The Twisted Ones

The Twisted Ones follows a woman named Mouse who drives to a remote house in the North Carolina countryside to clear out her deceased grandmother's hoarded belongings, accompanied by her dog Bongo. While there, she discovers her grandmother's disturbing journal and encounters bizarre and threatening stone effigies hidden in the surrounding woods.

Yes, The Twisted Ones is directly inspired by Arthur Machen's classic 1899 horror story 'The White People,' and the title itself references a phrase from that story. T. Kingfisher uses Machen's concept of strange, hidden creatures and pagan ritual as a springboard for her own contemporary horror narrative.

The Twisted Ones is widely regarded as one of the more genuinely unsettling contemporary horror novels, praised for its slow-building dread and the disturbing imagery of its stone creatures. T. Kingfisher balances the horror with the protagonist's wry, practical voice, which many readers find makes the terrifying moments more effective.

Yes, T. Kingfisher is the pen name of Ursula Vernon, an American author and illustrator who also writes children's books and fantasy. She adopted the Kingfisher pseudonym for her adult horror and fantasy works, including The Twisted Ones (2019) and later novels like Nettle & Bone.