A House With Good Bones by T. Kingfisher

T. Kingfisher's A House With Good Bones is a contemporary Southern Gothic from a master of modern horror that explores the deep, dark roots of family and in which grandma's ghost haunting your house may be the least of your worries. In this ordinary North Carolina suburb, family secrets are always in bloom. Samantha Montgomery pulls into the driveway of her family home to find a massive black vulture perched on the mailbox, staring at the house. Inside, everything has changed. Gone is the eclectic warmth Sam expects; instead the walls are a sterile white. Now, it’s very important to say grace before dinner, and her mother won’t hear a word against Sam’s long-dead and little-missed grandmother, who was the first to put down roots in this small southern town. The longer Sam stays, the stranger things get. And every day, more vultures circle overhead... “I was compelled to read the book in one breathless, white-knuckled sitting. Vultures, ladybugs, and underground children, oh my!"—Paul Tremblay, author of The Pallbearers Club “Wickedly witty, intensely scary, and a thoroughly modern take on the Southern Gothic, about thorny family secrets that refuse to stay buried.”—Rachel Harrison, author of Cackle Also by T. Kingfisher Nettle & Bone What Moves the Dead

CW: discussions of racism, fatphobia

After reading three T. Kingfisher books, one thing I knew is that I would definitely be reading more of her works. But I'm unsure of which ones to choose because a lot of hers are horror or adjacent and it's not a genre I try to read much. But when I got the opportunity to get an audiobook of this one, I couldn't resist. And what a surprise that I finished the whole thing in one day.

As expected, this maybe gothic horror but the signature Kingfisher is ever present. We get the narrative through the single POV of Sam who is an archeoentomologist, and she is a hilarious character whose internal monologue kept me smiling through most of the book. Her quips about the low budgets her work departments have or about her experiences with working on bugs were all both illuminating and fun. But she is also a fat woman and that's mainly what endeared me to her - her sarcasm about how she gets treated by healthcare professionals who don't see anything beyond her weight, family members' obsession with how she looks and how she'll never find a man if she can't look normal - it all hit pretty close to home for me because these days most conversations with either my doctor or my parents seem to be about my weight which is endlessly frustrating. I could just feel her totally in these moments, though I also loved how she didn't let any of these comments get to her, which I usually do as well but currently having a bit of difficulty handling.

The setting is a creepy factor in itself because it's an old house in a small southern town with a significant vulture presence around, weird feeling garden which has no bugs, Sam's grandmother's wedding photograph with the groom in a confederate uniform, dubious family history and more. While there's a constant unsettling feeling through the book, it's only towards the last few chapters that it takes a full horror turn, which is probably why I blew through it so fast. The cast of characters is also quite intriguing - I loved Sam's scientific brain trying to reconcile with the weird things happening around her, her mom's erratic anxious behavior being very unlike her usual strong and liberal self, Phil the gardener who is a sweet guy helping around with an extremely paranoid gun-toting grandfather, and another neighbor Gayle who seems to know much more about the whole situation but is being tight lipped. Ofcourse, Sam's racist grandmother may have been dead for two decades but her presence is very much felt throughout the book. I did feel that Sam tried to excuse her Grand Mae's racism a bit towards the end and that left me uncomfortable, especially because Sam was pretty forthright about it before that.

Overall though, this was a funny, creepy, Southern gothic horror novel with a very eclectic cast of characters and I loved how it felt more like a slice of life kinda story until it all went upside down. The author does an awesome job keeping the proceedings light while also upping the creep factor bit by bit ultimately leading to a very earth shattering final act. It definitely helped that the audiobook is superbly narrated by the very popular Mary Robinette Kowal, who brings out the laughs and scares in equal measure. Now I can't wait for the author's next, Thornhedge releasing in August.

Two thirds of the way through the book I felt like the obvious thing had finally happened and the book could get going. Then 20 pages later, I put the book down and said, “I didn't expect that.” The last third was fast paced and thrilling. It really left me feeling excited about the book. I am glad I kept reading and didn't give up during the slower parts.