The Twisted Ones
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3.7 • 305 Ratings
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- $7.99
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- $7.99
Publisher Description
Winner of the RUSA Award for Best Horror
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 in this chilling novel that reads like The Blair Witch Project meets The Andy Griffith Show.
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, The Twisted Ones is a gripping, terrifying tale bound to keep you up all night—from both fear and anticipation of what happens next.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
A witty young girl and horrific creatures tangle in this atmospheric folk horror novel from Kingfisher (a pen name for Ursula Vernon). When Melissa (aka Mouse) is asked by her father to clean out her grandmother's house, she heads to North Carolina with her coonhound, Bongo. What she finds is a hoarder's nest. After a few days digging through junk, she unearths a rambling journal belonging to her stepgrandfather, Frederick Cotgrave, which tries to retell a fairy tale. Everything in it sounds like the ravings of a man losing his mind until bizarre creatures show up outside Mouse's window. Her neighbor, Foxy, calls these creatures the holler people. Mouse wants nothing more to do with the house, but before she can leave, Bongo disappears, and she refuses to go home without him. Kingfisher neatly combines modern elements into a combined folktale and horror story that is rich in atmosphere and characterization ("She hadn't just hoarded; she'd made walls and ramparts out of her possessions like she was expecting a siege"). Mouse is a down-to-earth character with a quick wit that never wavers, even when her circumstances are disturbing. This occult thriller with heart boasts genuine scares.
Customer Reviews
Overall pretty entertaining
Plot had its ups and downs but I don’t regret buying it and giving it a read.
A definite page turner
Very enjoyable read. Humor lighten dark moments wonderfully. The lore was doled out in an even hand that made me want to keep reading. The fuzzy memory of the writer added to the authenticity of the story.
Meh
Welp. I guess if Mouse had spent more time cleaning out the house like she was supposed to and less time wandering the woods and drinking coffee, then her dog wouldn’t have been so traumatized. And what NPR pledge week lasts almost 2 weeks?