Review: Within These Wicked Walls by Lauren Blackwood
Within These Wicked Walls is a Jane Eyre-inspired Ethiopean YA fantasy romance.
I did not like a lot about this book, but I will start with my positives. I thought the first 70 pages were really engaging, I typically struggle with the beginnings of books, but I was immediately gripped by this book. I also thought the writing was really easy to read, and made the book a very fast read.
Quick note to anyone who might want to listen to this book as an audiobook. The volume varies wildly, it will be a normal volume then suddenly dip very low, and with just enough time for you to realize and adjust your volume, it will switch back to the original volume. This was terrible when I had headphones in. There are also occasionally popping and other odd noises. I would not listen to the audiobook unless you have to.
This book is very romance forward, a facet I normally adore. This is a very, very quick romance, and I felt that it didn't have much if any, build-up. One scene before the pair kissed for the first time; I realized that I was meant to be finding their interactions romantic; I mostly was just annoyed they were interrupting any chance I had to get worldbuilding or plot information. The hero is petulant, wears bells as if he was a cat, and completely lacks any quality I would have found compelling. I thought their interactions together were lackluster and just not romantic. I also thought their dynamic would have made so much more sense if they had been 14/15 and not 19 and 22.
Throughout the book, I thought the characterization varied pretty wildly. It seemed like characters were changing who they were and how they acted based on the needs of the plot and not in a logical character growth progression. I think this is most apparent with Kelela; she was cruel and childish for 70% of the book, suddenly becomes selfless and an incredible friend, then becomes incredibly brave and single-minded only to then become impulsive and cowardly. After that, she is just kind of there until she disappears as she is no longer relevant. Basically, every character goes through at least one unexplained personality shift, except for underexplored characters who didn't have enough page time to be inconsistent. I do not trust whoever edited this book.
This book does a tremendous job of getting you into a high-action scene and popping the tension. Reading about people weaving thread into crosses during battles is not particularly engaging. Also, knowing that the spooky things happening in the house cannot hurt anyone (except, of course, when they can for some reason, i.e. the library scene) drops the stakes so low it just becomes uninteresting.
I really wished the book had spent much more time on the relationship between Andi, the main character, and Jember, her abusive father figure. The abuse in their past is treated absolutely wildly; it is borderline excused but mostly just kind of glossed over. But I think this relationship could have been compelling, and I would have much preferred this to be the central relationship in this story.
I thought the book lacked in worldbuilding and explanation of the magic system. I am totally fine with nebulous magic, but while reading, I just kept feeling like a really interesting explanation was just around the corner. Ethiopia really felt like set dressing in this story, Coptic crosses, and occasional regional foods did not seem like a fully utilized setting, but I will go try to find reviews from Ethiopean folks. Nothing about the worldbuilding in general really ended up feeling that important to the story. We kept being introduced to little things that I was so hopeful were going to be important, only for it to not really matter or even be mentioned again.
Clearly, this book was just not for me. I always hope that the people that are going to love this book find it, and it does seem like there are people who really are enjoying this book. I shall be happy for those folks and move on to reading something I will hopefully love.
I gave this book two stars.
