DNF. It was bad at all. The writing was really good, but the plot was just a bit too touchy for me right now. May come back to it eventually.

Something in the Walls was a supremely dark, creepy, unsettling horror story that enchanted me right from the start. It was jam-packed with all kinds of supernatural elements, like hauntings, possession and witches. Needless to say, I was obsessed with the subject matter!

The horror scenes were so well done, and it felt like they were happening one after another at one point. I couldn’t turn the pages fast enough, desperate to find out where the story was headed next.

There was a lot going on within the book, but that was part of what I loved about it. The ending was completely insane!! I never could’ve anticipated it. I was left feeling super unsettled and with a whole lot of unanswered answers. I actually felt similarly when I finished We Used to Live Here by Marcus Kliewer.

Thank you so much to St. Martin’s Press and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this e-ARC!

Read if you like:

✨Witches
✨Psychological evaluations
✨Possession & hauntings
✨Local superstitions & rituals
✨Small town settings
✨The complexity of grief

Thank you NetGalley and Publisher for allowing me to read and review this book.

I very much enjoyed this book. The writing was great and the characters were well developed. I hope to read more from this author in the future.

3 stars.

Creepy, unnerving and unique!

This witchy story follows Mina, a newly certified child psychologist. She takes on a peculiar case of a thirteen-year-old girl who claims to be haunted by a witch.

This book is a truly unique and unputdownable reading experience. The plot has thick, foreboding tension dripping from the pages from start to finish. The highly atmospheric story gives the reader an uncomfortable sense of unease and paranoia. I was on edge and curious throughout.

While the story is unnerving and uncomfortable, there were many plot points that were implausible. I loved the horror/witchiness of the storyline, but the actual plot and characterizations didn’t work for me. For one, the child psychologist acted more as a police detective than a doctor. This caused a disconnect for me from truly immersing myself within the plot. The writing and atmosphere of the book engrossed me, but the storyline itself never quite gripped me as too many things didn’t make sense.

I enjoyed this for being a unique, atmospheric, entertaining psychological thriller/horror, but I failed to truly click with the characters and/or storyline as most other early reviewers have.

Overall, it’s a great book choice if you want to try something completely different and you enjoy witchy stories with hints of horror. I am definitely the outlier with my thoughts so I encourage you to try it out and see for yourself!

Thank you to the publisher for my digital copy! My ARC was provided by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Expected date of publication is Feb 25, 2025

Thank you to NetGalley for this ARC!

This book was actually quite scary. The author writes horror imagery very well. There were moments I would be reading and didn’t want to turn out the light! I enjoyed the folk horror elements in this book. The characters were mysterious and interesting. I would definitely recommend this book to the horror community. Made my skin crawl!

I received an arc (it's not out till March 2025) but knew it was going to be a good read for October given the premise - spooky house, witchy / haunting / exorcism dealie. So I eagerly dove in and was quite happy in doing so.

It was everything. I could hardly read it at night it was so creepy. Cinematic really. And then... 3/4 through as we're reaching the climax of the story it curves hard into territory that immediately took away what was built up.

Would I still recommend this? Yes. It was well written (and super scary until it wasn't).

Thank you to NetGalley for this ARC!

I am generally a fan of thrillers, and what I love about them and what this book did well was keep you guessing and wanting more and the twist.

Where I struggled with this book was the jump from the setup to the plot twist/ending. It felt like it wrapped up very quickly with not as much development.

A haunting story of the evil that lurks not just in the fireplace but in community traditions. Mina, a newly licensed child psychiatrist is challenged with curing thirteen year old Alice Webber who is convinced that she is being haunted by a witch. Sam Hunter, a journalist she met at a grief support group encourages her to take the case with him as her ally. As they both dive deeper into the Webber family's house, lives and relationships it is evident that a dark energy surrounds all of them. "Something in the Walls" by Daisy Pearce is a unique take on witches, mass psychogenic illness and the lengths someone will go to process grief.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with this ARC. Mina Ellis is a recent graduate of psychology. Sam is a journalist who debunks the supernatural. When his latest supernatural assignment’s subject is an adolescent girl, one he secretly hopes is legit, he immediately thinks of his recent introduction to Mina. Persuading her is not difficult as she also has a vested interest in whether this girl is truly being haunted.
I gave this 4 stars. Some parts feel disjointed from the whole of the story. The horror is a slow build but gets there in the end. I was highly interested and held captive while reading. I would recommend this!

At first, I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect from this book, but I ended up enjoying it more than I thought, especially reading it late at night. It gave off a vibe similar to The Exorcist, but with a witch—though it’s possible there might not even be one at all. The writing was engaging, and I loved the small-town atmosphere. That said, the ending left me with a lot of unanswered questions, and I really wish there had been more clarity. Huge thanks to NetGalley for providing access to the ARC!

I absolutely love reading anything about hauntings and witches. The start of the book was great. I wanted to keep reading to know more of what’s going on. This was slow paced and suspenseful. While there were chilling aspects, I kept waiting for more and never got that “something” I thought this book would have. It’s a somewhat creepy story. However, I don’t feel as if this accomplishes a thing particularly unique or memorable.

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley.

This book started off really good! I was 100% on board, engrossed in the narrative, and kind of freaking out a little bit and wondering what was real and what wasn’t. I was so excited that I finally found a horror novel that was actually grabbing my attention! However, my excitement was short-lived because the story completely derailed (IMO) in the second half.

