The Women in the Walls

In this extremely dark horror novel, 17-year-old Lucy Acosta lives on her father’s palatial estate, with only her Aunt Penelope and cousin Margaret for company. Lucy’s father is distant and cold, except when he throws parties for the wealthy members of the mysterious country club that abuts the Acosta estate. When Penelope disappears after walking off into the forest and Margaret begins to act strange, claiming to hear her mother’s voice in the walls of the mansion, Lucy—who has been harming herself in secret for years—begins to crumble, too. After Margaret dies gruesomely, Lucy also begins to hear voices in the walls. Readers will be invested in Lucy, not least of which because of everything Lukavics (Daughters Unto Devils) throws at her—the novel features a hanging, a variety of impalements, and a dismembered and cooked human body, all described in intensely graphic detail. The story is compelling, and the mansion and its secrets are well depicted, but this ferocious story definitely isn’t for the fainthearted. Ages 14–up. Agent: Joanna Volpe, New Leaf Literary & Media. (Sept.)