BOOK REVIEW: ‘A God of Hungry Walls’ by Garrett Cook

Garrett Cook

Although ‘A God of Hungry Walls’ by Garrett Cook starts out strong with an interesting premise – our narrator being the “haunted” house itself, who delivers an haunting commentary of its residents and the atrocities that fall upon them by his behalf – this book’s attempt at horror falls short on the scare part.

But I’m getting ahead of myself, let’s start with the good bits of this novel, shall we?

Like I said, it truly has a fascinating premise. We rarely see a horror tale told by the monster’s point of view, which I think it’s mostly due to this idea that we can only be terrified if we only get the victim’s perspective. Which isn’t true, by the way. I’ve found a few hidden gems in CreEpypasta threads that do the complete opposite and they seem to only add more fear to the reader’s mind.

And ‘A God of Hungry Walls’, to its credit, begins with an unsettling tone. Right off the bat, I feared for the human characters’ fates, for the house’s eerie narration possesses no sympathy or humanity. Its cold observations and knowledge of their deepest deviances sent shivers down my spine (and not the good kind).

Worst of all, the horrible acts the tenants are made to do down the line are not actions implanted by the house. What the house simply does is tap in those screwed up little heads, thus bringing out the worst in them that they never wanted to see resurfaced.

I really liked this psychological look on the characters through a magnifying glass. In that aspect it reminded me a lot of ‘American Horror Story’, especially the season one of the haunted house. It actually gave me a broader understanding of “the haunted house” trope – it’s not the ghosts that walk through its walls you should be scared of, but of the god that lives and breathes in them.

However – and this is the not so good bits – this novel did not frighten me.

Personally, this is not my type of horror. I enjoy a fair balance between suspense and gore, but ‘A God of Hungry Walls’, like the newer seasons of ‘American Horror Story’, seems to focus only on the macabre and not give the reader enough time to wonder what’s going to happen, the tension is almost nonexistence.

Basically, what I mean is: reading highly described bizarre scenes on the borderline of pornographic one after the other does not scare me – it disgusts me – but the fear factor is lost on me.

Still, if you’re the type of person that enjoys this kind of horror, then go ahead and buy this novel. But if you’re more like me then you would do best to stay away from ‘A God of Hungry Walls’.

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