Absolutely loved this! For my first T. Kingfisher, this book was perfect. The humor and knowledge that was put into this book alone made it exciting to read and instantly made me think, I need more from this author!!!! The pacing allowed for the ever growing sense of unsettling, which contributed to the overall menacing tone that just kept me coming back for more!

Thank you to MacMillan audio for the advanced listening copy of this book in exchange for a honest review.

This book was an absolute trip! The best way to describe this book is The Secret Garden in the style of a fever dream. This book is full of family secrets, magic, and a good old fashion haunted house. The narrator, Mary Robinette Kowal, is fantastic and really brings this book and all the ecclectic characters to life. Overall, this book was a bit of a miss for me. It started off as a typical haunted house, is it haunted or is it not story, and ended up unraveling into a completely whack-a-doo story about magic and secrets. There was some very spooky and creepy imagery that I did quite enjoy. But overall, this was not my favorite and I’m not even sure that I would call it horror.

Overall rating 3.5

This book read like a cozy mystery with a dash of horror (cozy horror?)

Samantha arrives at her mother's house fully expecting a boring sabbatical while she is waiting for her job to start back up, but after noticing strange things happening inside the house, like vultures perched on mailboxes, bugs in her bedroom, and sleep paralysis dreams, she suspects there's an outside force. After her mother starts acting strange, she wonders if they are being visited by something supernatural.

When I say this book was a slow burn, I mean a slowwww burn. I'm talking about most of the action happening in the last two hours of the book. While that's not necessarily a bad thing, it felt like too much of a rush to the ending and I had a lot of questions.


Spoiler
First of all... rose Grandma. I can't even begin to imagine what she looked like, and I felt like the characters acted a bit too normal for people who just found out that people could come back from the dead in the form of foliage. There was also little description or time to process the underground children. Maybe because most of the book was so normal (yes creepy things happened), it felt like everything was just dumped on the reader. I wish there were more horror elements.
While I'm not a fan of the millennial woman wine girl trope, I appreciated the unique career choice Samantha had; I thought it complimented the storyline well.

I liked the narrator when they voiced the women, but the men were questionable. They all sounded old, and halfway through the book, I realized Phil wasn't an old man.

Thank you Netgalley and MacMillan Audio for providing me with the ALC.
All opinions are my own.

This was my first T. Kingfisher story and with all of the praise that I've seen for her previous stories I think that this may not be her best. The premise is good and there were some funny moments, but the overall story felt like it was scaled too far back, I really wanted more character and plot development. If the story had been expanded I would have been much more invested in what was unfolding. Sam's profession as an archaeoentemologist played a big part in descriptions and humor and sometimes landed flat. There is just so much backstory that was left out that would have made this enjoyable that I wasn't able to fully enjoy what I was getting for wondering what could be. This is being tagged as horror but there are no truly scary or creepy moments so if that's a worry this can be read with no fear of that. Mary Robinette Kowal did a good job narrating however the male voices were odd. I went into this one with really high hopes so my disappointments may have colored my overall enjoyment and made some of what I didn't like stand out more than if I had gone into this one with no expectations. This wasn't bad, I just know that it won't be memorable for me.

In A House with Good Bones, Sam goes to stay with her mother, Edith, who is displaying dementia-type symptoms. Edith has redecorated her previously vibrant house with bland colors and questionable, racist photos. She also seems to be willfully rewriting her bleak family history, especially regarding her deceased mother and feared matriarch, Gran Mae.

And if that wasn’t strange enough, the house seems to have a major bug problem, with swarms of ladybugs mysteriously appearing in the middle of the night. And that’s not to mention the jar of teeth, the ghostly hand found in Sam’s graduation picture, and the neighborhood vultures.

I love T. Kingfisher. The way that her characters remain skeptical and hilarious in the face of terror makes my heart sing. Similar to Kingfisher’s previous horror novels, The Twisted Ones, and The Hollow Places, regular people are placed in irregular circumstances, and freak the heck out.

For most of the novel, it is not immediately clear how things are going to turn out, but I remained intrigued. But when the proverbial hits the fan, I was reminded how well Kingfisher creates truly nightmarish situations. Her imagination is terrifying, and I am so glad she shares it with us.

In the audiobook, Mary Robinette Kowal’s performance of all Kingfisher’s wonderful characters is flawless, but it is her performance of Sam that truly impressed me. She really captures the many sides of Sam’s character; the traumatized granddaughter, the fretting daughter, the academic. Kowal is a great conduit for the light-hearted side of Kingfisher’s prose.

As long as T. Kingfisher keeps writing books, I’ll keep reading them. I love her style, and her combination of humor and horror is unmatched.

The narrator for the audiobook was absolutely phenomenal. She breathed life into the characters, and the author writes such vivid characters, it often felt like I was watching a film instead of listening to the book.

