Reviews tagging 'Mental illness'

A House With Good Bones by T. Kingfisher

11 reviews

juan_adhd_reading's review against another edition

dark funny mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A

5.0

If I discovered anything about myself this year is that I'm a sucker for hunted house stories. I adore T. Kingfisher! This book was so creepy and wonderful. As with "What moves the dead" and fungi, in this story, I learned a lot about bugs and roses, and now I also have the irrational fear that my grandmother will hunt us after death to nag us about our eating habits and the gnarly states of our rooms, lol. Anyway, if you loved Alex Easton you will also love Sam Montgomery! Kingfisher has a knack for writing the straight-headed sarcastic character that is suddenly hurled into a magical, haunted, terribly impossible scenario. It was an amazing book, highly recommend it!

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Injury/Injury detail, Toxic relationship, Child abuse, and Mental illness

Minor: Racism

cloudreader2948's review against another edition

dark emotional funny mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.75

A coming home horror novel. Light on the horror. I enjoy a lot of T Kingfisher stories as there's enough suspense and horror without it keeping me up at night, like Diet Horror. It was also refreshing to have a fat protagonist who had good self-esteem. Their weight was mentioned when appropriate to the story but not once did they wish they were smaller or talk about their weight as if it was a bad thing. Loved it. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child abuse, Blood, Dementia, Mental illness, Misogyny, Fatphobia, Racism, and Violence

witcheep's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Horror usually isn't my thing, but liking T. Kingfisher's fantasy books, I decided to give this one a go. I'm glad I did!

Kingfisher is great with writing multidimensional characters with flaws of their own and their interpersonal relationships. That is what shines bright in this book as well. I enjoyed reading about the difficult relationships between the different generations of the same family, and their own ways to deal with mysteries and difficulties. The neighbors offer a good place to compare with the main character's life. A House with Good Bones ponders over some hard themes, such as loss of a family member and grief, doubting one's self-worth and emotionally abusive family relationships. The book, however, offers more hopeful outlooks on the same issues in the form of caring for one's community, forming new friendships and finding new insight into oneself.

The horror elements get increasiongly more creepy, from a slight feeling of something being off up to creeping uneasiness,

supernatural affairs, and slight body horror

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"You're a scientist," said Gail, watching me. "I realize that makes this hard for you. I'm telling you, what's happening isn't something you're going to be able to put under a microscope. I'm hoping it'll go away on it's own."
      "Does anything ever go away on it's own?" I asked.
      "More often than you think. In this case I truly can't be sure. I don't know everything.
     "I'm starting to be sure I don't know anything", I muttered.
     She smiles. "That's a good place to start."

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Grief, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Body horror, and Body shaming

Minor: Mental illness, Fire/Fire injury, Physical abuse, Domestic abuse, and Gaslighting

axel_p's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark funny informative medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I love bugs.

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Content Warnings

Minor: Racism, Body shaming, Cannibalism, Child abuse, Fatphobia, Gaslighting, Panic attacks/disorders, Homophobia, Alcohol, Body horror, Cursing, Death, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Misogyny, Blood, Dementia, and Injury/Injury detail

leeghlee's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror and Cursing

Moderate: Death of parent, Fatphobia, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Racism, Toxic relationship, Death, Emotional abuse, Murder, Physical abuse, Cannibalism, Fire/Fire injury, Violence, Alcohol, Body shaming, Gaslighting, and Grief

Minor: Medical content, Mental illness, Dementia, Sexual content, Child abuse, and Stalking

wandering_recorder's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

After thoroughly enjoying What Moves The Dead, I was ecstatic to hear that Kingfisher was coming out with another horror novel. Now having finished it, I am glad to say that it delivered on all my expectations in the best way possible. Set in the south with all its traditions and culture, it subliminally soothes the reader into a false sense of security only to disturb them with suggestions of what horrors and evils may lie underneath. As they solve the mystery of what is really going on in this strange house on Lammergeier Lane the reader can expect to be delighted with its macabre atmosphere and shocked with the supernatural.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore

Minor: Racism, Murder, Dementia, Body shaming, Fatphobia, and Mental illness

julesadventurezone's review against another edition

dark funny mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I liked the creepy and mysterious beginning more than the action packed end. The narrator is very funny and relatable.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Child abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Body shaming, and Blood

Moderate: Cursing, Animal death, Racism, Bullying, Alcoholism, Death of parent, Mental illness, Self harm, Body horror, and Medical content

Minor: Vomit, Cultural appropriation, Fatphobia, Gaslighting, Classism, Dementia, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Grief, Murder, and Racial slurs

plantgal_jill's review against another edition

dark funny mysterious fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Alcohol, Mental illness, Fatphobia, Injury/Injury detail, and Blood

Minor: Child abuse, Dementia, Physical abuse, Racism, Death of parent, and Stalking

dazzle_spider_reader_1212's review against another edition

adventurous funny informative mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

Absolutely the kind of book I've been looking for! I'm also an entomology lover and have been looking for books that are in the SF/F and speculative genres that have bugs in, that aren't viewed negatively.
I also love the vultures and how they tie in.
The story and the plot twists aswell are so creative, and T Kingfishers writing is so comical and made the characters really relatable.
Overall, one of my all time favourite books I think, and I'm excited to read more of her work!

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Alcohol, Death of parent, Blood, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Mental illness, Body horror, Body shaming, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Cursing, and Dementia

Minor: Fire/Fire injury

booksthatburn's review against another edition

mysterious reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

In A HOUSE WITH GOOD BONES, Sam is visiting her mother in the home they once shared with her now-deceased grandmother. However, most of the ways Sam's mother had decorated to make the place her own have been undone, and she doesn’t seem to understand or acknowledge why this would be disturbing. Little things start to add up, eventually going beyond what’s merely bizarre - transforming into something downright creepy. 

Because as a reader this is my introduction to Sam’s mother, it’s harder to immediately know how she ought to be acting, but Sam’s thoughts provide that context in a way that feels natural. It feels like Sam working through it in her own mind, and not just for the benefit of me as a spectator. This is one of those cases where the things that I like best about the book are the ways that my understanding of of what's going on suddenly shifted as new information became available. It's short enough that to discuss most of what I loved in the latter half of the book would spoil many of the best parts of the experience. In general, I like the way that this played with my expectations of what a horror novel could or should be. There were several layers of revelations that didn't really feel like plot twists, as much as they involved realizing the meaning of information that had been said previously, but was transformed by new events. 

I love the ending, that ramps up the pace and the stakes to be suddenly exciting just as everything looked like it was going to wrap up more calmly.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gaslighting, Emotional abuse, Blood, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Racism, Violence, Death, Physical abuse, Child abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Body horror, and Self harm

Minor: Body shaming, Cancer, Dementia, Fatphobia, Vomit, Mental illness, and Alcohol