A haunting Southern Gothic from an award-winning master of suspense, A House With Good Bones explores the dark, twisted roots lurking just beneath the veneer of a perfect home and family.
“Mom seems off.”
Her brother’s words echo in Sam Montgomery’s ear as she turns onto the quiet North Carolina street where their mother lives alone.
She brushes the thought away as she climbs the front steps. Sam’s excited for this rare extended visit, and looking forward to nights with just the two of them, drinking boxed wine, watching murder mystery shows, and guessing who the killer is long before the characters figure it out.
But stepping inside, she quickly realizes home isn’t what it used to be. Gone is the warm, cluttered charm her mom is known for; now the walls are painted a sterile white. Her mom jumps at the smallest noises and looks over her shoulder even when she’s the only person in the room. And when Sam steps out back to clear her head, she finds a jar of teeth hidden beneath the magazine-worthy rose bushes, and vultures are circling the garden from above.
To find out what’s got her mom so frightened in her own home, Sam will go digging for the truth. But some secrets are better left buried.
- A House With Good Bones by T. Kingfisher
- Published: MacMillan Audio on March 28, 2023
- Genre: Horror, thriller, paranormal
- Listening length: 6 hours 53 minutes
- Dates listened: 10.14.25 – 10.16.25
- Format: Audiobook (borrowed on Libby)
- Narrator: Mary Robinette Kowal
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- ⭐⭐⭐
- ☠☠
Keeping with the Halloween vibe, I decided to finally check out T. Kingfisher. I have one of her books collecting dust on my shelf right now. I’ve heard so many great things about her, especially from people who are into the dark and macabre, so I had high expectations. I needed an audiobook, so I took a quick scroll through Libby to see what horror books are available now, and this one popped up. It was also relatively short and sweet, which was a bonus, so I grabbed it and blew through it in 2 days time.
To be fair, because I had heard such great things about the author’s other books, I may have gone into it with unfairly high expectations, but this book was just….meh to me. It was somewhat entertaining. I chuckled at some of the writing from the FMC’s POV, and definitely found the first half of the book to be a bit creepy. It totally held my attention. However, in the last half, when everything comes to a head and we learn what’s truly going on inside the house, I found it a bit silly and the characters got less interesting and flat to me.
I brushed the dirt off my find. An old-fashioned quart mason jar. Not unusual in the South. It was full of small bits of something yellow-white and shaped like lumpy pebbles. The lid was rusted shut but I didn’t need to open it. Any archaeologist worth their salt would have recognized the ivory-colored shapes. I was holding a jar of human teeth.
If you have entomophobia, then this book might be a nightmare for you, and just what you’re looking for! lol Because you will learn way more about bugs and botany than you thought would ever be possible from a horror book. I suppose those little tidbits were moderately entertaining in that I also learned something new. Overall, this book was just ok. Not horrible, not great. I’m not counting this author out just yet, because I have her other book I need to get to, and so many people really love her books. I noticed even some of her die hard fans gave this a 1-3 star in the reviews, so maybe it was just a bad book and doesn’t showcase how great the author really is. We shall see in the future!
Deviant Angel Reads 
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