The Hollow Places by T. Kingfisher Published by Saga Press (10.6.2020)
Genres: Adult, Horror
Format: Audiobook, 341 pages
Length: 9 hours, 43 minutes
Narrator: Hillary Huber
Source: Library
A young woman discovers a strange portal in her uncle’s house, leading to madness and terror in this gripping new novel.
Pray they are hungry.
Kara finds these words in the mysterious bunker that she’s discovered behind a hole in the wall of her uncle’s house. Freshly divorced and living back at home, Kara now becomes obsessed with these cryptic words and starts exploring the peculiar bunker—only to discover that it holds portals to countless alternate realities. But these places are haunted by creatures that seem to hear thoughts…and the more you fear them, the stronger they become.
My thoughts
Holy crap, this book was epic!! It’s been a while since I enjoyed a book so much. This is one of my favorite worlds I’ve read in quite some time, too. It was super dark and disturbing! It was also perfectly weird and quirky. Basically, this book was right up my alley. This is the second Kingfisher book I’ve read – the first being Nettle and Bone, which I enjoyed for the most part but not nearly this much. This one took me by surprise!
It started off a little slow in the beginning (which I think may be literally the ONLY negative thing I have to say about this whole entire book), but as soon as Kara and Simon discovered the strange room in the wall leading to demented Narnia, I was HOOKED! From that point on it grabbed me by the seat of my pants and never let go. It was a wild ride right up until the end, and when I wasn’t listening to it I kept thinking about it.
I loooove a good portal fantasy and it’s been forever since I read one. And whew, what a portal!! The world of the Willows reminded me SO much of Annihilation when they’re in the Shimmer and there’s super disturbing, grotesque, murderous flora and fauna. It had similar vibes but was so, so much better! I couldn’t get enough of it! The mysterious holes in everything (including people – pray they are hungry *shivers*), the demented survivor that had grown into the bunker he was trapped in, the school bus, all the crazy happenings…ugh, it was great. It disturbed and unsettled me in the best way!
Something that surprised me about this book was how funny it was! I was not expecting a horror to have me laughing out loud. It was super entertaining and I love that it managed to be hilarious in such a dark, twisted world!
I adored the Museum of Wonders and all of the taxidermy filling it. View Spoiler »
I feel the need to mention that the audiobook narration is fantastic! Hillary Huber brought the book to life! She had the perfect amount of sarcasm in her narrating and made the book even more enjoyable. I think I might have to use an Audible credit to make this mine so I can listen to it again!
Overall Assessment
Plot: 5/5
Premise: 5/5
Writing style: 4.5/5
Originality: 4.5/5
Characters: 4/5
World-building: 5/5
Pace: 4.5/5
Feels: 4/5
Narration: 4.5/5
Cover: 4/5
Overall rating: 5/5
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