Amy Clarkin's What Walks These Halls is a paranormal mystery with many unexpected twists and turns and some romance. The story is well-told and unfolds at a reasonable pace. Overall, an entertaining listen that is worth your time.

I wanted to like this but it fell flat. The writing was very plain, and character development was one-sided. The story's pacing felt stagnant but the idea did have potential.

Thank you to NetGalley for offering this title in their catalog.

Irish horror spookfest! Tad slow to start, but then picks up speed and creeps you out. Narrator was a perfect pick and added to an already fab book. Thanks to NetGalley and publishers for the audio arc of what walks these halls by Amy Clarkin.

I got to review the audiobook for What walks these halls:

* The narrator is very nice to listen to & speaks in a captivating manner which really drags you into the story
* The only minor thing that bothered me was that the pause between the end of the chapter and the beginning of a new one was a bit too long or maybe I was just being impatient to continue listening

About the story itself;

There are three POV’s: Raven’s, Éabha’s & Archer’s.
Raven & Archer O’ Sullivan are sister and brother that lost their dad when he was conduction a paranormal investigation at the mysterious Hyacinth House. Raven is convinced that she is to blame for his death and distances herself from her family out of guilt.
Archer wants to pick back up their family’s business and wants to find out what exactly happened with his dad but neither his mom nor Raven want to talk about it. When a real estate agent, Cordelia, contacts him about having to sell the house his dad died at, he immediately grabs the opportunity to start his own investigation and find out the truth after all.
Éabha McLoughlin has been hearing and feeling things no one should be able to. Her family doesn’t understand and shames her for her ability so she decides to try to get answers and ends up with Archer’s team where her abilities are welcomed instead of shunned away.

Overall:
* I really enjoyed this story, I couldn’t stop listening to it.
* I loved the spooky setting, it wasn’t too scary but just enough to keep you on the edge of your seat
* +1 for the queer characters
* The found family vibes I got from them were also heart warming and I can’t wait to read the sequel!

Thank you to Netgalley for providing me with the audiobook in exchange for an honest review

A special thanks to NetGalley for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. I’ll admit this is one of my more difficult reviews because I don’t like to criticize a work for what it isn’t. However when I finished this I couldn’t help but think about what could have been. This could have been either a creepy supernatural story or a coming of age tale with a supernatural twist. It was a mix of both but my personal preference was it leaned harder into one or the other. That or be significantly longer.
The review of what it was. It had a solid group of characters. I feel the secondary characters could have been explored more. It has the bones of a really solid haunting tale. Interconnected characters tied to a haunted house. The payoff of the character connections and the haunted fell short in my opinion. All this said I was interested throughout and finished and quickly. Definitely worth a read especially if you just want to dip your toes in the supernatural.

The O'Sullvian siblings are dealing with losing their father during a paranormal investigation and they return to the haunted site where they lost their father . Enjoyed the premise of story, paranormal investigations set the bar for creepy and What Walks These Halls delivers. I enjoyed the story overall but at times the characters were not flushed out and some of the relationship dynamics between the characters did not match up. The narrator enhanced the creepiness and gave me chills.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ALC.

Whew. I wanted to like this for the promised Parapsychology/paranormal aspect but found it really lacking. The plot was more character based than action based. It had a slow start and middle, but picked up a bit towards the end. The narrator with her Irish accent made the story a bit more compelling.

A truly enticing Irish horror novel, What Walks These Halls is full of spooks and terrifying turns of events. Readers will also enjoy heartwarming budding relationships and changing family dynamics. A wonderful read!

Title: What Walks These Halls
Author: Amy Clarkin
Page Count: 383
Dates Read: 4/1-4/2
Format: Audiobook
Length: 10Hrs 57Mins
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Review: This was an Arc given from Netgalley for an honest review. Book releases April 1st. I listened to this on audiobook.

1st point of view is Raven, who her and her brother own PSI and work to help people who are or who think they are experiencing paranormal incidents.
Second Point of view Eabha is who can see, feel, and hear things no one else can.

Hyacinth House is an extremely haunted house in Ireland. The MC both have ties to the house, more than they even realize.Eabha and Raven have to work together to bring the past to rest.

This was an interesting story, but I felt the pacing quite slow. The characters have some development. I enjoyed the relationships that were formed.
This will not be a reread for me.

