Families are complicated, and our perceptions of our guardians shift over time, yet they’re still able to send us back in time and make us feel like children with one look – whether in a good or bad way depends on the family. Sam, an archaeoentomologist, returns home to her mother’s house – formerly her grandmother’s - when the dig she’s on is paused. It seems like the perfect time to check on her mother, who her brother is growing increasingly concerned about. Sam looks for a logical reason for her mother’s strange behaviour – her insistence on saying grace, her redecoration, returning the house more to how Sam remembers it when her grandmother was alive, devoid of the warmth she associates with her mother – and her inability to hear criticisms against Sam’s grandmother.

Of course, there’s something else going on, not just the vultures that watch the house. Sam has to reckon with the past, and her family history, to get to the bottom of it all.

I loved Sam. She was a great character, slightly sarcastic, with a fascinating job (despite the fact I hold no love for bugs, at all) which really added to the character. It makes it more intriguing when the first thing she notices in the garden is the lack of bugs. Her mother, too, is written really well, a woman who Sam remembers as being fiercely independent and progressive, reduced to someone who…isn’t. It’s a wonderful commentary on how our parents age, and the fears that come along with it, especially when they change before us – initially, Sam searches for a logical reason, but all are sad in their own ways.

Her grandmother hovers over all this, a presence even in death, a woman who was nasty, bitter, and slightly evil, but who – admittedly – still loved her child and grandchildren, who tried to protect them in her own way, and who messed up doing so.

The relationship dynamics are written really well, and there’s a strong undercurrent of creepiness to it, even when things aren’t actively happening. It’s one of those books where you end up focusing on every little detail, wondering how it’s all going to unfold, and end up feeling almost rewarded by the end.

It’s definitely a modern Southern Gothic, and a really interesting take on the haunted house. I enjoyed this, and will definitely seek out more works from the author.

This was a fun, fast-paced, competently constructed dark fantasy tale. I wouldn't say this was scary at all; in fact, I found it kind of cosy, but maybe that's because I read a lot of horror? Sam was a really likable and relatable protagonist, and I loved her voice. I enjoyed reading from the perspective of a woman in her thirties who has at least some (not all) of her shit together, and who faces the strange events happening around her with an aggressive sense of logic. The commentary on generational trauma and breaking the cycle added an emotional depth to the fantastical aspects. Highly recommend for an evening when you want to settle in with a good, solid story.

Thank you to the publisher for providing an ARC via Netgalley.

This was the perfect book to read whilst I was poorly earlier in the month. It was easy to follow, engaging, and had a great main protagonist. T. Kingfisher tends to add a little comedy to her darker books, which is always much appreciated. I just really struggle not to compare everything she writes to The Hollow Places, which was just the perfect book for me. I think, like with all 'Haunted House' novels, once I find out what is happening, I wish it was something else, or that it ended more vague. The ending was just a little bit crazy for me, saying that I would recommend it if you're looking for a spooky book that doesn't take itself too seriously. I think a lot of people are going to love this.

Thanks so much to Titan Books for the gifted copy 😊

A HOUSE WITH GOOD BONES by T. Kingfisher feels like a great book for readers who want to introduce themselves to horror. It's a slow-paced gothic horror-thriller with a wonderful main character and Kingfisher's signature wit throughout.⁠
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I love how Kingfisher gives her characters something quirky to lean into. In this novel the main character Sam is an archaeo-entomologist (aka bug archaeologist) and I loved how we got a number of insect facts thrown in throughout the story. Sam was also funny, goofy and relatable in a lot ways and made for a compelling character to follow.⁠
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There is a growing tension throughout the book but most of the horror really happens right at the end. The pacing at this point in the book felt a little full-on for me. I tend to think of modern gothic books as leaving the readers with an underlying dread, but this book wraps itself up pretty tidily by the end which isn't *my* favourite kind of ending, but I know works for a lot of readers.⁠
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Like I said, I think this would be a pretty good one for those who haven't read much, or any, horror before. Despite the discussion of some darker topics, it's overall quite cosy. I was personally hoping for something a bit more spooky and I didn't love the direction the story took in the end but I can see this being as well received as this authors previous books.⁠
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Thanks @titanbooks for the gifted copy

T. KIngfisher is a fairly new author to me still, and the horror genre isn't something I am greatly familiar with yet. That being said, I really enjoyed A House with Good Bones. T. Kingfishers writing was once again phenomenal, the story is the right amount of creepy and there's just enough funny moments to make it an enjoyable read as well.

