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wild_avalon_lass 's review for:
Within These Wicked Walls
by Lauren Blackwood
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
"Love made me braver, and I would die brave, if nothing else."
I really wanted to enjoy this book.
Jane Eyre? Gothic? Spirit-infested mansion? all of these things are the vibes I go for when reading, and then to wrap it into a cultural backdrop that is not often represented in gothic horror? I was so invested at the start.
It fell really flat, unfortunately.
To start with, I think advertising this as a Jane Eyre retelling really set me in the wrong direction, as far as expectations go.
Aside from sharing the 'Rochester' name, Magnus and Edward share very little simularities, and certainly not the same character-arc.
Throughout Jane Eyre, Mr. Rochester's secrets come spilling out, he's forced to come to a reckoning for his sins, and the book ends with him much humbler, much more dependant on Jane, and far less mighty.
The 'haunting' of his manor is his own fault, by his own doing.
I kept waiting for Magnus to have a bride in the attic.
Instead, Magnus is very much the victim of the hauntings. He is the victim of the evil eye, he is the victim of the story. Andromeda (Andy) saves him, is his shelter and safe place, but this leaves Magnus with very little character development, or even a need to develop.
Magnus is also much harder to love than Mr. Rochester.
Which is saying a lot because.... ya know, wife in the attic.
The Magnus we meet at the start of the book is a spoiled, tormented boy (who actually reminded me a lot of The Secret Garden's Colin Craven, rather than Jane Eyre's Edward Rochester...) who flirts, and becomes obsessed with the first girl to ever expect anything from him.
At the end of the book, Magnus is still spoiled, still prioritizes his own wants over everything else, and has gotten his way in literally every way.
He did not grow, develop, or be pushed to mature in any way.
Because of this (and because of how childishly Andy herself acted) I kept forgetting that these characters are supposed to be between the ages of 19-22. They behaved and spoke as if they were 14-16.
Magnus acts so childishly all the time, it is hard to see him as a proper love interest.
I'm also still not really sure what drew Andy to him, aside from his looks, because their romance happens so quickly and he is pouting and crying and bullying her into things the whole time.
Magnus sulks anytime he doesn't get his way. Andy is incapable of thinking rationally about cleansing the house, because she's daydreaming about kissing Magnus instead.
Like...seriously, guys. This is a haunted house that's literally killing people. Can we focus on that for one single chapter without obsessing over kissing or touching?
It was hard to take the threat of the Evil Eye, the house, the scenario seriously when each time Andy should have been focused on keeping people alive, she was instead daydreaming about Magnus.
So much of this book is just lovey teen drama-coded, that the horror elements are rushed and just really feel like the after-thought to the romance.
The timeline of this book is also very very wobbly. I have no idea if the entire book is over a course of a week or several months. Enough happens that I feel like it was a week or two, but that means Andy and Magnus go from hating each other to snogging each other (and confessing undying love) in literally 24-48 hours.
I wanted to like this book, as I said. I DID like the way Lauren Blackwood wove Ethiopian spirituality into the story, I liked Jember and Saba's little hint of a backstory (should've been an adult book about THEM saving their kids <3). I wanted to like the setting, but for a book set in Ethiopia, it felt very Eurocentric, as the majority of the book takes place in Magnus' English-style estate.
It just fell very flat, as both a gothic horror and as a Jane Eyre retelling.
I really wanted to enjoy this book.
Jane Eyre? Gothic? Spirit-infested mansion? all of these things are the vibes I go for when reading, and then to wrap it into a cultural backdrop that is not often represented in gothic horror? I was so invested at the start.
It fell really flat, unfortunately.
To start with, I think advertising this as a Jane Eyre retelling really set me in the wrong direction, as far as expectations go.
Aside from sharing the 'Rochester' name, Magnus and Edward share very little simularities, and certainly not the same character-arc.
Throughout Jane Eyre, Mr. Rochester's secrets come spilling out, he's forced to come to a reckoning for his sins, and the book ends with him much humbler, much more dependant on Jane, and far less mighty.
The 'haunting' of his manor is his own fault, by his own doing.
I kept waiting for Magnus to have a bride in the attic.
Instead, Magnus is very much the victim of the hauntings. He is the victim of the evil eye, he is the victim of the story. Andromeda (Andy) saves him, is his shelter and safe place, but this leaves Magnus with very little character development, or even a need to develop.
Magnus is also much harder to love than Mr. Rochester.
Which is saying a lot because.... ya know, wife in the attic.
The Magnus we meet at the start of the book is a spoiled, tormented boy (who actually reminded me a lot of The Secret Garden's Colin Craven, rather than Jane Eyre's Edward Rochester...) who flirts, and becomes obsessed with the first girl to ever expect anything from him.
At the end of the book, Magnus is still spoiled, still prioritizes his own wants over everything else, and has gotten his way in literally every way.
He did not grow, develop, or be pushed to mature in any way.
Because of this (and because of how childishly Andy herself acted) I kept forgetting that these characters are supposed to be between the ages of 19-22. They behaved and spoke as if they were 14-16.
Magnus acts so childishly all the time, it is hard to see him as a proper love interest.
I'm also still not really sure what drew Andy to him, aside from his looks, because their romance happens so quickly and he is pouting and crying and bullying her into things the whole time.
Magnus sulks anytime he doesn't get his way. Andy is incapable of thinking rationally about cleansing the house, because she's daydreaming about kissing Magnus instead.
Like...seriously, guys. This is a haunted house that's literally killing people. Can we focus on that for one single chapter without obsessing over kissing or touching?
It was hard to take the threat of the Evil Eye, the house, the scenario seriously when each time Andy should have been focused on keeping people alive, she was instead daydreaming about Magnus.
So much of this book is just lovey teen drama-coded, that the horror elements are rushed and just really feel like the after-thought to the romance.
The timeline of this book is also very very wobbly. I have no idea if the entire book is over a course of a week or several months. Enough happens that I feel like it was a week or two, but that means Andy and Magnus go from hating each other to snogging each other (and confessing undying love) in literally 24-48 hours.
I wanted to like this book, as I said. I DID like the way Lauren Blackwood wove Ethiopian spirituality into the story, I liked Jember and Saba's little hint of a backstory (should've been an adult book about THEM saving their kids <3). I wanted to like the setting, but for a book set in Ethiopia, it felt very Eurocentric, as the majority of the book takes place in Magnus' English-style estate.
It just fell very flat, as both a gothic horror and as a Jane Eyre retelling.