The Girl in the Walls

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Author(s)

Meg Eden Kuyatt

Publisher

Scholastic

Genre(s)

Age Range

Release Date

May 20, 2025

ISBN

978-1546110538

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After a hard school year, V has been sent to her Grandma Jojo's house for the summer in order to get away from it all. But unlike neurodivergent, artistic, sock-collecting V, Jojo is uptight, critical, and obsessed with her spotless house. She doesn't get V at all. V is sure she's doomed to have the worst summer ever.

Then V starts hearing noises from inside the walls of the house... Knocks, the sounds of a girl crying, and voices echoing in the night.

When V finds a ghostly girl hiding in the walls, they seem to have an immediate connection. This might be V's chance to get back at her perfect grandmother by messing with her just a little bit.

But the buried secrets go much deeper -- and are much more dangerous -- than V even suspects. And they threaten to swallow her and her family whole if she can't find a way to uncover the truth of the girl before it's too late.

Editor review

1 review

What secrets do the walls hide?

July 12, 2025 (Updated: June 24, 2026)

Overall rating

4.0

Plot

4.0

Characters

4.0

Writing Style

4.0

Illustrations/Photos (if applicable)

N/A

V (who doesn't like to be called Valeria) is forced to spend the summer with her grandmother, Jojo, who cares about appearances and likes her house to be clean. V thinks this is stuffy, and is also angry about how Jojo has treated her cousin Cat, who is in college studying to be an artist. V, who is autistic, feels that Jojo doesn't like her and is ashamed of her. Spending time in the house, V hears scrabblings and voices in the walls, which turn out to be the ghost of a girl living in the attic. This ghost wants V to work with her to prank Jojo, and this escalates until the house is filled with sludge and V is sucked into the walls. This is all because of family secrets surrounding neurdivergency that have been deeply buried. Because of the actions of the ghost, V is able to talk honestly with her grandmother, and the two can go forward with more acceptance of each other.

Good Points

Kuyatt's Good Different established her as an up and coming voice representing neurodivergency. The Girl in the Walls is very allegorical, and creepy rather than actually horrific, so will appeal to middle grade readers who want a book with a little more depth.

This novel in verse will be enjoyed by readers who liked Malinenko's This Appearing House, Ursu's Not Quite a Ghost, or Haydu's Eventown.