Within these Walls: a Review

What’s the book? Within These Walls by Ania Ahlborn

How dark is it? Medium grey, like a drab prison wall.

How good is it? 4/10 ghosts

Lucas Graham is a true crime writer who really needs a good story. Good thing one drops right in his lap; mysterious cult leader Jeffrey Halcomb is finally ready to talk about his crimes and he wants none other than Lucas Graham to write his story. The catch is that Halcomb will only tell all if Graham comes out to interview him right now. And if he agrees to rent Halcomb’s old house. The one where Halcomb killed all those people . . . 

Thus begins Within these Walls, a haunted house story with some cult killings thrown in for extra spice. The spooky weirdness starts pretty much the moment Lucas and his 12-year-old daughter arrive at the house. His daughter knows Lucas is here to interview some murderer in prison for his next novel, but he definitely did not tell her the history of their current abode. Which is dumb, because this is the twenty-first century and she knows how to Google. This is eventually pointed out in the novel. Lucas really didn’t think that one through. 

We follow Lucas’s investigation into Halcomb and his cult, interspersed with flashback chapters detailing the months leading up to the famous murders. I would tell you more about both, but it’s all explained in excruciating detail in the book. We’ll read a chapter from the point of view of Audra Snow, the cult member who originally lived in the house. Then we’ll read about Lucas finding clues about the same event in the present. Then we’ll read a short police report or news article from the past detailing the same info. If Ahlborn wants us to know what it’s like to be a writer struggling to make a story out of nothing, she does a great job. If she’s trying to build suspense or connect us to the characters, this over-explaining thing isn’t helping. 

That’s too bad, because the actual haunting bits are pretty exciting. Lucas’s daughter quickly becomes obsessed with Halcomb and the cult, convinced that she can find a way to contact them and free the spirits haunting her new home. She sees spirits, experiences time slips, she feels terrifyingly drawn toward this cult leader she’s only seen on the internet. Lucas is also having some weird experiences but he mostly deals with them by burying himself deeper in his work. 

It all builds up to a nicely creepy ending, but even with all the tedious exposition there are parts that aren’t explained nearly enough. We never get to know what Halcomb’s deal is, where his power comes from or why people are so attracted to him. In the flashback chapters, Audra Snow pretty much goes from “who are these people?” to “I will literally do anything for Halcomb, including sex with his entire cult” in a week or two. In the present, Lucas’s daughter sees Halcomb’s picture on the internet, and in spite of knowing his history (and in spite of being only 12), immediately becomes obsessed with how great he is. I need to know how this works and it is never explained. I’m irritated. 

So . . . my feelings are mixed. I love a good haunting and those scenes are well done. I love a dark ending and this book definitely has one. But the good parts make the repetitiveness and unanswered questions all the more annoying, like Ahlborn was dwelling on all the wrong things between jump scares. The book was flawed to the point that I couldn’t really immerse myself in the suspense. Too bad, too. With a proper buildup the ending would have really gotten to me.