REVIEW: A House With Good Bones by T. Kingfisher

A House With Good Bones Review — **Content Warnings:** Discussions of racism, fatphobia, child abuse, physical violence, swarming insects, and drinking.

THE SYNOPSIS

A House With Good Bones is a southern gothic horror novel written in Kingfisher’s classic comedy style. Sam, an entomologist, returns to her childhood home when a job is delayed. Her home is full of memories, but not all of them are happy memories. While her mother is a kind and loving woman, her grandmother was cold and stern. But it isn’t simply the memory of her grandmother that is the problem…

Something is off with her mom. She’s restoring previously despised artwork and behaves almost as if her mother will berate her at any moment. Something isn’t right and Sam is determined to figure out what that is.

REVIEW

“I asked my phone if it was connected to the internet and it told me that it had a very close relationship with the internet. I attempted to pull up a web page and it informed me that it was not that kind of relationship.”
― T. Kingfisher, A House With Good Bones

I have been a Kingfisher fan from the moment I read The Twisted Ones and discovered what many call the ‘cozy horror’ genre. For those unfamiliar, a cozy horror is one in which there is minimal graphic content such as gore or sexual assault. They’re still tense, scary, and horrifying- they just won’t ruin your day. A House With Good Bones has plenty of Kingfisher’s unique style that leaves you cycling between giggles and dread.

This book is one that was hard to put down, in fact, I didn’t. Within a single sitting I devoured every page, eager to figure out just what the hell was going to happen. Despite the quirky humor laced throughout the book, there is an underlying tension from the beginning.

The weird, isolated neighbors set the stage, making coming home feel just a little sinister. It’s accented by a vulture that seems to watch Sam’s every move. Sure, it’s a bit tropey, but in the best way possible.

Sam as a character is one that I can see people really enjoying, or really detesting. This is something I find true for most of Kingfisher’s books and characters due to the quirky style of writing. She’s bold, intelligent, caring, but spends a significant amount of time drinking to soothe her nerves. Her character is one that exists in a fat body unapologetically and despite her grandmother’s treatment of her as a child- she seems comfortable in her body.

“Honestly, there just aren’t that many good reasons for the average homeowner to keep jars of human teeth lying around.”
― T. Kingfisher, A House With Good Bones

The haunting is twofold- both with the painful impacts of childhood abuse and with actual supernatural beings. A jar of teeth in the garden and other strange occurrences force Sam to confront long-buried, troubling memories.

The book also contends with the family’s history of racism and it does so from the beginning. When Sam arrives home one of the strange changes noted is her mother’s decision to rehang a confederate portrait. She sees this as out of line with her mother’s behavior and this will remain consistent through the plot.

“Gran Mae had been racist, in that Southern heavily-in-denial way, where you think watching Oprah counts as having a black friend.”
― T. Kingfisher, A House with Good Bones

If you’re looking for a book that features magic, strange entities, humor, slight romance, and vulture friends this book is the one for you! If you’ve previously read horror from Kingfisher and didn’t enjoy it? Go ahead and pass this one up.