Thank you to NetGalley for an e-ARC of Girl in the Walls by A.J. Gruse.
The Girl in the Walls is a suspenseful young adult fiction book with an intriguing plot. Elise is orphaned in a car accident and returns to her childhood home, living secretly within the walls. The teenage boys who live in the house with their parents feel the girl's presence and notice items missing. Enlisting the help of a psychopath, they set about to find the girl and remove her from the house. A.J. Gruse creates a premise that will make you think about noises you hear in the night. He creates characters that are believable and makes the reader empathetic to their cause. This book was a quick read that will make a great YA recommendation. My only criticism is the use of language that makes this book to YA for a middle-grade crossover.

As others have mentioned in their reviews, this is definitely a literary read with suspense elements in it. It's a good debut novel with a unique plot, but not necessarily a slam dunk for me.

SUMMARY
After tragically being orphaned, 10 year old Elise runs away from foster care to live inside the walls of the house she in which she was raised. The house is in southern Louisiana and is an old hodgepodge of a house that seen many renovations over the years. These renovations have created ample room inside the walls and through crawl spaces.
The Mason family moves into the house, and Elise continues to successfully live in the walls alongside them without them picking up on it. Soon, the 2 teenage sons of the Mason family pick up that someone else might be inside their house and seek help from a stranger on the internet. From there, the suspense builds.

OPINIONS
I really liked the plot of this book. The reader feels genuine sympathy and compassion for Elise and wants the best for her. However, it's such an odd thing to read about. I have heard about similar situations, but it's always been adults living in hiding in people's houses. Elise's trauma and her return to her old house makes this novel a tragic one.

I enjoyed the short chapters, but it still felt choppy. The character of Brody felt unnecessary and underdeveloped. The ending, although tied up nicely, didn't flow well.

Overall, it's an okay literary suspense that I plan on recommending.

Thank you to NetGalley!

What a unique and delightful surprise this turned out to be. The story is so clever and creepy and quite sad. Elise is a young girl, whose parents were killed, and she returns to the home they shared and is now living in the walls so she can remain close to the only place that brings her solace. It is, of course, inhabited by a new family, and she does her best to stay quiet and invisible. Her life is limited to hours of solitude and stolen moments when she can come out into existence. The two young brothers who now live in the home sense that something is there - things out of place, unexplained noises, a glimpse of a shadow. The younger of the two brothers seems to perhaps be on the spectrum and sensitive to her presence, but there is no way he is going to say anything as his brother already thinks he's weird. But then his older brother mentions how he feels something is there, watching them, and opens up a can of worms that they never could have suspected would have the consequences that it does. Add in another little neighbor boy who finds out about Elise and befriends her. And she so desperately needs to be seen and have human contact that she gets a bit less careful. Things quickly spiral out of control.

This was so disturbing and makes you think about the noises you hear, the things that go bump in the night, and makes you want to turn on the lights and check the corners of your own home!!!

One of my favorite books of the year so far. This book has almost everything you'd want from a book with this title - and no, I'm not trying to be funny. There's mystery; melodrama; breathtaking adventure; unlikely heroes, an obvious foe that you can spot a mile away, even if the other characters can't; heartbreak; sadness; bittersweetness; quiet friendships...

Elise, our hero, lives in the walls and crawlspaces of the house that used to belong to her parents. Thrust into an unhappy temporary orphanage until family could be notified after her parents are killed in an automobile accident, surrounded by seemingly uncaring adults and steeping in her sadness, she flees her fate and finds herself hiding within the aforementioned walls, regardless of the presence of a new family, mom and dad and two teens. The story is mostly told from Elise's point of view, and we learn - among other things - how she negotiates the comings and goings of the family members. She's very, VERY careful not to get caught - until she isn't.

Saying more would place me right square in the middle of spoiler territory. There's lots of room where the author, A.J. Gnuse, could have turned this into trauma porn, but instead he gingerly handles every plot shift with incredible care, seeming to have the same investment in a suitable outcome as we, the readers, are hoping for. A perfect storm (literally and figuratively) puts Elise's continued life in the only home she knows, with the warm memories of her parents, very much in peril.

Sincere thanks to the author, the publisher, and NetGalley for providing me with a complementary ARC; this in no way impacted my rating or review.

