Welcome to Read This Book, a weekly newsletter where I recommend one book that I think you absolutely must read. The books will vary across genre and age category to include new releases, backlist titles, and classics. If you’re ready to explode your TBR, buckle up!
This week’s pick is a spotlight on one of the horror novels I read this year! I’ve never been much of a horror reader until this year of weirdness and reading slumps, when scary stuff suddenly sounded appealing. It was then that I realized, duh, the horror genre is varied and interesting and not all horror books are for me, but some of them definitely hit all my buttons…which is the case with today’s pick! This is also my spouse’s favorite book they read this year, and since they don’t read much fiction I was contractually obliged to read it, but I found myself loving it for a lot of the same reasons they did!
Content warning: Kidnapping, action violence, hoarding
Mouse is a 30-something woman who works as a freelance editor and has just gone through a rough break up. So when her elderly father calls and asks if she’ll clear out her recently deceased grandmother’s house, Mouse agrees even though everyone disliked her grandmother. She packs up her dog and her laptop and drives south, only to find her grandmother’s house is stuffed to the gills with stuff. Turns out Grandma was a hoarder, and no one knew! Mouse gets to work cleaning out the place, but it’s not long before she suspects there’s something in the woods beyond the house…and then she discovers a journal written years ago by her step-grandfather that confirms that suspicion.
I just want to say first and foremost, this is a book in which the dog doesn’t die. I repeat, the DOG DOES NOT DIE. Okay, phew. I just had to get that out of the way, because the dog, Bongo, is really a delightful character and I couldn’t stomach a horror novel with such a lovable idiot of a dog if he came to any harm. What really made this book a winner for me was that it’s creepy and funny in equal measure. Mouse’s voice is wry, sarcastic, a little self-deprecating, but also strangely endearing. What starts as a not-so-fun but doable task turns into a real nightmare as things go bump in the night, and the authenticity of the rural elements had me super freaked out. (Let’s just say that while I’ve never been afraid of the dark and I’ve lived in the middle of the woods before without any problem, this book put a little fear in me!) I also loved all of the supporting characters, from Bongo to Mouse’s neighbors/friends who definitely and completely believe her when things turn scary (which I found refreshing–we didn’t have to go through the rigamarole of questioning anyone’s sanity). I also appreciated that this book doesn’t rely on body horror or lots of gore (two things that I have a low tolerance for before noping out), but instead the tension and fear comes from the unknown, the uncanny, and the suspense of when whatever is going bump in the night will finally step into the light. And when it finally does–oof.
I loved this book, and it made me a fan of T Kingfisher! Bonus: I listened on audio, which was narrated by Hillary Huber and I loved it. I downloaded Kingfisher’s newest book, The Hollow Places, also narrated by Huber, and I can’t wait to read it. Other Rioters have called it the scariest book they read this year, and I am excited? Nervous? Both?
Happy reading!
Tirzah
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