This book is mildly entertaining, but not as scary as I was hoping it would be. I like the interdimensional horror aspects mixed with a novelty/curio museum collection aspect a lot, and the author has a light and humorous writing style that keeps readers engaged. Not all the jokes hit the mark for me, and the character depth regarding Kara and her ex seemed unnecessary to the plot, but overall it wasn't a bad story

T. Kingfisher is back with another book that’s somehow, equally fantastical and terrifying.
A quirky little oddities museum, a secret portal and an insane adventure!
While the majority of this book was playing on many of my fears and was actually pretty graphic and gruesome, it also had bits of humor placed perfectly throughout.
The main character, a recently divorced freelance graphic designer and very charismatic barista next door become fast friends when a simple patch job becomes so much more than they could have ever imagined.
This nail biting story demands your attention and will have you on the each of your seat until the very end!

I received this as an e-arc from netgalley for review

3.5 Stars

“You are about to enter another dimension. A dimension not only of sight and sound but of mind…”—The Twilight Zone, Rod Serling

Newly divorced, Kara has packed up what’s left of her life and takes up an offer by her uncle to help him with his museum of oddities. Staying in a spare room, Kara begins cataloging the various odd skeletons, taxidermy animals and what-nots at the museum, and discovers a hole has been knocked in the wall. But this isn’t just any hole in the wall…it’s a portal to a world full of Them…and she better pray they are hungry…

The Hollow Places reminded me of a quirky episode of The Twilight Zone. Not sure where it was going or how it was going to end, but was for sure ready for a twist! While an enjoyable read, there were passages that started to be repetitious, but overall, I’d recommend to fans of this genre!



**I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book that I received via NetGalley. All thoughts and opinions are my own. **

I went into this book not sure what I was expecting. Strange portal and terror? Ok I’m in! This book is one twisted ride! As the story went on, it only got creepier and creepier. Some parts were truly terrifying. I found myself fascinated with the mystery of the portal. I got a bit of sci-fi vibes along with the horror. The banter between Kara and Simon was good and had me smiling. Gotta smile even though you’re creeped out right?

This author is new to me and I enjoyed her story telling as well as her writing style. I will look for more books by her. This was a strange, fantastic and creepy read that will give you the chills. If you’re a fan of those kinds of reads, this book is for YOU! I give this 4 stars!

Taking inspiration from H.P. Lovecraft and little museums, T. Kingfisher writes a gripping and haunting story about alternate realities and unknown creatures.
This book took a bit to get into, but once I was a quarter of the way in I couldn't put it down. When I did have to put it down, I could not stop thinking about it.
Thank you to #Netgalley and #SagaPress for providing an ebook for review!

I received this ARC for an honest review. This is my first read by T. Kingfisher. This story is a suspense/horror story. The main characters are Kara and Simon. Kara is running her Uncle’s Glory to God Museum of Natural Wonders, Curiosities and Taxidermy while he recovers.
from surgery. Simon runs the coffee shop next door. They found a hole in the wall at the museum and decided to go through it. It takes them to another dimension/world. What they encountered was a little nerve+racking, but I thought the story was a little slow. It wasn’t a bad read, but I found myself skimming some sections of the book. Over all I enjoyed the book.

When I saw The Hollow Places by T. Kingfisher, I had to have it. I partner read The Twisted Ones and it was great. There were times when my adrenaline kicked in. That kind of writing is commendable and the author shows off their talents in this book as well. I highly recommend this book for any horror fans.

If you like the not so "run of the mill" horror story, then this author is for you. This is the second book I have read from T. Kingfisher and this is the writing style I anticipated, that is with a little bit of sci fi/fantasy mixed in.
A young woman takes over her uncle's taxidermy store while he has surgery done and she's trying to start her live over after divorce. Her and the local barista discover a hole in the wall which leads to another world full of islands, water, and willows, and glowing hungry creatures who "cannot find you if they cannot hear your thoughts". There is plenty of gory, gross scenes and suspense, as obviously with this portal in the wall, how can this evil world not follow us back to ours? The lead character is damaged, but discovers she is not completely broken and makes quite the believable heroine. You really have to be able to concentrate on this book to follow along what is happening because between sharing her thoughts outright and what's going on around her, there is always a lot going on at all times. Not my usual type of read as I am pretty basic and like the good old fashioned ghost story, however, this was not a bad read for something different in a macrabe sort of way. Thank you NetGalley for allowing me to give you my honest review.

Sadly this was a DNF for me.

As soon as I started the book I was overwhelmed by the writing style. The main characters seems to be running a mile a minute and things were thrown around so much I just couldn't do it.

I went and looked at other peoples reviews and everyone else seemed to really love it. They were engaged and immersed and I really wanted that for myself. Maybe if I give it another go some time in the future?

