The Twisted Ones tells the story of a woman sent to the backwoods of North Carolina to clean out her grandmother's house. Her grandmother was a mean snake of a woman and turns out, she became a bit of a hoarder by the end, so the house is a disaster. But Melissa, known as Mouse, doesn't have much else going on, having just broken off a relationship, so she is ready to tackle the job with her dog Bongo.

Then things start getting weird. Tapping at the windows, strange noises in the woods, and an unsettling discovery after following a path. She finds her step-grandfather's notebook and it does more to confuse matters than to explain. Finally, her and the hippy grandmother from across the road become determined to solve the mysteries.

This book certainly started off fantastically! I couldn't put it down. The combination of Mouse's humor, her adorable coonhound and the impending doom that pervades it all was irresistible. It took a bit of a lull when she uncovered the manuscript. For some reason, it was her step-granddad's recounting of another book that was lost, instead of either just his book or the other one. So I found this part kind of dragged.

And I found the final scenes, to be honest, a little hard to follow. Not sure I understood all the descriptions, including the most menacing "monster". And it seemed to go on for a bit too long, with a vaguely dissatisfying resolution after all that.

But the first half of the book was great and the humor and the dog kept even the dragging parts eminently readable. So I basically enjoyed this book and am looking forward to checking out some of her other books.