A House with Good Bones Book Review

Hi everyone and welcome back to the blog! Today, I am back with another book review. I’ve been in such a Summerween mood – my inner fall girl is busting to come out. Which means during the warmer months that means it’s time for some summertime thrillers and horror novels. So, let’s get into it!

A House with Good Bones by T. Kingfisher follows Sam, who is staying with her mom for some time while she’s on leave from her job. Sam’s brother has mentioned that their mother has been acting weird. As soon as Sam steps into her childhood home, she immediately knows something is wrong. For one the walls are all a sterile white when they used to be so colorful. Her mom jumps at every little noise and acts as if someone is watching her. Sam is someone who relies on the facts, so what happens when the things she experiences in the house can’t be supported by facts?

This is a southern gothic horror novel, and honestly, I thought it was really interesting. This is my first T. Kingfisher novel, and I’ve been meaning to pick up one of her books for a while now. I see them on the shelf all the time at the bookstore. I stumbled across this one at the library and knew I had to pick it up.

The book is less than 250 pages, so a very fast read. It was not a very dark horror novel—it wasn’t gruesome, I wasn’t scared, I could read this while home alone, etc. It had a lot of charm and character if that makes sense.

I liked the southern gothic vibe – I liked the hidden secrets, strange folklore, eccentric characters, and curious family histories. This was horror but with a lot of comedy and warmth, like a cozy mystery—omg it’s a “cozy horror.” New phrase dubbed!

Anyways, Sam, our female protagonist is probably one of the most realistic characters I’ve ever read. She was relatable, she was funny, and she used humor to cope with the weird things happening around her.

I was not expecting the ending. To be honest, I really wasn’t sure what was going to happen or how the story would wrap up. But the ending is optimistic unlike most gothic horrors. Sam and her mom are able to recognize the generational trauma and how it’s affected them and take matters into their own hands to break the cycle.

One of the most interesting things is the vultures. I don’t think I’ve ever read another novel that included vultures in it. Usually when people think of vultures, they think of death and decay, but it’s important to remember that vultures are scavengers. They don’t create death; they just clean up after it. They end up playing a different part in the novel than originally anticipated.

Overall, I gave this 3/5 stars, and I would recommend checking this out!

Alright folks, that is all I have for this week! Come back next week for another blog post. As always, thank you for reading :)