Girl in the Walls

Oof this story is heartbreaking in a way that made me tear up one too many times! I'm not sure why it is being marketed as suspense/thriller because it's really (maybe minus some minor tones) not - it's the story of an orphan and her desperate attempt to cling to her home and life, and the new family who moves into her old home. Definitely well-written and beautiful, just not a “thriller” I was expecting.

Underwhelming and unbelievable. I expected this to be way more creepy and gothic than it was.

3.5 rounded up for sheer originality. First up, my copy has a sticker on the front that says “A unique gothic story”. This is not gothic, don't be taken in by the cover, its so far from what I understand to be a gothic story. It's a modern mystery, modern house, modern family etc etc. I did struggle with it in some part. I think the short chapters (most of which are just a page and a half) don't help the flow of the book and I found it really hard to connect. Some of the story is really tense (the end bit) some of it is really boring (the middle bit). Overall just a bit meh, but good meh, like when you go into a shop and there's cheap meh and expensive posh meh. Treat yourself to some posh meh!!! bla bla bla.

This was a really interesting book and one I thoroughly enjoyed.

It was really well written, especially since I found it hard to figure out whether the character of Elise was real or not. At some point in the story you thought she might have been a ghost, but then just a few pages later you were thinking okay, maybe not.

It really did well with keeping up the tension and made you want to keep reading.

Thank you to PH and A J Gnuse for the chance to read this book.

I don't want to dwell too much on the negatives in regards to this review. So I will try and be as succinct as possible. I do think this was a promising premise but executed poorly. The plot was clunky and had some holes in pivotal plot points. I also think this book was drawn out to the point of ludicrousness. There was a chapter called The End and then another four chapters after. While the chapters are a few pages long, I was eye rolling and puffing with impatience by the end. I just wanted to finish it by 60% in. But I loved the idea of a Girl in the Walls. It was so creative to experiment/run with the idea of the noises a large old house makes and create a narrative from that.

I just didn't understand the point of this novel. The author wrote themselves into corners with where they took the plot. But I loved the character of Eddie, he was super endearing. And the girl, Elise intrigued me but she became a one dimensional character as she spends the whole novel in the walls.

Overall I think this book would have been much more compelling, had it been significantly condensed. But the writing was really enjoyable and the author wrote wonderfully about the house. It really brought the setting of the novel to life.

Thanks to 4th Estate and William Collins, the author, A.J Gnuse and Netgalley for a review copy in exchange for an honest review.