the night. Strange things. Very strange things. Will Sam get to the root of it all or will the root eventually get to her?

T. Kingfisher has a way with words. A House With Good Bones will have those teeny, tiny hairs on your neck standing in high alert. And at the same time, Kingfisher adds outrageously crazy humor to the dialogue and to the situations. I mean laugh out loud moments with Sam's quirky demeanor. So be prepared for chills and thrills here as only T. Kingfisher can deliver.

I received a copy of this book through NetGalley for an honest review. My thanks to Tor/Forge Books and to the talented T. Kingfisher for the opportunity.

While this was not my favorite T. Kingfisher book I still enjoyed it. I think it felt a little rushed which may be why I didn’t love it as much. I liked the characters and of course loved the author’s trademark humor. It was a quick ready but a good one!

This is it. T. Kingfisher is an auto buy author for me. I was sold on What Moves The Dead and I haven't been able to stop talking about it with everyone I know. But that book had a very specific sort of audience. An audience who is already familiar or comfortable with horror and EAP and general eerie mishaps. THIS book, is a horror book for everyone. Really. It's true. This is the horror book for people who don't really believe in ghost stories, and aren't entirely sure how they feel about wizards, or monsters, and are maybe a little more comfortable during the daylight in small towns where people are more concerned with being normal than having ghosts or wizards or monsters in their home. And THIS book is about one of those people, who doesn't believe in all of this nonsense and spends a very long time looking for scientific explanations meanwhile I had heart palpitations every time something chaotic and insane happened. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and highly recommend it to anyone wanting to dip their toes in horror, or who has a fondness for haunted houses, vultures, ladybugs, or roses.

An absolute must read for all horror fans!

I really enjoy T Kingfisher's writing and how completely bizarre yet utterly realistic their books feel. But I don't think that A House With Good Bones is one of my favorite books they've written. The setting is definitely Southern Gothic and I won't deny the atmosphere is delightfully creepy, but I wasn't too attached to any of the characters. I also found myself trying to figure out the logic behind certain things instead of just enjoying the books. AHWGB certainly isn't bad, T.Kingfisher knows horror and does it well, but it isn't a book I'd reach for again, at least not in a while.

Sam is visiting her mother in her childhood house while being furloughed from an academic gig and comes to discover that not all is right at home. It starts with the little things: everything is ecru now, there's a Confederate wedding painting on the wall, and Mom seems really into saying grace and speaking kindly of Sam's terrible, dead grandmother. The roses outside are devoid of insect life save for ladybugs and, being an insect person, Sam is bewildered by this. She's also worried about her mom. Maybe it's dementia? Maybe she's losing her mind?

Little things start to happen that are easy to write off at first. A swarm of ladybugs, for instance. Some sleep paralysis. Nothing to freak out about. But then Sam starts asking questions, looking into her terrible grandmother's family tree, and finds a great grandfather who was friendly with Aleister Crowley. Things spiral from there.

I really loved this book--from the slow spiraling of the mystery surrounding the house to the breaking open of Sam's family secrets. Not only is Sam an excellently drawn character, but the setting is also perfectly pieced together. You can just see the newish subdivision shoved into rural Southern fields and trailers where it doesn't belong. The way the horror story really suddenly blooms is also perfect. Loved everything about this weird little story.

I read A House with Good Bones in one sitting, fueled by a feral delight in the creepy, unsettling narrative that T Kingfisher has crafted. This is jumping to the top of my hand sell list the moment that it comes out, and I can't wait to start recommending it.
The story follows Sam, a sharply witty but unintentionally blunt woman on furlough from her academic job, and Sam's mother Edie, a nurturing soul with a rebellious spirit who has lately begun to withdraw and shrink in a way that is concerning her children. When Sam comes to stay in the small southern suburban home that her grandmother passed down, she becomes concerned about changes in her mother and in their home. Dark omens build up around them, and darker family secrets slowly start to unravel around them.
Kingfisher has a gift for characters, creating an enthralling dynamic between the different generations of the family. Each of the women are strong in their own way, protecting their families in their own way. The revelations throughout the plot serve to increase the depth of these characters, intensifying the strangeness of the dynamic.
The plot is wonderfully weird, with unexpected turns. Instead of relying on jump scares and surprise twists, the story unfolds like a horrific dreamscape. It makes good on every promised crumb of foreshadowing, including the title, until you see it unfurled in its grotesque entirety. The surreal, sharp-witted tone reads throughout, turning the story into a wild ride.
Kingfisher is excellent at writing stories that engulf you without overstaying their welcome, and this is another excellent addition to their bibliography.

Bizarre, creative, incredibly well-written, and everything else I've come to expect from a T. Kingfisher book.

