reading_under_covers's Reviews (1.61k)

Kristina never misses, I laughed, cried, and once again, fell in love with her characters.

So glad we got so much of the Terry backstory as well!

This bummed me out in every way I expected it to 😅

A great horror if you’re in the mood for something that feels as though it’s already happening in the real world 🙃

The audiobook did a great job in terms of casting and adding in little voice effects as well…wake up and open your eyes!

Sixteen years ago, Caroline Crale was said to have poisoned her husband (an artist!!) and sentenced to life in prison where she died soon after. All she left behind was a letter to her daughter claiming she was innocent - that daughter seeks out Hercule Poirot to find out if her mother was telling the truth. 

 

This book immediately felt true to the current times of true crime when armchair detectives come together to solve cold cases - though in this case, Poirot entrusts all of his possible suspects in truthfully telling their sides of the story of what unfolded that dark and terrible day - convenient, but we can brush that aside when it comes to this otherwise extremely cozy mystery 🥰 

 

This is one of those rare cases where I didn’t feel blindsided by the big reveal and I think the formatting of the way Poirot went about his detective work is the reason why 🕵️‍♀️ 

 

Poirot may have only been described as having an “egg-shaped head” once in this story, but I thought it was a really solid case to add to his dossier regardless! 

Penny Marshall, the woman you were!!

Well.

This made me sad.

"If enough people start telling you you're a witch, then sooner or later you're going to start believing it."

It's the summer of 1989 when new child psychologist Mina has her life upended. While attending a bereavement group to mourn the loss of her late brother, Mina meets a journalist names Sam. He tells her about a girl named Alice who's believed by everyone in her remote village to be haunted by a witch. Mina and Sam both see Alice as a way to move forward in their careers, so they journey to Banathel to determine what's truly haunting this girl.

SOMETHING IN THE WALLS by Daisy Pearce is a haunting gothic horror that really studies adolescence and "misbehavior" in an intriguing way. 

I could feel the pressing heat of the unnaturally hot summer, which seemed to hit a boiling point as the hysteria of the townspeople continued to increase, and the stench and gruesomeness of the killing room floor lingered on Alice's father when he graced the pages.

This story is dark and heavy from beginning to end, but Mina and Sam both brought a light to the story. 

The ending didn't fully work for me in terms of the arc of the story and I was left with quite a few questions, but this was a solid book regardless!

Thanks to NetGalley, St. Martin's Press, and Minotaur Books for the ARC in exchange for an honest review - out February 25!