T. Kingfisher writes horror of the most disturbingly beautiful nature. You find yourself lost in the story and forget (almost) that there are likely to be twists and shocking events. Mostly because you find yourself giddy during the entire thing, and something that makes you laugh aloud can’t possibly make your eyes bulge in the next sentence.

I think I would have enjoyed this more as a physical book title as the narrator's male voices all sounded like comedic old man voices. The story was interesting and engaging and creepy enough to keep me wondering what was going to happen next.

We love a plus sized protagonist and I enjoyed the idea of different generations of women all being haunted by the same metaphorical entity of their male relative.

I was so excited to get approved for the audiobook of A House With Good Bones. The cover is fabulous and I will be the first to admit that I judge a book by it’s cover.
The narrator, Mary Robinette Kowal, was extremely entertaining. She brought the story to life and had the perfect inflection for the sarcasm and wit that was fitting for the MC, Sam. She has become one of my favorite narrators to date.
The story itself is odd and quirky but it wasn’t the “haunting suspense” that I had been expecting. I figured out the “twist” very early on and while I was entertained by the mind ramblings of Sam, I wish there was something in the story that made my heart rate increase with unease. The action doesn’t really occur until well into the book (at least 80-85%) and it is over fairly quickly.
I struggle with my rating because I didn’t dislike the story, I was just left wanting more. I would still recommend this book to anyone that enjoys thriller, horror, or quirky books. I will also make sure to read more books by T. Kingfisher in the future because I did enjoy this book.

I will be sharing this review on Instagram, Goodreads and Amazon.

✨ Review ✨ A House With Good Bones by T. Kingfisher; Narrated by Mary Robinette Kowal

Sam returns to her mom's house (previously her grandma's house) in North Carolina to spend some time after her work at a dig is cancelled. She's an archaeoentomologist (studies bugs at archaeological sites), and so quickly begins to notice things amiss inside and outside the house. Her mom's acting strange and she begins to poke around to see what might be causing this weird behavior. Her dead grandma casts a pall over the house -- is grief making her mom do weird things?

I adore T. Kingfisher - this is my third by her, and this felt so new and different. I loved that she brought a sense of humor to this, and so many times I was giggling along with the book. Her sense of humor around Sam's career in academia and the silliness of processes and tasks also brought some joy to this for me.

While the horror components weren't super intense, it still brought some fun horror or even a sort of magical realism to the table. The use of bugs, flowers, vultures, and gardens more generally to set the vibes of the book were great. It totally surprised me where everything went.

The audio narration was pretty good for everyone but the male main character, who I can only be grateful didn't fall in love with the main character because I wouldn't have been able to take him seriously with his voice.

Overall it was a book with fun fantastical horror, a great cast of characters, and a constant thread of humor running throughout.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Genre: horror, fantasy, magical realism
Location: a suburb in North Carolina
Pub Date: out now!

Read this if you like:
⭕️ humor especially around an academic character who's a little nerdy
⭕️ light horror
⭕️ hordes of vultures and ladybugs

Thanks to Macmillan Audio, Tor, and #netgalley for an advanced audio copy of this book!

I loved the characters and complex family dynamics that stood at the forefront of this story. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this from the perspective of our main female POV who was an archaeoentomologist, a lover of boxed wine, and had no filter from her brain to her mouth! Even though it’s categorized as “horror” I didn’t find it gory at all. Don’t get me wrong, there were definitely creepy moments and a whole level of supernatural that I hadn’t expected, but i wasn’t bothered and actually I really did like the whole story.

The narration by Mary Robinette Kowal was great, so if you can listen to this one, you should!

I’m grateful to Macmillan Audio and Netgalley for the alc in exchange for an honest review!

I was really looking forward to this audiobook, but was sadly disappointed. I'm not sure if it was perhaps the narrator, but I found it difficult to get drawn into the story. There were events happening in the beginning and middle, but I could not make sense of "why" they were being mentioned. The actions were not compelling me to "want" to keep listening--the mother, the crow, the daughter trying to figure it out--is this sci-fi, mystical, witches?? I felt confused. There was also constant sarcasm thrown in, which felt entirely misplaced. Why is the character telling me this? And if the mother has dementia, why laugh about it?
Overall, I felt it was confusing and couldn't see the point.

The narrator did a fantastic job with this humorous gothic horror story that will forever have me side-eyeing roses.

Thank you to MacMillan Audio for the chance to listen rage and review this audiobook arc which is Now available.

For starters T. Kingfisher can never write a bad book. She writes dark whimsy books that shake your core. This book is a southern gothic tale about the dark twisted roots that lie just below the perfect family mask.

It crept up on me and the narrator Mary Robinette Kowal voiced this story so perfectly that it stuck in my head. She gave a realism to the indidiousness of the story.

A HOUSE WITH GOOD BONES by T. Kingfisher and read by Mary Robinette Kowal was a slowly sinister Southern Gothic.

