A review by displacedcactus
A House with Good Bones by T. Kingfisher

dark emotional mysterious slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No
This is probably the weakest of T. Kingfisher's horror books, but a weak Kingfisher book is still a really good book.

While things eventually get supernaturally creepy, a lot of the first part of the book centers around the very mundane and relatable fear that comes from your parents getting older while you live far away. Our main character Sam spends a lot of time wondering whether someone is after her mom, or if she's showing early signs of dementia.

The most important thing to me about this book, however, is that Sam is an archeoentomologist (person who studies insects in archeological digs) and spends the book giving random bug facts and Latin names for the insects she sees. This immediately rocketed her near the top of my list of favorite characters ever and I could read an entire book of her complaining about pesticides and trying to identify scale insects from photos.

There's also a one-winged vulture named Hermes and he is a Very Good Boi.
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