A haunted house, families splintered by grief, and a precocious group of young adults who decide to resurrect their parents' paranormal research business...what could possibly go wrong?

Archer and Raven O'Sullivan lost their father to an accident during a seance in Hyacinth House 5 years ago - Raven was there but Archer was not. Now, with Archer resurrecting their parents' paranormal investigation business, he is hired to look into Hyacinth House again and Raven is thoroughly unhappy that they're being dragged back to the site of one of the worst nights of her life. The group also includes their old friends Davis and Fionn, and recent addition Eabha - a clairvoyant who was raised to believe that her abilities are a curse rather than a gift. The group has to work together to determine what is happening in Hyacinth House and what - if anything - they can do to cleanse the house of the spirit that seems to linger.

I enjoyed the eeriness that the audiobook brought over me, as well as the GBTQIA+ and disability representation in the main characters. I found the book enthralling and greatly enjoyed listening to the story while driving to and from work.

Thank you to NetGalley, Bolinda Audio, and Amy Clarkin for an ALC in exchange for an honest review.

What Walks These Halls by Amy Clarkin is a slow burn, gothic, atmospheric cozy horror story set in Ireland. I listened to the audiobook narrated by Róisìn Rankin. This story includes found family, fledgling relationships, self-acceptance, and sibling family dynamics. Éabha is coming to terms with her clairvoyant gift. Raven and Archer restart their paranormal investigation service. They revisit Hyacinth House where their father died five years ago. There was a twist where I gasped but mostly this story didn’t enthrall me personally. ALC was provided by Bolinda Audio via NetGalley. I received this advance listening copy for free and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

Thank you to netgalley and Bolinda Audio | Bolinda/O'Brien audio for allowing me a copy of this book. I enjoyed the spooky scary elements of the book

I don't have much to say, because there was nothing happening in this book. Conversations, feelings, insecurities. That's it. At the 95% of the book there was a little of action and it lasted for 10 min.

This was an exciting story to listen to with perfectly pitched narration.

The story is intricately plotted with many secrets being hidden and slowly revealed. The ending was very exciting with some unexpected twists. There is a developing same-sex relationship which is delicately handled and gave an interesting dimension. It's not the sort of book I would usually read, as I am not keen on horror, but this was more of a revenge/suspense/thriller plot.

I found Eabha's family dynamics hard to accept and her parents did not deserve her, though a lot of the relationships in this book are fractured and require some rebuilding. She is lucky to have met the O'Sullivan's to help her to learn to control her extraordinary skills.

This is a YA title and I think suitable for age 12+. Four and a half stars from me.

Raven’s family has a history with Hyacinth House – her parents, a famous paranormal investigative duo, undertook the challenge of the house five years ago but her father didn’t make it out alive. Their family has fractured since then, leaving them all fending for themselves. But when Raven finds out that her brother is planning to reopen the family’s paranormal business, she realizes it’s time to reconnect. When the opportunity to investigate Hyacinth House presents itself, the siblings find themselves at odds with what to do – but will they ever be able to find the answers they yearn for without revisiting the House?

This story is told using four POVs. The voices of the characters were unique and were necessary for the narrative as they offered varied perspectives. This was well done as the author didn’t introduce all the characters in a row, but rather gave the reader a chance to get situated before adding another POV. This created a great balance with the narrative and made it easy to keep everyone separate at the beginning. I did want a bit more from the characters as the book went on, as they began to feel a little too surface level in their development and trusted/loved much too easily, but they were good enough to not detract too much from the story.

The book started to lose me a bit in the last third. Everyone started coupling up and romance/relationships/making out became a much bigger focus of the work, which detracted from the tension that had been building up. The other thing was how many times the conversation, A: “It’s my fault!” B: “Of course it’s not!” A: “But my character needs the depth of unnecessary guilt!” came up with several of the characters claiming guilt for various things that were obviously not their fault. This became immensely frustrating, as it happened with multiple characters and multiple times for each character. I’ve been noticing this use of guilt more and more lately (especially in YA), and it’s feeling greatly overused as an unnecessary addition of depth or conflict to the characters.

There were a couple good and creepy moments in the book that gave me high hopes for the book as a whole, but that feeling disappeared with the last portion of the book. The ending was quite good, however, and was satisfying overall. If you’re looking for a good YA supernatural mystery/light horror then you’ll likely enjoy this one. It definitely has an ending that’s set up for a sequel but would still work quite well as a standalone. My thanks to NetGalley and Bolinda Audio for allowing me to read this work. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I was only about 20% through listening when I thought "I really hope there's going to be more books with this group!" and I checked and it says Book 1, so I'm super excited!

The characters are great and I was invested in what would happen in their relationships. I also liked how all their different abilities work together to solve the cases.

The narrator beautifully kept the characters separate.

Audiobook Review - What Walks These Halls is a fantastic horror novel set in Ireland. The narrator really gives the story authenticity. Hand this to readers who enjoy creepy supernatural tales. A great addition to horror collections!

Hyacinth House is one of the most haunted places in Ireland. Set back in the Wicklow Mountains, it's surrounded by strong fences to contain what reside there. For YouTuber Jack Gallagher this little-discussed mansion with a history of accidents is the perfect place to visit for his livestream…

This was a fun spooky jaunt with some great characters and interesting relationships. I did find some of the characters a little predictable, but for a YA book this was an entertaining read and definitely one to check out for teens who enjoy hauntings and stories including LGBTQ+ relationships.

As the start of a series, this made a good grounding to build on and it was clear who each character was and their backstory. The narrator did a good job and had a soothing voice which worked well with the text.

