Review copy was received from Purchased. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
A House with Good Bones by T Kingfisher Narrator: Mary Robinette Kowal
Published by MacMillan Audio on March 28, 2023
Genres: Fantasy, Horror
Length: 6 hours, 52 minutes
Format: Audiobook
Source: Purchased
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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.
T. Kingfisher is a favorite author of mine, but I primarily read her fantasy. A House With Good Bones is more horror-lite and southern gothic. It was both funny and a little bit creepy, until it was a lot a bit creepy. After this book, I will never look at vultures and roses in the same way.
Sam is by profession an archaeo-entomologist (looking for bugs of the past, kinda like Jurassic Park but not, also don’t ask her about Jurassic park). When the dig she was on finds human remains, it is postponed for awhile as that gets sorted out. This is deemed a great time to go stay with her mother and hang out for awhile until she heads back to work. Plus her brother thinks there is something wrong with their mom and wonders if Sam can help.
Sam finds right away that, yes, something is going on with her mother; no, she has no idea what it is or how to help. I mean it isn’t a red flag to repaint the house in beige and ecru but it should be. And the picture that used to hang on the wall when her grandmother was alive and living in that house is back up and there are a lot of other little things that shouldn’t mean anything, but altogether add up to everything feeling wrong in the house they grew up in.
There are vultures hanging out in the front yard watching the house, and no bugs in the garden. Sam has so many questions and no answers. She will get to the bottom of this, she has watched 200 episodes of a British crime drama so she is well on her way to being a master sleuth.
“(I am still not entirely sure what vicars are, since we don’t have them over here. I think they’re like cozy priests? As far as I can tell, they primarily exist in order to solve murders or be murdered on British crime shows.)”
The best thing about this book is the narrator. Sam is great! She is quirky, weirdly into bugs and has a great sense of humor. I loved her interactions with her mom. They were so close and you could tell how tight her entire family was. She is horrible with men…I mean horrible and her interactions with master gardener Phil are odd and hilarious.
The story starts off slow in a sleepy little community until the creep factor builds and then the mad dash to the end. Overall this was a great story for me that might have been just plausible enough for the most part.
“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.”
Narration:
Mary Robinette Kowal is pretty known to me as a narrator. She narrates another series I’ve loved and does great with the gothic feel of the story. She also has a great delivery for Sam’s snark that really sells the story. I had a great time during her performance. I was able to listen at my usual 1.5x speed.
Listen to a clip: HERE
About Mary Robinette Kowal
Mary Robinette Kowal was the 2008 recipient of the Campbell Award for Best New Writer and her short story “For Want of a Nail” won the 2011 Hugo. Her stories have appeared in Strange Horizons, Asimov’s, and several Year’s Best anthologies. She is the author of Shades of Milk and Honey and Glamour in Glass (Tor 2012).
Mary, a professional puppeteer and voice actor, has performed for LazyTown (CBS), the Center for Puppetry Arts, Jim Henson Pictures and founded Other Hand Productions. Her designs have garnered two UNIMA-USA Citations of Excellence, the highest award an American puppeteer can achieve. She also records fiction for authors such as Kage Baker, Cory Doctorow and John Scalzi.
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I loved this too, so funny! And Sam’s character is one of my favorite Kingfisher characters to date😁
Sam is great. I love that she writes women who do not look perfect, aren’t looking to jump into an ‘accepted’ role and just do their own thing.
Def added this to my TBR list. I read What Moves the Dead by this author recently and I adored it.
Yes her Horror lite has been great.
I do love some creepy horror every once in awhile, and every review I read of this book makes it sound so good. I have to read this one! 😀
I had a great time with it. Suspenseful, a bit creepy and has some unique and interesting characters.
I need to try a Kingfisher book someday! They always sound so good. And a good narrator to get things rolling? Sounds like a no-brainer. Great review; thanks for sharing! 🙂
While I like her horror-lite…Swordheart is still my favorite.
So this is an author I’ve been meaning to read, and this one sounds like it might be the one to start with! As a Jurassic Park fan, loved the books, the way you framed the character’s opinion about that makes me amused already. Thanks for sharing this one!