Reviews tagging 'Cursing'

A House with Good Bones by T. Kingfisher

38 reviews

lillygabriella's review

dark emotional funny mysterious tense slow-paced

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

5.0

I do love a book where it is very clear the author knows the setting. Set in North Carolina, it's Southern Gothic in the manner of small out of the way towns rather than crumbling antebellum mansions. Personally I feel this makes it much more relatable. In a tiny decades old subdivision, Sam is visiting her mom, partly due to work reasons and partly because her brother was worried and asked her to check in. When she gets there is is clear that things are *not alright*. The rest of the book is Sam and her scientific mind trying to figure out what's going on while things get stranger and stranger. For details, go read the book. Seriously! It is so good! I cannot recommend this highly enough!

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Body horror

Minor: Body shaming, Bullying, Cursing, Sexism, Toxic relationship, Blood, Vomit, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

yappuccino's review

challenging dark funny mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.5

A fun, creepy read 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror and Blood

Moderate: Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Gore, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Violence, Medical content, Grief, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

Bugs, teeth

peytont12's review

dark emotional funny mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No

4.0

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Content Warnings

Minor: Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, and Blood

peachmoni's review against another edition

dark medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Body horror, Body shaming, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Animal death, Cursing, Racism, Sexism, Violence, Blood, Cannibalism, Death of parent, and Fire/Fire injury

earl_grey_without_lemon's review against another edition

fast-paced

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

2.5

I was really excited to read this book because a lot of friends have recommended me T. Kingfisher before, and I am trying to read more books in the horror genre, but I really didn’t enjoy this one, sadly. Read this on audiobook from my library.
To start with the good parts, I really liked the info dumping about insects and plant varieties. The book’s initial premise was also interesting to me (love a good haunting and the line between house and home), although I think where the book really shines is in the middle-end when there’s more action. I found that the most chilling scenes were

the ones where the Gran May rose puppet was seated at the dinner table and talking to Sam and her mother. I wasn’t expecting the rose puppet twist at all, and I thought it was delightfully horrifying imagery!

.
Unfortunately, for a horror book, there is not a lot of tension, or sense of dread. One of my issues with the book is its pacing. I felt like the twist was fairly obvious from the beginning, and I really couldn’t connect with the characters at all. Props to T. Kingfisher for making Sam a fat intelligent woman who loves her job and is passionate about bugs and the ecosystem, because those parts of her felt so real and refreshing to me! But my god, I found her insufferable as our POV character. I can’t remember the exact line, but it’s after

she’s standing in the garden devoid of all the insects, and I thought (as someone who used to keep outdoor plants)

that was such a heartfelt sad moment, and then she immediately ends the scene with some sort of quippy response. I just personally don’t like that sort of snarky POV, it felt like watching a 2010s comedy sketch. Or there’s a line about a goth girl who looks like she cries black eyeliner, and how Sam is OBSESSED with coffee - the humor just feels dated, and Sam talked like that pretty much throughout the entire book.
The

plot line with the homunculi

was bizarre to me, as if the book was in two separate genres at once (family trauma horror vs

fantasy horror

), but I DID really like the way the Underground Children were integrated and foreshadowed.
Overall, A House With Good Bones had an awesome title and intriguing premise with some interesting action scenes, but just didn’t end up being my cup of tea.
(On a much lighter note, I may have missed a lot of cultural references, too, not being from the south myself, but Sam is so wrong about Cheerwine, it’s really yummy)

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Racism, Violence, Blood, Grief, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Terminal illness and Dementia

The protagonist does call out racism, and it is not directed at any characters in a detailed manner.

growintogardens's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny mysterious tense medium-paced

• Loveable characters? Yes

4.5

This is not one to read/listen to before sleeping, found that out the hard way lol. It's a little scary. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Body horror, Body shaming, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Violence, Blood, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Racism and Dementia

ceredonia's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Cursing, Death, Violence, and Blood

Moderate: Cannibalism and Alcohol

aseel_reads's review

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? It's complicated

5.0

This was soooo creepy and 110% a horror book, all the bug stuff!! Eek!! Obsessed with how such a complete novel was started and ended in such a short amount of time, this author is slowly becoming a fave (I also love the new covers that have come out) 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fatphobia

Moderate: Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Blood, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Racism

charlieeee's review against another edition

dark funny medium-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? It's complicated

3.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Blood

Minor: Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Cursing, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Racism, Self harm, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Grief, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

honeygore's review

dark funny mysterious medium-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

This book was gifted to me, it maybe wasn't something I would have picked out for myself but I really enjoyed it! I laughed out loud quite a few times. It was the perfect balance of creepy and funny. The mc was funny and relatable. The ending I definitely wasn't expecting, and I feel like it took a hard left turn from where I would've anticipated it going but it ended up being enjoyable! Huge fan of Hermes 10/10 good boi

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing and Blood

Moderate: Child abuse

Minor: Fatphobia and Alcohol