3.5/5 rounded up

Mouse is tasked with cleaning out her grandmother's house, and unfortunately for her, her grandmother was a hoarder. When she finds her step-grandfather's old journal however, Mouse worries that something more was going on. The journal is filled with what seems to be weird nonsense, but when Mouse starts experiencing some of what her grandfather described, she will find a whole different world of horror.

I have so many conflicting feelings over THE TWISTED ONES. I'm a long time fan of T. Kingfisher's work, especially the fairy tale retellings, and I love horror, so I was thrilled with this release. The first half is strong and full of creepiness. The journal excerpts gave me spine chills on multiple occasions. It's easy to relate to Mouse being skeptical about the entries at first and worried about her own mind as things progressed.

What threw me off so much was the second half. It turned into a sort of portal horror. While the concept was awesome, I'm not sure it was set up well enough earlier in the story for me to suspend my disbelief enough. Once they went into the city, I felt pulled out of the story and had a hard time getting back in. The only comparison I can think of is Kate Alice Marshall's Rules for Vanishing, but you know pretty early on that it's a portal horror.

Overall, The Twisted Ones is definitely creepy and unique. I'm very interested to see what T. Kingfisher does in her next horror book!