I had a really hard time getting into this book. I found it to have a very slow pace and I didn’t connect with the characters which didn’t help the pacing. Unfortunately due to the slow pace I didn’t get any thriller vibes from this book and was not invested enough for the mystery or horror aspect. I feel like if you enjoyed Slewfoot you would like this book. I was not the biggest fan of either book.

Thank you to Netgally for providing this ARC.

This novel is haunting, intense, and deeply unsettling—a psychological thriller that will leave your heart racing.

At the center of the story is Mina, a newly qualified child psychologist who is still mourning the loss of her brother, who passed away from pneumonia six years earlier. Mina’s personal life is no less complicated—her relationship with Oscar, her emotionally distant and career-focused fiancé, feels strained and disconnected. During one of her grief counseling meetings, she meets Sam, a journalist grappling with the death of his young daughter. Sam is so desperate for closure that he’s been consulting fraudulent psychics, hoping to reach her spirit.

Sam presents Mina with a strange case involving Alice Webber, a 13-year-old girl from the secluded and eerie town of Banathel. Alice claims she’s a witch, and Sam plays her a tape recording from an interview with Alice, where an unsettling sound—possibly a whispered “Good riddance”—can be heard.

Despite Oscar’s protests, Mina decides to travel with Sam to Banathel to investigate. There, they stay with Alice’s family: her protective mother, Lisa; her father, Paul, who is emotionally drained from his work at a slaughterhouse; her younger siblings, Billy and Tamsin, who seem blissfully unaware of the turmoil around them; and Alice herself, a fragile girl who seems to be battling something malevolent and inexplicable. Alice clings to her Walkman, using music as a means of escape from the horrors in her life.

As Mina gets closer to the Webbers, she begins to question everything. Is Alice truly capable of supernatural feats, as some townspeople believe? Can Mina connect with her—and perhaps, through this, reconnect with her own late brother? For Mina, the case becomes deeply personal, and Sam, too, sees this as a final chance to reach out to his daughter.

Meanwhile, suspicions arise about the Webber family’s financial struggles. Is their story a desperate attempt to make money, or is there something far more sinister lurking beneath Banathel’s peculiar traditions and mysterious past? As Mina delves further, she’s forced to confront her own fears and face a chilling reality that defies logic and science.

🐝 Creepy and Ominous
🖤 Manipulation
🐝 My Skin was Crawling
🖤 A Haunting
🐝 Witchy Folk Horror

This was definitely an eerie and very immersive read. It is rich with folk horror, it has amazing scene setting, and the overall premise is gripping.

Mina is a new child psychologist who meets Sam at a grief group counselling session. Sam is an investigative journalist and approaches Mina to help him with a case concerning a teenage girl who is being haunted.

This novel really speaks to how easily people can be influenced or manipulated to the extent that they no longer trust their own perceptions of reality. While I did find the plot slightly predictable (I managed to guess the direction fairly early on), the development is also terrifying. I actually had to read most of this during the light of day because the haunting and horror elements were done so well that it made my skin crawl. I experienced a constant looming feeling of dread while reading. All of the characters have secrets, so their interactions with one another and their impact on the development of the story are riddled with ominosity.

We are left with some unanswered questions. Some of the plot elements definitely feel a little far-fetched, and I really would've liked just a little bit more closure between our main characters, but I think the story was well written with a satisfying conclusion overall. It was interesting to me how the guilt and anxiety that our protagonist felt influenced her external reaction to the "haunting."

This was a really good, fast-paced, and vastly uncomfortable read.

𝓣𝓱𝓪𝓷𝓴 𝔂𝓸𝓾 𝓽𝓸 𝓝𝓮𝓽𝓰𝓪𝓵𝓵𝓮𝔂 𝓪𝓷𝓭 𝓢𝓽. 𝓜𝓪𝓻𝓽𝓲𝓷'𝓼 𝓟𝓻𝓮𝓼𝓼 𝓯𝓸𝓻 𝓪𝓷 𝓐𝓡𝓒 𝓸𝓯 𝓽𝓱𝓲𝓼 𝓫𝓸𝓸𝓴 𝓲𝓷 𝓮𝔁𝓬𝓱𝓪𝓷𝓰𝓮 𝓯𝓸𝓻 𝓶𝔂 𝓱𝓸𝓷𝓮𝓼𝓽 𝓻𝓮𝓿𝓲𝓮𝔀

Mina is the main character of our story. She is a child psychologist who is very unconfident in her craft and struggling personally with the death of her brother. She still feels she sees him, senses him, and some other weird paranormal signs pop up throughout the story. This is all impacting her relationship with Oscar, who she is engaged to.

