If you like your horror fiction on the dark side, where the unsteady line between good and evil is wafer-thin, then THESE FAMILIAR WALLS is the book for you. It’s the follow-up to C.J. Dotson’s THE CUT, which also told a dark and disturbing supernatural tale.

The action takes place between the years 1998 (when the events occurred that created the evil at the heart of this story) and 2020 (which is set amidst the height of the COVID outbreak). The opening chapter depicts a brutal double-murder of a couple in the middle of the night in January 2020. The two masked assailants stab, strangle and generally brutalize them. When the husband is able to unmask one of the intruders, he recognizes the face of the man as a young boy he once knew. This preoccupies the killer just long enough for him to lose focus and be gunned down right then and there, while his accomplice escapes.

"There are major plot twists with fallout that makes this chilling read so much darker. Dotson knows what buttons to push, and I admire her depravity and desire to tell horror stories that totally go there."

Just four months later, Amber Hughes inherits the house she grew up in and is moving there with her husband, Ben, and her adopted niece and nephew, Marigold and Xander. This is where her parents were murdered, but she seems to have no issue with it. I found myself yelling at the book like a horror fan might do during a scary movie, trying to warn Amber about this unorthodox choice of a home for her family. She did not listen to me, and this curious decision kept me turning the pages to find out what was really going on.

Amber’s life has been filled with tragedy, having lost her younger sister and brother-in-law to a house fire not long before the start of the present-day portion of the story. This is how she came to be the adoptive relative for Marigold and Xander. For the background to all the answers we need in order to unravel this dark tale, we must return to 1998. Amber and Hannah meet their new neighbor who just moved in. They seem smitten with their new playmate until Nathan begins to exhibit some really disturbing behavior.

It starts with teasing and then grows from there. Nathan quickly evolves into more dangerous and physical forms of torture, like attempted rope strangulation and setting Hannah’s hair on fire. Amber makes Hannah swear not to tell their parents, but they eventually find out about a lesser indiscretion involving drinking wine at Nathan’s house, which is enough to get Amber grounded. She comes to her senses, and both girls report all the evil things that Nathan has done to them. This prompts their parents, along with several neighbors, to face off with his odd and distant parents, insisting that they move out of the neighborhood. They end up complying with these demands, but Nathan will never forget how he was wronged.

In 2020, Amber will have a lot of odd and unsettling things happen around the house. The kids are acting quite strangely, and she hears whispers, knocking and scratching at all hours. Not long before her death, Hannah tells Amber that Facebook is a good way to see what her old classmates are up to now. Amber checks it out, which is how she reconnects with Nathan, who has not changed much from his sociopathic tendencies as a kid.

THESE FAMILIAR WALLS will answer all the questions readers have going into the story, but C.J. Dotson is not concerned with bringing everything to a happy conclusion. There are major plot twists with fallout that makes this chilling read so much darker. Dotson knows what buttons to push, and I admire her depravity and desire to tell horror stories that totally go there.