Will I love Within These Wicked Walls?

Jane Eyre retelling in Ethiopa with magic—need I say more? Rich, quirky Magnus lives in a seriously haunted house, and the only exorcist willing to help him is broke, blunt Andromeda. I could not love these two more. Magnus is a beautiful weirdo who has been haunted and spoiled for far too long, and Andromeda puts him in his place. The banter, the creepiness of the house that is literally trying to kill them—no wonder Reese Witherspoon picked this one for her book club! 

This young adult novel is a fantasy retelling of Jane Eyre, my favourite Victorian gothic novel. While readers of classic gothic novels will recognize the familiar tropes, Within These Wicked Walls is a wholly original story, with elements of Ethiopian culture and a fierce, badass Black heroine. If you’ve ever wished Mr. Rochester’s house in Jane Eyre was actually haunted, this is the book for you!

I initially picked up Within These Wicked Walls because it was inspired by Jane Eyre, which is one of my favorite books, but I kept reading because it has some of the most original and interesting worldbuilding I’ve seen in YA. The main character is an exorcist hired to cleanse a big spooky house of its unsettling supernatural manifestations, and she puts everything on the line to get the job done. 

I loved the book’s concept. The Ethiopian-inspired fantasy retelling of Jane Eyre was the best part of this book; I never read anything about Ethiopia before, and I found this book very interesting for that reason. The hint at the Ethiopian food, culture, and names were well done. The premise itself was intriguing: a curse that turned a house into an ice cube in the middle of the desert? Tell me more!