Her paths cross with a journalist who asks for her help with someone who claims she is being haunted by a witch. The journalist gets the story, Mina gets the experience and hopefully Alice gets better.

Mina finds out that her methods and the towns for dealing with “witchcraft” differ and she finds herself in a haunting situation.

This book was tense, dark, horror thriller. It doesn’t take much to scare me and I was not reading this at night after like 20% in. I will say that it was strong in the start and then dropped off and lost me a bit. There was this feel of a lot of ominous branch out plots that were going to come together at the end and really give a shock, but it fell flat for me. Overall though, I was engaged and it kept me on edge and guessing so I did enjoy it.


Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review. Release date 2/25/25.

Thoughts

This book definitely delivered on the creepy. I was like nah I cannot read this at night.

It was a bit slow at parts. I think it could a have a bit shorter. But overall it was entertaining and creepy so it gave all it promised.

I really wish I could have gotten into this one more, but it was such a slow book and it just kept taking me out of it that nowhere was anything mentioned about the time period we were in. I of course noted it had to be the late 80s or early 90s due to the mention of walk-mans and the Ninja freaking Turtles, but it was driving me batty that it was never said. The characters in the book were loosely developed. The main lead we follow, Mina, was not that interesting to me. I was hoping we were going for a type of Midsomer book and we sort of get there towards the end, but again, it was a slow book that took me almost a month to get through.

"Something in the Walls" follows newly minted child psychologist, Mina. Mina though we find, is not quite okay. Something from her past with her late brother is troubling her, and she now wonders if she should even marry her fiancée Oscar (mentioned, but rarely seen). Mina attends a grief counseling session and there meets a journalist named Sam. Sam is working on a story about a 13 year old girl named Alice who many believe is possessed by a witch. Sam asks Mina to go with him to the village of Banathel where Alice and her family lives so Mina can assess Alice to determine if she is having some type of mental breakdown.

Honestly, most of the book does not do a great job with developing anyone. We have Mina, who we know is hiding something. Alice and her family seem to be caught up in some sort of violence due to her father's job at the local abattoir. The next door neighbors, Bert and Mary and Fern who seem to be holding onto secrets. Pearce jumps around a lot to the point I just kept going what story was she trying to tell. The story of Mina or what was really going on with Alice. On the last part, I think that the ending and reveal kind of undid all of that, but what do I know.

The flow of the book was pretty awful. I just felt as if I was reading and nothing was happening. Just Mina and Sam getting scared, Mina snooping, and Mina not actually doing anything I would assume a child psychologist should be doing.

The setting of Banathel was put to good use though. Taking place over a very hot summer, you could feel the heat and how oppressive the whole place felt. And you could see why a village like this would be taken over by hysterics regarding witches.

The ending didn't leave me with any sort of satisfaction, I think that there were too many plots to tie up. That said, I am glad I finally finished this one.

Something In The Walls
By: Daisy Pearce

4 Stars

From start to finish, this book grabs you and doesn't let go. It follows Mina as she studies a young girl, Alice, who is believed to be possessed. Alice, being new to her job and facing her own personal problems, knows she may could be over her head, but she also knows Alice needs her help. Mina soon finds out that Alice is not the only one in danger in this town.

Wow. This was a very interesting book. It was genuinely spooky and gave me quite a scare. The characters were realistic enough to be relatable and to captivate. This story was spooky and detailed. With all the history behind witches, it is certainly scary to think about. I would call this a horror that was gory and scary, and it was written just right. If you love a good spook, this is definitely a good one to read.

*I want to thank Netgalley and the author for this book in return for my honest review*

Stormi Ellis
Boundless Book Review

i really really tried to get through this one and wanted to like it but i just had a very hard time. it had such a promising premise but didn’t for me. if you like horror though, i think you’d enjoy this one!

