Book Review: Is There Something In The Walls?

This one is a long time coming. Life has been life and there is nothing like a family plague of norovirus to keep a blogger down. (Also, apparently it can give you a rash that looks like measles or chicken pox or possibly yersinia pestis and require you to rush your child to kids express care.)

Finally, I’m here to review this book.

Something In the Walls by Daisy Pearce hit me like a waffle. In that, it was a total surprise. I’ve never read Pearce before and so went in with essentially no preconceived ideas about what I would get. I approach most strictly horror books with a mix of hope and low expectations. Most fail to build any atmosphere and fail even more at even approaching scary. They usually need some other element to be interesting. Sometimes it’s the uncomfortable comedy, or the revelations about human nature. Sometimes it’s an intriguing mystery. Something didn’t need that. At times, the crawl up my back had me glancing in corners.

In Something, Mina, a brand new child psychologist, travels to a remote town at the bequest of journalist Sam to help a young teenager in the throes of what appears like possession. She does so much to the chagrin of her ever practical fiancee, Oliver. He knows that she lives with guilt over her brother’s untimely death from pneumonia after saving her from drowning in an icy pond and wonders if psychological experience is all she is looking to gain.

Once at the house, it becomes clear that the town is full of superstition and unusual practices. People ward off evil with hagstones, they believe in witches and curses, and they have already decided Alice can speak for the dead. Mina is quickly enmeshed in town lore as she tries to distinguish fact from fiction.

What is wrong with Alice? Seriously? The girl is spooky. One moment normal teenager, next moment she is Regan declaring “You’re gonna die up there.” As Mina is interviewing her there were several moments where I wanted to scream at her to leave. Maybe it’s teen angst, maybe it’s demons. I’m not sticking around to find out which. You’ll sink into a atmosphere thick with opression. It comes from the dire financial sitiuation of the family and the town’s ever present judgemental eyes. The father who never seems quite right and a mother whose overwhelm is dripping from every page.

This was great. The mystery surrounding the town’s actions and strange superstitions provide an interesting background between the scenes with Alice. I also really loved that she wasn’t 100% crazy all the time. She goes in and out of it, which feels much more realistic than the strapped to a bed shreiking about demons and death 24-7 route most possession media uses. That said, at times she seemed a little stabby and could probably have used some alone time.

Spoilers

In the end, everything that happened has a rational explanation. We never get Alice’s real diagnosis, but I’m guessing she had something like schizophrenia. (took a lot of times to get that one right) I loved this ending idea. And the town was so scared of witches and curses that they manifested a frenzy leading to group hysteria. Now, mostly, this all makes sense. There were a few deaths that were so incredibly coincidental that it was a bit annoying. And then at the end there is one line about a wasp that just leaves you wondering. I’m leaving it as the rational causes 100% in my head cannon with a bit of casual plot contrived death.

Make sure to check out Something in the Walls. It released at the end of February and is perfect to read in these still dark and cold, at least here in PA, nights.