The Hollow Places

I don’t get scared easily but this creeped me out at times. A great read if you loved Annihilation.

The writer literally cracks jokes the whole time and takes are from the story. I never got to any parts where reviews said to “read with the lights on” haha

This book keeps you on the edge of your seat so much, I found myself standing up at times to read it! Definitely enjoyable and would recommend checking it out!

Tense, suspenseful and genuinely scary, yet whimsical and humorous. The author’s voice is quirky and the main character is lovable.

A good book of mystery that’s not afraid to show their monsters. Minus one star because the suspense is ruined by the fact the main character is recounting the memories. This is not a spoiler — the author tells you this at the beginning of the book

A great read! Fun all the way through. Great visuals. It really takes you to another place! Well done.

So this is supposed to be a mystery thriller horror type book, but the author spends the entire time trying to make the characters funny. They are both in a precarious situation but they can’t seem to stop cracking jokes about everything. What an incompatible mixture.

I adored this book. It had the right amount of creepiness to it to keep me flipping the pages. But it’s the characters that really made me fall in love. I felt drawn to each of them in their own ways, from wishing I had my very own Uncle Earl and Simon to relating to Kara in ways I don’t always find in books with female main characters. I picture her average looking, a fan girl like myself and I love it. The world building was great, not painfully over the top — just the right amount to get your imagination going. I’m going to look at otters and willows a little differently now though.

The plot of the book demanded a serious tone that the author did not capture. Comparing stomping through an ethereal marsh to anal is where I closed it. The reviews made this sound scary but I found myself not a fan of the diction. Whatever sort of terrifying world the author was trying to build was ruined by Carrot and Simon’s banter. This may be for you though. Maybe you like the jovial conversations in between dimension travel, but it’s not for me.

Content Rating: 18+ Genre: Horror, Fantasy, Fiction Published: October 6, 2020, by Gallery/Saga Press The Hollow Places should come with a warning, DO NOT read alone in the dark. Creepy, chilling, and darkly twisted do not even come close to describing this book. I often got goosebumps while reading this story, and I will never look at a willow tree in the same way. The many campy humorous exchanges between the two main characters woven throughout gave a sense of balance to this book. “They Can Hear You Thinking” This story starts with our main character, Kara, who finds herself with nowhere to live after her divorce from her whiny, annoying husband. As luck would have it, Kara’s Uncle Earl has offered her a place to live. Uncle Earl has set up a bedroom in the back of his unique museum, the Glory to God Museum of Natural Wonders, Curiosities, and Taxidermy, better known as the Wonder Museum. Imagine a museum filled with all kinds of oddities, including an overabundance of stuffed life-sized animals, and then multiply that by one thousand. As Kara settles into her new reality, she starts to catalog all the Wonder Museum contents. Next to the Wonder Museum is the Black Hen coffee shop, where a unique barista named Simon works. This camo wearing, fishnet stocking strutting man who can rock a top hat with a feather kept me smiling throughout this book. The story was good, but the characters were better. Kara finds a hole in the Wonder Museum wall, and she enlists Simon’s help in figuring what is going on behind the wall because something is not quite right. “In another, much larger sense my brain was screaming hysterically that there was a hole in the world.” And that is when things get creepy in The Hollow Places. There are too many sinister and macabre things to list, but I will say that I no longer think that otters are cute, and I did have a couple of bad dreams about a certain boatman. “the willows it’s the willows they hear you thinking they’re listening right now and rustling their leaves and talking to each other” The Hollow Places was a fun chilling read, and if you are a fan of horror with a touch of comedy, you will enjoy this book, I did. The Hollow Places was the first book by T. Kingfisher that I have read and will be looking to read more from the author with a most unusual pen name. * Please note the quotes in my review are subject to change once the book is published. * ** I kindly received this galley by NetGalley, T. Kingfisher, and Gallery/Saga Press. I was not contacted, asked, or required to leave a review. I received no compensation, financial or otherwise. I have voluntarily read this book, and this review is my honest opinion. **Content Rating: 18+ Genre: Horror, Fantasy, Fiction Published: October 6, 2020, by Gallery/Saga Press The Hollow Places should come with a warning, DO NOT read alone in the dark. Creepy, chilling, and darkly twisted do not even come close to describing this book. I often got goosebumps while reading this story, and I will never look at a willow tree in the same way. The many campy humorous exchanges between the two main characters woven throughout gave a sense of balance to this book. “They Can Hear You Thinking” This story starts with our main character, Kara, who finds herself with nowhere to live after her divorce from her whiny, annoying husband. As luck would have it, Kara’s Uncle Earl has offered her a place to live. Uncle Earl has set up a bedroom in the back of his unique museum, the Glory to God Museum of Natural Wonders, Curiosities, and Taxidermy, better known as the Wonder Museum. Imagine a museum filled with all kinds of oddities, including an overabundance of stuffed life-sized animals, and then multiply that by one thousand. As Kara settles into her new reality, she starts to catalog all the Wonder Museum contents. Next to the Wonder Museum is the Black Hen coffee shop, where a unique barista named Simon works. This camo wearing, fishnet stocking strutting man who can rock a top hat with a feather kept me smiling throughout this book. The story was good, but the characters were better. Kara finds a hole in the Wonder Museum wall, and she enlists Simon’s help in figuring what is going on behind the wall because something is not quite right. “In another, much larger sense my brain was screaming hysterically that there was a hole in the world.” And that is when things get creepy in The Hollow Places. There are too many sinister and macabre things to list, but I will say that I no longer think that otters are cute, and I did have a couple of bad dreams about a certain boatman. “the willows it’s the willows they hear you thinking they’re listening right now and rustling their leaves and talking to each other” The Hollow Places was a fun chilling read, and if you are a fan of horror with a touch of comedy, you will enjoy this book, I did. The Hollow Places was the first book by T. Kingfisher that I have read and will be looking to read more from the author with a most unusual pen name. * Please note the quotes in my review are subject to change once the book is published. * ** I kindly received this galley by NetGalley, T. Kingfisher, and Gallery/Saga Press. I was not contacted, asked, or required to leave a review. I received no compensation, financial or otherwise. I have voluntarily read this book, and this review is my honest opinion. **