Reviews - A House with Good Bones

8.73k reviews for:

A House with Good Bones

T. Kingfisher

3.81 AVERAGE

camam4's review against another edition

3.75

dark 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: No

violet97's review against another edition

3.0

dark tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

whostosay's review against another edition

3.0

This was fun. I like the Sword Soldier Series best so far, but either Nettle & Bone or Thornhedge is next.

modacephalopoda's review against another edition

2.0

Two stars - only because Hermes is King

arlunia's review against another edition

4.25

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Has this book given me the same creeps as the movie The Descent? Absolutely. Am I going to sleep tonight? Probably not.
But if you’re looking for a medium paced book with some botanical horror, then this book is most definitely up your alley.

abditoryalive's review against another edition

5.0

dark funny mysterious fast-paced

There was a vulture on the mailbox of my grandmother's house

🐞Wow what a killer opening hook, Kingfisher has such a talent for pulling you in immediately, and every time I start one of her books I end up asking myself why I didn’t pick it up sooner. (I'm also slightly jealous, writing hooks in my academic work is something I really struggle with.)

🌹Well Researched: This is a prevailing theme, the more novels I read by Kingfisher the more I'm impressed by the hyper fixation on any given subject. These details give the novel a lived-in, slightly obsessive realism that’s charming, eerie, and uniquely Kingfisher. Whether its perfume manufacturing, Kelpie lore - or is this instance breeds of roses and stuff-that-bug-entomologists (Such as identifying scale insects), I almost feel like I'm learning something.

🪶 Spooky, But Not Nightmare Fuel: This book spooked me, but not as much as I was intrigued. It’s unsettling in a Southern Gothic way: creeping dread, a sense that something is off. It’s unnerving, with chilling imagery, without being overwhelming. You can read this in the dark. (That said, The Hollow Places kept me up at night. So, fair warning Kingfisher can do proper scary if she wants to.) However it is plagued by insect horror - which perhaps the Australian in me was immune too - probably help that it's ladybugs and not cockroaches or something.

On neighbours' rooftops, on the mailboxes, in the trees, and even on top of the cars, at least fifty black vultures were perching and every single one was staring fixatedly at my mothers house.

🫙 This book isn’t

just haunted by ghosts but by ideology, repression, and inheritance. The way Sam returns home to find her vibrant, artistic mother transformed into a bland, nervous woman living under her racist grandmother’s aesthetic feels incredibly loaded.
Is it about the fear of your parents getting sucked into conspiracies, racism, or dangerous ideologies? Of watching someone you love become unrecognisable? Of a house becoming unfamiliar?

Yes.
All of that.

🩸Small Quibble

There’s one bit I wasn’t sure about. Her mothers neighbour is seemingly literally unable to speak up about what’s happening, possibly through supernatural means. It felt like a big moment but didn’t get a clear explanation later. Was it metaphor? Magic? Unresolved plot point? Still unsure.

Final Thoughts: It’s about bugs and the birds, but also about memory, inheritance, and the subtle horror of watching someone you love get rewritten by a past that refuses to stay buried.

📫Fans of: Practical Magic (The Scene where the roses grow back every night), Goosebumps (Cozy Horror elements), Buffy if Joyce Summers was ever possessed.