A House with Good Bones

Hardcover

English language

Published July 12, 2023 by Titan Books Limited.

ISBN:
978-1-80336-433-9
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4 stars (18 reviews)

A contemporary Southern Gothic from award-winning master of modern horror T. Kingfisher, A House With Good Bones explores the deep, dark roots of family.

Sam Montgomery is worried about her mother. She seems anxious, jumpy, and she’s begun making mystifying changes to the family home on Lammergeier Lane. Sam figures it has something to do with her mother’s relationship to Sam’s late, unlamented grandmother.

She’s not wrong.

As vultures gather around the house and frightful family secrets are unearthed under the rosebushes, Sam struggles to unravel the truth about the house on Lammergeier Lane before it consumes her and everyone else who stands in its way.

4 editions

Gran plans

4 stars

Sam, a thirty-something entomologist, temporarily moves back to the family home to cover a housing gap. The house, where her mother now lives, was originally the home of her now-deceased grandmother, the cruel and overbearing Gran Mae. Sam notices some jarring differences in both her mum and the house, and the story unravels from there.

This book was the perfect easy and entertaining read to end and begin the year with. I enjoyed it and finished it very quickly. I could have done with more tension and a bit more length once the horror really kicked off. Also more insects! Still, T. Kingfisher remains one of my favourite recently-discovered authors and I will read every horror book she puts out.

A House With Good Bones

4 stars

Horror is not usually my genre, but I like T Kingfisher. This is a really good examination of just how weird "southern" culture can be.

Very small suggestion of romance. Which mostly felt out of place because the way the narrator voiced the man was... not how I usually hear romantic interests voiced. (his voice annoyed me)

Overall, very good, despite it not being my usual fare.

A House with Good Bones, by T. Kingfisher

5 stars

Going back to one’s childhood home after years away can be a strange experience. It’s not home anymore but you can still remember where everything goes, how long to stand scrunched up against the wall of the shower while the water gets hot, and which threadbare oven mitt to avoid when helping in the kitchen. But when Sam temporarily moves home in T. Kingfisher’s astoundingly good novel, A House with Good Bones, she finds a childhood house transformed. That’s when Kingfisher starts peeling away the onion layers of Sam’s family. Sam is baffled, then unsettled, then horrified—taking us with her into a disturbing family mystery...

Read the rest of my review at A Bookish Type. I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley, for review consideration.

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Subjects

  • American literature