A House with Good Bones

Samantha Montgomery is worried that her mother is losing it. Sam was looking forward to a nice long visit with her mom while on furlough from her job, but now that she's back home, things seem off. The house has been painted shades of cream and ecru, instead of her mom's chosen bright colors. Gone are the funky art prints her mom favored, and in their places are family photos and the old artwork her grandmother loved. In fact, the whole house looks just like it did back when her grandmother was alive, and Sam's mom has started praying before meals and giving Sam dirty looks when she swears, which she never did before. And then, there's the jar of human teeth that Sam finds buried under a rose bush...

I'm super not into horror, but I'm to show more the point where I trust T. Kingfisher's writing, and I don't regret it. This book definitely leans into the Southern Gothic, and there are definitely some scary elements, but I listened to it with great enjoyment and no nightmares after. Mary Robinette Kowal does an excellent job with the audiobook narration. I liked the affectionate mother/daughter relationship, and the tiniest hint of possible romance. There's also plenty of humor. Recommended, even for the squeamish. show less

Two descriptions I never thought I'd put together about a book: funny and Southern Gothic horror. Yet T. Kingfisher pulls it off in A House with Good Bones.

The story is told from Sam Montgomery's point of view, an archeologist with a specialty in entomology. Sam moves back home to North Carolina to live with her mom for a while when the archeology dig she was part of is put on hold. Odd signs start immediately with a vulture sitting on the mailbox as Sam pulls into the driveway of her mom's house. Then Sam notices that her mom isn't acting like herself, having dropped a lot of weight and seeming very anxious, and the house has been redecorated with many of her dead grandmother's favorite things. Sam is determined to get to the bottom show more of what is going on with her mother.

If you are triggered at all by bugs you may want to avoid this book. Otherwise, this story is classic T. Kingfisher. Sam is hilarious, has a quirky sense of humor that I enjoyed and she's seriously into bugs. The story is a slow burn where the tension builds very gradually as Sam continues to dig into her family's odd history in an attempt to find out what's wrong with her mom. It's more spooky than scary right up until around the 2/3rds mark and then that flips as the main horror action takes off.

While The Hollow Places is still my favorite T. Kingfishers horror that I've read so far, this was a lot of fun. Plus I learned something about vultures! show less

When Sam ends up with a gap between archaeology projects, she returns to her ancestral home in rural North Carolina to visit her mom for a few weeks. Her brother mentioned that something seemed “off” at the house and he was right - their previously irreverent and modern single mother has redecorated in the Confederate style and won't let Sam curse or eat before saying grace. She’s almost acting like…. Sam's bigoted dead grandmother, who owned the house when Sam as a kid. But Sam is a scientist, and does not believe that kind of thing, even in the face of a swarm of a million ladybugs or dreams about being shredded to pieces by her grandmother's rose bushes.

Not a particularly deep book, but very enjoyable horror. Sam’s whole show more situation, especially her relationship with her mother, is soooo relatable. Her mom fully knows that the house is haunted by racist grandma, but doesn't want to bother her children by telling them about it. All of the neighbors are vivid characters, and I really love the pet vulture. The action scenes don't go on too long, and everything wraps up nicely. show less

Sam returns to her family home in North Carolina and bad things begin happening almost immediately. Sam's first "greeter" waiting to welcome her home is a vulture perched on the mailbox. It's watching the house like any good "watchdog" would. Sam hardly recognizes her mother. She's lost so much weight and is unusually anxious, even fearful, about something. The house feels and looks strange. The brightly colored walls of before are now painted a dull white and old decorations from her late grandmother time are displayed all over the house. Sam is worried... but she is determined to find out what is the cause of all this strangeness that now surrounds the house. As a biologist I had to chuckle at Sam’s nerdy opinion on insects and show more arthropods. It added the balance that was badly needed to offset the dark secrets that she eventually discovers. Sam’s humor also provided a realistic commentary on racism and generational conflict in the "old south".... not bad but rather comical. The main problem with this story and what lost it a half star, is that the main plot twist is glaringly obvious, way to early...almost from the start of the story. Sam herself is also too oblivious to all the glaring clues. Nevertheless, this was a really good story.... especially if you are a horror fan. Sam’s thoughts were interesting and revealing as she uses her scientific training to try to "make rational the irrational". The final part of the book contains enough gory detail to make any horror lover squirm. The final conflict could have lasted a bit longer, especially when it had had such a huge buildup for about 75% of the story. Still, I had a great journey with it. show less

Kingfisher, T. A House with Good Bones. E-book ed., Tor Nightfire, 2023.
A House with Good Bones begins: “There was a vulture on the mailbox of my grandmother’s house. As omens go, it doesn’t get much more obvious than that.” Samantha, an archaeoentomologist visiting her mother, finds her acting strangely, and it is not because of the vulture. The North Carolina house is having ghost problems, and ladybugs are swarming in places they shouldn’t.
T. Kingfisher says she writes horror stories. She does, but that is like Mark Twain saying he was a travel writer. True enough, but it misses the point. Kingfisher writes horror that draws you in with its humor, local color, and fully realized characters. The second paragraph combines show more all three elements in a few sentences: “This was a black vulture, not a turkey vulture. That is as much as I could tell you. I have a biology degree, but it’s in bugs, not birds.” She, who says her brain is a “font of useless knowledge,” goes on to tell us how to tell one species of vulture from another. Four stars for this story, bugs and all. show less

Honestly can’t think of a thing about it that I disliked. The story itself—something wrong in mother’s house—was a solid idea, and the buildup to the explanation was deliciously paced. During Sam’s first “sleep paralysis” episode, for one, she seemed more upset than afraid, and the escalation of her fear through subsequent strange episodes let the fear build on the reader as well. When she saw the notes in her mother’s room, true evidence that something was very wrong, I felt my own hair standing up the same way she did.

I even sort of enjoyed the crank neighbor. Letting him have his moment made me smile. Lots of laughter had in this scary book, actually, which made it all the better.

After a dig opportunity is put on hold, Sam, an archaeoentomologist, goes to stay with her mother for a while. Sam’s brother has mentioned that their mom seems off, and it doesn’t take long for Sam to see what he means: their usually free-spirited mother has repainted her once-brightly-colored home all in shades of ecru, and their grandmother’s weird old racist paintings are back up on the walls. She also doesn’t seem to want to hear anything at all critical about said grandmother, and in fact gets noticeably nervous at such talk. The house used to be Grand Mae’s, and it seems to Sam that, years after her dead, the nasty old bag is strangely present again, at least in her mom’s mind. She soon discovers that it may not be all show more in her mother’s head, though, when strange and scary things start happening to Sam, too.

An interesting twist on the haunted house genre. The plot is interesting and original, but what really makes it a great read for me is that character of Sam herself. She’s very well drawn, very believable, and has a fantastic 1st person voice. show less