A House with Good Bones is the latest horror novel by author T Kingfisher (aka Children's author Ursula Vernon). This time around, the novel isn't a take by Kingfisher on a classic horror story from a century ago, but is instead a Southern Gothic, featuring an archeological entomologist Sam as she returns to her mother's house (formerly her Gran Mae's North Carolina House) between digs...and to check on that same mother, who Sam's brother thinks is acting "off". Needless to say, as this is a southern gothic, Sam's mother's actions are symptoms of a greater problem, one which Sam will slowly discover as things get further and further out of control...in horrifying fashion.
As I've said before, I'm not a horror fan in general - I will enjoy those stories when they come with deeper themes or really enjoyable characters, but I could care a lot less about getting scared by a story or a movie. And when the culprit behind the slow burn of a horror story is obvious to anyone familiar with a genre, as seemed to be the case with A House with Good Bones (and was with the last Kingfisher Horror I read), it's even less of an interest to me. But A House with Good Bones managed to surprise me in its last act, putting things together in a way that surprised, and combined with Kingfisher's usually enjoyable and good characters, wound up working for me despite it all. So if you like horror, would definitely recommend this one.
----------------------------Plot Summary----------------------------
Sam Montgomery, archeoentomologist, is unexpectedly between jobs due to a discovery on her last dig and her own usual room is rented out by her roommates. So Sam finds herself returning to the house she somewhat grew up in, the house that was first her Gran Mae's house and now belongs to her mother Edith, in a small community in North Carolina. Sam heard from her brother that her Mom was seemingly acting weirdly lately, and Sam figured staying together with her Mom would be a good way to check if anything was going on.
But when Sam arrives at the home, she begins to understand her brother's feelings and to grow more and more concerned. First there's the strange vultures hanging around the house, which are supposedly fed by a neighbor her grand ae once hated. Then there's the fact that her mother has removed her preferred colorful decorations and restored Gran Mae's boring white/bland walls and brought back Gran Mae's preferred Confederate decorations, which her mom absolutely hated back in the day. And her mother suddenly seems pious and respectful of Gran Mae's old conservative wishes, which is very out of character.
Sam's first thought is that her mom is either suffering from delayed grieving for her own mother, or worse: that she's suffering from some form of dementia. But as Sam begins to notice other odd things about the house - missing insects, a swarm of ladybugs, objects falling off walls, and a history that Sam never knew about her family - Sam soon discovers that something far worse is afoot in this house, a horror from her family's past that is far beyond what Sam is equipped to handle....
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A House with Good Bones starts off with a setup that made me think I knew where this book was going, although the story was very enjoyable as usual for a Kingfisher book. You have a house belonging to a now dead grandmother who was conservative, backwards, and rather evil in how she tried to enforce such conservative beliefs on her daughter (Edith) and grandchildren (particularly Sam). You have a mother (Edith) who once was rebellious and would absolutely never countenance such beliefs who is suddenly acting as if she agreed with Gran Mae's wishes and doesn't remember Gran Mae's worst attributes. Any reader who has read any horror, and honestly even new readers, will expect that the story is going in a "House is now haunted by monstrous Gran Mae" direction.
Without spoiling anything, let me say that while the book plays with that, it's not the only twist and idea it's playing with or planning to unleash upon the reader, such that the book still contains plenty of surprises in addition to moments of incredibly creepy horror - and there are plenty of those for horror fans. There's also a really strong lead character in Sam, who is (as usual for Kingfisher protagonists) not at all the type to run into the horror by being an idiot - even if her refusal to believe the unbelievable does lead her astray for a bit - but is instead smart, curious and fun in how she tries to figure things out. There's also fun side characters in the local gardiner and the local odd woman who has a thing with Vultures and clearly knows more than she's letting on (and is blatantly based upon Kingfisher's friend from online, Foxfeather Zenkova, who's a fun follow on twitter).
The result is a smart and enjoyable novel with great dialogue, characters, and more all the way, and if you love horror, well there's plenty of that too to put this one over the top. Those who aren't big horror fans like myself will still enjoy this one, especially if they've enjoyed others of Kingfisher's works, so A House with Good Bones is definitely worth a try - fun characters, fun dialogue with lots of quirkiness, and a bunch of surprises make this one another Kingfisher winner.
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