An excellent haunted house horror, though I’d say more like a haunted garden. A loving daughter comes home to stay with her mother and discovers some strange happenings in the house. With the help of the local herb witch, cutie pie handyman and some lurking vultures, she sets out to discover the secrets behind the occurrences.
This book was a first for me. I haven’t yet read another that focuses as heavily on entomology and botany. It was quite unique and a joy to read.

I’ve read a lot of T. Kingfisher’s work, and sadly I think this is my least favorite. However, it was still an enthralling read and I would recommend without hesitation

T. Kingfisher does it again! A House with Good Bones is a haunting, character-driven horror story with Southern gothic elements. Highly recommended for library collections looking to add creepy, whimsical horror to their shelves.

***4 Stars***

THE 411....

╰☆☆ “𝐓𝐡𝐞𝐲 𝐬𝐚𝐲 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐜𝐚𝐧’𝐭 𝐠𝐨 𝐡𝐨𝐦𝐞 𝐚𝐠𝐚𝐢𝐧, 𝐛𝐮𝐭 𝐨𝐟 𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐬𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐜𝐚𝐧. 𝐈𝐭’𝐬 𝐣𝐮𝐬𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐰𝐡𝐞𝐧 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐠𝐞𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞, 𝐬𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐛𝐨𝐝𝐲 𝐦𝐚𝐲 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐫𝐞𝐩𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐟𝐢𝐱𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞𝐬 𝐚𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐝.” ☆☆╮

This is now my second T.Kingfisher (the first was Nettle & Bone) and I’m quickly surmising that this author can’t be boxed into just one genre. Genre blending authors have all my respect (think Silvia Moreno-Garcia), if done well you just know you’re in for a wild ride. This southern Gothic Paranormal story is centered around a house that seems to be haunted by our MC’s racist grandmother. Sam Montgomery is an entomologist returning home to visit her mom in North Carolina, her brother has given her the heads up that their mom is acting a little funny. When she arrives, she isn’t met by the warm wallpaper and cozy vibes her mother is known for. Instead, she sees plain white walls and finds a jittery version of her mom who startles easily and can’t stop looking over her shoulder. One thing hasn’t changed, her grandmothers prize-winning rose bushes. However, Sam’s whole life is the study of insects and what she doesn’t see in her mother’s garden is a single bug in site. With enough red flags to get her going, Sam begins digging for answers all the while noticing the crows circling the house at all hours of the day.

WRITING & FINAL THOUGHTS...

This one is a bit slow paced up until the 60% mark at which point you realize that it’s intentional. I don’t think I would’ve been as genuinely creeped out for Sam and her mother if it weren’t for how Kingfisher slowly makes the haunting seem real. I actually stopped my read overall since it was the book I chose to take with me to the mountains and I kid you not, I did not sleep well that night startling at every single creak of the wood floors. The ambiance in the book is perfection and our MC is comes across as relatable, easily someone you’d know in real life. She’s witty, funny and has a pretty cool relationship with her mom. All Sam wanted to do was come home with a box of wine and spend time with her mom on the couch solving murder mysteries on tv. What she gets instead is a haunted house and a slew of paranormal encounters thanks to the racist grandmother who has a tight grip on the house and her mom. The last 40% of the book revs up the paranormal aspects and the revelations will make your skin crawl. I honestly feel this is one author that has written books for every reader, I’m enjoying making my way through their backlist. A dedicated post ranking my favorites is definitely in the future.

This was one of my most anticipated releases of the year and it did not disappoint. I suspect T. Kingfisher is going to become an all-time favorite author of mine, and while I haven’t gotten a chance to read her longer form fiction yet, I will be proven correct if it’s anything even remotely as good as this.

If Kingfisher's humor was a nice added touch in "What Moves the Dead," here it is very much the centerpiece. A House with Good Bones takes that satirical voice and uses it to tremendous effect. It shouldn’t make sense for humor and horror to go together in any kind of overt way, but some how Kingfisher is able to use that satirical element without losing the tension or the ominous foreboding that this kind of story needs.

I think some people might consider comedy to be something that would undermine the fear that often defines these kinds of haunted house stories, but I actually found it to be quite a welcome change of pace, because what’s happening *is* so subtly terrifying and unsettling that we need someone with Sam’s levity to counterbalance and make it easier to approach

Plus, when you think about it, it actually makes a lot of sense. Because most of us, if we were dropped into this kind of a situation, would use humor as a way to deflect what’s really happening, as a defense mechanism, as a way to reassure ourselves that what’s happening can’t be real because it’s just "too ridiculous."

One of the defining features of Gothic literature is the present being haunted or eclipsed by the past. That’s a theme we see in a lot of haunted house stories, and this one is no exception. But it explores that idea of a place being haunted in new and interesting ways.

