I was invited to the launch party for Lily Childs’ Within Wet Walls, yesterday, and on my way there, I got me a copy of the ebook.

I love ghost stories, I read a lot of them in the winter (the atmosphere is right) and this one was presented as the sort of gothic delight I was looking for.

Later last night I read it in one sitting, and I was so completely fascinated that I decided a short review here on my blog was in order.
Here goes.

It seems so easy: Within Wet Walls is a short ghost story set in a haunted house in rural England.

But that won’t give you an exact idea of the sort of story we are dealing with.
This is a ghost story narrated by a ghost, and a strangely vampiric ghost at that.
One of a vast community of similar creatures.
It is a story set in the mind of an eager monster, a creature that has embraced her new condition and relishes her new, growing inhumanity.
While still being absolutely human in her passions, her desires.

Within Wet Walls is elegant, sensual and sexy without being vulgar.
Just like its gorgeous cover, the book has but a few splashes of color, and captures the reader with its almost black-and-white, old movie sort of atmosphere.
It’s the mix of inhuman cruelty and all-too-human weakness, it’s the style and tempo of the narration that make it a true wonder.

It was a great discovery, a fun read, a much needed diversion on a bad night.
I can’r recommend it enough to lovers of the genre.