I had no idea where the story of Sam visiting her mother for an extended visit would go. It had an eerie quality from the beginning when the formerly colorful home was muted into shades of white. Sam's mother is also strangely jumpy and just "off". Then when Sam finds a jar of teeth hidden under the roses, the neighborhood vultures seem to signal a much darker situation.

There was a huge amount of humor in this dark tale that keeps it from becoming too creepy. I loved the level of eerie it held until the horrors became more evident. There were a lot of cultural issues discussed with both humor and seriousness which I enjoyed.

The way this was narrated gave me a true feeling of dark undercurrents beneath the hilarious moments. I don't know how she did it, but I loved the narration of this story and am so glad I listened to the audio. Sam is a great character and I don't know if I would have read it as well in my head.

A solid ⭐⭐⭐⭐ listen!

Thank you to @NetGalley and @macmillan.audio for the chance to listen to this @tornightfire book and listening to my thoughts. This is publishing March 28th, so if a comedic horror story is what your mood needs (it is), grab this title this week and enjoy!

Ok really enjoyed the second half of this one. Definitely engaging and creepy. First half was a bit slower for me so it took a bit longer to get into but when I did. Loved it.

Thank you NetGalley and Macmillian Audio for the audiobook ARC! Sam is home for an extended visit with her mom, but something seems a little off. Her grandmother's old painting that her mother always disliked is back on the wall, and when she tries to reminisce about some of the not so nice things that her grandmother would say, her mom quickly hushes her up. Not to mention that the house is being watched all day by vultures. As the days pass, Sam begins to realize that there something happening in the house and begins to uncover a dark family secret that she'll need to resolve before it's too late. T. Kingfisher aptly crafts this suspensful tale with bits of creeping terror and Mary Robinette Kowal gives perfect voice to the characters and happenings.

Thank you to NetGalley, Macmillian Audio, and T.Kingfisher for the opportunity to give my honest review.

I knew I was in for a good time when T.kingfisher perfectly captured the look of a southern subdivision with the random trailer(s) in front of a long private road.

Sam is an archologist who move back in with her mother, Edith, who has been living for the past 20 years in the home previously owed by sam's grandmother, Gran Mae. Once Sam comes homes back she notices the place has changed it's no longer the bright personal space she and her mother changed it to ,but now returned to how it looked oved 20 years ago when Gran Mae was alive even down to Confederate marriage painting back on the wall that both Edit and Sam hated.

The book is a perfect mixture of southern horror, mystery, early 20th-century occult history ( I love that Aleister Crowley and Jack Parson appeared), and uncovering childhood and family horror. The book has a great pacing as the horror escalates and Edith's fear increases as Sam tries to discover what is going on. The setting was easily recognizable, side characters like Gale were fantastic (I would love a book about young Gale) and the ending was satisfying.

It is a fun, quick read, that is perfect for someone who just wants to try out horror for the first time or something you read after reading a heavier topic book.

This was a fun quirky peculiar read, entertaining and fast. The usage of bugs and the the fascination Sam has with them so she does not freak out let's you sit there in those haunting type moments and be with her instead of flailing out of the room (which most anyone would do).
I do feel like I wish there was more space and time for this story so there was not a rushed feeling. I felt a disconnect between the first half and the 2nd half while listening to it.

The characters I had a hard time getting on board with, and that part I am not sure may have had to do with the narration.

Mini synopsis: when Samantha’s work is delayed, she moves back to her childhood home. Her mother seems off. She’s thinner, changed the decor, & doesn’t cuss like she used to. Plus the house is giving off major creepy vibes! Sam wants to help her mom but is it her or the house that’s the problem?

I’m not sure what I was expecting when I started this but what I got was not remotely where I thought the story was going! This felt like a dark fairytale almost, think House of Hollow vibes with Home Before Dark creepy house feels. Sam as a main character was fantastic (& the audiobook narrator really did a great job with her!) she didn’t get overly rattled when weird things would happen, opting for a more logical explanation. Her obsession with bugs was so weird & interesting to read about!

This was my first T Kingfisher & def won’t be my last! Her writing and the way the setting was described & the way humor was woven in with the scary was top notch! I can’t wait to read more from this author!

This book was very strange, in typical T.Kingfisher fashion. I felt that the first part of the book very slow. There were a few times I struggled to stay interested, but I kept it up because I knew there had to be something good planned at the end. The storyline was so unique and the writing was so descriptive. I love how you could never possibly imagine what's going to happen because it's such a unique plot. The suspense toward the end had me on the edge of my seat wondering what was going to happen next (because of course I could have no possible clue). I swear I would love to meet T.Kingfisher just to know the person who's brilliant mind thinks up such crazy scenarios! I love it! This book got 4 stars only because it couldn't keep my attention from the beginning. But it was a fabulous read that I highly recommend for anyone wanting a creepy, suspenseful, one of a kind tale!