A fantastic premise that would have been even better with less of the love stories between characters and more of Hyacinth House

Thank you to Amy Clarkin, Bolinda Audio, and NetGalley for allowing me to listen to a free eaudio ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Usually I'm most into the characters of a novel, but this time around I was in the mood for some scares, and this book was way more about character. Which isn't a bad thing, but I was sold a story about paranormal investigators and this big, bad ghost; I was not looking to drown in an ocean of angst and feelings of inadequacy. Yeah, the characters need conflict and growth, but I need the shit scared out of me. It seemed there was less paranormal investigating and more dealing with personal issues among the group. Hey, I can get the latter in any mainstream YA; I read this book for the former. Not helping was the fact that none of the characters much endeared me. Éabha (the narrator pronounced it like "Ava") came closest, but I don't know, none of them impressed me with charisma or personality. I had a bit of a hard time keeping the female characters/male characters straight in my mind, they blended together so much. So as a ghost story, this was just okay. Read it because you're interested in the character conflicts.

I have to say, the "final battle" was pretty cheesy, and a snoozefest. Speaking through a Sensitive, siphoning energy---that's all been done. That was more supernatural than paranormal, at least to my mind. An actual quote from the villain: "Haha, I'm evil!" (Just kidding, but it was that bad.)

Surprisingly, NetGalley failed to tag this book as LGBTQ+, so fyi, it is.

Overall, I wanted more haunted house and less "I have to get to class." Ugh, talk about an atmosphere-killer.

Oh, wait, they wanted me to talk about the audio and narration. A+++ Usually, if I have a problem with the audio quality/narration, I'll mention it. If I don't, then it's safe to assume I had no problems with it because it was excellent. Róisín Rankin was great, her Irish accent lilting and lyrical but not so thick I couldn't understand her.

Thanks to NetGalley for letting me listen to this audiobook. The best part of this was the narrator; the book is set in Ireland and the storyteller's enthusiastic presentation with her Irish accent was fantastic.
I don't know if it would have been better with a print book, but I had trouble telling who was the focus at different times. Also, for a spooky novel, it never really felt that spooky.
But the characters were likeable and it was an interesting story. It's YA, so the relationships seem immature, and they're not very self aware. But you will probably enjoy this if you like a slow burn, YA thriller.

Thank you to @Bolindaaudio and Netgallery for the advanced audiobook of What Walks These Halls by Amy Clarkin Publishing April 1, 2024.
This story gave me erie haunting of hill house vibes. Who is the lady who haunts Hyacinth House? I’ll start with the pros: The cover of the book got me right away black being my favorite color and the pop of purple… gorgeous. This story has a diverse cast of characters and family dynamics. I can only see this group getting stronger if subsequent stories come from the author. The audio was very well done the narrator Roisan Rankin does a great job and I’m a sucker for an Irish accent. Now for the cons and it’s kind of a big one the meat of the story falls short. So much could have been done but the ending just happened and it fell really flat. I would definitely give Book 2 another shot since the characters are so rich and lovable, I’m invested in them but Amy Clarkin needs to come stronger with the next plot. A haunted cruise ship… ok missy I’m intrigued. This is an easy, quick YA read. Clean and safe for middle school and up looking for friends that accept you for you, becoming a chosen family, and a bit of paranormal creepiness. Story gets 2 ⭐️, characters 5 ⭐️ and narration 4 ⭐️. So this gets a solid 3 ⭐️ from me.

This was a fun, light, easy-to-read classic Haunted House tale. I found one of two parts mildly spooky, but it also felt a bit predictable. I thought the characters were interesting, but I wish it had been told in first person from Raven's POV as I felt it jumped around a bit too much trying to tell us a lot about everyone all at once. This is meant to be the first in a series, and I would have liked to see upcoming stories tell more about the different characters than seeing so much in this one first. The many personal links to Hyacinth House were hard to accept. This book includes a YA double romance with great LGBTQ+ representation. I overall enjoyed this book, and Rankin does a fabulous job narrating the audiobook.
Thanks to NetGalley and Bolinda Audio for this ALC to review!

♡ Audiobook Review ♡
♤ Release April 1st ♤
-Horror
-Ya
-SciFi (Paranormal)
-4 stars
The audiobook is good. The narrator did a great job telling the story.
What Walks These Halls is a YA horror debut for Amy Clarkin. It's a good start for a debut. This story is set in Ireland following a group of people who all have history with the haunted house, The Hyacinth House.
We get 3 different POV's.
Raven and Archer O'Sullivan father died in the mysterious haunted house (Hyacinth House) during a paranormal investigation. Everyone says it was an accident, but Raven is pretty sure she's at fault for their father passing.
Archer doesn't believe it was Raven's fault. Their father passed away, and he has been asked to investigate the Hyacinth House, and he can't pass up this opportunity.
-Éabha McLoughlin has grown up seeing and hearing things no one else does. With her family not believing, she has this ability, and with her wanting to find out answers about this ability. She turns to Archer and his team.
This story has a good storyline, plot, and the horror is good!
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♡ Thank you, Netgalley, and Bolinda Audio for the ALC for my honest opinion. ♡

🎧4.5⭐️

I had the audiobook of this YA Paranormal mystery read by Róisin Rankin. The Irish narrator was my reason for choosing this book. She does a good job infusing emotion although I’d have liked more infused tension in the end section.

Archer and Raven grew up helping their parents with their paranormal investigations. Their dad died 5 yrs ago at Hyacinth House during an investigation. Archer couldn’t resist an opportunity to investigate Hyacinth House.
Éabha has grown up seeing and hearing things that no one else does, she reaches out to Archer as she wants a better understanding of what’s happening to her.

There is emphasis on the characters and their relationships which are well developed, includes love interests giving it a slow burn. It had enough going on to hold my attention throughout. The protagonists are all likeable, I was rooting for them all. There’s a really dark evil presence that’s very menacing and threatening.

We get flashbacks to the past to learn what happened to their dad as well as the modern investigation. It’s got some good creepy elements with the tension building well for the finale with a feeling of jeopardy.

Although there’s mention of the equipment used by the investigators, don’t go thinking this is a modern day version of ghost busters.
I’d say it’s more creepy than full on horror. It’s right up my street. I loved it with the narrator adding to my enjoyment. An impressive debut, I look forward to the next instalment.

Thank you NetGalley for this audio ARC in exchange for a honest review. I looked at some of the reviews already available and noticed a similar trend on Goodreads with the audiobook. The chapters are not labeled, so I had no idea who was talking most of the time. In addition to that, the voice never changed character to character. This caused me to be frustrated and confused throughout the story. I ended up not finishing it. I rated it 2 star instead of 1 star because some of this may have been alleviated with the physical form.

Thank you to NetGalley and Bolinda Audio for an audio ARC of this fun little book in exchange for my honest review.

This book was delightful read. Not something I would keep revisiting to reread but will read sequels.
I enjoyed the diversity of characters and themes as well as a good ghost story that doesn’t wrap up in a neat little bow.

My only frustration was in at least the audio book the chapters weren’t labeled of who was speaking. While you sort it in the first or second sentence usually having some structure when writing in the first person but switching characters is helpful especially if you get lost and need to jump back to the beginning of a chapter. I assume they aren’t in the physical copy or they would have been read by the narrator.

The narrator was just ok. A bit monotone at some places but it didn’t pull me out of the story.