Rach's Reading Club

A House With Good Bones   by T. Kingfisher

A new release by T. Kingfisher that I couldn't put down. The main character, Sam(antha), is an archeo-entomologist who moves in with her mom when her next dig gets derailed and her housemates have already let her room to someone else. Her mom, now living in Sam's deceased grandmother's house, has changed in unexpected and shocking ways since Sam saw her last, both physically and psychologically. Sam's responses to her are genuine and relatable. While she tries to work out what's going on with her mom without upsetting her, Sam discovers increasingly creepy things about the changes in her mom, the house – and the yard. Her grandmother's rose garden has no insects in it. Sam the entomologist emerges and digs in, and what she finds brings on more danger than she, her mom, or her neighbors could have imagined.

Not your trope old haunted house story – the house is in a subdivision and was purchased new by Sam's grandparents (I'm thinking circa 1950's?) Sam is delightful and so human. Terrifying things occur and she and her mom clean up messes, and then Sam looks for reasonable explanations, continually pushing for a logical, scientific reason for the things she experiences and sees – and then eats pizza and drinks boxed wine to comfort herself to sleep. The neighbors she befriends are real and wonderful. I'd love to have "the old witch" at the end of the street in my neighborhood.

The great thing about T. Kingfisher is that she follows the saying, "write what you know." This story takes place in a fictional location not far from where she, herself lives. She's a birder, serious gardener, and bug fanatic (check her blog!) with an awesome sense of humor. And what she doesn't know first-hand, she researches or learns from friends. Yes, I loved this book, and I love this author.

(Rachel: I got a little carried away with this one! I think I'll copy it into a review on Amazon for her (Kingfisher). The story takes place in Pondsboro, NC - she lives in Pittsboro, which is about 40 minutes from where I live. I've never met her, but I've probably seen her and not known it )

   

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