If you’re looking for a disturbing tale of witch craft then this is it. Take a journey to a desolate town where superstition still reigns supreme and they definitely don’t take witch craft lightly. When the newest witch haunting occurs, Mina and Sam travel to uncover the story but also have their own agendas in mind.

I would caution a trigger warning for the allusion to various forms of abuse.

I wish that there was more time spent into the backstory of Mina and her life to help develop the storyline. It would also have been helpful when the timeline jumped between chapters if the there was a date/time for referencing to prevent a choppy reading experience.

Overall it was an interesting and entertaining story. Very descriptive and disturbing in certain aspects of the storyline but also room for improvement.

Something in the Walls by Daisy Pearce is available February 25, 2025. Check it out!

Thank you to NetGalley for the opportunity to read this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I loved this book and all that went with it!! I loved the witchy aspect and the way that folk lore affected this town. This was creepy and kept me up most nights just wanting to get a couple more pages in, I will be checking out more of this author.

3.5 stars

When Mina meets reporter Sam at a grief support group and he invites her to accompany him to investigate an alleged haunting and other disturbances surrounding a teenage girl, Mina sees it as an excellent opportunity to get some experience under her belt and pad her resume, while Sam follows up on a lead.  Neither of them are willing to admit to their ulterior motives, and neither are prepared for what they find in the home of Alice Webber or the village of Banathel itself, for Banathel is a village steeped in superstition where the doorways are decorated with hagstones and the children taunt each other with stories of witch curses.

I really enjoyed the first half of Something in the Walls.  There were parts that reminded me of the creepiest  bits of Thomas Olde Heuvelt's Hex and the interesting family dynamics of Paul Tremblay's A Head Full of Ghosts.  The sinister descriptions of menacing figures glimpsed, heard and felt, but never seen directly, is always the most effective way of providing chills to this reader, and there were a number of well-executed scenes like this.  The Webber family read as genuine in a dysfunctional and financially strapped way, and Pearce does a good job evoking the stifling oppression of a heatwave and drought without the relief of air conditioning (talk about horror!).  

Unfortunately, the story meanders a bit during the middle section and then takes a turn toward a certain kind of plot device/explanation that I get tired of in my horror.  I can't say any more for fear of spoilers, but I found the ending rather unsatisfying in that it never entirely circled back to the themes and storylines that made the first half of the story so compelling.  I also found some behaviors of characters in the book, both in the present timeline and in their own individual pasts, baffling and not entirely believable.  I would still recommend this one to readers who enjoy folk horror and witches and I will look for more of Pearce's work in the future.

Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for a digital advanced readers copy.  Something in the Walls will be available on February 25, 2025.

I don't typically read the horror genre, but this book ointirgned me. Mina is a new child psychologist who meets Sam, a journalist, at a grief group. Mina decides to help Sam out with a case of a girl who is accused of being possessed by a witch. The majority of the book had me on the edge of my seat. The only thing is I didn't love the way the book ended.

3.5 stars rounded up.

Inside these pages is a dark, uncomfortable, and weird story. It centers around women and the history of witchcraft, along with a small town that fully absorbs this belief.

What worked for me most was the sense of dread and creepy scenes. Often it was mysterious and confusing - confusing on purpose and I enjoyed that. I was left often thinking is this real? What’s happening? How is this meant to be the real deal?

There were twists and turns and horrific things happening.

The first half was absolutely dark and twisty and super tense. The last half dragged a bit and I was waiting for the loose ends to make sense. I understood the way the author took the story, but if that’s the way she was going to curve it, there needed to be an explanation for events happening.

The main character Mina was also lacking. She could t decide what she wanted to be and that left me feeling like I didn’t care about her.

Overall, this was a tense and enjoyable horror story. It is very reminiscent of older horror books and I think will be liked by many. Worth the read for sure, but won’t be an all time favorite.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the ecopy.

