I iterate quite often that I am not a big fan of the horror genre. Of late, it so happens that I have been picking up more than my fair share (comparatively). I still maintain it is not a genre I truly appreciate, but authors' writing is sometimes worth the plunge.
This particular book is an excellent example of an immersive horror tale. We encounter a ghost-hunting team quite early on, the PSI, who use scientific methods to document ghostly sightings and try to figure out how to change the situation. The main people who ran the show are no longer in the field, their children are now running things, and they are yet to take off. This new venture using the older name is not getting them any real cases. The people who call them are usually hopeful to be a scene of a haunting, but scientific investigations point to a completely innocent explanation.
Raven and Archie lost their father to a tragic death in the last case their parents were investigating. Things were shut down soon after, and no one talked about it for five years. Archie wants a chance to look into that exact ghost again, but his sister is more than a little wary. They attract two people to them in the beginning, one who will assist them and another who gives them an in to Hyacinth House again.
The team-building and individual cast is a big focus, with the fear of Hyacinth House floating around, ever-present in the background. The slow build-up of each instance of something dramatic happening and the different voices that narrate the story helps keep the plot moving.
If I was a regular reader of this genre, I think I would actually have rated it even higher.
I highly recommend this to fans of the genre or anyone who likes a dark, forbidding background in the narratives.
I received an ARC thanks to NetGalley and the publishers but the review is entirely based on my own reading experience.

This book is really well-written. It provides enough of a fear factor to keep you wanting to read more to find out what happens next. I loved the characters and the solidarity between them. This mixed with the usual teen angst about life. The story revolves around the unsolved cause of death of the father of the main characters and their pursuit for the truth. Who doesn’t love a haunted house story.
This would certainly appeal to teens/YA and the story is engaging and interesting. The characters are completely relatable to young people. I recommend this book to anyone who loves a good mystery and it’s cleverly written so that you can’t guess the ending

What Walks These Halls
by Amy Clarkin
Pub Date: 04 Jan 2023
Ooooooh! This was a good haunted house tale!
Raven's family is a part of paranormal investigation team. At least, they were until her father was killed during one particularly tough (and found to be truly paranormal) investigation. That is when her family fell apart.
Hyacinth House is now beckoning her back along with her brother and his upstart paranormal investigation team. She can't let her baby brother face that house alone. It's time to face her demons and find out the truth about what really happened to her father.
#netgalley
#Whatwalksthesehalls
#AmyClarkin

When it comes to horror, I did not run away from this book. Instead, I kept reading. Was I a tad bit disappointed?Yes, since the book did not make me climb under the covers and take a break. However, given that this is also a YA novel, this is understandable. A good tale overall.

Don't underestimate this book! I went into reading this thinking it can't be that scary, and I WAS WRONG! I still have a vivid picture in my mind about the lady of Hyacinth House crawling towards me. I loved that this book was set in Ireland and will say this is the first book where I liked all the characters. The book follows a group of young adults in their paranormal investigation of Hyacinth House and all of their attachments to the house itself.. The house's description is painted in such a way I wish I could see it myself. The author describes it as a living being saying that the vines gleam black like poisoned veins creeping across the body of the house which made the story that much better thinking of the house as a living being. Read this book You'll love it!

I accessed a digital review copy of this book from the publisher.
Hyacinth House is haunted. Raven and Archer's parents have already investigated it, with fatal results. Now they are back with a new ghost-hunting team to investigate the house and resolve their unanswered questions.
The book was interesting and full of suspense. The relationship of the team was interesting and left me wanting more.

Thankyou to Netgalley, the publisher and the author for allowing me to read this ARC.
This is my first title by this author and i will be reading more from them in the future.
This book had a great storyline and well developed characters.
I believe that teenagers would enjoy this book.
This book was great and fast paced.
Thankyou
3/5 stars

Absolutely riveting. I can’t put into words how enjoyable this book was. I was captivated writhing the first few pages and couldn’t put it down. The house itself holds secrets and twists that really engage the readers. I recommend this one!

Oh my gosh. Completely terrifying. Amy has managed to tap into a few different kinds of terror here. I'm definitely in for some sleepless nights. (And, if you've read this you'll understand, I was reading it in Tramore!)
The characters are all wonderfully Irish without being over the top, and I love the idea of PSI ... I'd love to work for them myself, but they'd probably fire me for being a complete scaredey cat!
I sincerely hope this isn't the last book we read from Amy...more PSI would be great, but anything by her will be fantastic!

This was definitely an unnerving story which I could only read during daylight houses as the subject matter made me feel quite scared. The author used a writing style which accompanied this and I found that i actually became scared while reading and on several occasions needed to put this down as I thought that I started to think i was seeing things

This was such a fun read and definitely scary enough even for a horror buff like me. There were moments where I jumped while reading this.

I was very invested in the characters and they are such a fun bunch. The plot and pacing had me engaged the whole time wondering what’s going to happen next.

Highly recommend! Thank you Netgalley and Books Go Social for the arc.

Sadly this was a dud for me. I didnt really like the story or plot wasnt really scary than what i thought it would be. Just an average book

Five stars,period. Stop all that you are doing and just go read this book,for your own sake. It have everything-ghosts,folklore,badass girls and even ghost hunters in a eerie Irish landscape. Perfect.

Thank you to BooksGoSocial and NetGalley for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This is a ghost story within a story about family and friends. I found this one a little disappointing , mostly because it was a slow start with little scary parts. Written well enough, with good character development. I just found there was not a whole lot of action and supernatural scenes.
A definite 3 stars for me.

This started out slow, but the ending was so exciting, I'm going to bump this up just for that. I loved the variety of characters, the romance, even the YouTuber who had the severely real supernatural experience. I thought this was a clever paranormal read with an exciting cast with great backstories. I was thoroughly entertained by the dreadful atmosphere once I hit that halfway point.

Super creepy, intriguing and I absolutely enjoyed every minute! Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for access to this book

One crazy haunted house, a family torn apart by tragedy, and a new found family are all things you will find in this book. I enjoyed the story and how you found out bits and pieces throughout the whole thing. I look forward to reading more investigations this team goes on and I hope we get to see more of side characters as well. 3.5 stars

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

#netgalleyarc This is the perfect fall/Halloween read. I really enjoyed this book. The characters were well written, I love the setting, and the story kept up a great pace—no super slow moments. I e read a lot of great YA a mystery and thriller titles lately and it many of them had a paranormal aspect so this was a welcome difference. A definite future purchase for my high school library.

I'm still trying to figure it out how to rate it. It wasn't good but it wasn't bad either. I guess I was expecting more. The characters were a bit disappointed to me, the plot was okay but was also expecting more.

Firstly, these is a really interesting enjoyable premise with a unique and fun twist on the paranormal hunters trope. However the writing style was not for me I just couldn’t get into the book, something just didn’t work I think perhaps it would work for a younger audience maybe early teens. I do think that, with the right audience, people will really enjoy it and that the characters and idea for the book are good it just is not for me sadly.