Exciting! I couldn’t put it down, had to find out what would happen next & how it would end. Elise, the resilient survivor of tragedy who finds refuge as a stowaway in her former home, observes & inadvertently terrifies the new family living there.. When the boys turn to a strange man to help them to feel safe in their house again they unwittingly invite danger into all of their lives.

It really was a good read. I liked the story, but I couldn't feel a connection to the characters. The ending was quite perceptible, but it was good one.

A little girl? Secretly hiding in the walls of her own old house? While there’s another family living there? Sign me up! This was an original, peculiar sort of read and I was into it!

Elise, a young girl who recently lost her parents makes a decision to live in the walls of her old house. It still feels like home to her because it’s where so many of her memories with her parents were made. Since it’s such a big, odd, old house, there are nooks and crannies everywhere for her - crawl spaces, laundry chutes, attic spaces, lose wall panels, basements, closets, and so much more. She knows every single thing about this house and could navigate through the walls in her sleep. However the young boys that live there start to realize their family is not alone in the house.

It’s safe to say that I’ve never read anything like this before and I loved it! Usually when you think of someone hiding in the walls of a home, it’s a horror movie trope. In this book you’re actually rooting for the girl in her own home and you don’t even really think of it as trespassing. I loved the emotion and empathy in this read. It was definitely giving me some Parasite vibes, minus the whole outdoor party scene. 😳

There are some great suspenseful parts and sometimes I realized I was straight up holding my breath with my shoulders up to my ears, tense, trying to be quiet to help the girl. 🤦🏼‍♀️ I’m pretty sure I affected the story with my efforts. You’re welcome. 😜

I highly recommend this one, especially if you’re looking for a suspenseful book that you can’t put down. Read this one! Thank you to @netgalley and @eccobooks for this copy and the opportunity to review it.

For the sake of this review, I’m going to assume you’re sitting indoors. Now, for the sake of this review, you’re going to assume there’s somebody hanging out inside the wall behind you.

Creepy, huh? Well that’s the premise of Girl in the Walls. There’s literally a little girl living in the walls of a house. Nothing paranormal here! That’s important to note, as your enjoyment of this book may largely depend on your expectations. Looking for a ghost? Turn on “Ghost Hunters” instead.

If you’re looking for a thriller, you may be a bit disappointed too. While there is a fair amount of suspense in the final half of the story, Girl in the Walls is more a literary fiction novel detailing how an orphan could succeed in dwelling in a home for months without its actual occupants sensing her presence. Eventually of course they do, and their attempts to root out their uninvited roomie is where the pages really start turning.

I loved the premise of the book as well as the author’s writing style. I did have to suspend disbelief to really embrace the story, but you better believe I’m going to be paranoid the next time some raisin bran goes missing around here.

My thanks go to the author and Ecco Books for my gifted review copy provided via NetGalley. Girl in the Walls is now available.

As far as a "Girl" book, yr usual GasLit or whatever, this really didn't have much to compel me through it. You might not agree.

Girl in the Walls by A.J. Gnuse is both haunting and full of heart. This is not a ghost story but a story of a girl who literally lives in the walls of her former home after tragedy strikes. She lives life trying to go unnoticed by the new family that lives there. The best part of this book is the descriptions, since the girl remains hidden she has to describes sound and only get glimpse, she paints a picture with descriptions. The novel goes in some interesting places, it does take a while to find it's direction, but in the I was satisfied by the end. The climax is exciting and the villain is scary in a interesting way. I wanted more interaction between the girl and the family, and we don't get enough flashbacks of the girls family. I thought the story was rather unique, but my emotional connection was lacking at times, where the girl is so guarded we rarely see what is in her head, other than being unnoticed and surviving. I did enjoy the theme of home is where the heart is, it's the safe place. Thanks to Netgalley and Ecco publishing. The Girl in the Walls is published on May 11 2021.

The Plot: Elise lives in a house that is not hers, anymore. The Mason's own the home she lives in. The Mason's don't know she live there, because she lives in the walls. She lives like a mouse scurrying around eating what she can and reading what she can. The house is here when they go to work and school. She does not leave the house. Eddie the youngest Mason can feel her presence, he doesn't know if she's real or a ghost, he just wants her gone, and to stop taking his stuff. The trouble starts when the older brother starts noticing, and is more proactive about it.

