Hi Readers!

Your pal Jonny has been a little stressed lately, so I’ve been relying pretty heavily on reading to carry me forward.

Today’s review is for The Twisted Ones by T. Kingfisher.

Before reading this book I really enjoyed their books A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking and Bryony and Roses. These former reads were more fantasy while this one is more paranormal in the vibes department, but I’ve been dying to read more by this author.

Let’s see how it went!

Blurb

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.

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I am an Amazon and Bookshop.org affiliate and earn a small commission for purchases made through the links in this post at no cost to you. It’s a great way to help me keep things running on my blog if you’re already intrigued enough to make a purchase. 

The Review

I wanted to love this one, but it was just okay in the end.

This story centers on a woman that goes by Mouse. Her estranged grandma has passed on, and her dad has gotten her to help clean up the house before selling it. As she spends time in the house, strange things begin to happen and she finds a journal of her step grandfather. The journal tells of terrifying monsters in the woods, and Mouse finds herself on a direct collision course with forces darker than she could ever imagine.

The thing I enjoyed most about this book was the characters. Mouse had depth and personality that I appreciated. Her humor helped keep things light despite the harrowing things that are happening around her. I also really enjoyed Foxy’s character. She’s much older and had a lot of sass that always wins me over with elderly characters.

The writing was good, but it tended to drone in a lot of parts, which made it harder to stay invested in the story. Also, some of the chapters were extremely long with no spots to take a break. That was more of an annoyance than anything else, but it still affected my reading journey.

The main bone I have to pick is with the plot. The pacing was far too slow for the first half of the book. I enjoy a nice buildup, but I began to wonder when things would start happening. The journal entries tended to slow the plot down even more and didn’t really offer much insight into the mystery of things. I honestly wouldn’t call this horror. Some of the sightings and such are spooky, but this was more of a slow-paced paranormal mystery.

If you like slower-paced paranormal stories, you might enjoy this one.

That’s A Wrap!

Well that’s it for this book review. Like what you see? Leave a tip!

Have you read this book? Are there other similar books you’ve read that you simply have to gush about? Feel free to leave a comment. I’d love to start a conversation!

Have a great day!

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