I noticed about halfway through that while I was still intrigued, I was also hoping for some reveals to start occurring that would move the story along… and that didn’t happen. There wasn’t a lot of actual story or character development happening, and so much information was being repeated that it became noticeable. The last 25% or so of the book ran off in another direction that not only felt really convoluted and out of left field, but also created numerous plot holes and unanswered questions! By the end of the book, all I could do was shake my head.

I was excited about this book, but ultimately it didn’t work for me.

Thank you @netgalley and St. Martin’s Press/Minotaur Books for an eARC of this book, which I have read and reviewed honestly and voluntarily.

Dark, spooky, twisty, suspenseful and UNPUTDOWNABLE! Mina is newly graduated from college as a psychologist and is busy planning her upcoming wedding. She has never recovered from her brother’s death and attends a bereavement support group. It is there that she meets journalist, Sam, who calls her one day with a proposition. There is a young girl, Alice, who lives in a small town. She is suffering from the delusion that she is a witch. Sam hopes to write the big story that will propel his career. Mina hopes to heal this girl, proving she has what it takes in the mental health field. But what they uncover is much more sinister than either expected. The small town of Banathel holds many dark secrets that will take Sam and Mina on a dark journey that could cost them everything.

The beginning of this book really spooked me and wasn’t sure I could handle it since I struggle with evil paranormal tropes. But I was soon captivated by this story and it went places I was not expecting. This book is going in my top favorites at the end of the year. Definitely cannot wait to see what this author writes next!

Thank you Netgalley, St. Martin’s Press and the author for this eARC in exchange for my honest review. This book will be available for purchase on February 25, 2025

This book starts out very promising. Mina is a child psychologist who goes to the small town of Banathel to evaluate Alice, who is cursed by a witch. Banathel also has a deep history of witchcraft, so the citizens are desperate for answers. Is Alice cursed or is she making it up? The witchy parts of the story are done well and feel creepy. The descriptions surrounding the unexplained events Alice goes through are gross and disturbing. I was really excited to find out if Alice was haunted or not. 

Then I got 2/3 of the way into it, and it turned into a completely different book. The ending felt unfocused and left so much unanswered. If the beginning and ending were different books, they would be great reads. I was pretty disappointed in this one and the characters didn’t really do it for me. Mina is a child psychologist but didn’t do much talking with Alice. 

Overall, I gave it 2 stars because I really did like the witchy parts of this book and I wish Pearce would have stuck with that. 

Thank you to NetGalley and St Martin’s Press-Minotaur Books for this eARC to review. All opinions are my own. This book is available on February 25, 2025. 

Read if you like:
🧙 Witches
❓ Unanswered Questions
🏡 Small Town Drama

This book was eerie from the first chapter to the very last page page! I was engrossed the whole time, and I loved all the characters! I have never read anything else by author, but I look forward to reading more other work in the future!!

Something in the Walls is an atmospheric, slow burn mystery/horror book about a young psychologist who investigates the case of a teenage girl who is claimed to be haunted by a witch. Mina is a recent graduate, engaged to an aloof educated man, and still mourning the death of her younger brother from several years prior. In a grief support group, she meets Sam, a journalist who is mourning the loss of his younger daughter. Both feel responsible for their losses, and it propels them to try to help Alice, a girl who lives in a small town and has been “cursed” since she broke the witches’ bottle at an abandoned house.

We’re not entirely sure what is happening and why. Is Alice actually haunted, is she suffering from a mental disorder, is the town suffering mass hysteria? Mina and Sam are invited to stay with Alice’s family amid a terrible heat wave in the late 1980s. Strange things keep occurring and we’re not sure why. The writing and atmosphere are so creepy. This was not a book I enjoyed reading late at night! The story is a little repetitive and slow for the first 2/3, but really picks up at the end. Though I had a suspicion as to what was happening, the last quarter of the book took me by surprise. There is so much action, and by the end, you’re wondering if Mina is even a reliable narrator. I listened to the audiobook, which was perfectly narrated by Ana Clements.

Thank you NetGalley and the publishers for providing this ebook and audiobook. All thoughts are my own.

I recently finished reading Something In The Walls and let me tell you, it did not disappoint. As a recent grad and newbie child psychologist, Mina gets thrown into a small town with a possible possessed/witchy girl and things get creepy real quick. This book has all the vibes I love - witches, possession, small town hysteria - but also has a dark and unsettling undertone. Overall, it was a page-turner and I couldn’t put it down. Shoutout to the talented author for keeping me on the edge of my seat.

What a creepy and strange read! So much to digest in this story…it did keep me entertained until the end.

I was super intrigued by this book, but it really fell flat for me. I did not love the characters and found myself just ready for it to end. I also felt that there was a lot left that wasn’t wrapped up well.

This was the first book I attempted to read a few weeks after the death of a family member. While Pearce's writing is exceptional, I almost needed to stop reading given how the themes of the book related to the loss of the ones we love. Honestly, the first few chapters were so good -- and the hook so strong -- that I couldn't stop. Was it a little difficult? Yes, but only because I could so strongly relate to wanting desperately to reconnect with those who have passed on and the question of how on earth we're supposed to just go one with life after such a loss.

I loved the character of Mina, but I am always a sucker for a great unreliable narrator with her own demons. The house seemed almost like another main character, as did the town, and I found myself experiencing the claustrophobia of it all -- as well as the chills. This is excellent, slow-burn, psychological horror, and despite my hesitation due to how triggering the themes were due to my recent loss, I raced through it until the end.

I am a HUGE fan of Pearce's writing and excited to read whatever she writes next!