After reading a few books by T. Kingfisher, I’ve come to the conclusion that their books aren’t for me. I’m always left disappointed and wanting more. The Twisted Ones sounded like it would be a deliciously spooky time but it was tedious and filled with cringe millennial humor; I can say that because I am a millennial. This review will have slight spoilers.
Synopsis:
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.
My Thoughts:
- Rating-
Before writing this review, I looked back at my review for Kingfisher’s What Moves The Dead and I feel the same way about this book as I did that one. In both, there is SO much potential for a truly creepy story but it’s ruined by bland characters, humor that falls flat and a lackluster ending.
The Twisted Ones started off really well. I was invested in Mouse and her dog taking on the challenge of cleaning out her deceased grandmother’s home. The setting of the old, hoarded up house at the edge of the woods was creepy and put me on edge. Things got even more nerve wracking when Mouse began to hear knocking on the windows and seeing unnatural looking deer running around outside. I also thought the way Mouse discovered the stone circle in the woods and the deer hanging from the tree was really well written and I had high hopes for where the story was going… then it fell apart.
I started to lose interest when Mouse’s dog went missing. After that, she really began to unravel the mystery of the land, along with the help of her eccentric (annoying) neighbor. However, what should have been the most stressful and scary part of the book was ruined by Mouse constantly telling jokes. There was never time to just sit with the uncomfortable moments and let the dread build because of how Mouse reacted to things. If it was my dog missing in the woods that are haunted by dead and mutilated deer creatures, I would NOT be cracking jokes and sitting around… that’s just me, though.
I won’t spoil the overall climax but I will say, I wanted so much more from it. I found it to be boring and again, Mouse was making stupid jokes the whole time. There weren’t many actual answers given about how the creatures came to be and the ending as a whole needed to be more fleshed out. That’s how I’ve felt about every one of T. Kingfisher’s books, though. They’re one dimensional and always need so much more detail.
Oh, the dog does live, so I was happy about that.
Final Thoughts:
The covers and titles for Kingfisher’s books always catch my attention but unfortunately, the stories within don’t work for me. If you’ve read this one I’d love to know what you think about it. Thanks for reading and have a great day!
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