In some ways, I think the haunting in this story is very subtle and indirect, but it doesn’t lose that intensity. For instance, there’s no ghosts or possession involved in the story, but Sam’s dead grandmother is still very much at the forefront. And I think part of what makes this story so intriguing is that, on some level, strange and inexplicable things are happening, but a bigger part of that underlying fear stems from how many of these strange occurrences are things that Sam's mom is willingly doing to herself or putting herself through. Granted, not by choice, but still.

What makes this story stand out in a sea of haunted house stories is that this repatriation of the house, so to speak, is about confronting the ways generational racism and generational sins cycle around and always find a way to surface. That’s not to say that Sam’s mother or Sam herself are racist. In fact, they’re very liberal minded people. But it’s about the tension between generations.
It’s about not wanting to have those difficult conversations with older folks who are quote-unquote “set in their ways” *because* they are old and considered to be “harmless.” But the long-standing legacies of those ideologies they uphold are anything *but* harmless and can actually outlast our lifetimes and have horrific consequences we could never anticipate.

I think that’s why the generational divides being showcased in this story make it that much more fascinating, because the dynamic is different from one generation to the next. We see with Sam’s mom how she tries to appease her dead mother’s spirit and wishes, because she thinks it’s easier to take the path of least resistance. And then we see how Sam is dealing with consequences of that choice—how pretending that something isn’t real or isn’t important doesn’t actually make it go away.

So I appreciate Sam being the hero of this multi-generational story, seeing how she’s trying to forcefully reclaim agency over this family’s narrative and legacy by actively challenging the past. She's not merely trying to destroy it, but more importantly actually confronting it and bringing it out into the open for once.

There’s a lot of great things happening in this book. It’s funny, it’s strangely charming and delightful for a haunted house story, it has great underlying themes, and it’s also just surprising and innovative in the way these aspects of the past are trying to make themselves known. T. Kingfisher has a great knack for taking images and objects that are not inherently sinister and gradually making them feel more and more unsafe, which I think really adds to the atmosphere of the story and also that thematic interrogation of how things that we collectively deem to be “innocuous” can in fact actually be dangerous.

I’m sure you can tell, but I very much enjoyed this. Reading it made me even more excited for both the upcoming "Thornhedge" and also Kingfisher’s back list as well. At the end of the day, this was an easy five stars for me.

I love a good Southern Gothic novel! This was the perfect amount of creepy to keep me turning pages. The protagonist was fun and relatable. The "monster" built well throughout the novel and the end revile and climactic action felt very satisfying.

I recommend this book both to fans of horror/fantasy novels and to those who are sceptics, like the protagonist, and want a logical reason for the things that go bump in the night (or the swarm of ladybugs that appear in the guest bedroom) that has nothing to do with sorcerers and magic.

The more serious horror elements of A House with Good Bones kick in toward the final fifth of the novel, a dark tonal shift that can seem fairly jarring when contrasted with the rest of the book’s more lighthearted, humorous tone. It’s also pretty easy to spot the story’s main plot twist from fairly early on in the novel, which may leave readers feeling frustrated with Sam—who is after all a Ph.D.!—and her continued inability to put the most obvious pieces of her family history together. (That said, if I were suddenly concerned that my grandmother’s rosebushes were possibly eating people, I might attempt to avoid thinking about that too closely, as well.)

The final segment, in which the formerly domestic tale becomes something much more overtly supernatural is impressive both in its discomfort and its utter refusal to really explain how what you’re seeing unfold is possible. (Sam’s family history, which is fascinating is…well, a lot.) And although you may find that the ending of A House with Good Bones ties things up a little too neatly, Kingfisher’s startlingly well-written prose is always worth the price of admission, and the deft mix of whimsical elements alongside shocking violence and disturbing supernatural imagery helps this tale stand out from the pack.

A House with Good Bones had great build up into Kingfisher's usual fantastical twist and Sam's perspective was filled with great humor. The foreshadowing of family medical history transcends into strange family magical history for wild ending. This book took me a while to get into, but I'm glad that I finished it.

If you're looking for another Nettle & Bone, skip this, but if you love a solid mother-daughter relationship with a crazed grandmother turned haunter and more, this book is for you.

First book by T Kingfisher but certainly won't be my last. I loved the modern gothic feel. The main character was one of my favorite strong female leads I've read recently.

Another excellent ~spook~ from T. Kingfisher. Atmospheric, grounded, entertaining, and creepy.

And, as with anything Kingfisher writes regardless of genre or vibe, will at times make you laugh out loud.

Do you have a bug phobia? This book may not be for you. Otherwise, absolutely recommend.

Thank you to Tor and NetGalley for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!