I find paranormal investigating to be hilarious, even though I host paranormal investigation events and write entire books on tragedies in my county. The Haunted Museum in Vegas was fun for me because I find it all so funny.
So naturally I loved this book. I liked the narration, the characters, and that it was wasn't just about investigating. This stuff is fun.
I also love that I wasn't spooked because I was alone in my work building all day and this place used to be a saniatrium and it gets spooky. I don't need more spooking.

A group of paranormal investigators decide to take up the case of Hyacinth House and while most of them believe in a scientific approach, many of them have a past connection to this house and secrets they do not wish to confront. But the lady of the house has other plans for them all.

The story is definitely spooky with a great narrator cast who engulfs you in the stories. The presence of the spirit, the writing style of the author to communicate with ghosts and the overall voice modulations used in the audiobook worked pretty well together. On a scale of horrors, it wasn't something you would lose your sleepover, but good enough to enjoy an eerie sensation and have a few goosebumps on your arm.

Overall, an enjoyable story and even better in an ALC.
Thank you @netgalley @bolindaaudio @amyclarkin for the Audiobook.
Genre: #horror #ya
Rating: 4/5 ⭐️

I received this audiobook as an ALC, thank you to the publisher and NetGalley. This book wasn’t bad, but it was all character driven growth. It wasn’t as much of paranormal investigations or explorations. Instead it’s the characters confronting things within themselves. It’s not a bad read. The narrator was good, though the male parts weren’t as distinct as the females were voice change wise. It was a bit predictable but still was nice to listen to when it comes to the times where there was discovery. With how it ended, I’m going to assume that it’s a series? It’s was a cliffhanger that gave that idea there was more to come.

A fantastic premise that would have been even better with less of the love stories between characters and more of Hyacinth House

Thank you to Amy Clarkin, Bolinda Audio, and NetGalley for allowing me to listen to a free eaudio ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Usually I'm most into the characters of a novel, but this time around I was in the mood for some scares, and this book was way more about character. Which isn't a bad thing, but I was sold a story about paranormal investigators and this big, bad ghost; I was not looking to drown in an ocean of angst and feelings of inadequacy. Yeah, the characters need conflict and growth, but I need the shit scared out of me. It seemed there was less paranormal investigating and more dealing with personal issues among the group. Hey, I can get the latter in any mainstream YA; I read this book for the former. Not helping was the fact that none of the characters much endeared me. Éabha (the narrator pronounced it like "Ava") came closest, but I don't know, none of them impressed me with charisma or personality. I had a bit of a hard time keeping the female characters/male characters straight in my mind, they blended together so much. So as a ghost story, this was just okay. Read it because you're interested in the character conflicts.

I have to say, the "final battle" was pretty cheesy, and a snoozefest. Speaking through a Sensitive, siphoning energy---that's all been done. That was more supernatural than paranormal, at least to my mind. An actual quote from the villain: "Haha, I'm evil!" (Just kidding, but it was that bad.)

Surprisingly, NetGalley failed to tag this book as LGBTQ+, so fyi, it is.

Overall, I wanted more haunted house and less "I have to get to class." Ugh, talk about an atmosphere-killer.

Oh, wait, they wanted me to talk about the audio and narration. A+++ Usually, if I have a problem with the audio quality/narration, I'll mention it. If I don't, then it's safe to assume I had no problems with it because it was excellent. Róisín Rankin was great, her Irish accent lilting and lyrical but not so thick I couldn't understand her.

Thanks to NetGalley for letting me listen to this audiobook. The best part of this was the narrator; the book is set in Ireland and the storyteller's enthusiastic presentation with her Irish accent was fantastic.
I don't know if it would have been better with a print book, but I had trouble telling who was the focus at different times. Also, for a spooky novel, it never really felt that spooky.
But the characters were likeable and it was an interesting story. It's YA, so the relationships seem immature, and they're not very self aware. But you will probably enjoy this if you like a slow burn, YA thriller.

