Sharing more spooky reads! This one's a personal favorite that I read back in 2019, and which I still think about every time I hear a woodpecker tapping away on a tree trunk.
Because I'm a masochist, I gave myself a firm Christmas Eve release date for Golden Eagle. I wanted to give myself a full month for editing and proofing, which meant that, with Halloween looming, I was sweating that deadline. I still had the entirety of the multi-cut-scene action finale of the novel to write, and mental exhaustion set in hard. One of my strategies in that kind of situation is to keep a book that I'm reading at my desk, and work in short bursts. I write a few hundred words, then pick up my Kindle and read a few pages. Instead of the drag of checking email or scrolling social media, reading fiction in this instance helps keep the brain muscles working, and enables me to power through high-octane chapters. In 2019, I downloaded The Twisted Ones on a whim, and it helped me finish the office building/Ingraham Institute showdowns in Golden Eagle. It also became one of my favorite horror novels.
T. Kingfisher's prose is a deft blend of casual, intimate, and literary. Colorful and lyrical descriptions are brought down to earth through the immediate familiarity her first-person narrators establish in the opening paragraphs. It's a kind of comfortable intimacy that persists through the course of the novel, and which makes us terrified for the main character - "Mouse" in this instance - as the familiar and the quaint and the safe give way to gasp-inducing horror. Kingfisher is good: she's clever but doesn't need to flex those muscles in a braggadocious way; her writing is easy. You slide into it right away and never want to leave. Best of all, and a rarity in horror fiction: her characters are likeable. The mains, yes, but the supporting cast, too.
I won't offer spoilers in case you want to go read the book (and you should!), but the basic premise is that our main character, nicknamed Mouse, inherits a junk-filled house after her great-uncle dies, and she makes the trek with her dog out into the woods to start sorting through the detritus of his hoarding streak. Initially, the unsettling occurrences can be chalked up to a new, unfamiliar place, and the typical noise characteristic of all forests. But things quickly go sideways from there. (Like I said before, woodpeckers weird me out a little to this day, after reading the book.) Amidst the scares, Mouse makes friends with her kindly neighbors, and, no worries, the dog makes it to the end; that's one spoiler I don't think you'll mind.
Reading this book felt like stumbling upon a horror novel written specifically to meet my tastes: well-rounded, likeable characters, creepy-crawly atmosphere, legitimate scares, but a positive ending. As much as I love spooky stories, I do so hate dour or dire endings. I'm a weeny that way.
This spooky season, I hope to read A House With Good Bones by the same author. I also want to recommend her novel The Hollow Places, which scared the heck out of me, and also gave me a whole new outlook on river otters (IYKYK).
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