Mina is a newly minted child psychologist, has never fully recovered from the death of her brother. Neither has Sam been able to overcome his grief with the loss of his daughter years before. When Sam invites Mina to access Alice, who is believed to be haunted by ghosts, both Sam and Alice hold out hope that Alice will be able to help them come to terms with their grief. As Mina interviews Alice and those around her, she’s sure something isn’t right. Is Alice truly haunted or is something else in play in the small town.
I think I enjoyed the story but would have enjoyed reading it more than listening. There was something off about the audiobook, and I found that the narrator didn’t fit the story. But that’s my own personal preference. There also isn’t a single likeable character in the story and while I wanted to root for Mina, she just made so many choices I didn’t agree with that it made it hard to connect with her. Sam likewise made some weird choices which didn’t flow well for me. I occasionally felt like I had missed something, which interrupted and gave the story a choppy feel.
I’m torn on my rating. On one hand, this is a well written, edge of your seat suspense read. It’s light on the horror genre but does give off the ‘creep’ factor. It relies heavily on the small-town atmosphere. On the other, I’m not sure how much I like the turn this book had at the end and felt the pacing was uneven. Most of the story felt slow, except for the very end which wrapped up a bit to quickly for my liking. This one had tons of potential, but even as a lover of witchy reads, I’m not sure that it fully reached that potential.
AMAZON | GOODREADS | BOOKSHOP |★★★.5
Something in the Walls comes out February 25, 2025. Thank you to Minotaur Books and Macmillan Audio for my advanced copy in exchange for my review. If you liked this review, please let me know either by commenting below or by visiting my Instagram @speakingof.books.