Thank you to @Bolindaaudio and Netgallery for the advanced audiobook of What Walks These Halls by Amy Clarkin Publishing April 1, 2024.
This story gave me erie haunting of hill house vibes. Who is the lady who haunts Hyacinth House? I’ll start with the pros: The cover of the book got me right away black being my favorite color and the pop of purple… gorgeous. This story has a diverse cast of characters and family dynamics. I can only see this group getting stronger if subsequent stories come from the author. The audio was very well done the narrator Roisan Rankin does a great job and I’m a sucker for an Irish accent. Now for the cons and it’s kind of a big one the meat of the story falls short. So much could have been done but the ending just happened and it fell really flat. I would definitely give Book 2 another shot since the characters are so rich and lovable, I’m invested in them but Amy Clarkin needs to come stronger with the next plot. A haunted cruise ship… ok missy I’m intrigued. This is an easy, quick YA read. Clean and safe for middle school and up looking for friends that accept you for you, becoming a chosen family, and a bit of paranormal creepiness. Story gets 2 ⭐️, characters 5 ⭐️ and narration 4 ⭐️. So this gets a solid 3 ⭐️ from me.

This was a fun, light, easy-to-read classic Haunted House tale. I found one of two parts mildly spooky, but it also felt a bit predictable. I thought the characters were interesting, but I wish it had been told in first person from Raven's POV as I felt it jumped around a bit too much trying to tell us a lot about everyone all at once. This is meant to be the first in a series, and I would have liked to see upcoming stories tell more about the different characters than seeing so much in this one first. The many personal links to Hyacinth House were hard to accept. This book includes a YA double romance with great LGBTQ+ representation. I overall enjoyed this book, and Rankin does a fabulous job narrating the audiobook.
Thanks to NetGalley and Bolinda Audio for this ALC to review!

♡ Audiobook Review ♡
♤ Release April 1st ♤
-Horror
-Ya
-SciFi (Paranormal)
-4 stars
The audiobook is good. The narrator did a great job telling the story.
What Walks These Halls is a YA horror debut for Amy Clarkin. It's a good start for a debut. This story is set in Ireland following a group of people who all have history with the haunted house, The Hyacinth House.
We get 3 different POV's.
Raven and Archer O'Sullivan father died in the mysterious haunted house (Hyacinth House) during a paranormal investigation. Everyone says it was an accident, but Raven is pretty sure she's at fault for their father passing.
Archer doesn't believe it was Raven's fault. Their father passed away, and he has been asked to investigate the Hyacinth House, and he can't pass up this opportunity.
-Éabha McLoughlin has grown up seeing and hearing things no one else does. With her family not believing, she has this ability, and with her wanting to find out answers about this ability. She turns to Archer and his team.
This story has a good storyline, plot, and the horror is good!
-
♡ Thank you, Netgalley, and Bolinda Audio for the ALC for my honest opinion. ♡

🎧4.5⭐️

I had the audiobook of this YA Paranormal mystery read by Róisin Rankin. The Irish narrator was my reason for choosing this book. She does a good job infusing emotion although I’d have liked more infused tension in the end section.

Archer and Raven grew up helping their parents with their paranormal investigations. Their dad died 5 yrs ago at Hyacinth House during an investigation. Archer couldn’t resist an opportunity to investigate Hyacinth House.
Éabha has grown up seeing and hearing things that no one else does, she reaches out to Archer as she wants a better understanding of what’s happening to her.

There is emphasis on the characters and their relationships which are well developed, includes love interests giving it a slow burn. It had enough going on to hold my attention throughout. The protagonists are all likeable, I was rooting for them all. There’s a really dark evil presence that’s very menacing and threatening.

We get flashbacks to the past to learn what happened to their dad as well as the modern investigation. It’s got some good creepy elements with the tension building well for the finale with a feeling of jeopardy.

Although there’s mention of the equipment used by the investigators, don’t go thinking this is a modern day version of ghost busters.
I’d say it’s more creepy than full on horror. It’s right up my street. I loved it with the narrator adding to my enjoyment. An impressive debut, I look forward to the next instalment.

Thank you NetGalley for this audio ARC in exchange for a honest review. I looked at some of the reviews already available and noticed a similar trend on Goodreads with the audiobook. The chapters are not labeled, so I had no idea who was talking most of the time. In addition to that, the voice never changed character to character. This caused me to be frustrated and confused throughout the story. I ended up not finishing it. I rated it 2 star instead of 1 star because some of this may have been alleviated with the physical form.