**I was provided an audiobook of this work post-publication by the publisher through NetGalley.**

Amy Clarkin presents What Walks These Halls, a YA horror centered on a family run paranormal investigation service. Or at least, it was family run until Raven and Archer O'Sullivan's father died at an investigation at Hyacinth House. Five years have passed since then and both Archer and Raven are adults looking to make their way in life. Archer has decided there is nothing he wants more than to restart the family business. Raven wants nothing to do with it, but is committed to being the voice of reason for her brother and the team. This only becomes more necessary when Raven learns that Archer has been hired by a realtor to investigate Hyacinth House. Archer wasn't there the night her father died, but Raven is pretty sure what happened was her fault and the entity of Hyacinth House remembers.

Full disclosure: I had purchased a copy of this book for myself from Unplugged Book Box prior to receiving this audio copy. This is my first read through of the book and I intend to keep my physical copy :)

Narrator Róisín Rankin really contributed to my enjoyment of this book. Clarkin is an Irish author and this novel takes place in Ireland. As such, it was only appropriate to have an Irish narrator and Rankin's lovely accent really contributed to the atmosphere of the story. Rankin also has a lightness in both tone and pitch that gave voice to Raven's youth without sounding child-like. I was pleased to learn that there are more books with this narrator and would be more inclined to pick up a book if I saw Rankin's name attached.

Of course, Rankin's performance could not have been what it was without the foundation of Clarkin's words. YA horror can admittedly be hit or miss for me, but Clarkin really leaned into simply letting the scary parts be scary. There is a sense of dread that grows throughout the book with moments of higher tension that build upon each other. The atmosphere was a big strength for this book, but the book could not have been a success without the characters.

Clarkin provided a team that was easy to root for and was full of found family vibes. There is also some queer representation in this book, though it is a casual queerness that is not the focal point of the story. I actually really liked that being queer was not a highlighted character trait, but was merely a part of the character for this type of horror story.

I would not hesitate to recommend this novel in a similar vein to fans of the Jackaby series by William Ritter or Lockwood & Co series by Jonathan Stroud with the understanding that What Walks These Halls has a more modern setting.

Suffice it to say, I am very much looking forward to future works by Clarkin as it seems our team of investigators has more trouble heading their way.

4.5 Stars,
I absolutely adored this book and can not wait for the next. This book follows a group of paranormal investigators. It starts with a brother and sister whos parents were the first investigators but a unfortunate event happens at a particular home. The events haunt them and they are forced to endure that haunted house again but this time they have brought on a physic.
I started my own paranormal channel with some friends on my youtube and this made me think of that.
I could not put this book down!

Thank you to Bolinda Audio for the free ALC in exchange for an honest review.

This is the perfect YA mystery and comes across as a fun, Scooby-Doo-esque rag tag gang who solve ghost stories.

There is no real jump scares or horror vibes yet the story still manages to keep up the eerie atmosphere throughout.

The romantic relationships are slow burns and fall into the friends to lovers territory which almost feels safe. Hopefully in the coming parts of the series, this will branch our and add a bit more depth.

Overall, it was a fine listen with a well-suited narrator to the Irish setting. The book won't change the world, but it really is a fun listen.

3.5/5

The concept of this book was great and could easily spin off other novels. There was one scene which promised some scares, but the rest was a bit disappointing as the focus of the plot centred more around who would fall for who, and would their love be required and the ghost story was more of a backdrop which wasn’t really why I was here. Very appropriate for the genre and YA audience, I think, though,

A fun audiobook about a creepy historical house with a ghost who doesn’t want to leave. A group of paranormal investigators who have been following in their parents’ footsteps take on the task of clearing this house in order to help a new realtor get it ready to sell.

I enjoyed this book. I liked how they tied it in to the past. The story was well put together. The narrator of the audiobook was easy to listen to.

This audiobook was so good! It definitely had me creeped out at points and the narrator was incredible to listen to.

Love gothic stories? This book is for you. A fun, captivating thrill ride of a novel about getting to know yourself, your loved ones, and what you want from life. I listened to the audiobook and loved the narrator. Their tones and pacing added a perfect touch to keep me captivated throughout.

This paranormal investigation audio book was great. I enjoyed the narration. Their voice and accent helped with affirm the country the story took place in. The audio book stopped working after chapter 40 and still had 13 more chapters to go. I wasn't able to find out how the book ended, guess that means I need to buy it when released and enjoy it all over again.

Here's the deal. I like the characters, I like the premise, I love the setting.

But, it became repetitive very fast. First of all, why so many references to coffee? WHY? I had to stop listening at one point because of the whole: "but first coffee!"

Now while I liked the diversity of the characters, the story dragged on because of the multiple POVs. If these are tightened up, this book will be great.

I loved the creepy moments, the ghost is actually terrifying.

Thanks for the ARC.

This book was excellent! I listened to the audiobook version and it couldn’t have been better. The accents were spot on and I felt like I was right there with the characters in Ireland. The audio absolutely added to the ambiance. YA is not my typical genre, but I must say the dialogue and representation in this book were excellent. The more LGBT+ representation we can get out there, the better! The plot was strong and the story had great pacing. I highly recommend this book! A huge thank you to Netgalley for the ARC in exchange for my unbiased honest opinion.

This story has it all for me - creepy old house, paranormal investigators, family trauma - so I went in with high expectations. Thankfully I loved it, the pacing is perfect and I really liked the characters too. The audiobook is a delight to listen to, I adore an Irish narrator and find it really soothing, even when it’s a horror or a thriller! I would highly recommend this audiobook to anyone who’s looking for a good YA gothic spookfest - you will not be disappointed!