It was the title and cover of this book that caught my attention. I wanted to read this book, but I was almost too scared to, I don't read many horror-type books, but this one instantly pulled me in. Mina has just graduated as a child psychologist and volunteers to help a young girl who is haunted by witches. The town of Banathel seems strange with hagstones hanging in doorways and witch hunters performing Riddances rituals to ward off evil. This book has an edge-of-your-seat suspense feeling and I found it hard to put down. Thanks to author Daisy Pearce, St. Martin's Press, and NetGalley. I received a complimentary copy of this ebook. The opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own.

Creepy and unnerving, this book was so unique! When I started it, I had NO IDEA Where it was going but honestly ended up being “pleasantly” surprised with how freaky it was!
I absolutely loved the perspective of a child psychologist to help with a child’s alleged witch haunting case.
It was a page turner for me!

Thank you and Minotaur Books, #partner for the advanced copy of Something in the Walls in exchange for my honest review.

This is the first book I’ve read by Daisy Pearce and if her other books are anything like this one, I will definitely be adding them to my tbr! This one was such an unsettling, addictive read that I finished it in one go!

This is such an incredibly atmospheric, haunting read that I read to in one sitting. It’s the type of book that just pulled me in more and more the deeper I got into the book. I’m always a fan of small-town settings and this one really gave off such unsettling vibes, with its hive mentality and how at the slightest provocation, it slips into mass hysteria. And on top of that, the author deftly sets the book during a heatwave, which only exacerbates the hysteria. ⁣
⁣
Witchcraft, superstition, folklore, supernatural vibes…this book has it all and I could not get enough of it!!!

This is the best horror novel I’ve read in ages. I absolutely loved the descriptive, lyrical language and the spooky vibe. Often books with elements of witchcraft are a bit cheesy, but this wasn’t. I really loved it!

I am not easily spooked while reading some horror novem but this one I had to put it down one time because I was too spooked!
It was super promising but the ending left me feeling like it wasn't really the right conclusion. I would have loved to know more about what's happening to Alice and a little bit more investigation about the creepy small town.

⭐️⭐️⭐️

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Mina agrees to accompany a journalist to investigate the strange behavior of Alice, a teenage girl whose community thinks she’s a witch. But this small town has a tradition of dealing with witches, and Mina may not be able to outrun the town’s past.

Mina is a recent graduate who studied child psychology (so, not quite qualified) and she and the journalist, Sam, share the painful experience of having lost someone close to them. Their motives are not entirely pure, as it’s thought that Alice can communicate with the dead. Their grief also colors their approach to Alice’s situation, and at times leads them into some dangerous situations. Mina would have been a much more believable journalist than she was as a child psychologist. I didn’t have all that much sympathy for her when she kept deliberately putting herself in harm’s way.

I loved the concept - witches, folklore, history, haunting, psychological suspense. I loved the vivid descriptions of the suffocating heat wave, lending a sense of urgency and helplessness to every charged interaction. I could feel the heavy, sticky air and the tension in the room.

Around 80% the story pivots - in one sense, it went in the direction I expected, but also, the reader is dragged into a somewhat inevitable yet unsatisfying ending. Things take a very weird turn and the whole town gets involved. The situation is farfetched but plausible. However, the most “haunting” elements of the story are more or less ignored in the end (someone please explain the shoe!), so I put down the book feeling unresolved. So much is left not only unexplained, but unaddressed. It was disappointing to have all this anticipation build up over the course of the book, then get an ending that’s slightly out of left field and explains very little of the mystery.

I also take issue with the title of the book - there’s something in the chimney , not the walls - and the cover doesn’t reflect the story accurately, which is a shame because it was an easy concept to do, if only you knew a tiny bit about the content of the book…

The best part of this book was how vividly I could feel the atmosphere. It was like being right there in the room - and the creepy happenings kept my heart rate up and the pages turning. The book hooked me and I finished it quickly - and other than the unsatisfying resolution, I was very entertained. Since the descriptive writing was so strong, I would definitely read another from this author.

I enjoyed the concept of this book, but it just didn't grab me as I'd hoped. It felt like there was an element of suspense missing that I normally attribute to paranormal stories. The climax didn't reach until the very tail end of the book, and I feel like it should've happened a little sooner, or maybe have more build up. It was a good twist, but it sort of fell flat.