The Women in the Walls by Amy Lukavics
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

OK, so ‘technically’ I’ve not ‘just finished’ The Women in the Walls, I’m re-posting a review that I did previously for Goodreads and my author blog last year. But, it’s the month for Halloween and I thought I should post something appropriate and I rarely read horror books. So there you go, full disclosure! Now, what about the book?

The Blurb… Lucy Acosta’s mother died when she was three. Growing up in a Victorian mansion in the middle of the woods with her cold, distant father, she explored the dark hallways of the estate with her cousin, Margaret. They’re inseparable—a family.

When her aunt Penelope, the only mother she’s ever known, tragically disappears while walking in the woods surrounding their estate, Lucy finds herself devastated and alone. Margaret has been spending a lot of time in the attic. She claims she can hear her dead mother’s voice whispering from the walls. Emotionally shut out by her father, Lucy watches helplessly as her cousin’s sanity slowly unravels. But when she begins hearing voices herself, Lucy finds herself confronting an ancient and deadly legacy that has marked the women in her family for generations

My Thoughts… I’m not sure why I read horror books now and again…

This was a chance pick-up in the library because the cover and blurb were enticingly creepy. The overall style and story is good, picking up lots of horror-story stock items: isolation, mental instability, odd family history and of course, the spooky old house…

I really liked the first 3/4 of the book, where the psychological build-up was great. My problem – similar to most of the few horror books I’ve read – is that the actual reveal of what IS spooky or horrifying tends to switch me off. It’s almost the opposite of how I find horror films: the reveal scares me but the build-up is cheesy.

Anyway, I liked the characters and set up in this book – the background story to the horror was good as well, with some nice Shakespearian-esque gruesomeness thrown in! Young adult horror, but not if you’re squeamish 😉

Goodreads won’t let me do 3.5* and I always round up on there, but here I can set the rule and it’s a 3.5* – or maybe a 3 and 3/4 read – or maybe I rate it spook-a-licious, but not a full spook-tastic…?