Within These Wicked Walls: A Novel

Andromeda is a free spirit, and she won’t let anyone get in her way. She is a debtera, an exorcist hired to cleanse sites and people of the Evil Eye. Trained from a young age by one of the most prominent and dysfunctional debteras in the country, Andromeda is good at her job. The only problem is that she’s not officially licensed, and after a falling out with her mentor, Jember, her only hope of steady work is to find a Patron—a rich, well-connected individual who will vouch for her abilities. 

Out of desperation, she takes on the one job even Jember is afraid of: working at the Manor of Magnus Rochester. Knowing no one in their right mind would hire an unlicensed debtera, Andromeda refuses to be afraid and faces the Manifestation of the Evil Eye with determination—because if Magnus hired her, and formidable exorcists like Jember are terrified of his curse, Magnus must be even more desperate than she is.   

Andromeda is a fierce but stubborn protagonist, committed to doing the right thing and keeping her promises even when facing great peril. When she arrives at the Manor, the servants already look down on her, but she keeps her head held high and proves that she is smarter than they think. Yet the Manifestation is far more complicated than any she’s seen before, and it doesn’t help that the young heir who hired her, Magnus, is too attractive for his own good. Fighting her growing attraction to Magnus and her new, budding friendship with one of the quieter servants, Saba, she discovers that both are hiding many secrets. As the curse grows more deadly, Andromeda’s new friends, her new love, and her old mentor all urge her to give up and leave the Manor, but her morals are too strong. Even when she finds out that Saba is dead but reanimated and haunting the house, she is still determined to save them all or die trying.  

Within These Wicked Walls is a retelling of Jane Eyre, made palatable for teenagers. However, it loses some of the original intricacy and depth of its inspiration. The romance between Magnus and Andromeda comes on a little too quickly to be natural, and their romance is too soft and kind to be related to that of Jane Eyre. Nevertheless, Magnus and Andromeda are sweet together and have occasional swoony scenes. That said, Within These Wicked Walls does do an acceptable job of adapting the overall story with new natural laws, a new tone, and into a new country with different customs.  

While the book’s magic is intriguing and contributes to the horror and gothic themes, it may be confusing for those unfamiliar with magic or supernatural elements inspired by Ethiopian folklore, such as amulets and spells. To add to the confusion, the story lacks the necessary backstory regarding Magnus and his family, as well as the overall setting. Regardless of complicated supernatural details, the novel is still an easy read with a relatively simple plot, managing to build an excitingly suspenseful and scary tone throughout.  

Readers who enjoyed These Violent Delights, Pride and Premeditation, and House of Salt and Sorrows will love the magical curses, vicious gothic tone, and Andromeda’s fierce independence, not to mention the growing romance between Andromeda and Magnus. All of this makes the book worth reading, regardless of the flaws. Andromeda’s focus and her pride teach about perseverance when no one believes in you and trusting yourself and your instincts, no matter what danger lies ahead.  

Sexual Content  

• After the house throws a book at Andromeda, she finds sketches of women inside the book. She confronts Magnus about a specific sketch. Andromeda believes that the sketch shows him kissing his friend, Kelela. “What about that scandalous one of you two kissing?” Andromeda asks. “Does [Kelela] know about that one?”  
• During that same conversation, Magnus explains that it’s a picture of him and Andromeda. Moved, she lays her “hand against his still-red cheeks and [kisses] him . . . His soft lips press hard against [hers] at first, as if he lost his footing.” 
• After Magnus saves Andromeda from the hostile ghost of the Librarian, he reassures her that he likes her and kisses her. The “kiss wasn’t like the last one. It was certain and sweet. . . it felt like a promise.” 
• While Magnus holds a dinner party with friends, Andromeda discovers that he’s betrothed to Kelela. Feeling betrayed, she confronts him and he “kisses [her]. [She bucks] anyway, shoving hard against his chest, trying to pry his hand from the back of [her] neck, to turn [her] face away from his. But when a verbal protest finally [makes] it to [her] lips it [doesn’t] sound like a protest at all.” 
• After an emotional conversation with Kelela about Magnus, Andromeda talks to him. To reassure Andromeda of his feelings yet again, he kisses her. “‘My darling,’ he [coos], running his fingertips across [Andromeda’s] lips, ‘it’s always been only you.’ And he press[es] his lips where his fingers [have] warmed.” 
• As Andromeda spies on her mentor, Jember, and Magnus’s mother, Saba, Saba climbs “onto the table, crawling over and closing the gap between [Jember and her] as she kiss[es] him.” Saba and Jember have a history, but the kiss is as far as it goes. 
• After getting rid of the Evil Manifestation on Magnus’s house, to celebrate, Andromeda shifts “to [her] knee to lean up, kissing [Magnus’s] lips. His hand skims [her] jaw, the pure love in his touch pushing away the remainder of [her] sadness and regret.” 

