Horror/Fantasy Book Review: The Twisted Ones by T Kingfisher (aka Ursula Vernon) https://t.co/AqQX9tEjkC Short Review: 8 out of 10 (1/3)— Josh (garik16) (@garik16) November 19, 2019
Short Review (cont): Very solid horror novel of a woman who goes to rural North Carolina to clean up her dead hated grandmother's house, only to find a diary belonging to her step-grandpa gone mad seeing things....or did he? Strong Jump scares, plus dialogue and atmosphere (2/3)— Josh (garik16) (@garik16) November 19, 2019
The Twisted Ones is the latest horror novel by fantasy author T Kingfisher (aka children's book author Ursula Vernon's pseudonym for her adult work). I'm a pretty solid fan of Kingfisher's work in general, although I'm not a huge horror fan honestly, so I've never actually read her horror work. Still, given all the tweets I've seen about how scary this book was from multiple authors I respect on twitter, The Twisted Ones seemed like a good place to start.
And it's a pretty strong horror novel, although to be honest I wasn't that scared? I suspect I'd have been more scared in audiobook form, as the book relies well on what are often classic horror jump scares - good ones mind you, but they lose something for me in text form. The book is actually inspired by and includes references to a classic early 20th century horror story "The White People", but I hadn't read that story and it still overall works. Add in Kingfisher/Vernon's classic charm of dialogue/characters, and well, you get a very enjoyable package, even if I didn't quite find it as scary as others have.
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Mouse (real name: Melissa) is a mid 30s freelance editor, going through a rough stretch in her life with no one else but her adorable but dumb dog, a rescued coonhound named Bongo. Years ago her step-grandfather passed away, and years later, Mouse's cruel grandmother followed him into death, leaving behind only the small house in rural North Carolina. Mouse wasn't particularly close to her grandmother - a cruel woman - but when her father asks Mouse as a favor to go through what remains in the house to see if there's anything worth keeping and selling, Mouse figures the chore can't be bad for her current life.
But what Mouse finds in the house - along with lots and lots of clutter and hoarded materials (Hello room of creepy dolls!) - is a strange diary left by her step-grandfather, in which he wonders desperately about a strange book and chants a crazy mantra in order to keep himself sane. And as Mouse explores the house, and the surrounding area, she begins to see things around the area that resemble the contents of her step-grandfather's ravings, things that couldn't possibly exist, and yet are there nonetheless. And as Mouse finds more of her step-grandfather's writings, and sees more things in the woods around the home, she begins to fear that either she may also be going crazy....or something is out there, something absolutely terrifying......
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The Twisted Ones is a horror story in some ways in a classic mold: a young woman comes to a house in the woods, finds a creepy text that seems mad, begins to see and find creepy things in the woods, especially when led by her dog, and as time moves on, and she continues to stay against her better mind, she discovers more and more horrors as the truth dawns. Heck, the book features the protagonist finding a room early filled with creepy baby dolls, for god's sake. So yeah, this is a horror story playing with some pretty traditional tropes, in addition to being inspired and frequently referencing a classic horror story - which appears as a lost text within a text within a text in this story.
And yet, as usual, Kingfisher/Vernon makes these tropes work really damn well. Mouse is an excellent main character for a horror novel - you can always empathize with her actions and understand why she does what she does: the book avoids the classic horror trope of her doing something stupid to get into a bad situation for instance - which makes her feel far more real. And hell, I love her relationship with her dumb dog Bongo, which felt so damn real and added so much color to everything. And the other smaller characters - the hippie collective Mouse finds as neighbors mainly, particularly the older woman Foxy, work well as accompaniment to the rest. There aren't really any other characters of significance (although readers of Vernon's twitter account will recognize cameos from her friends the Barista and Cop), although Mouse's step-grandfather and grandmother do make their presence felt from beyond the grave (not literally, through the house and his writings).
But again this is a horror novel, so I guess a large part of the question is whether the novel is scary or not. Is it? Well, part of this may be my fault, because I find it hard to be scared by things in text form, but my answer is both yes and no. The jump-scares, which others on social media and in reviews have described as terrifying, didn't really work as well for me, but I can see them working better for others who visualize more as they read. On the other hand the effects of the terror and beings on Mouse's mind, as she discovers more and more, can be pretty damn scary if you think about it for any little length of time. So while it may not be the scariest book I've read, it's scary enough, and I can see others finding it far more chilling.
Add in Vernon/Kingfisher's classic - honestly, I'll go as far as say brilliant - dialogue (internal dialogue a lot of the time here) and character work, which makes this book fun to read even between the horror, and well, there's a good amount of fun to be had here, even if like me you don't find it as scary as others. So yeah, recommended for horror readers.
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