When Bongo goes missing during the second act, it would have been a fantastic opportunity to create some terror (even if it means sacrificing the sweet pooch). When it comes to my fear bone, a loyal pet or defenceless child in peril terrifies me (thanks to an early age exposure to Pet Semetary). It feels like Kingfisher is used to writing to a younger audience and is worried she might scare us too much, which is a shame. I wasn’t aware that Kingfisher’s previous works had been for young adults, but by the time I’d finished reading the novel, I was able to guess.
Protagonists journeying to the final confrontation with the antagonists? Let’s undercut it with terrible banter between the two characters about taking Valium. Worried there might be something outside the house? Let’s have the dog fart. Kingfisher successfully creates dread with some genuinely horrifying images (the first visit from the poppet especially stuck with me), however, she constantly undermines them by adding comedy. When I got to the end, I found it hard to care about Mouse’s fate. Mouse and her new grandmother’s hippy/punk neighbour Foxy constantly make terrible jokes and don’t take the events playing out in front of them seriously. Instead, the characters range from bland and pointless to downright aggravating. The Twisted Ones features a small cast of characters and since I was reading a folk horror novel, I was suspicious of all of them, expecting some sort of Wickerman twist at any moment. Sarcasm is not a replacement for a personality However, once we start to get answers to those mysteries, things go off the deep end. The primary one that looms over the story is an impossible hill covered in mysterious and gruesome stones, that Mouse calls “The Twisted Ones” and the relationship her step-grandfather, Cotgrave had with them. Kingfisher does a fantastic job of creating tension during the first act by throwing lots of small mysteries at Mouse in short succession.
With her faithful coonhound Bongo in tow, she heads off to the North Carolina wilderness. We meet protagonist Melissa (nicknamed Mouse) who has been given the thankless job of clearing out her dead grandmother’s house. Kingfisher’s The Twisted Ones manages to sidestep most of these tropes but ends up making some new mistakes. Whilst there have been some fantastic entries recently (last year’s Midsommar haunts me to this day), I find it to be a tired genre full of warn tropes (cults, creatures hidden in the forest, nature vs urban). There may be minor spoilers, however, I always avoid talking about the ending.įolk horror isn’t my favourite sub-genre.
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