Violence  

• When Andromeda first tries to exorcise the house of the Manifestations, she is attacked by an invisible force. “But whatever had tripped [her] was still there, and [she] kicked at it, yelping as it grabbed [her] foot. [She] stumbled to [her] feet, looking around in the dark. The Something grabbed [her] more firmly this time, and [she] quickly stomped to get it off and rushed to [her] room. But as soon as [she] shoved the door open it grabbed [her] again, this time wrapping around [her] ankle to hold [her] still. It felt familiar and terrifying, and when [she] looked down the moonlight flooding from the window in [her] room revealed a hand coming from the ground, long fingers curling around [her].” She makes it out unscathed, and the invisible force vanishes. The whole scene is about two pages. 
• When Andromeda visits Jember, she remembers his past disciplining techniques when raising her. “[Jember] gripped his maqomiya, the long prayer staff grinding into the floor like it was trying to drill through it, and [Andromeda] couldn’t fight the wince [her] body had long been conditioned to perform at the sight of it. [She] backed away a few steps, even though [her] mind rationalized that Jember hadn’t disciplined [her] in years, and never within the walls of the church.” 
• Andromeda is attacked by the Librarian, a ghost in the library. “Two books slammed [Andromeda] in the hip and arm, as if trying to make [her] drop the table, but [she] grimaced and raced it over to the small space [she]’d found.” The Librarian throws books at her until Magnus rescues her 
• While being controlled by the Evil Eye, the servant, Saba, attacks Andromeda, and Andromeda must fight her off. Andromeda “snatched Saba’s forearm with one hand, digging [her] fingers in and reaching for [her] knife with the other just as [she] kicked [Saba] in the shin. Saba stumbled back a few steps, and [Andromeda] heard the shinkt of a breaking plate, a sharp, warm pain rising up [her] fingers that the rest of the cold house might’ve numbed.” Andromeda makes it out of the event largely unscathed, though Saba loses an arm. The scene is described over a chapter. 
• Andromeda and her friends attempt to rid the house of the Evil Eye Manifestation using Kelela as bait. Kelela is attacked by a hyena, and Andromeda “pulled [her] knife, dodging out of the way as the hyena backed out of [her] bedroom door, snapping its jaws and clawing at the fireplace poker Kelela was swinging at it . . . [Andromeda] stabbed the hyena in the back so it would turn on [her].” Kelela is wounded, but everyone else makes it out okay.  
• After a particularly emotional day, Andromeda tries to leave the house, but Saba physically restrains her. “So [Andromeda] screamed, wordlessly, trying to aim the sound at [Saba’s] ear, and kicked. She had no hair to pull, no flesh to dig [her] nails into, but [Andromeda] managed to get knife from pocket and stab [Saba] in the back. [Andromeda] felt the break of pottery, [her] knife easily piercing through. [Andromeda] cocked back [her] knife to stab again, but [her] body went backward instead as Saba dropped [her] onto [her] back in the sand. . . This time when [Saba] picked [Andromeda] up she held [her] out at arm’s length, facing away from [Saba].” Neither is gravely injured at the end. 
• When Andromeda asks Jember for advice on defeating the Manifestation, he explains that many debtera have suffered in trying to do so. “Only four debtera in history have survived their encounters with a hyena. All of them suffered nerve damage from their injuries. None of them could bear to touch another living person again. Three of them killed themselves before old age could.” 
• During the final battle between Andromeda and the evil magic infesting the house, Andromeda and her friends are attacked multiple times. “Jember screamed again just as [Andromeda] finished [a thread for the amulet to defeat the Manifestation], and his body moved to let in more light. It was only a second, a breath. But [she] saw the hyena’s green eyes glint at [her], even as its jaws were sunk securely into Jember’s side. It threw Jember across the room, and [Andromeda] leaped up and ran to the desk, climbing on top of it, watching it the entire time. [She] saw blood drip from its mouth. Saw it charge at [Andromeda].” Jember dies of his injuries. Andromeda and Magnus survive unharmed. The scene is described over a chapter. 