Not my favourite T. Kingfisher by any means but I still enjoyed it. The usual sarcastic humour was there with a just teetering on cosmic horror that is their brand. I did however struggle to stay in the story but luckily it wasn't too long. More miss than hit and I hope readers aren't starting out with this offering.
However. We need to talk about Hermes! That vulture was just so damn cute

“The roses say to say your prayers”

When Sam returns to her childhood home in North Carolina, she’s ready to make her way through some boxed wine and English crime shows with her mother. She’s not expecting the changes her mother has made to their once colourful home.

The walls are now white and an icky racist painting that hasn’t seen the light of day since Gran Mae died eighteen years ago has returned to its previous place over the fireplace. It’s almost as if the house has gone back in time.

Sam is about to learn that your childhood home is not always a welcoming place for adult you. The past is there. And sometimes there are vultures!

“Vultures are extremely sensitive to the dead. Particularly when the dead are doing things they shouldn’t be.”

This was a quick read and I enjoyed trying to figure out what Sam’s mother was so afraid of. While the gist of what was going on seemed obvious fairly early on, Sam, with her scientific background, kept looking for logical explanations so it took her a while to catch up.

My most recent T. Kingfisher read prior to this one was Nettle & Bone, which I absolutely adored. I fell in love with Bonedog and he, if nothing else, gave me unrealistic expectations for this book. After all, Bonedog can’t show up in every T. Kingfisher book just because I miss him, can he? I must say that the vultures definitely gave Bonedog a run for his money, though.

If you enjoy books where returning to your childhood home comes with a tad more horror than you were hoping for, you may also enjoy Sarah Gailey’s Just Like Home.

Favourite no context quote: “I feel like crap and I seem to be wearing a ham.”

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Titan Books for the opportunity to read this book.

"I know a lot about plants, a couple of things about vultures, and a little bit about uncanny things. Everything I know is telling me that something very bad is going on at your mother’s house. That’s all.”

The tone is set for Samantha Montgomery's return to her childhood home when she pulls into the driveway and spies a massive black vulture perched on the mailbox and staring at the house. This presence can be explained but the hordes of insects that infiltrate the house and the return of those thought long dead cannot.

Whilst this premise was definitely an unsettling one and the book itself did feature some scenes that made my skin crawl, I also found it one devoid of tension. I didn't dislike it for that but it did emit a different vibe from many other horror books that I have read. I was more intrigued than distressed and eager to find answers to the many mysteries for how well they were penned than for how unsettling I found the reading experience. Make of that what you will.

T. Kingfisher does it again.

A massively satisfying book of hauntings both literal and emotional. There is something to be said of the mean words we heard as children and how they continue to haunt us throughout our years even if feigned indifference, even if actually believed we weren't affected, even if we knew the ludicrous grossness of well-meaning adults around us.

Equally creepy and sentimental,

Side Note: I listened to a podcast about Jack Parsons and now...this is the second book which has referenced him. Have I invited him into my life somehow? If so, Jack Parsons, I REBUKE thee.

Thank you to the publishers and Netgalley for the ARC. Thank you to T. Kingfisher for this fabulous fiction that hit all the right spots.

T.Kingfisher has been a firm favourite author of mine ever since I stumbled upon „The Hollow Places“ a couple of years ago.
As with the previous books I have read by her, I was not disappointed in the slightest. You can’t beat the way she builds up the tension and atmosphere in her stores, with drops of humour to lighten the mood when needed. In fact when the grub like body brushes against her, I shuddered myself! The characters are beautifully written and often having thoughts similar to how I imagine I would respond in these situations.
I imagine if Hermes could speak he would have been equally as sassy as Mousebones was in ‚The Raven and the Reindeer‘.

I loved A House With Good Bones. I’ve loved other books by the author and expected this to be good. I wasn’t disappointed. This is a horror but a bit different than my usual fare. By that I mean, the true horror moments don’t start until a few chapters before the end. Until this point there are hints and ideas that something is off but not exactly what so when the moment happens I was stunned. Until this moment Sam knows something is off with her mother and puts this down to grief. Boy is she is for a surprise. I loved Sam. The book is narrated by her, and I get a real sense of her humour and personality. I love how effortlessly dark the book gets. This is a corker.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and Titan Books for gifting me this ARC! This was one of my most anticipated horror releases of 2023 and it thoroughly surpassed my (already high) expectations!

