Something in the Walls
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Something in the Walls
By: Daisy Pearce
**Minor Spoiler Warnings**
Overall: 7/10
Creepyness: 6/10
Characters: 8/10
Plot/ Story: 8/10
Concept: 6/10
It feels wrong to say I liked this book. It was a slow escalation, and before I knew it, the story had me in its thrall. I read it in a day, unable to look away as the darkness grew with every turn of the page. The characters were real, and the dread that built in my chest never let go. You see, when we willingly wade into the waters of the horror genre, we must be prepared to face uncomfortable things, because many, many times - horror forces a blinding spotlight on all the darker parts of humanity. Revealing that sometimes humans are far more terrifying and evil than the creature under our bed or the monster in the woods. Something in the Walls does such a thing. I love it for it, and also am left disturbed by it, as I should be.
Summary:
Mina is a freshly graduated child psychologist, drawn to the profession after her own adolescent struggles to cope with her brother's death. As she navigates her strained relationship with her dismissive fiancé, coordinates her wedding, and her need for experience in her field, opportunity lands in her lap in the form of Sam - a journalist with his own baggage and a child-haunting case in need of a professional eye. Mina jumps at the chance to prove herself, certain she can help the young girl. But as secrets around the family and the town begin to unravel, she must contend with the possibility that humans are far scarier than the supernatural.
Concept:
I never got the feeling throughout this story that Pearce is breaking any molds here, which is fine. We follow a pretty straightforward concept, not outside ones like the Exorcist or the Haunting movies. A normal-seeming family is suddenly thrust into the supernatural world as their daughter begins acting strangely and sporadically. Help comes in the form of a psychologist and a journalist, but the deeper they dive, the worse things become. I would say that the ending and the reveal do stray a bit from the normal haunting story, but it still plays in very familiar concepts. While not exact, I once caught myself thinking that if you mixed the Exorcist with Midsommar, you’d get this story.
Folklore:
I wanted to add this section because I specifically wanted to highlight the folklore that this story covers. It is very obvious that Pearce loves her lore. I broke out in a wide grin at the first mention of the town covered in “strange stones with holes in them.” Hag stones or Adder stones are used as protection from dark entities like the Fae or Witches. There are even mentions that if you look through their center, you can see through the veil. Pierce uses them in the story for the latter as the town's own folklore is steeped in a history of witches, and is said to be the cause of the young girls' haunting. However, I didn’t feel that all the folklore mentioned in the book ties in well with the story (Ex. I couldn’t see/ find a genuine link to why Mina brought up the Black Shuck folklore), it was still fun to pick up and find them sprinkled throughout the story. For other folklore lovers, you might really enjoy this too.
Characters:
I have to take a really big sigh as I start this section because I loved and hated so many of the characters. They felt real. Fully and heavily flawed, and I loved it so much. Mina is far from perfect, and it’s a journey to watch her struggle to help a family face their own darkness when Mina, herself, refuses to face her own growing demons. She is frustrating and broken, and yet I admired her strength to face down the ‘evil’ alone - even if it killed her. She fights for the women around her when the men fail them. And the men do fail them. Even Sam, whom I liked throughout the first half of the book, crumples like a soggy cloth and shoves Mina under the bus when faced with the slightest accusations.
It’s truly the women who make this story for me. Alice is a force all her own.
Also, Oscar is a pretentious bastard, and I hated even the mention of him.
Plot:
There are so many layers to this story. Frustratingly, many of these layers, ties, and threads go unresolved. I don’t necessarily think that all stories need to have a clear ending. However, I have to warn that at one point the story splits - moving the focus from the supernatural elements to the very human ones, and the tale that gets its conclusion is not the supernatural one. I feel like this is done on purpose, but what brought me into the story, why I picked up the book to begin with, was because of the magical elements - so to be left with more questions than answers was annoying.
The thing is, the irritation didn’t come till the next day, as the ending was so heavy, I was too busy trying to untangle and absorb that information before it started to sink in that the witch/ possession plot never got cleared up.
While I wasn’t upset enough by it to rate the plot lower, I could see people being mad at this.
Final Thoughts:
While the ending of this book was heavy and uncomfortable, what I ultimately enjoyed most was its ability to showcase people’s inner strength - even through trauma. In the end, all the women, in their own way, rose above to fight back, ending the cycle of abuse that controlled their lives and the lives of the town for generations. That alone makes this book worth a read.
Let me know your thoughts in the comments. And if this review helped pique your interest and you wish to snag your own copy, feel free to use my affiliate link - https://bookshop.org/a/119346/9781250334381 - This helps me get a small commission and helps BookShop support small bookstore owners. There is no extra cost to you.
Lys