REVIEW: The Twisted Ones

The Twisted Ones
Author: T. Kingfisher

Melissa travels to Pondsboro, NC to clear out her grandmother's house after her death. Her relationship with her grandmother was complicated. The woman was mean, difficult and just....off. Turns out she was a hoarder, too. As she slowly starts to clear out the house, she finds her step-grandfather's diary and notices strange things about the surrounding woods. Weird rock carvings. Disfigured animals. Strange effigies. And the tapping sounds....always the tapping. Melissa -- Mouse to her friends -- and her faithful dog Bongo soon discover there are a lot more things lurking in the trees than just deer. Terrible, horrible things.

I live in NC. In fact, my house sits down in a quiet neighborhood with a dense stand of woods right across the road from our house. We live in the middle of town, but deer frequently come through our yard and bound across the street in front of my car. The hills around the small town where we live are covered with tall mountain trees. The forest is beautiful.....but also thick and dark in places. Perfect setting for a horror story. I kept comparing Pondsboro to where I live.....homey, southern people with some weird commune/quirky stuff going on. And.....some real evil crap hiding in the trees. Sucked me right in. To add to the creepy feel, I waited until it was dark outside and sat to read this book on my front porch. Each time Melissa saw something in the woods or Bongo bounded off into the trees, I looked across the road at the tall, dark woods and just let that "I feel like I'm being watched" moment sink in before I continued reading.  Perfect!

I loved this story! Very creepy vibe and great suspense. The author said it was based a bit on an old horror story from 1904 -- The White People by Arthur Machen. I have never read this story....but I'm definitely going to find a copy!

T. Kingfisher is a pen-name for author Ursula Vernon, who writes children's books. While I have never read any of her books for kids, I'm definitely looking forward to more of her books for adults! This story was creepy, entertaining and quite scary in places (especially when I'm reading about the NC woods.....sitting quite close to the NC woods! lol)

**I voluntarily read a review copy of this book from Saga Press via NetGalley. All opinions expressed are entirely my own.**