This is a horror book following Samantha, an entomologist who is returning to her childhood home to stay with her mother after being furloughed (not pandemic related!). Upon arrival there is a giant black vulture perched on the mailbox and as if that isn’t strange enough her mother is suddenly adamant that they say grace and refuses to hear anything bad about Samantha’s Gran Mae despite having a fraught relationship with her before her death years ago.

This was WILD. Literally and figuratively. For me T. Kingfisher is the queen of fantastical and natural horror. I love how she weaves nature into her horror books and her characters always have really interesting jobs to do with nature. I personally love nature and although I’m a little squeamish about bugs I really enjoyed the bug facts throughout.

I felt that this book was a really fantastic exploration of inter generational trauma. That might not be what the author was going for but I certainly identified with that aspect. How trauma gets it’s roots in you and is so solidified it can then be passed down through the generations. I am an unfortunate product of inter generational trauma and I am trying my hardest to break the cycle.

Another thing T. Kingfisher does excellently is slow burn creep factor. What I mean by this is things start of small and then slowly become weirder and weirder, the atmosphere becoming more and more sinister. Some people might not like that we don’t get into the action right away but for me the build up of tension was essential to really set off the horror scenes in this.

I definitely recommend this if you’ve enjoyed her work before and if you enjoy slow burn fantastical horror deeply rooted in nature! This one is released on 28th March 2023 so be sure to look out for it!

I think this is book is a sort of love child of Tennessee Williams and classic horror tropes adding a good dose of contemporary horrors in the mix.
It starts as a sort of going-back-to-your-parent's-home and finding that something is different, your mother behaviour is not the usual one.
There's a sense of dread because some horrors are not paranormal but belongs to reality and as your mother gets old you can have to face a lot of fears.
There are memories, there's some weird moments and there's a sense of dread and subterranean fears in crescendo.
There's the family dynamics and they can be as horrific as any monster; they made me think of Tennessee Williams even if with different themes.
If you expect a slasher or a gory horror beware that you must wait. You will get a good dose of horror and it will keep you on the edge while you're felling your adrenaline spiking.
I had fun in reading this book, T. Kingfisher is an excellent storyteller and i liked Sam's voice as she's self-deprecating and brining a sense of dread at the same time.
Sam's well rounded and relatable character as her mother. My favourite was the grandmother, a sort of anti-hero and villain at the same time.
The vultures, the insects and the house are the non-human characters. There's also another one that I won't reveal as it would be a spoiler but was quite terrifying for a keen gardener like me.
A gripping, well plotted, entertaining, and truly terrifying at times.
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to Titan Books for this arc, all opinions are mine

So this is a short review btw!

I struggled to get into this book but once in it I really enjoyed it! However, I would say it’s less of a horror and more of a gothic mystery. I loved all the bug facts and the horrible dead grandmother. Would definitely recommend to people who enjoy gothic mysteries

{AD|GIFTED} I'm a new fan of T. Kingfisher after reading Nettle & Bone last year and falling in love with her writing style. A HOUSE WITH GOOD BONES is a Southern Gothic mystery set in suburban North Carolina and featuring a house that seems to be haunted by the presence of the main character's grandmother.

Sam was an engaging protagonist with a wry sense of humour that immediately appealed to me. She's an archaeo-entomologist and her fascination with insects pervades the book. This links nicely to the garden where numerous rose bushes flourish without any apparent assistance. A number of unexplained incidents weave together to evoke a sinister atmosphere but the true horror doesn't reveal itself until about three-quarters of the way through.

Toxic family relationships can be as twisted as these roses have become and the secrets buried in this family might just kill them all. Haunting, unique and unforgettable.

(Random aside - I am also now completely enamoured of vultures!).

Ever ponder why it’s the house that we call haunted and we don’t like to focus on the people that are haunting us? It is as if we want step away from trying to have any connection with the potential ghostsand say it is just the environment that is the problem. Homes are powerful. They are our place of safety from the outside world when we grew up; but they can be painful memories and where our futures got shaped. Many of us have easily disproved that you can actually go home again but metaphorically returning to where it all started we are never going to be the people we once were and who knows what awaits for us this time when we return. This is part of T Kingfisher’s delightfully creepy A House With Good Bones where a young woman finds her childhood home unsettling and her mother acting very strangely.