What I Liked: The uniqueness of the story, it blends the line of is she a ghost or not for the first couple of pages. It was a beautiful story of a house and it's meaning, but it's also a creepy story for a home owner, it made me think of the horror movie the People Under the Stairs. I liked the brother Eddie, it didn't say he was exactly autistic but definitely in the spectrum, he senses the girl and protects her as well as puts an ode to her in his legos. The descriptions at the beginning when Eddie has a piano lesson was so good. The villain is terrifying as he fights his childhood fears that there was someone in his house, and he's determined to find what goes bump in the night. I liked the stuff about Odin, Thor and Loki.

What I Disliked: The ending initial ending was good, then we get two more that were unnecessary because they didn't provide any information, if you show the girl when she was older, but don't tell anything about her past life or current really. I was left with more questions than answers with the first I was satisfied. We don't see enough into Elise's mind, we don't get her thoughts on much I had a hard time connecting to her. I could feel for her circumstance but not for her as a person.

Recommendation: I will barely recommend this for the young adult audience it was made for, but as an adult I respected the unique story line but not the character development. I found some parts beautiful, but so of it just pain boring as nothing happened and developed. I rated Girl in the Walls by A. J. Gnuse 3 out of 5 stars.

You know when you read a good book you kind of forget where you are? This book is like that but in a rather unique way. The reader is so vested in the mechanics of how Elisa lives her life within the walls of a house, getting food, taking care of herself, and remaining undetected that you forget one really basic thing: she is a young girl. So when Elise is put in danger, other than the inherent dangers of a 10 year old living by herself in the walls of a house, it is almost startling. Your emotions switch over from being impressed with her cleverness to worrying about a child. I really enjoyed how she interacted with the other people in the house. I know that sounds odd since they didn't know she was there. But that is all part of the charm of the book!

3.5
Have you ever lost your remote? Misplaced your keys? Well, maybe it wasn't your fault...maybe, it was the girl in the walls.
I have to admit, the concept was intriguing. The whole idea of a child crawling around in your walls is creepy and bizarre. But I didn't get that vibe from this book. Mostly, at least in the first half, an overwhelming sadness for and from the girl in the walls.
When the viewpoint switches from the girl to the boys who actually live in the house, around half way through, is when the plot actually develops into the thriller this book claims to be. The conflict and suspense is what I was waiting for from the beginning.
I think if the plot had developed a little earlier, I would have enjoyed it more. Still, it was an interesting premise that developed to a decent book.
Thank you to Netgalley for providing me with a free copy of this book in exchange for an unbiased review.

The ominous title and cover of this one caught my eye initially, and the description cemented my interest, so I was thrilled to get my hands on a copy! I read an article years ago about a man who discovered that a woman lived in his apartment for months without him knowing it - it's such a chilling story and not a unique one. I've also seen eerie photographs online of hidey-holes and nest-like stashes of belongings. And then we watched a movie where there are people called "phrogs" who purposely skip from home to home, creeping in to stay. This book manages to encompass not only that creepiness, but also has the reader sympathizing completely with the titular girl in the walls. And yet, you also feel bad for the other people... Genre-wise, this one is a bit hard to categorize - it's a blend of thriller, coming of age, family drama and also a bit of horror.

The pacing is consistently quick and the brief chapters makes easy to justify reading "just one more" - honestly, I have literally a million things to do but found it easy to make excuses to take just a quick break for a chapter (or two or three). The book feels fresh; it's an absorbing read and the characters and setting leap off the page. I really loved it and can't wait to read more from Gnuse in the future!

Eventually, every hidden thing is found...
Girl in the Walls is a story about Elise and the family that she lives with, quite literally, in the walls of her childhood home.
Have you ever walked around your home thinking some small trinket is out of place? A certain piece of food is missing from the fridge? That maybe you hear mice in your walls?
This is one of those stories that I feel is best read with only a little information going in. For some very strange reason, I picked this book up thinking it was a memoir about a girl in an orphanage??? To be clear, that is not what this story is about. Girl in the Walls is a spooky debut novel about the source behind those noises we tend to hear late at night, and the lengths some people will go to stop it.

This was truly horror and it was Soo good! Thank you so much for the arc in exchange for my honest review!

This book took me by surprise. I put off reading it for a long time and when I finally did, I was left feeling unsettled. This story is sad, compelling, creepy, and hopeful. I spent most of the book feeling devastated for Elise the ten-year-old girl who had lost her parents and was living in the walls and crevices of her old home. I wanted to feel this was fantasy, but in my heart, I could believe this was actually possible. What is home and are we safe there?