Back home due to a delayed work project, Sam Montgomery can't help but notice how strange her mother is acting. Once colourful and fun, the family home has been reverted back to Sam's late (and abusive) grandmother's plain style. Even the hated Confederate wedding portrait is back. Could it be dementia? Delayed grief? Sam is determined to get to the bottom of her mom's odd behaviour, but the truth is unimaginable, entangled in all the dark family secrets hidden in Gran Mae's picture-perfect rosebushes.

As with other Kingfisher protagonists, Sam was an excellent, well-developed character. Relatable and funny, with a very interesting passion for archaeoentomology that felt real. The side characters were good too, offering quite a bit to the story. (My favourite would be the quirky neighbour who rescues wildlife and has a little one-winged vulture friend named Hermes!)

A House With Good Bones has great writing, a quick pace, and monsters so creepy and surreal that I don't know how they landed in the author's imagination. I was definitely afraid to fall asleep for a while after reading this, and I'll be looking at rosebushes differently from now on.

I can't praise A House With Good Bones enough. If you like weird and creepy, I'm sure you'll love this as much as I did. Get your hands on a copy when it's published March 28, 2023!

I loved this beyond belief and, by the way, I now want a vulture.

If you do not want a vulture after reading this book, you are probably a horrible human who needs to be devoured by the hungry white things that lurk beneath.

This book is wonderfully witchy. I loved all our characters (even one who was wrong and creepy). The book manages to be mystical and funny, yet also grim and scary in all the right ways.

I tore through this one with pleasure and just wanted more when it was all over.

Oh, and a vulture. I wanted a vulture.

• ARC via Publisher

3.5/5

After being furloughed from her job as an archaeoentomologist, Sam revisits her childhood home on Lammergeier Lane, North Carolina. There she stays with her mother, Edith, although she’s much changed from when she last saw her – well known for her liberal beliefs, colourful personality, and allied with Sam against Edith’s own mother, a stanch believer in normalcy and the nuclear family, Sam is alarmed to find her mom reserved, God-fearing, and resistant to hear a bad word against Sam’s grandmother. Sam can sense something’s wrong. She doesn’t only feel it, she knows it, particularly when strange things start happening, whether it’s insects swarming or objects moving that neither her nor her mother can account for. And then there’s the vultures, perched outside and staring intently at Edith’s house. Whatever’s going on is getting worse, quickly, and with her mom – and her neighbours – being less than forthright, Sam feels she has no choice but to get to the bottom of things before it’s too late.

A House With Good Bones puts forward some of my favourite things about a Kingfisher novel, particularly seen in instances of chilling horror broken up by unexpected humor and the unique plot supported by inventively grotesque monsters. I loved the way the author sets up moments that make the hair on your forearms stand up (Sam’s nighttime visitors, finding That Thing underneath the roses in her graduation photo) while building a strong foundation of suspense and foreboding that propels you forward. I also enjoyed the way the novel delved into Sam’s lineage back to her great-grandfather and the intersections with Aleister Crowley and Jack Parsons (reminiscent, for me, of the journals Mouse finds in The Twisted Ones) which did a great job of adding a backbone to the narrative.

At the same time, and for some reasons I can’t grasp at, this wasn’t my favourite novel from the author. I felt at times that Sam’s character could be a bit disagreeable (although this was possibly made up for, and then some, with Gail’s more observant, productive, and altogether more badass personality). The novel also didn’t provoke the heebie-geebies in me as deeply as some of her other works. Nevertheless, for the tone, originality, and tension, A House with Good Bones is well worth the read and induction into the canon of Kingfisher horror.

Thanks to NetGalley, Tor Nightfire, and the author for this unsettling read!

T. Kingfisher is one of my favorite authors. (The only one whose books I will autobuy.) This title is no different. Absolutely loved the story and the atmosphere. Honestly, I dont know what else to say. Every book I've read by this author has been a 5 star read for me.

Yet another creepy and atmospheric read from T. Kingfisher! She is quickly becoming an autobuy author for me and I can't wait to see what she comes up with next!

Sent home early from an archeological dig, Samantha Montgomery finds her mother changed in some upsetting ways. Disturbingly thin, nervous and acting as though she wants to appease her own mother, who has long passed, Samantha is concerned that mom may be suffering a nervous breakdown or even early onset dementia.
The truth turns out to be so much stranger.
Kingfisher writes a wonderful tale of gothic horror set in a modern subdivision. Despite being strained, Samantha and her mother's relationship was wonderful, The side characters, neighbors Gail and busybody Mr. Pressley and his grandson, the good looking handyman, were all a well written delight. Though I find myself with a soft spot for Mr. Pressley- just because it wasn't the government he should have been watching out for doesn't mean he was wrong to be watching out...
Kingfishger is quickly becoming one of my must read authors!

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with an eArc in exchange for an honest review.