Reviews tagging 'Alcohol'

A House with Good Bones by T. Kingfisher

34 reviews

plantgal_jill's review

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

---

Content Warnings

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

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

btrz7's review against another edition

3.5

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Body shaming, Child abuse, and Alcohol

lipstickitotheman's review

dark funny mysterious tense medium-paced

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

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Blood, Cannibalism, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Minor: Death, Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, Grief, and Death of parent

tigger89's review

mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

Anything by T. Kingfisher is an auto-request for me, at this point. I love that woman's imagination. A creepy southern gothic, while less fantastic than her previous stories I'd read, is still right up my alley. And I loved the narrator! She was a joy to ride around with, whether she was snarking about the wifi or nerding out about bugs. As someone who's around the same age as Sam, I could relate heavily to her anxieties regarding her aging mother. The finale was also incredible, keeping tension high from the moment Sam stepped back into the house until the matter was resolved.

Unfortunately, overall I didn't like this book as much as Kingfisher's other two. Perhaps it was the genre shift, the addition of teased romantic tension between our intrepid protagonist and the sexy gardener, or the fact that a large part of the story's build-up could have been skipped if the protagonist and her mother had just had That Conversation at any point before the story was two-thirds of the way over. But that doesn't mean it's bad! The bar was just set very high, is all.

Now, the most important question: do the vultures and/or ladybugs die?

There is a committee of vultures, one named and many unnamed. All survive to the end of the story. There are also many, many ladybugs. Unfortunately, some of the ladybugs get squashed in the course of the story, but the majority of them survive.

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Physical abuse, and Alcohol

Minor: Animal death, Child death, Racism, and Dementia

Anyone with a fear of bugs should be aware there's multiple scenes involving swarms of ladybugs crawling around and on the point of view character.

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!

---

Content Warnings

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

Minor: Fire/Fire injury

nrogers_1030's review

dark funny mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Loveable characters? Yes

4.0

T.K. always entertains me. This book is creepy and funny.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Cursing, Emotional abuse, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Gaslighting, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Death, Death of parent, and Classism

blewballoon's review

dark funny lighthearted mysterious fast-paced

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

5.0

A fun yet spooky horror story with a small cast of interesting and lovable characters. I enjoyed the relationship between the main character, Sam, and her mother and brother. I think the small neighborhood type setting fit the type of horror going on very well. I also had a good time learning so much about bugs and plants! T. Kingfisher always works for me, it felt like a breath of fresh air to be reading one of their books again.

I was amused by the Chekov's Doily. I did have a few questions that went unanswered, like what changed in the last year that caused the grandmother to get more dramatic with her haunting? It's possible the info is there but I missed it and didn't put it together.

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Body shaming, Cursing, Racism, Blood, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Emotional abuse, Grief, and Death of parent

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.

---

Content Warnings

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

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

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

jaedia'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? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Blood, and Alcohol

Moderate: Body horror, Body shaming, Child abuse, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Fatphobia, Gore, Blood, Cannibalism, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

schnaucl's review

adventurous dark funny fast-paced

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

5.0

I thoroughly enjoyed this book.  It was wickedly funny and I just adore Sam and all her friends.  But especially Sam.  Sam forever!  She is smart and funny and takes no shit and has a fun niche job.  

There's some loving gentle teasing about southern social customs. 

There's also some creepy unsettling bits.

But mostly this book just made me really, really happy.

My only small complaint is that it seemed very obvious to me that Edith was trying to appease the spirit of her mother, who seemed like maybe she was a poltergeist.  But it makes sense to me that while I as a reader would immediately make that connection knowing I was reading a horror novel, Sam would think her mother's odd behavior might be a symptom of dementia.

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Alcohol

Minor: Body shaming, Fatphobia, Gore, Blood, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail