A woman nicknamed Mouse has to clear out her grandma’s house after her dad asks. She’s just about to start a new job when something happens and she can’t, so she’s widely available to help.
Grandma wasn’t a very nice lady, so she doesn’t even have fond memories to look back on. Oh, and she was a baaad hoarder.
Sidebar story here – my Gram lived in a nursing home until she passed away two years ago. She was ninety four, and less than two weeks from her 95th birthday, so she did some living. She was awesome and I loved her, but by the end I just wanted to see her let go and not have to be in pain or in a nursing home anymore. My aunt (who loved her – she wasn’t related to her at all, different side of the family) and I cleaned out Gram’s room the weekend after she passed away. She didn’t have a lot of stuff, and we donated most of it, but there is one thing I will NEVER forget. We were cleaning out her purses (of which she had more than you’d think!) and found almost an entire hamburger in one of them. I was getting sad before the hamburger incident, because of course I missed my Gram. She knew I needed cheering up, so she left a hamburger in a purse for me. My aunt and I nearly peed our pants for at least two full minutes. It was so amazingly hilarious and random and it just made what could’ve / should’ve been a really crappy day one that wasn’t so terrible and that I will never forget.
Anyway, this story is nothing like that, but it made me think of my Gram!
Mouse’s grandmother’s house is full of crap (sometimes literally- animal crap), and lots of garbage. She also finds her step-grandfather’s journal and becomes obsessed with it. Oh and also with the creatures in the woods.
This definitely has “A House with Good Bones” vibes and the other one I read with a hole in the wall that leads to other worlds. I can’t remember what it’s called, but it was my first T. Kingfisher book. I liked both of those books a lot, but it just felt similar. I gave it 3.5 stars due to still having all the fun and batshittery you’d expect from T. Kingfisher though!
I just found some funny notes in my phone from when I read this:
-There is a constant pledge drive (like through the entirety of the book whenever she turns on the radio). It’s just so funny and relatable as a lifelong NPR listener!
-I was so reassured that her dog was alive with her at the beginning of the book when she’s going back and telling us the story. It just took away my usual constant terror when there’s a pet in a book!
-Best quote: “Maybe you think I was stupid. Maybe you’re right. Never go back for the cat, right? That’s how you get eaten by aliens.” And if you just quickly refer to my previous point there you’ll know that I am an “always go back for the cat” type of person, so this cracked me up!
I read “What Moves the Dead” I think at the end of last year. It was the first book in this (currently) duology. I’m hoping there are more, because I looove the characters.
Alex Easton is a retired sworn soldier. I don’t know if I talked about it for the first book, but as a sworn soldier, Alex has different pronouns. They’re basically just gender-neutral pronouns to emphasize (in my opinion) that sworn soldiers are soldiers first and people with genders second. Alex uses “ka” and “kan”, so I will try to get that right.
Alex is heading back to kan’s family hunting lodge in the forests of Gallacia. I remember loving Alex’s description of Gallacia in the first book. It’s basically cold and mean, but the people are good. When Alex gets to the hunting lodge, the caretaker is nowhere to be found, and the townspeople tell Alex that he’s dead and that a breath stealing witch ghost killed him. Here we go again!
Our favorite characters are back – Hob (Alex’s long suffering horse), Angus (Alex’s right hand man), and Mrs. Potter (the mycologist), and there are some new ones. There are also gross and hilarious observations about what’s going on and the woods and their situation, like only T. Kingfisher can do.
My Rating: 4
