Book Review: “A House with Good Bones” by T. Kingfisher

Aug 10

Håfa adai! Welcome to my review of A House with Good Bones, a southern gothic horror by T. Kingfisher.

This book review consists of two parts: a spoiler-free plot summary and my thoughts on the story. In the second part, I give my personal rating and break down the setting and worldbuilding, storytelling, cast of characters, and themes. There may be some lightweight spoilers—such as how characters interact with each other and the world around them—but I will not give away any major plot twists or endings. I want to share my opinions of the book and maybe encourage you to purchase a copy of your own.

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Spoiler-Free Plot Summary

Samantha Montgomery’s upcoming months were supposed to be spent excavating middens (really old trash heaps) in search of insect remains at archaeological sites. But after an unexpected turn brings the excavation to a sudden halt, the 32-year-old archaeoentomologist is left a massive opening in her schedule. A concerning message from her brother about their mother prompts Sam to shift her plans to an extended stay in the quiet suburb on Lammergeier Lane in North Carolina. Even though the mother-daughter duo falls quickly into a routine of their shared interests—boxed wine and British murder mystery shows—Sam immediately observes what raised alarm bells for her brother.

The house Sam walked into was not the home she remembered. The walls of each room, once vibrant and colorful, are now bland shades of white. The pictures and art pieces her, her brother, and mother once loved to look at have been replaced by their deceased grandmother’s relics of a deserved-to-be-left-behind period of American history. Her mother Edith lives alone, yet she reacts and censors herself as if someone else is listening or watching them. And although Edith’s rose garden is bursting with botanical life, not a single insect can be found in sight and vultures keep a constant watch of the small house. Sam’s instincts are to uncover the truth, but sometimes the past and its secrets are best left covered.

My Thoughts on A House with Good Bones: 5 stars!

I have now read three titles from T. Kingfisher—What Moves the Dead, What Feasts at Night, and A House with Good Bones, in that order—and can positively say that she is quickly becoming one of my favorite current authors! I have even pre-ordered copies of What Stalks the Deep and Snake-Eater in anticipation of reading more of her work. Whether it is a book within a series or a standalone story, T. Kingfisher’s award-winning writing style, worldbuilding, and use of suspense are addicting to experience.

A House with Good Bones is told from the first-person perspective of Sam Montgomery, an archaeoentomologist (an archaeologist specializing in the analysis of insect remains) who detours her plans after the sudden cancellation of a project and after hearing concerning news from her brother about their mother. As a protagonist, Sam is intelligent, clever, funny, and compassionate. She maintains a level of respectful skepticism of her mother’s accounts of the previous months, until what she observes with her own eyes can no longer be dismissed with a rational explanation.

Edith Montgomery, Sam’s mother, is a kind and anxious woman who is either experiencing a haunting or is clinically losing her mind. T. Kingfisher masterfully writes Edith and Sam in such a way that they are believably a loving mother-daughter pair while not being the same character written twice. In addition to Sam and Edith are Gail (Edith’s best friend and the nemesis of Sam’s deceased grandmother) and Phil Pressley (Edith’s handyman and grandson of the neighborhood’s one-man neighborhood watch). Contrary to what Sam’s grandmother lead her and her brother to believe, Gail is not a classless witch! She is actually quite lovely, intelligent, charismatic, and deeply caring of her friends and neighbors. And although his grandfather is the neighborhood busybody, Phil is welcoming and non-judgmental.

Strong themes throughout A House with Good Bones are the notions that hurt people hurt people and that sometimes one person’s idea of “protecting” others is just another way to harm others. I will be intentionally vague to avoid giving away spoilers. The events Sam and the others experience are initially associated with the life, choices, and actions of Sam’s grandmother, Gran Mae. As Sam learns more about the grandmother who passed when she was child, she learns to feel sympathy for the child that Gran Mae was while no longer being able to feel empathy for the grandmother she knew Gran Mae to be.

I give T. Kingfisher’s A House with Good Bones 5 out of 5 stars! I could not put this book down. In what I would consider to be a low-intensity horror, T. Kingfisher’s prose is all at once spooky and hilarious. The story is an unsettling slow burn filled with entomology and archaeology factoids (the kind that are true but trivial, not the kind that are false but presented as true) and a twist I did not anticipate. I appreciate the ways in which the characters seem so “nice and normal” without being overbearing or lacking sense. I highly recommend A House with Good Bones to longtime fans of gothic horrors as well as to those who are new to the genre.

Dångkulo' na' saina ma'åse'! Thank you so much for reading my review of A House with Good Bones by T. Kingfisher.

Rating Cheat Sheet

4.75 - 5.00 stars: Everyone should read this book! (If you’re into that sort of thing.)
4.00 - 4.50 stars: I appreciated many aspects of this book. I recommend it!
3.00 - 3.75 stars: I liked some aspects of this book. I won’t revisit it, but someone else might really like it.
2.00 - 2.75 stars: There were some things I appreciated about this book, but I do not recommend it.
0.25 - 1.75 stars: I do not recommend this book. I did not enjoy or appreciate the experience of it.

Post Date: 18 August 2025