Samantha is a thirty-two-year-old archaeoentomologist (studies insects in ruins and please do not mention Jurassic Park) a dig has ended prematurely and due to unexpected developments her home is not available so she agrees to return back to North Carolina and stay with her mother for a few weeks. Samantha and her mother are great friends and the house is colourful, fun and yet upon her return it has a vulture on the fence; all trace of colour in the house has been painted over; the garden is in full bloom and yet pristine and its starting to look like the house Samantha and her mother stayed in when they had to stay with Gran Mae – a controlling, racist and slightly scary grandmother who constantly criticised her children and grandchildren. Samantha’s mother is withdrawn, losing weight, avoiding swearing and very not herself. Fearing her mother is not well Samantha starts to dig deeper into the situation but finds there are many family secrets buried deep in this house.

This tale is all about a steadily darkening atmosphere and yet stays on the milder side of horror being far more focused on the horror of family relationships and a very strange house than going for full throttle scares. Instead it’s an intriguing southern gothic mystery in a nice suburban street that you shouldn’t expect weird things to happen in. Samantha is a rationalist – they look at the facts and interpret them so they are fairly hard to unsettle and the tale she tells us refreshingly avoiding going over the top on jump scares and blood splatters (well ok there is a little blood now and then). Samantha is funny, intelligent observant and her voice is just a pleasure to read – you get a sense of who they are; her hopes and fears and very much root for them to sort things out. It also means when things do finally go outside of known reality when Samantha gets worried so do we.

The fascinating angle for me in this story is family relationships. How generations either get on or sometimes not. I really enjoyed that Samantha and her mother actually have a hugely positive relationship with laughs; honesty and obvious love for each other coming across. Firstly we don’t get enough of these types of relationships in fiction but also it makes us worry what has happened as she is clearly not the woman Samantha remembers and described to us. Kingfisher plays onto the fears we get when we notice our parents are now getting old, forgetful and seem now to need us to look after them. A very genuine fear many of us can relate to. Alongside this in exploring the more toxic relationship of Gran Mae we get a look at generational divides when you have relatives who bring their own upbringing and fears to us and expect us to accept and obey them. That special pressure that only families can have regards asking are you allowed to argue back to the people you’re supposed to love? The ability of the past to control the future generations is a hugely strong theme of the tale and one we all have to battle to move away from.

But of course this isn’t just a family drama. One of the group is dead for example and steadily we move from things simply that aren’t feeling right to something more supernatural. Kingfisher gently darkens the tale – mysterious bug appearances; hidden family secrets; possible scandals and slowly a growing fear that a few things in this house actively wish Samantha harm. As each day in the book passes things get more eerie until we finally find out what is going on. Then for good measure we go into even stranger territory for the tale’s much more supernatural-focused finale that neatly sows up many of the mysteries we have explored. I would never class this as full-on horror but it’s an eerie unsafe journey that awaits Samantha and her family and new friends.

This is a hugely enjoyable tale from a writer now well known for delivering strange stories, great characters and a fresh perspective on how to scare us but also make us laugh and think about life. Prepare for a trip down a more shadowy memory lane and also to have a lot of fun! Hugely recommended!

I'm a big fan of T Kingfisher novels, for now The Hollow Places still holds the top spot for me, however I did struggle to get into A House With Good Bones.

For a title about a house there is a lot, and I mean a lot, of talk about bugs and gardening- two things I really do not care for.
I imagine Kingfisher must have put a ton of research into this book given all the facts and scientific names of insect species along with paragraphs on different rose types to open each chapter.

The tension is built slowly around the strange behaviour of Sam's mother and unusual nature response at the house. Why does a vulture sit watch on the mailbox and why is there not a single insect to be found in a garden brimming with untended roses?
But for most of the story nothing much happens aside from a developing sense that something isn't right.

You've got to read 75% into the book to get a pretty basic answer to what's happening, and whilst we are treated to a few unsettling scenes- always at night when Sam is half awake and passing them off as nightmares- they don't amount to much.

