A House With Good Bones

Only for T. Kingfisher will I read a horror novel. Thank god for her wry sense of humor; without the occasional LOLs I would have noped out as the growing creepiness and grotesquerie made each page turn a suspenseful event.

Because it's a TK novel, I learned a lot about nature - vultures, insects, and roses to be precise. It's a rare treat to read a book in which your cerebral cortex and your amygdala are engaged at the same time.

Love the cover art, very well done and definitely draws your attention.5 stars on that.
The book did certainly have several creepy elements to it but I felt I really couldn't get into the story as much as I wanted and something just seemed lacking in general. Everything just felt more superficial as I was being told of elements without me actually feeling really into the happenings. It was an overall ok read and I feel it's one T Kingfisher fans would enjoy.
3.5 stars

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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.

A House with Good Bones is about an insufferable protagonist who passively floats through the story drinking boxed wine and eating pizza while talking about bugs. Okay, maybe I'm being a little unfair. I really wanted to like this book but this protagonist made me wish she'd disappear and the story would be told from her mother's perspective instead.

For a story that's about generational trauma, the person who experienced most of that trauma is gone from the plot most of the time and instead, we are left with Sam, who spends most of the book trying to pretend nothing supernatural is happening. I get that denial is a normal reaction, but did she really have to be in denial until basically the very end of the book?

There are a lot of things I could tear into this book over but I'm just going to approach Sam's character “arc”. Aka, there is none. Sam never changes throughout the entire story. When she has her final showdown with her grandmother, the way she “defeats” the old hag is basically by saying “you should have bullied me over my thesis, not my weight, cause I don't care I'm fat!” which is great and all but we already knew Sam didn't care about body image. It just made that whole final confrontation so lame. If we'd seen Sam slowly come to appreciate her body over the story, it would have been way more impactful.

Or better yet, make Sam's mother the protagonist, since she actually had a character arc.

Sorry, this book is just not for me. I couldn't stand the quirky attitude. I couldn't stand the humor. I doubt I'll pick up a book from this author ever again.