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bucher_freund 's review for:
Within These Walls
by Ania Ahlborn
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
True crime writer Lucas is in the midst of a years long writing slump and his marriage is imploding. So when Jeffrey Halcombe, a Manson-esque cult leader from the early 1980s, breaks his decades-long silence to offer an exclusive set of interviews from prison, Lucas uproots goth tween Vee and moves across the country to the Washington house where the cult spent its final months. As he struggles to rekindle his career and repair his relationship with Vee, he tries to ignore the increasingly strange, seemingly supernatural events that begin to occur.
Awesome setup for a story, right? And yet, it dragged. Badly. This probably would have been a DNF, but I really liked Ahlborn's The Bird Eater, and I thought Seed was amazing. I hung in there continuously hoping this one would wow me. It was about 150 pages too long, and stuffed with too much that didn't really enhance the suspense or the impact of the story. By the time the twists and the heavy ghost activity arrived, I had already lost interest, so it didn't hit the way it should have. This story had so much potential, but really missed the mark for me.
Awesome setup for a story, right? And yet, it dragged. Badly. This probably would have been a DNF, but I really liked Ahlborn's The Bird Eater, and I thought Seed was amazing. I hung in there continuously hoping this one would wow me. It was about 150 pages too long, and stuffed with too much that didn't really enhance the suspense or the impact of the story. By the time the twists and the heavy ghost activity arrived, I had already lost interest, so it didn't hit the way it should have. This story had so much potential, but really missed the mark for me.