This is my first novel from Dotson and I found a lot of things to admire. Dotson's writing has a unique grasp that would grab me by the throat and keep me riveted. It's just the PEOPLE in this book that I had my issues with and as much as I wanted to LOVE this book, I can't let go of those gripes. So let's move on and see how much I can talk about this book without giving anything away.....
This will be fun.
I think?
These Familiar Walls focuses on Amber Hughes, her husband Ben, and their two children, Xander and Marigold. It is the height of the pandemic, November 2020, and the family has just moved into Amber's childhood home in an attempt to get more room for themselves with the lockdown keeping families in close quarters. The house comes with an unfortunate past. When Amber was a kid, she tried to befriend a neighborhood kid, a boy with a bad habit of of trying to hurt others in retaliation for any slight he perceived. When things went too far, he left the neighborhood with his family. In early 2020, he resurfaces to break into Amber's childhood home with an accomplice and murder her parents before his accomplice betrays and kills him as well. Amber wants to get the paperwork in order so she can sell the house quickly and get her family into their own brand new place. But as the family tries to settle in, strange things start to happen. Amber's reflection in the mirrors never matches her actions, strange whispers start to hiss around Amber, and Amber starts to go into strange trances that leave her trying to hurt herself. Something dangerous is haunting the house and the family, and Amber has to keep her family safe all while coming to terms with the things from her past that happened in that house.
In terms of writing, Dotson has a strong hand with building tension. I do most of my reading in the small hours of the night so when I was reading this, I'd end up eyeing the shadows out of the corner of my eye. I'd feel a weight on my shoulders, like I was being watched and I LOVED that feeling. The dread and the images it made me conjure had me wanting to read during the day. The idea of the mirrors not doing what they were supposed to had me thinking back to my own childhood and my aversion to mirrors. You see, I read Bloody Mary when I was 8 and TO THIS DAY, I avoid looking into mirrors at night before I flip a light switch on. So the idea of mirrors showing something other than what they were supposed to made my skin crawl. All of this was brilliantly done. That being said, there were a lot of moments where things were told that made me feel removed from the book. There would be a tension scene, Amber faced with something making her freeze in fear and trying to use anger to bolster her to move and it would make everything feel claustrophobic and I'd be invested in what would happen next. Only the next scene is another morning, Amber hasn't spoken about what happened or has been happening since and I would think wait, why didn't we see the rest of that? Why is she only telling us about what else has been going on, the reflection that she would see that would never be what she was doing? I wanted to SEE all of that. Instead, it's only mentioned as an aside, like it barely mattered to Amber that it had happened and as a result, I didn't care too much either. The pacing just felt like it wasn't staying the course to make me care that Amber was being haunted.
As for the characters, I was on the side of the kids and no one else. I've read A LOT of these types of books, I knew the twist practically from the start. Despite that, I wanted to see what would happen, I wanted to see how the villain would get their comeuppance because I am a big fan of justice for characters that deserve it. I wasn't sure if I was ever supposed to feel sympathy for certain characters. Everything that was given just made me scowl because so much of the reasonings why were nonsense to me. For me, the big origin story and the reveals for WHY a character is despicable never make any sense to me. I end up thinking, "Really? THAT'S why you did ALL of this?" And the headaches from rolling my eyes makes me want to put these kind of books aside for the foreseeable future. I thought Amber needed to take her own advice and grow up and I thought Ben's entire personality was that he was a pushover. Dotson provided scenes from the past to show Amber and her need to finally have a friend no matter what kind of person they were and I wanted to slap her parents because come on, make an effort to listen to your kid, don't write her off, don't you see what you're doing?! Almost every adult in this book needed to be slapped around, they made me so frustrated. A credit to Dotson's writing but not really a merit for the story because I should care about them at least a little bit. Instead, I hated so many people and that's not a good feeling to carry through a book.
I can't talk any more about the story without giving EVERYTHING away so I will try to wind things up here. I'm giving a star for the writing because this book had some really stellar passages. I'm giving a star for the kids because I wanted to scoop in and take them away to safety. I'm giving a star for the reveal behind the WHY for the haunted house because HA, in your face villain! But a star off for the despicable adults and a star off for the pacing. Still, I see that Dotson has a book called The Cut that I'm willing to try out. I'm starting to think that haunted house books just aren't meant for me. I figure out the twists too fast and the villain never has a reason that really makes me think they're worthy of being the main adversary of the story.
Rating on my Scale: 6 Stars. I will be reading more things by Dotson. Just because this book didn't work for me does not mean that another won't become an instant favorite. I'm a firm believer that when an author has the chops for writing something that can make me feel dread, they are worth reading again. This book will find its audience and be a hit for people looking for their next haunted house read. I'll be looking into finding The Cut when I next have the chance to visit my library.
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