The Twisted Ones by T Kingfisher
I would like to thank Titan Books for a copy of this novel in exchange for a fair and honest review
Published – Out Now
Publisher – Titan Books
Price - £8.99 paperback £4.74 Kindle ebook
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.
One of the most tragic things about death is knowing that at some point you have to go through someone’s possessions. The pieces of our lives you may not be aware of or they don’t show to the wider world. Why did my uncle keep a giant box of boxes comes to mind. Sometimes we may find that not everything was as we thought. In the startlingly creepy The Twisted Ones by T Kingfisher a woman is going through the belongings of her less than loved grandmother and comes across her step-grandfather’s secrets and a hidden world she was never aware of.
Mouse is a copy-editor and is asked by her ailing father to go to her recently deceased grandmother’s North Carolina home in the middle of the nowhere and check out if the house is salvageable or needs to be knocked down. She discovers her grandmother was a hoarder – rooms filled with newspapers, dolls, detritus and filth. But while debating whether to call in a bulldozer she finds what appears to be a diary of Frederick Cotgrave – her step grandfather. She is initially amused to find he was as annoyed by her as everyone else but reading further on she finds strange references to places and people who live somewhere hidden and finds him again and again repeating the same strange rituals and words which may have led to his own mysterious death. Mouse decides she won’t leave until she finds his other writings but then the house gets visited each night by strange noises and shadows I the garden that get closer and closer each night.
If you’re looking for a Halloween read you will really want to pick this up. First off, a huge part of the success of the story-telling is Mouse’s voice. She’s very matter of fact but with a wicked self-conscious sense of humour she knows going to a deserted house is bound to do strange thing s to her mind and then they happen/ Mouse is someone you’d love to have a coffee with and chat to because they’re a good witty person and in tandem we get the rather loveable Bongo her daft but loyal dog. This duo win you over ina few chapters and skilfully by liking Mouse so much you’re being pulled into the story-telling device that Mouse also is. Mouse’s inner voice allows you to slowly see reality shift around her and start to fear for what may happen as the sun sets. Kingfisher then creates in the writings that Mouse finds other storytellers who add their own experiences and this begins to knit the wider plot.
The plot is where the horror starts to initially boil and then erupt. A creepy house not near very much is in itself unsettling, but Kingfisher uses Mouses narration to unsettle the reader. Noises, shadows and on occasion seeing Mouses own words turn against her all create a wonderful sense of foreboding. Halfway through the novel changes direction and rather than simply a haunted house we move into something stranger a form of folk horror of hidden worlds, strange rituals and the way this is knitted together is brilliantly delivered. I especially loved how Kingfisher uses the double take as we read a normal sounding scene and suddenly something unexpected take over. You may find yourself increasingly aware of noises in your house reading this or getting very nervous if something hits your window.
I really liked the depth that Kingfisher’s tale creates not simply that we see Mouse and her family’s relationships for decades but the mythology being used and how other residents of this area have adapted to it. You may recognise some aspects and others feel logical ideas off this to explain the weirdness we now experience. This allows the eventual finale to ring true and pleasingly deliver on the tension that was there throughout. I’ll refrain saying much about what is out in the woods but when finally met you’ll never want to meet them they are memorable for all the wrong reasons!
If you are a fan of psychological horror and the idea of weaving ghost tales across the centuries coming together then this is going to be the read for you. Curl up, turn the lights low and prepare to start huddling lower and lower into your chair…you may find then you want all the lights on tonight.
