A House with Good Bones by T. Kingfisher

by GGGinny

What I drank: They didn’t have my favorite flavor of seltzer, so random flavors of seltzer.

Goodreads Overview:

A haunting Southern Gothic from an award-winning master of suspense, A House With Good Bones explores the dark, twisted roots lurking just beneath the veneer of a perfect home and family.

“Mom seems off.”

Her brother’s words echo in Sam Montgomery’s ear as she turns onto the quiet North Carolina street where their mother lives alone.

She brushes the thought away as she climbs the front steps. Sam’s excited for this rare extended visit, and looking forward to nights with just the two of them, drinking boxed wine, watching murder mystery shows, and guessing who the killer is long before the characters figure it out.

But stepping inside, she quickly realizes home isn’t what it used to be. Gone is the warm, cluttered charm her mom is known for; now the walls are painted a sterile white. Her mom jumps at the smallest noises and looks over her shoulder even when she’s the only person in the room. And when Sam steps out back to clear her head, she finds a jar of teeth hidden beneath the magazine-worthy rose bushes, and vultures are circling the garden from above.

To find out what’s got her mom so frightened in her own home, Sam will go digging for the truth. But some secrets are better left buried.

Drunk Overview: Sam’s job has her on a pause so she visits her mom, who lives in her dead grandmother’s house in NC. While she’s there she notices there are no bugs in what was her grandmother’s rose garden (she works with bugs), starts getting night paralysis, and is dealing with her usually joyful mother being really jumpy and reverting to the strict rules her grandmother had put in place when they all lived together.

Drunk Thoughts: This book was great!

• Sam is such a good character! I love characters who have a hyper-specific knowledge and aren’t shy about it. Looking at the different bugs and noticing where they weren’t was such an interesting and creepy plot point.
• But also she reacted in such a normal way to weird things happening, looking for normal answers to abnormal things.
• This book had me shouting because I knew that the book is a horror, but the characters didn’t. It wasn’t quite a “Don’t go in there” that happens in bad horror movies, because Sam is a commonsense character.
• But her leaps in logic were sometimes ridiculous and embarrassing and then she’s feel ridiculous and embarrassed. It was fun to watch that tension grow.
• And then there was a point where things went off the rails, and the tension had built so well that I was all in by then.
• So I’m gonna skip over to the characters. I’ve already mentioned how much I love Sam. But this book did right with it’s character dynamics.
• It’s clear what Sam’s relationship is with her brother, her sister-in-law, her mother, the neighbor across the street, and so many other people. NOt only that, multiple relationships are fully fleshed out in only a few sentences.
• There’s some real angst in the family dynamic caused by some trauma from a really shitty grandmother (inherited from an even shittier great-grandfather). And those complicated dynamics played so well into the general off-ness of the book.
• I will be the first to say I love a good sibling dynamic. They have similar but distinct memories of the same family members and the brother was a great foil to share some long-forgotten memories.
• And her mom sheems wonderful. It’s a delightful anachronism to hear about this woman who cracks crude jokes, curses, and loves her family be worried about being too loud or making snarky comments about the dead. But it is so clear from early on that the biggest thread is the work she’ll do to protect the people she loves.
• And there’s the paranoid neighbor across the street who is way too involved with what happens in the neighborhood (as the person who’s family hosted cast parties for the middle-schoolers that got noise complaints at 8pm… I’m familiar with this archetype of man) who is just so specific.
• And my favorite character may be the “witch who lived down the street.” Who rescues abnormal animals, like vultures (which feature heavily both symbolically and physically in this book).
• I almost forgot the hot handy-man. Just a small-town hunk trying to deal with his racist grandpa getting freaked out on by his bosses daughter. Like, this man is way too calm and forgiving but is delightful! He hangs out with old ladies and is a master gardener, and is just a real sweetheart.
• Frankly, this book feels like a story of generational trauma, and all the big and small ways those hurts manifest in the long run. Also, there’s definitely some subtext about certain forms of rebellion being unhealthy. Designing yourself only in opposition to something doesn’t necessarily make for a healthy coping mechanism (to clarify, it’s not necessarily bad, but moderation can be important).
• In the end, I love that what made the characters weird, what made the characters fun, and what made the characters feel so unique is what ended up saving all of them.
• I will say, I do wish parts of this book had been a little creepier. It might just be that at the point in the book where teh big bad appeared I was racing through reading b/c I wanted to know what happened, but I feel like marinating in that uncertainty would have been fun.
• And, wait, I love the millenial-ness of this book. Sam has her roommates, there’s constant complaints about wifi (with teh required coffee trips to get good wifi), watching old tv shows while drinking with your parents, dealing with your mom telling you to go hit on someone (just me?), and dealing with a form of weirdness when visiting family homes (that I swear wasn’t there when I was an actual child).
• There’s something about being an adult, going back to a home that isn’t yours anymore, that can bring up memories and conflicted feelings.
• I know I’m rambling. But this book was wonderful (and at something like 250 pages, a really quick read)

What it Pairs With: Your favorite boxed wine.

Rating: 4.5/5