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space_and_sorcery 's review for:
A House With Good Bones
by T. Kingfisher
dark
funny
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Readers who might think that humor and horror are mutually incompatible probably never read a book by T. Kingfisher: this author can combine the most horrific and uncanny situations with whimsical banter or musings and work them into an engrossing tale that will keep you turning the pages with the need to discover what’s what. This is indeed the case of A House With Good Bones, where Samantha (Sam) Montgomery, an archaeological entomologist on leave from her latest dig, returns home to stay with her mother for the duration.
The house where Sam grew up, and which belonged to her grandmother Mae, is quite changed however, and so is her mother: the once brightly painted walls are now covered by a uniformly bland beige color, favorite paintings have disappeared and have been replaced by quaintly disturbing pictures and to make matters worse Sam’s mother, a strong, capable woman, looks apprehensive and almost fearful, always looking around as if she expected something (or someone?) to appear uninvited at any moment. And that’s only the beginning, because there seems to be an infestation of vultures - one of them constantly perched on Sam’s mother’s letterbox - and the total lack of insects in the backyard garden does not preclude a huge swarm of ladybugs from invading the young woman’s bedroom one night. Not to mention the weird jar of teeth that Sam discovers buried under the rose bushes that were her grandmother’s pride and joy…
A House With Good Bones is the perfect example of how to create and build a sense of impending dread: as readers we might surmise what’s at the roots of the weird events focused on the house, but it’s much more fun to follow Sam’s path through the clues and to see how she keeps dismissing them on the basis of her scientific mindset, only to be met with even creepier manifestations that rise to a terrifying crescendo. Equally intriguing are the details of the dysfunctional family created by the overbearing attitude of Gran Mae, whose ghostly remnants seem to still pervade the place and to haunt everyone’s memory. The final narrative twist plunges the story into all-out horror that starts with a not-so-unexpected supernatural visitation and then segues with a creepy, bone chilling invasion that kept me on edge until the resolution: I’m not going to give any spoilers here, but if you remember that eerie Dr. Who episode titled “The Empty Child”, be prepared for something equally scary, if not more.
As far as characters go, Sam is a delightful one: I greatly enjoyed her down-to-Earth attitude rooted in her analytical mind, and her frequent digressions into entomological details which served very well in establishing her as a very non-squeamish personality - something that serves her well as the weirdness keeps increasing in and around the house. Moreover, I enjoyed the way she deals with her non-standard body shape, accepting it as a fact of life and being quite comfortable into her own skin: apart from this positive attitude, this viewpoint stand at the roots of her inner strength and the way she reacts when things start to go sideways - or maybe I should say “when things start to cave in”, to be more precise….
If you ever decide to pick up A House With Good Bones, be prepared for a story that will reel you in slowly and then will grab you by the throat toward the end and refuse to let you go until you reach the last page. Another proof for me that T. Kingfisher is the kind of storyteller that never disappoints, no matter what kind of tale she chooses to tell.