A House With Good Bones is written from the perspective of Sam, at times I found her entertaining and her enthusiasm for bugs was endearing even whilst boring me to sleep.
I was glad that Kingfisher didn't shoehorn any unnecessary romance into the story and the characters were well defined.

The book is very well written and I enjoyed the squeamish moments but the topic choices just weren't for me.

I was given a copy to review via Netgalley and Titan Books. My reviews are always honest and all opinions are my own. #AHouseWithGoodBones #TKingfisher #TitanBooks #Netgalley #BookReview

T Kingfisher is easily becoming one of my favourite horror and fantasy writers. With their new A House with Good Bones we are introduced to the seemingly normal southern family by Samantha Montgomery returning to her family home. An established archaeologist who speicalises in bugs and incests she is surprised to see a black vulture perched on the mailbox and seemingly staring at the house.

If that was not weird enough everything inside has changed. Gone is the eclectic warmth Sam expects from her mother and the family home. Everything is seemingly sterile inside. Grace must be said before dinner and her mother will not hear one word uttered against Sam’s long-dead and little-missed grandmother, who was the first to put down roots in the small southern town. Things seem to become stranger the longer Sam stays and on top of this everyday more vultures circle overhead.

Honestly I was hoping I would enjoy this one but I wasn’t sure how much. It’s fantastic. The plot, the characters, the pacing, the horror all of it is perfect. Now I never spoil plots in my reviews but let me just say this one was brilliantly executed in terms of pace and setting. The horror elements were there but they were very much tension and slowly built up in intensity towards the end. The characters are brilliant. Sam is very much a relatable character and despite this being a horror book she does manage to lighten the mood sometimes which I adored.

At the heart of it the novel is very Southern Gothic. Focusing on the horror in the home or rather the changes in the surroundings Sam grew up in. The other characters all build up the novel as well, particularly Phil. The pace I would say aids to this setting with things slowly changing until we reach the climax and what a climax it was! The horror elements where some of my favourite nature and magic mixed together to create something both terrifying and also beautiful and Kingfisher’s descriptive ability meant that I was able to visualise everything clearly which was equally brilliant and terrifying.

This is definitely one I will reread over and over and one that I thoroughly enjoyed. If you love your horror with a sprinkling of nature this is the one for you.

A House with Good Bones by T Kingfisher is a short but perfectly formed horror read, engaging the reader from the very first page and keeping them hooked to the very end. I think much of this is due to the main character, Samantha, who really comes to life on the page , it is very easy to find yourself rooting for such a believable and often funny character. She has returned to her grandmother's house, where she spent a lot of her childhood under very strict rules , and where her mother now lives. The first sign that something might be wrong is the giant black vulture she finds perched on the mailbox, but once she goes inside the house and sees the changes her mother has made in decor, not to mention the changes in her mother's language and behaviour , Samantha is seriously worried. At first she fears that her mother may be in the early stages of dementia or some form of mental illness, but as she spends more time in the house and as more strange childhood memories start to come to the surface she begins to suspect that there may be a supernatural cause to all the strange experiences, something that she rails against as a scientist who relies on logic and knowledge . While this book explores some dark themes and has some genuinely creepy moments , my overall feeling while reading it was that I was having fun, I really enjoyed the writing and the characters , perhaps even more than I enjoyed the story with its Southern Gothic vibes.
I read and reviewed an ARC courtesy of NetGalley and the publisher, all opinions are my own.

If you read and enjoyed The Twisted Ones by T. Kingfisher, I found this to be very reminiscent of that. The two books have a lot of similarities:
* In both books, the protagonist returns to the house of a deceased grandmother.
* Said grandmother was not a nice person.
* Cell reception is bad, so they go to a coffee shop to contact family members. Both books have a goth barista as well.
* The protagonist is a middle-aged woman. During the course of the book, she realizes that something that she has said or done is insensitive and that she was being an asshole.

If I hadn't read The Twisted Ones two months before reading this book, I doubt I would've noticed most of these similarities, but it's one of those, once you see it you can't un-see it things.

Did reading this make me worried enough about crawlies in my bed that I did a couple of extensive searches? Definitely. But as far as horror goes, this is more creepy than outright scary. The protagonist has a sense of humor which added some lightness to the story, although I did find that the jokes were often recycled and became repetitive after a while. I liked the family dynamics with her mom. The pacing was very slow for the first half, but really picked up after that. It ended up being a wild ride, which I enjoyed.