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A review by writersreads
Girl in the Walls by A.J. Gnuse
3.0
Girl in the Walls is an eerie coming-of-age story about those that press their weight onto creaking floorboards and spy through doors left ajar. Perhaps an odd comparison, but if you have ever played a Life is Strange game – and enjoyed that very specific narrative style – or enjoyed Kya’s younger years in Where the Crawdads Sing, I think you will find something to like in this book. Though perhaps not what the cover and blurbs promise.
Elise, our girl in the walls, is an orphan who has reclaimed her childhood home, under the noses of its current owners, the Mason family. She is only eleven, so still small enough to slip through crawl spaces and sleep under floorboards, and for the most part her night-time wanderings go unnoticed … but nothing stays hidden for long.
If I’m honest, I found the characters in this book to be a little transparent. Even Elise, who stands as the one we know the most about. Her quick wit and zeal make her a fitting protagonist, but her melodramatic backstory and hazy motivation throughout the novel was difficult to pin down and buy into. Then in came the Mason family who, from the beginning, felt entirely cookie-cut. Laura and Nick were almost invisible as parents, and people – the depth of their relationship and marriage given only a peak, but barely explored enough to round them off in a believable way. Eddie and Marshall, their children, were certainly more engaging, and between them drove the plot with their tug-of-war dynamic and hunt for the stranger hiding in their home.
Eddie was my favourite character, and that was due to how fleshed out and grounded he felt in comparison to the others. He is a quiet boy struggling with his own mental health and fighting against the pull of adolescence. And there was something so familiar about that feeling of crossing into secondary school and leaving your childhood behind, along with your safety … and I think we can all relate to how hard it was to watch your peers change and adapt around you, whilst struggling to do so yourself. Boiled down, a feeling of being left behind. I sympathised with Eddie throughout the book and, overall, it was his story I wanted to know the most about and see explored in more depth than it was ultimately granted.
I’ve seen this book described as ‘terrifying’ and ‘gothic’, but I’m not so sure that’s true – at least not in my reading. I would certainly use the words ‘thrilling’ and ‘intense’, for it had a noticeable rhythm to it that kept you turning pages, and a pace that was only strengthened by a tight structure made up of short, concentrated chapters (something I have always liked in novels). My copy of the book also included a Q&A with its author, where he said writing each chapter felt like crafting individual short stories, and at times you could really feel that – even though some were only a few lines long, they could still stand alone as effective vignettes, guiding you through the narrative whilst also granting you that quick-finish gratification. If the book had been structured any differently, it may not have held my patience for as long as it did.
A big thank you to the generous folk at 4th Estate for sending me a copy. Though it didn’t meet my expectations, I still enjoyed my time with it – and the cover is truly something to behold.
Elise, our girl in the walls, is an orphan who has reclaimed her childhood home, under the noses of its current owners, the Mason family. She is only eleven, so still small enough to slip through crawl spaces and sleep under floorboards, and for the most part her night-time wanderings go unnoticed … but nothing stays hidden for long.
If I’m honest, I found the characters in this book to be a little transparent. Even Elise, who stands as the one we know the most about. Her quick wit and zeal make her a fitting protagonist, but her melodramatic backstory and hazy motivation throughout the novel was difficult to pin down and buy into. Then in came the Mason family who, from the beginning, felt entirely cookie-cut. Laura and Nick were almost invisible as parents, and people – the depth of their relationship and marriage given only a peak, but barely explored enough to round them off in a believable way. Eddie and Marshall, their children, were certainly more engaging, and between them drove the plot with their tug-of-war dynamic and hunt for the stranger hiding in their home.
Eddie was my favourite character, and that was due to how fleshed out and grounded he felt in comparison to the others. He is a quiet boy struggling with his own mental health and fighting against the pull of adolescence. And there was something so familiar about that feeling of crossing into secondary school and leaving your childhood behind, along with your safety … and I think we can all relate to how hard it was to watch your peers change and adapt around you, whilst struggling to do so yourself. Boiled down, a feeling of being left behind. I sympathised with Eddie throughout the book and, overall, it was his story I wanted to know the most about and see explored in more depth than it was ultimately granted.
I’ve seen this book described as ‘terrifying’ and ‘gothic’, but I’m not so sure that’s true – at least not in my reading. I would certainly use the words ‘thrilling’ and ‘intense’, for it had a noticeable rhythm to it that kept you turning pages, and a pace that was only strengthened by a tight structure made up of short, concentrated chapters (something I have always liked in novels). My copy of the book also included a Q&A with its author, where he said writing each chapter felt like crafting individual short stories, and at times you could really feel that – even though some were only a few lines long, they could still stand alone as effective vignettes, guiding you through the narrative whilst also granting you that quick-finish gratification. If the book had been structured any differently, it may not have held my patience for as long as it did.
A big thank you to the generous folk at 4th Estate for sending me a copy. Though it didn’t meet my expectations, I still enjoyed my time with it – and the cover is truly something to behold.