THE TWISTED ONES / AUTHOR: T. KINGFISHER / PUBLISHER: TITAN BOOKS / RELEASE DATE: 17TH MARCH
When Mouse’s dad sends her to clear out her late grandmother’s house, she knows the task will involve unloading difficult family baggage alongside the old woman’s acres of junk. What she isn’t expecting is to find herself on the precipice of the boundary between the real world and the world of our nightmares. There’s an evil in the woods behind the house… and it’s coming for her.
So goes the premise of The Twisted Ones by T. Kingfisher (the pseudonym of prolific author Ursula Vernon). Essentially, it’s a sequel to Arthur Machen’s seminal entry in the folk horror genre, The White People, but there’s no need to be familiar with that story to enjoy this one, although an extra layer of appreciation can be derived from noting how Vernon mirrors Machen’s work (eg. the “book within a book” concept).
The first-person perspective is used effectively, with Mouse’s narration generating the feel of being told a ghost story one-on-one. Plus, it allows us to live inside the character’s head and understand her as a three dimensional person. It should also be stressed that there’s a lot of humour throughout, employed to punctuate the tension, and you’ll fall in love with Mouse’s faithful if dim dog, Bongo.
Like the best occult fiction, the novel’s building sense of unease comes from the unexpected, the incongruous and the unexplained. The horrors featured in Vernon’s tale are crimes against nature, things which worm their way into the characters’ minds and corrupt their thoughts. Sure enough, there are certain images you’ll be thinking of long after you’ve finished.
The Twisted Ones is an unsettling, atmospheric read that demands to be consumed in one sitting… and then will have you checking the windows and the doors before you go to sleep. Then make faces like the faces on the rocks, and twist yourself about like the twisted ones, and lay down on the ground like the dead ones.
Wait, what?
