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A review by archaicrobin
Within These Walls by Ania Ahlborn
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.0
I’ve been wanting to read something by Ania Ahlborn for a long time because I’ve heard such great things about her books. Hopefully her other books live up to the hype because this one did not.
It starts off with a very interesting premise. Down on his luck true crime writer Lucas, gets the opportunity of a lifetime when a Manson family type serial killer (Jeffrey Halcomb) contacts him via letter with an offer for an exclusive interview IF Lucas will agree to live in the house where the infamous Halcomb murders took place.
Despite the odd request Lucas agrees and is eager to let his soon to be former wife leave for Italy with another man while he takes their 12 year old daughter Virginia with him to live in this house. Obviously things don’t go as planned and soon Lucas and Virginia are experiencing strange supernatural things in the house. The book jumps back and forth between the present with Lucas and his daughter, the. to the past where Halcomb and his cult family are invited to live in the house by its very dumb occupant Audra.
This book sounded like it would be SO good, and it was creepy here and there but honestly it was just boring. The characters were all unlikeable, so none of them were really enjoyable to read about. Along with dumb and annoying characters, the story was too long and nothing ever happened. There was so much time spent re-stating the same thing over and over and over again it was beyond tedious. Lucas was a bad father, Lucas felt bad for being a bad father. Lucas is a loser, he sucks, he feels bad that he sucks blah blah blah. That was mostly his inner dialogue throughout the novel broken up by Virginia’s inner dialogue about how much her parents sucked and didn’t love her and she’s always being ignored and blah blah blah. The ending was also very underwhelming and honestly didn’t really make any sense to me.
I gave this 1 star because I honestly would never recommend anyone read this.
It starts off with a very interesting premise. Down on his luck true crime writer Lucas, gets the opportunity of a lifetime when a Manson family type serial killer (Jeffrey Halcomb) contacts him via letter with an offer for an exclusive interview IF Lucas will agree to live in the house where the infamous Halcomb murders took place.
Despite the odd request Lucas agrees and is eager to let his soon to be former wife leave for Italy with another man while he takes their 12 year old daughter Virginia with him to live in this house. Obviously things don’t go as planned and soon Lucas and Virginia are experiencing strange supernatural things in the house. The book jumps back and forth between the present with Lucas and his daughter, the. to the past where Halcomb and his cult family are invited to live in the house by its very dumb occupant Audra.
This book sounded like it would be SO good, and it was creepy here and there but honestly it was just boring. The characters were all unlikeable, so none of them were really enjoyable to read about. Along with dumb and annoying characters, the story was too long and nothing ever happened. There was so much time spent re-stating the same thing over and over and over again it was beyond tedious. Lucas was a bad father, Lucas felt bad for being a bad father. Lucas is a loser, he sucks, he feels bad that he sucks blah blah blah. That was mostly his inner dialogue throughout the novel broken up by Virginia’s inner dialogue about how much her parents sucked and didn’t love her and she’s always being ignored and blah blah blah. The ending was also very underwhelming and honestly didn’t really make any sense to me.
I gave this 1 star because I honestly would never recommend anyone read this.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Misogyny, Sexism, Suicide, and Murder