Review by minimicropup - Something in the Walls

minimicropup 's review for:

Something in the Walls by Daisy Pearce

3.5

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Plot

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

This started off so strong, it was exactly my kind of creepy. I looked forward to reading it every day, except once it swerved into the villainous showdowns it lost me. But I love quiet, atmospheric horror so I rarely like when they switch to cartoony or high-stakes thriller styles.

Energy: Mysterious. Eager. Desperate.

🐺 Growls: The cartoony villainry.

🐕 Howls: The main character suddenly making choices wildly out of character. Jarring shift in tone. Wrapped up too neatly while also feeling kind of unresolved. I didn’t hate the ending, but I missed the eerie, chilling vibe that made the first half so great.

🐩 Tail Wags: Feeling like I was there with the characters. Unsettling scenes. Solid audio (and text too). Balance of cozy and creepy horror.

Scene: 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Small Parish in England (I think)

Perspective: A recent graduate from a psychology program, specializing in working with children but having little job experience. They are engaged to a physics researcher who is unsupportive of their attempts to find work in the field. Despite this, they accept an offer to join a journalist investigating reports of a teenager exhibiting severe symptoms believed to be of paranormal origin.

Timeline: 1989. Linear. June. ☀️ Heatwave.

Fuel: Are Alice’s symptoms psychological or supernatural? Real or fake? What led up to the onset of her symptoms? How will our main character navigate working and living with the family to learn more about Alice and her experiences? Will the journalist do their story justice?

Cred: Plausible to suspended disbelief

Mood Reading Match-Up:

Old cooking. Dictaphone. Fetid smells. Firecrackers. Biting into ice. Faded wallpaper. Old pennies. Wasps. Abandoned cottages. Overgrown yard.

Invisible in the room, tagging along (first person)
Cozy psychological & occulty horror
Creepy kids, creepy villages, creepy vibes
Paranormal sleuthing psychologist + journalist duo
Folklore, fake-outs, rituals, things that go bump in the night
Humans are the real horror moments
Classic evil/villain tropes
Quiet dread escalating to popcorn horror chaos
Estranged relationships
Likeable but foolish MC
Breezy, immersive, sensory writing style

Content Heads-Up: Blood, torture, injury. Bullying (vandalism, taunts, trespassing, betrayal). Death. Drugging. Grief, bereavement counseling. Harassment, sexism (character comments). Immune system disorder. Infidelity (anxiety about/suspected). Kleptomania. Loss of sibling (as teen). Loss of spouse. Mass psychogenic illness. Misogyny. Murder. Nicotine (cigarettes). Non-consenting sexual images of teens. Poverty, financial insecurity. Pregnancy scare, birth control. Self-harm, scarring (brief mention). Sexual child abuse. Vomit.

Rep: British. Cis. Hetero. Pale skin tones.

📚 Format: Library Digital + Everand Audio

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Content Warnings