A House With Good Bones

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Thank you to Netgalley and Tor Nightfire for providing an ARC copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

Woof. I wasn't sure what to expect with a full-length horror novel by one of my favorite authors. I knew firsthand how good Kingfisher is at making you scared, and I was more than a little terrified to see what she did inside A House With Good Bones. Like, I'm a wuss, and I don't handle being scared very well, but honestly? This book was awesome. Kingfisher is a master at work here, guys. She knows exactly how to make you wish the protagonist was somewhere else entirely, but also how to make you wonder what exactly is going on. Allllll while laughing a little bit. Yeah, she's a favorite author for a reason.

I will never get over how relatable Kingfisher's main characters are. They're almost always out of their twenties, and almost always sarcastic and wildly intelligent. Sam fits every one of those bullet points to a T, and and she's fat. Excellent representation here — Sam doesn't care about her appearance very much in the book — she's much more interested in figuring out what the hell is going on at her mom's house. Her need to figure out what is going on with her Mom was just...really nice. Sam tried just about everything she could to help her mom.

I loved how much I wanted to know what was going on, but also dreaded reading the next word on the page. There was exactly one point in the book where I set it down for a few minutes because I had to nope out for a minute. (Teeth!?!?) I took a breather, ate a piece of chocolate, and hopped right back in. The mystery at hand was way, way too interesting for me to give up the book. NOT that there was ever a danger of that happening. I trust Kingfisher too much to step away from one of her books. Though I may have nightmares about our backyard now? Thanks!!!

ANYWAY, what I'm saying is that if you like horror even a little bit, please try this one out. It was creepy, and suspenseful, but I don't know that it ever dipped out right into horrifying. I felt dread rather than fear for 90% of the book. The book ends nicely, too, which was a relief. I wanted there to be a solid reason behind everything, and there is! To no one's surprise, this was five stars.

Now, excuse me while I never plant roses ever.