This was Southern Gothic with an emphasis on straight-up comedy as well as dark comedy. The protagonist's role as a entomologist was well-developed and fit into the plot well. In all, super-fun and hilarious.


Review copy provided by publisher.

I LOVED THIS AUDIOBOOK!

Have you read & enjoyed a book by this author? If so, stop reading reviews & go get the book. It’s soo good!

Who is this T Kingfisher?! Wonderful writing, a fun story!

The characters were so real & well defined. The evil grandma, sweet mom, daughter the entomologist, Gail the witch, Phil the groundskeeper, cranky old man across the street and Hermes the pet vulture. Lots of bug talk.

Sweet, quirky, creepy, wicked as all get out.

I’ll never look at roses, lady bugs or teeth the same again.

Thank you NetGalley & Macmillan Audio, I loved the story & want the hardcover for my library now & will definitely reread it! :)

I love a good Southern Gothic novel and T. Kingfisher’s latest book does not disappoint. It is set in my home state of North Carolina and even has reference to NC based grocery store, Food Lion 🖤 In the book, Sam heads home to stay with her mom for a couple of months. When she arrives things are very different and strange in the house. Her mom’s personality is no longer reflected in the home decor, but has returned to the way the home was decorated when her Gran was alive. Also, vultures seem to be keeping a close eye on the house. It was a rollercoaster of creepy occurrences and the ending was shocking. The audiobook was well narrated and I highly recommend listening to this audiobook once it publishes.

Thank you @macmillan.audio @tornightfire and @netgalley for allowing me to listen to this audiobook ahead of publication in exchange for my honest review.

This book starts at a slow pace but it gradually picks up the pace. It’s a story about Sam and the strange things that happen at her Grans house. The book has a bit of a creepy gothic feel to it. I really enjoyed it.

Vultures, ghosts, a neighborhood witch, underground children, jars of teeth, and magic roses. What an interesting and captivating read!

Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for this advance copy!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.
This book was phenomenal. The author and narrator did a great job. I loved it. Perfect combo of creepy and bizarre with some funny lines thrown in.
Great audiobook!

Yes, yes, and yes!
Kingfisher has done it again. I will literally read anything Kingfisher writes.

In true T. King' fashion, this book was a unique horror story with the absolute best commentary/thoughts from the characters. I always find myself laughing and creeped out all at once while reading a T. King' book.

I love how there is always some kind of "creature/s" that is not what you expect. Always something that makes you think and appreciate the creativity that goes into the story. In this case, there were a few, but I wont spoil anything. I will say though, I loved the vultures! Again, such a unique aspect to add in.

Can't wait to see what comes next from this brilliant author. T. Kingfisher is in my top 3 authors of all time.

T. Kingfisher is a little hit and miss for me, but A House with Good Bones was definitely a hit! It's smart, Southern gothic horror about a house that seems to be haunted by the main characters racist, emotionally abusive grandmother. Sam is a scientist and a skeptic, but coming home to stay with her mom for awhile something seems....off. And things devolve from there.

While this has humor and light, quirky narration style, it also has scenes that are truly creepy and disturbing. But Sam is pretty unflappable for much of the book, always seeking a logical explanation and that balances things quite well. She's also a fat woman who is comfortable in her own skin and I LOVED how this tackled fatphobia in the medical industry among other things. I don't know that I've seen this kind of thing included in a book casually like that before and I was so impressed.

So yeah, definitely among my favorite things I've read from T. Kingfisher. I seem to do well with a lot of her horror and that's certainly what this is. With a side of family trauma! It's also worth noting that Sam's job is studying insects from archaeology sites, and there are a fair amount of insects in the book in both creepy and non-creepy ways. The audio narration is also excellent. I received an advance copy of the audiobook for review via Netgalley, all opinions are my own.

This book was super creepy but so much fun! I loved all of the characters and creepy elements. The narrator for the audiobook does an excellent job. Would definitely recommend.

4.5

T. Kingfisher writes across such a wide variety of genres and tones that her work has been very hit or miss for me but I was hoping because What Moves the Dead has been my favorite of hers so far that this would be another hit, and it absolutely was, though I can see why it wouldn’t work for everyone.

What I loved most of this was the voice of the protagonist. Sam is an archeoentomologist (she studies insects at archeological digs) and through a series of events ends up temporarily moving back home to rural North Carolina and when she gets there, her mom is acting weird. I loved her internal monologue about bugs, and her humor as things get progressively weirder had me laughing. I also loved that this plot seems to mirror the horror younger generations of white Americans have at watching their parents buy into alt right talking points.

I don’t think the ending was super satisfying. I appreciated the twist on Lovecraftian horror elements, but it felt too rushed and wrapped the plot up a little too neatly for my tastes. That being said, I had a great time with this and would highly recommend, especially if you’re a fan of a lighter toned more satirical horror. The audiobook is narrated by Mary Robinette Kowal, whose narration is quite good.

Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan audio for this ARC! This was my first read by T. Kingfisher but I wanted to read this book after finding out it was based in North Carolina. I loved the narrator for this story, their voice and accents added SO much to this story. A House With Good Bones was such a fast paced creepy book!

OKAY! This has to be one the best books that I've read this year and I have to tell you about it! First of all, I have to thank both T. Kingfisher and Tor Publishing for sending me an Advanced Reader Copy of A House with Good Bones prior to its publication date of March 28, 2023.

If you like horror with a southern gothic twist, then this is the book for you! When Samantha gets furloughed from her Archeoentomology dig, she heads home to North Carolina to bunk with her mom for the time being. Heading home presents some eerie signs of depreciation, that she was not prepared for, including a large, black vulture perched on the mailbox, leering up at the home... odd, right???

Sam's mom is even acting off-kilter as she has deserted her liberal mentality, and has adopted mannerisms that were more on brand with how their late grandmother and former owner of the home used to act, even though she has been gone for twenty years now. Gran Mae was racist, and uptight, and favored her precious rose garden over the relationships she harbored with both her daughter and grandchildren.

Soon, Sam begins to learn that there are more nefarious and supernatural presences at play here and it's only a matter of time until the eerie omens bring the dead back to life in the form of a not-so-expected dinner guest. I seriously can't wait for this one to hit shelves so I can recommend it to booksta-pals until the end of time.

In this unbelievably creepy, hair raising book, Sam is home to spend some time with her mother. She plans to just kick back and relax, but there’s something strange about her mother, and the house. Her mother is reclusive and prefers the dark to daylight and the house has a weird, clinical look. All her mother’s possessions are gone and everything is painted stark white. And what’s with the jar of teeth Sam finds? A macabre story with some black humor thrown in to lighten the tension

Paleo-entomologist Sam Montgomery returns to her grandmother’s (now her mother’s) home to stay for a while. Upon stepping in she realizes her brother’s words were correct, “Mom seems off.”

This book had me hooked from the second it began. A backyard full of roses but sans bugs, neighborhood vultures, and weird neighbors. The creepy foreshadowing had me making guesses left and right. I devoured this book and I think you will too. I loved the MC and her scientific way of thinking, her inner thoughts are so relatable.

Thank you to Tornightfire for providing me with this arc!