Drugs and Alcohol  

• When getting hired at the Manor, the servants ask what it’s like to train under someone as talented as her mentor, Jember. She thinks to herself, “Why would you want to spend any amount of time with that heartless addict?” She does not elaborate. 
• When Magnus and Andromeda have their first dinner together, “Magnus took a bottle of wine out from under the table and uncorked it, pouring it far higher than one serving.” They do not become intoxicated. 
• Before Andromeda goes to visit Jember at the church, she stops by a market and buys wine, taste-testing it first. “For a moment [Andromeda] just marveled at the honey wine before indulging in a gulp. Sweet, then bitter, a little spiced, burning. It made [her] a little light-headed. Last time [she]’d lived with Jember was the last time [she]’d had any. . . it tasted like home. And at that thought, the wine turned to poison in [her] mouth.” She puts the bottle into her bag and leaves for the church without drinking more.  
• When she returns to the Manor, Magnus takes the bottle from her without asking her what it is and drinks some. “‘It’s honey wine,’ [Andromeda] said, taking the bottle from him and cradling it close. He coughed, then dry heaved like a cat with a hairball. [She] rolled [her] eyes. ‘That’s what you get for not asking before taking a sip.’” 
• Returning to ask Jember for advice, Andromeda wanders into his bedroom. She describes it: “glass bottles and jars littered the bed, and there was a paper bag of pills on the side table that were most definitely illegal.” There is no description of him taking the pills or an indication that he is using them.  
• Before their confrontation with the Manifestation, Andromeda asks Jember to tell her the story of how he found her, an orphan, on the streets. He starts the story by saying, “I was on my way to drink myself to death . . . ” Andromeda stops him, asking him to restart without the admission of depressed and suicidal ideation. 

Language  

• Words like damn, stupid, and hell appear frequently. 

• Occasionally, “dick” is used as an insult  

Supernatural  

• Within These Wicked Walls follows Andromeda in her work as a debtera, someone who rids sites of dark magic and supernatural spirits. She describes her job as “[leading] the worship services with hymns and chants, as well as [performing] all the duties of the priests, without benefiting from being ordained or esteemed. We were healers. Artisans. Trained to attune ourselves to the spirit world deeper than anyone else would dare to.” Due to this, there is magic and supernatural content described or unfolding on almost every page. Andromeda makes contact with spirits, called Manifestations, multiple times, and they even occasionally cause violence/death or permanent damage.  
• Andromeda wears a magical amulet to protect herself from the Evil Eye. She “hid [her] amulet under [her] dress again, adjusting the collar so the metal chain wouldn’t show. It was a survival habit Jember had taught [her] to live by since the age of five: Protect your amulet better than it protects you.”  
• The amulet is introduced in Chapter 1. Andromeda describes it as follows: “the Evil Eye was the first Manifestation of sin—namely jealousy and greed. In a constant state of longing, it latches on to any human who desires the same thing it does. Thriving crops, a random string of good luck, even receiving too many compliments could draw unwanted attention.” 
• Andromeda finds evidence of evil spirits in supernatural signs, such as “random items falling off walls in one room. Strange ripples on the floor, like drops of water, in the next. A room that just seemed unnaturally covered in soot.” 
• During one of the nights Andromeda stays at the Manor, Andromeda and Magnus are attacked by the house and Magnus almost drowns in blood. Andromeda “gaped at the bedroom, at what seemed to be blood filling the room from the floor up, like the swiftly rising tide of a river. Magnus was still in his bed, fast asleep. [She] slipped in through the crack [she]’d managed, the shifting of the liquid shutting the door behind [her]. . . [She] waded across the room through the quickly rising blood, the shield of [her] amulet pushing the blood away from [her] body.” She saves him, and they are both unscathed. This is another example of Manifestations.  
• While at the Manor, Andromeda makes friends with a mute servant, Saba. She eventually comes to discover that Saba is Magnus’s mother, dead and reanimated to seem alive by the Manifestation. During a Manifestation, the Evil Eye takes control of Saba and uses her to attack Andromeda. Since she’s dead, she does so supernaturally. An example of this is when Saba’s arm falls off during the attack. Andromeda “looked quickly up to Saba, as she stood still, her right arm missing and hollow at the forearm, making her look like a beautiful, sad porcelain doll.” 

Spiritual Content  

• Andromeda and her mentor, Jember, are debteras. This means that they exorcise Evil Manifestations of magic from buildings or sites. Exorcisms are typically used in Christianity to remove demons or holy spirits and send them back to Hell. In this book, the word “exorcise” is often used, but it refers to ghosts and dark magic rather than demons.  
• Kelela believes Andromeda is an uneducated working woman. Andromeda tells her, “I actually read a few languages. One of the benefits of being raised in a church.” There is no detail about the church in this chapter, and Andromeda is not very outwardly religious. 
• Andromeda goes to visit Jember at the church. “There were a handful of people standing in prayer in the direction of the altar, where Jember sat on the stairs constructing an amulet .  . . finally, the prayer was finished, and each worshipper made the sign of the cross on themselves, touching forehead to chest, shoulder to shoulder.”  
• Before their final confrontation of the Manifestation, Andromeda asks Jember to help her calm down. Andromeda asks, “Can we pray together?” He responds with “God hasn’t heard me for quite some time.” They do not pray together, and the conversation evolves into other topics.