THE TWISTED ONES BY T. KINGFISHER: BOOK REVIEW

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The Twisted Ones is a creepy folk horror with nods to (or maybe a unknowing sequel to) ‘The White People’ by Arthur Machen. From a troubled childhood into an equally (by the sounds) troubled adulthood, Mouse has the unfortunate duty of going to clean up, and empty out, her deceased grandmothers’ home. Not a task anyone relishes, even more so when you didn’t really get along with the lady, or even like her very much. I thought it was a nice touch that they acknowledged that families may not get along or even like each other, but if you need them, they will be there.

With her Redbone Coonhound ‘Bongo’, she begins the arduous task of going through one cluttered room after another in this house of a hoarder, eventually coming across her late step-grandfather’s journal. It seems like nonsense, the ramblings of a mad man, but then Mouse witnesses the ‘ramblings’ first hand in the woods.

“I made faces like the faces on the rocks, and I twisted myself about like the twisted ones, and I lay down flat on the ground like the dead ones.”

I quite enjoyed this tale, more so for the character element than the story itself. There are some great characters, Foxy particular being my favourite of the book. A vivacious lady with a heart of gold who has no trouble saying what she thinks.  I also found the descriptive element, and the snark of Mouse quite refreshing. I especially enjoyed a scene early on while she is going through the house and finds ‘the doll room’, referring to it as a “monument to infanticide”. I find dolls extremely creepy, especially those porcelain ones that could almost be real.

The Twisted Ones is a great read, particularly like I said, if you are a fan of The White People. It full of chills and it genuinely creepy with a soft side, the relationship between Mouse and Bongo. It’s a fantastic character story, filled with ups and downs and some great relationships with a side of scary.

The Twisted Ones by T. Kingfisher

When a young woman clears out her deceased grandmother’s home in rural North Carolina, she finds long-hidden secrets about a strange colony of beings in the woods.

When Mouse’s dad asks her to clean out her dead grandmother's house, she says yes. After all, how bad could it be?

Answer: pretty bad. Grandma was a hoarder, and her house is stuffed with useless rubbish. That would be horrific enough, but there’s more—Mouse stumbles across her step-grandfather’s journal, which at first seems to be filled with nonsensical rants…until Mouse encounters some of the terrifying things he described for herself.

Alone in the woods with her dog, Mouse finds herself face to face with a series of impossible terrors—because sometimes the things that go bump in the night are real, and they’re looking for you. And if she doesn’t face them head on, she might not survive to tell the tale.

From Hugo Award–winning author Ursula Vernon, writing as T. Kingfisher.” Goodreads

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