The Raven and the Reindeer by T. Kingfisher

Mouse was well aware that her grandmother was a hateful, mean woman who was universally despised, but through the diary, she learns even more about her cruelty. When she discovers an old journal kept by her long deceased stepgrandfather, things get weird. After all, she can work anywhere, and her father has offered to split the sale proceeds with her when it’s all done.Īccompanied by her beloved but not entirely bright coonhound Bongo, Mouse gets to work. If it were me, I probably would have made a run for it at soon as I pushed open the front door and saw the mess waiting inside, but Mouse decides to stick it out.

Freelance editor Mouse heads off to her dead grandmother’s isolated home to prepare it for sale, but upon arrival, discovers it’s stuffed to the rafters with newspapers, coat hangers, clothing, and all sorts of useless junk. The set-up of The Twisted Ones hooked me from the start. And if she doesn’t face them head on, she might not survive to tell the tale. 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.Īlone 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. Grandma was a hoarder, and her house is stuffed with useless rubbish. After all, how bad could it be?Īnswer: pretty bad. When Mouse’s dad asks her to clean out her dead grandmother’s house, she says yes. 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.

The Raven and the Reindeer by T. Kingfisher