A House with Good Bones by T. Kingfisher

Dates Read: September 23, 2024 – September 30, 2024
Date Published: March 28, 2023
Source: Owned ebook

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Sam is an archaeoentomologist, she studies insects. Her work sends her all over where she digs for the remains of bugs, studies, and identifies them. But when a dig site reveals the remains of a human, Sam finds herself on standby until the site can be investigated and cleared. With nowhere else to go after subletting her room in her apartment, she travels to her childhood home, her late Gran Mae’s home which her mother now owns since the passing of Gran Mae. Upon arriving, she finds her mother acting strangely… and the vultures that stalk the home even more so. Be wary the rosebushes, for they have secrets far greater than you could ever imagine.

“We stopped checking for monsters under our bed when we realized they were inside us.” (Charles Darwin)

It takes me a while to write my book reviews these days. The thing is, once I sit on these stories for a while, I realize that the punch I thought they packed barely left a bruise. I can get so into a story that I don’t stop to realize the flaws and complexities interwoven into the words.

A House with Good Bones was one of those stories.

I sat on the edge of my seat, wondering how this slow-burn paranormal mystery would unravel. The tension and anticipation kept those serotonin levels high. It wasn’t until I finished the book and thought about it for a couple of days that I realized that while I did really enjoy the book, it wasn’t as great as I had first determined it to be.

When the curtain closed, so many things were left to question. The role of the vultures left me feeling empty by the end. The story, while unique and in-the-moment gripping, fell a little flat at the end.

Ya know those movies where tension rises and rises and rises until you’ve reached the last ten minutes where everything is packed into the final crescendo? This book. This book made me ask the question, “What exactly is going on here?” for the first 80%. The last 10% was me getting whiplash, trying to keep up with the chaos on the pages and understand what the final conclusion of all these events actually was.

The vultures and the relationship between Sam and Phil held no weight in the conclusion of the story at all. So why were they mentioned SO OFTEN in the book? That’s the most horror-inducing facet of this entire book.

The more I think, the more issues I have.

That being said, I really did enjoy this story.

The inner dialogue with Sam grew a tad bit monotonous, and I still fail to understand why Sam’s mother, who was close with her children, didn’t just take them away from the home and let them know what was going on. Though, I suppose if she had we wouldn’t have much of a story. I think that’s where my real problems lie with this book. It, perhaps, should have been a short story?

My phone informed me that it was absolutely talking to the internet, it was happy to talk to the internet, it loved talking to the internet, then as soon as I tried to check my email, it told me it had never heard of the internet and wasn’t entirely sure it existed.

Regardless, this was enjoyable and an absolutely WILD read.  

Gail was my favorite. Can I have Gail’s story now? Thx.

A side note: The main character’s name is Sam Montgomery. IYKYK. I struggled through the entire book to picture anything but Hilary Duff.

Anyway, give me a trash heap over a grave any day. A grave tells you how people act when they’re on their best behavior in front of Death. Trash heaps tell you how they actually lived.

Trigger warnings: sleep paralysis, LOTS of descriptive bug talk, racism, past accounts of child abuse, body shaming.