This story is well written and mesmerizing. The young, orphaned girl, Elise is lost, but she is home. The family living there now are on the surface a normal family, but as they remodel this home there are cracks in their foundation as well. The children sense there is something living and breathing in the walls of their home, but the parents are preoccupied and busy with life. This family is in serious need of help.

I don’t want to give too much away, but this gets intense about two-thirds of the way in, and I was hooked. I was on pins and needles concerned for Elise’s fate and that of the two Mason brothers. This author took an amazing plot and ran with it. I want to thank NetGalley and the publisher, Ecco, for the opportunity to read this book. I gave it three and a half stars rounded up to four.

Elise is an orphan who saw her parents die and has returned to the only home she has known where she lives in the walls. She feels safe here and has a connection to her family. The Masons have moved in. Mom and Dad and the two boys who along with another boy, Brodie, sense that Elise is there. Yes, there is a feel of the supernatural and is creepy at times. Its an original storyline, and once you are hooked you will really appreciate the short to the point chapters in this coming-of-age literary thriller.

Girl in the Walls starts out slow, but builds fairly quickly. This book tells the story of an 11 year old girl who lost her parents in an accident. She returns to the last place she felt safe which was her home. There is another family living there now, parents and 2 teenage boys. I truly came to care about the young girl, Elise.
This is a well written and interesting book. There is a part of the book where you begin to feel her fright, and sense that someone is not who we thought he was. This is where you need to keep reading, not able to put the book down. A book club would be able to have quite an interesting discussion about Girl in the Wall.
Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
#Girl in the Wall,

“Before, when Elise went to school, she knew of strange boys like him. So often they sat in the back corner of class, ignored, until those times during presentations when they were required to stand before the chalkboard and show, fully, how different they really were.”

TITLE—Girl in the Walls
AUTHOR—A. J. Gnuse
PUBLISHED—2021

GENRE—contemporary fiction with a few gothic tropes but I think going in expecting a gothic novel kind of ruined the book for me? because it actually wasn’t very gothic...
SETTING—an old house in modernday Louisiana
MAIN THEMES/SUBJECTS—grief, family, trauma

WRITING STYLE—⭐️⭐️ I also really didn’t like the structure of the book either with its million tiny chapters. Very much took me out of the story.
CHARACTERS—⭐️⭐️⭐️
PLOT—⭐️⭐️
BONUS ELEMENT/S—OCD/autism rep.
PHILOSOPHY—⭐️⭐️... there really wasn’t any... 😬

First off let me say that while I do have OCD (though of a different sort than the character in the book), I am not autistic so I can’t speak to whether or not the autistic rep in this book is accurate or sensitive—I also don’t know if Gnuse is OV so...

Secondly, I think that this book just wasn’t for me. I think I was expecting it to be a lot darker and a lot more creepy and unsettling than it was? More... atmospheric? It just wasn’t any of those things at all, weirdly enough for a story about a girl who literally lives in the walls of someone’s house...

This book was primarily about grief and family. I did like the MC and Eddie and I actually thought Gnuse’s depiction of the girl living in the walls was kind of believable and well thought out but again I feel like there was such a great opportunity to make this book really unsettling and it just fell short of that for me.

I also felt like the plot got a little... random? Idk what the word is that I’m looking for but it all just started to feel really forced and I only continued to lose interest in the story. The ending was extremely unsatisfying too... All in all I think this would have made for a better movie as the writing style was just too flat to make it an interesting book.

⭐️⭐️

TW // claustrophobia, grief, car accident, death of parents, OCD / autism, sibling bullying, home invasion, home insecurity

Further Reading—
- White is for Witching, by Helen Oyeyemi
- The Haunting of Hill House, by Shirley Jackson

2.5 ⭐️‘s
When Elise’s parents are killed in an accident, she runs to the only place she feels safe, her old house. With a new family now residing there, she makes a home in the walls of the house. When the teenage boys in the house start to notice things out of place and feel her presence, they tell their parents who poo poo their fears. Finally they turn to help from the outside...BUT is he friend or foe? The whole time he was in the house I kept picturing a dramatic version of the movie Mouse Hunt🤪This book had quite the unique plot, but fell completely flat for me. I was anticipating a much creepier story, and with so many unanswered questions it just never delivered.