I really like what T. Kingfisher does with horror and with houses and setting. I think this was good but maybe a little much -- evil grandmother corpse flower person who is actually a witch and also maybe romance on the side but horrible things happening between mother and daughter was a lot. I think that it could have been tidied up a little bit, maybe!

3 stars.

I listened to the audiobook from my library after the release date. A House with Good Bones was exactly what I wanted it to be. It was weird and creepy. All my predictions were right, but not really. I recommend this one for sure.

This may be an unpopular opinion, but I didn’t love this one. I’m not even sure I liked it. The premise was enticing, the characters were well drawn and Kingfisher’s inimitable sarcastic humor was on full display, so what happened? Nothing. Nothing happened for the first two thirds of the book. Yes, there was a ladybug infestation and a vulture on the mailbox but that is all and even those things lacked any real sense of drama. By the time I got to the meat of the story and what is going on in the house, I just didn’t care. Was I scared? No, I mostly just wanted it to be over so I could move on to something else. The lack of propulsion caused this book to stagnate and so did my enjoyment of it unfortunately. Thank you to @netgalley and @tornightfire for an e-arc of this book.

A House with Good Bones by T. Kingfisher is a haunting horror novel about Sam Montgomery and what happens when she returns home to visit her mom. Her brother has warned her that her mom is acting strangely, but when Sam comes back home, she realizes that there is something very strange going on in her childhood home. As she searches for the truth, she finds out that her home has a very dark and disturbing history. I enjoyed this story and found it to be very unique. Thanks to NetGalley for the free digital review copy. All opinions are my own.

T Kingfisher is an instant must read at this point. This book is a perfect combo of humor and creepy, where the humor manages to escalate the main character's sanity in a weird situation. Upon returning home for a bit, she discovers her mother's outgoing, decorative nature has back pedaled to the way her dead grandmother preferred the house, and her mother's nervous edge has her wondering what caused it. Absolutely marvelous.

T. Kingfisher has become one of my all time favourite horror writers and she only has 4 out at the moment!
I have hand sold the twisted ones with anyone who is looking for horror or hands me a horror book at the till! And her past books have always been on my bookseller pile of the year.
I'm happy to say this one is no different even this early in in the year.
I loved this haunted gothic tale set in Texas, the creepy atmosphere and the Ghost itself the themes and humour its my favourite read of the year so far!

A House with Good Bones is about an entomologist named Sam who goes back to her childhood home to visit her mother. She immediately notices her mom is thinner, anxious and acting strange. Is her mom slowly losing her mind or is there something more sinister at work here?

Straight out of the gate, this book nailed two things I love - it was hilarious (without being too in your face) and it was incredibly unsettling, building right from the start. I was hooked from the very beginning and then things took a turn at 80%. And then you realize this turn was actually just a curve and the book then takes a complete 180 😂 It was brilliantly executed, making you think you know exactly where things are going and then they take you somewhere completely different.

I'd recommend this to all my horror and mystery loving friends, it really had a bit of something for everyone! ❤️ Thank you NetGalley and T Kingfisher for gifting me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!

T. Kingfisher never disappoints. A House with Good Bones is a taut, eerie story, rich as good soil. Sharp, funny, and highly compelling, the descent from the practical, down-to-earth, "there must be a scientific explanation for this" into the surreality of a nightmare is gorgeously constructed. Highly recommend for fans of Just Like Home and southern gothic tales.

Thank you to Tor Nightfire for the advance review copy!

A House with Good Bones is a southern gothic with a modern and humorous twist. The story follows Sam as she moves back in with her mother in her late grandmother's house. Soon after she notices small changes with her mother and soon all hell breaks loose. The story unravels at a fantastic and unpredictable pace and you truly grow to appreciate the characters and their individual contributions to the story. I specifically found Sam to be a fantastic lead and repeatedly laughed at her thoughts and actions. While I enjoyed the entire book, I did feel as though the first 2/3s were somewhat devoid of tension or development and the final few chapters almost felt like they were overstuffed with action and progress. Overall, I found A House with Good Bones to be a fantastic and thoroughly gripping novel

T. Kingfisher's A House With Good Bones was a lot of fun to read. This book combines humor and suspense in a perfect blend that zips along.
I am beginning to think the author has developed her own genre which is a perfect blend of humor/horror/suspense/social commentary. This book seemed a little closer to some of the authors previous works, in particular the Hollow Places, but I enjoyed this one a little more.
The description, "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." I would also add that the highly relatable protagonist and the self-deprecating humor and wry insights into modern culture also play just as big a part in the narrative.
Thank you to #NetGalley, #TorNightfire, and T. Kingfisher for the ARC of #AHouseWithGoodBones.