Review--The Women in the Walls by Amy Lukavics

Lucy Acosta's mother died when she was three. Growing up in a Victorian mansion in the middle of the woods with her cold, distant father, she explored the dark hallways of the estate with her cousin, Margaret. They're inseparable—a family.

When her aunt Penelope, the only mother she's ever known, tragically disappears while walking in the woods surrounding their estate, Lucy finds herself devastated and alone. Margaret has been spending a lot of time in the attic. She claims she can hear her dead mother's voice whispering from the walls. Emotionally shut out by her father, Lucy watches helplessly as her cousin's sanity slowly unravels. But when she begins hearing voices herself, Lucy finds herself confronting an ancient and deadly legacy that has marked the women in her family for generations.

I decided to take a break from my review pile for a read that’s been on my pile for a few years now and since Halloween only just ended, I thought why not have a spooky read?! Amy Lukavics’ The Women in the Walls was a pretty mysterious and eerie read. There were some scary-like moments, but it was also a bit weird in its lore area.

Set in modern (ish?) time, Lucy is a teenage girl who discovers the butler of her manor home, dead. He killed himself. Life hasn’t been easy for Lucy. Her mother died when she was very young and her aunt and cousin came to live with her and her father to help out with the estate and life in general. Then a few days after discovering the butler’s body, her aunt walks into the woods and doesn’t return.

Her aunt is presumed dead and her cousin, Margaret is in mourning. But her behavior starts to take a drastic turn. She’s more cold and distant from Lucy than she ever was before. When Lucy tries talking to her, Margaret doesn’t make much sense. She talks about hearing voices in the walls. Her mother is speaking to her, she claims. Her behavior starts to get erratic and unlike her at all. Lucy isn’t sure what is going on with her family. Things are just crazy.

I don’t want to get into too much detail on the storyline itself since this one is a shorter novel than others I’ve read. It’s just under 300 pages and makes for a quick read! I almost finished it in one sitting, but you know, life happens! Lol.

I thought that that mystery surrounding the house and Lucy’s family was very interesting! It had a really decent buildup! You never really knew what was going on with things, just that it wasn’t natural. Although when the answers start getting revealed at the end, I admit, I was a bit flummoxed. I wasn’t really able to say “Ah ha!” I think because I wasn’t really able to remember a particular moment earlier with some “research” that when the reveal relating to that research finally came up I wasn’t able to connect the dots.

Though I got the general idea of things, there’s just still those nagging questions that mostly revolve around WTF?! Lol. This was definitely a topsy turvy kind of read! There were plenty of shocks and scares along the way too! The eerie voices that Margaret was hearing, spooky attics with memories involving blood and other creepy features! This is definitely a read that kept me turning the pages! It was just that ending! It didn’t quite make things click together for me.

The Women in the Walls is still a very creepy and eerie read! While I couldn’t quite figure out the ending and the connections to past events, I still enjoyed it fairly well! It has a real doozie of an ending too! Since this is a standalone it seems kind of fitting that there is still so much unknown and answers left unsolved. Those little questions don’t really irritate me that much since they weren’t answered. You just kind of have to roll with it! Though the ending still might present somewhat of a head scratcher!

This wasn’t my first book by Amy and it’s not going to be the last either! While the ending was pretty unclear for me, the story itself was enjoyable! I love a good spooky read every now and then and Amy can definitely provide that!


Overall Rating 3.5/5 stars