The Twisted Ones by T. Kingfisher

Blurb:

Winner of the RUSA Award for Best Horror

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 in this chilling novel that reads like The Blair Witch Project meets The Andy Griffith Show.

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, The Twisted Ones is a terrifying tale inspired by Arthur Machen's classic horror short story The White People that's bound to keep you up all night—from both fear and anticipation of what happens next.

Review:

Stuck clearing out her late (and notoriously callous) grandmother’s house at her ailing father’s request, Mouse discovers not a normal house to prepare for sale but rather the abode of a hoarder and the creeping things beyond it. Armed with her hound, Bongo, her old truck, a couple of kind neighbors, a nearby small town, and her personal determination to keep her word to her father because he so rarely asks for her help, Mouse sets out to clear out the house. That is, until odd things begin happening.

Soon enough, Mouse discovers her step-grandfather’s journal, which contains rants that she realizes might be terrifying hints at the horrific realities she would soon face. Harassed by monsters in the woods and a plethora of improbable horrors, she must decide how much her word to her father means…and if she has other motives for remaining in her grandmother’s house as things grow worse. Things that might revolve around her step-grandfather, and the journal he left behind.

I feel like every few reviews, I post a review for a book by T. Kingfisher. I hope those who read this aren’t tired of this author or her books yet, because I’m sure there are more reviews of her works to come. Partially because T. Kingfisher is a favorite author of mine, but mostly because her novels are some of the most phenomenal writing I’ve ever read. Much like the focus of this review, The Twisted Ones.

I cannot emphasize enough how utterly captivating The Twisted Ones is, and how viscerally spooky it is as a horror novel. I’ve never read such a prolific horror author, nor one who has such a masterful understanding of how to write excellent horror, yet books like this one prove her skill to me again and again.

The Twisted Ones is yet another literary feat. The voice of the main character, cutely nicknamed Mouse, is one of the best parts of the narrative. She’s relatable, she’s diverse by way of being overweight, and she’s strong despite every horrible thing that occurs to her throughout the novel. The side characters are equally as refreshing, including a diverse set of personalities and identities that make the story all the richer.

One of my favorite things about Kingfisher’s work is that her novels are haunting without negating beatific prose. Although simple, Kingfisher’s prose is simply stunning, and it paints such incredibly vivid pictures of whatever it is she’s describing in her books. I could envision the grandmother’s house, the eerie forest, and all other settings mentioned in the narrative with ease due to her writing skill in descriptive passages. Not only are they well-written, but they’re not overbearing or overly flowery, which is something a lot of prose writers struggle with.

Like all of her other horror works that I’ve read, The Twisted Ones is terrifically dark and moody, and the monsters within are original yet horrifying. Kingfisher has a knack for twisting horror tropes on their head, using existing terrors or concepts and making them worse. The creatures and threats in this novel were much the same.

Again, as I’ve probably said a dozen times in prior reviews of Kingfisher’s books: READ THEM!!! JUST DO IT!!! I PROMISE IT WILL BE WORTH IT!!!!