I makes her an interesting protagonist to follow because not only does she have to prove herself to Jember, but she also needs to show herself that she can do these things that she’s been trained to do. Her life up until this point has made her determined to succeed on her own, and very standoffish around other people. She was taken in by Jember, a volatile and world weary debtera who has been her only connection to others, though his work has left him bitter, cruel, and sometimes flat out abusive to Andromeda. Our Jane equivalent as an exorcist sent to cleanse a haunted manor? Um, HELL YES.Īs mentioned, our protagonist Andromeda, or Andi, is a debtera, a trained religious figure who performs exorcisms of people and places.

But I kind of knew from the jump that “Within These Wicked Walls” by Lauren Blackwood was going to work for me, because it was not only a retelling based in a non-Western centric gaze, it had ‘exorcist’ in the description. I am always on the look out for reimaginings, and while some have been good, others have been not, so it always feels like a risk when I dive in. The Gothic setting and sensibilities, the tough and clever heroine, the admittedly problematic but still, to me, swoony leading man, it’s a book that I hold near and dear to my heart. Review: It’s come up on here before, specifically way back when during a joint review of “Jane Steele”, that I really love the book “Jane Eyre” by Charlotte Brontë. Kiersten White meets Tomi Adeyemi in this Ethiopian-inspired debut fantasy retelling of Jane Eyre. Evil may roam the castle’s halls, but so does a burning desire.

Death is the most likely outcome if she stays, but leaving Magnus to live out his curse alone isn’t an option. When a handsome young heir named Magnus Rochester reaches out to hire her, Andromeda quickly realizes this is a job like no other, with horrifying manifestations at every turn, and that Magnus is hiding far more than she has been trained for. Publishing Info: Wednesday Books, October 2021īook Description: What the heart desires, the house destroys…Īndromeda is a debtera-an exorcist hired to cleanse households of the Evil Eye. Book: “Within These Wicked Walls” by Lauren Blackwood

Within wicked walls