The synopsis pulled me in but I felt pushed out when I started reading. I'll try again but right now it's a no go for me.

When Kara discovers a portal to another dimension in her uncles house, she ends up on a truly terrifying journey. The author does a wonderful job creating a creepy ambiance and I definitely recommend reading this with the lights on!

My thanks to Gallery books, T. Kingfisher and Netgalley.
This book was definitely my kind of strange! The theory "as convoluted" as it was, was even my kind of strange!
This tale and others like it are what keeps my mind occupied.
Some people have faith in all their religions. I don't. I have faith in science. I never think in terms of a god. I am cursed with Physics, alternative universes "not string theory!" and what happens to the soul! Yeah. No religion, but I believe in the soul!
I actually do have reasons for all of these, but?
I flashed through this story rather quickly. Loved the characters, especially the barista! I've had a few good to beat friends that were gay, but nobody I know could have pulled off those fishnets with boots!
4 stars instead of 5. Only because I should have been more afraid. Also, while I enjoyed the heck out of this, it felt like it was geared more for a young adult market.

i have a personal grievance towards books mentioning fanfiction. there's nothing wrong with fanfiction nor it being mentioned in a "real book", but every book that i've read that does mention it does so in a way that's infuriating. i was willing to forgive the first mention, it was brief and only slightly jarring, but the second time it's brought up is even more so, as it's an incredibly off-putting moment where the narrator mocks people who think the normalization/romanticization of themes like abuse and incest is very... Not Good.

this really shouldn't affect the story in any way, it's such a minor moment and probably would make anyone else laugh, and maybe i'm just boring and annoying since i don't think it's funny at all, but it really, truly soured the rest of the story for me.

which is a shame, because the horror is actually good. this is my second kingfisher/vernon, the first being minor mage, and i was really shocked at how different the style is here. i think it's definitely the mark of a good author to be able to affect such a drastic change in tone and presentation and pull it off well, and kingfisher does; she excels in establishing the universe, in the exploration of the cosmic-level horror, the slow, pulsing build-up of all the dread and terror found within the willow world. i don't exactly scare easy, mainly it's a surface-level discomfort, but there were some instances that truly got to me within the story. the tension and the pacing is perfect, the moments of humor just sparing enough that they balance well with the horror; i enjoyed kara's inner monologue, and how she speculated on the workings of the willows. i think one of the most difficult things about a first person narration in such a sweeping story is managing to present the lore in a way that feels genuine, but the collected accounts of kara's experiences and the bible and sturdivant's little speeches weave together into a fully realized universe.

which is why it was such a disappointment that such a minor moment could ruin the entire thing. i really do try my best to not be so objective and 'sensitive'. i do think it's perfectly okay to explore darker themes in fiction. i don't think we should police creativity and say you aren't allowed to write anything but pure happiness. king is one of my favorite authors and he writes some pretty terrible things. but what i think separates the exploration of 'darker' themes in literature and television is that it almost always (though there's the rare case where it doesn't) presents these things (abuse, etc) as unequivocally bad. "real fiction" exists on a different level than fanfiction, which is almost always just self-indulgent, and inevitably ends up romanticizing the themes therein. there's rarely the kind of critical presentation for more sensitive topics in fanfic that you (mostly) see in the wider world of fiction.

it's really not that serious maybe and i think i'm focusing too much on this singular comment but the spiteful attitude of the narrator just really bugged me - dismissing genuine criticism of the "shipping" of abusive/incestuous relationships and following it up with "i'll just ship it even harder" isn't a good look, and feels really out of place, anyway, for the work. there's an incessant need to shoehorn in internet and pop culture into contemporary works to somehow make the characters more "relatable" but it hardly ever genuinely makes them relatable and instead alienates the reader (or me, at least), and comes across almost as if it's written by someone who doesn't really understand the references they're conveying on the page. (@ every writer: i promise you can make a modern character Modern and Sympathetic without the need to drag in pop culture. it can be done, i swear.)

i'm just very critical when it comes to what i consume and the smallest detail can make it or break it. "less sensitive" people will probably dismiss this and that's totally their right; not everyone reacts the same way as i do, and i understand that! it really is a good book, and i think without this one little thing, i would rate it higher (a 4, perhaps, maybe a 4.5).

I'm an avid horror reader but rarely do I find books creepy enough that I think about them when I'm not reading. Even rarer do I find books that give me nightmares. This book was spooky in the best possible way. The ending was also perfect in that the reader got answers and it wasn't a "let down" like so many horror novels tend to be. I highly recommend this book to anyone looking for an intense, memorable read.

Very reminiscent of Guillermo Del Toro, this novel is perfect for fans of the unexpected. We all know not to go in the hidden room/hole/door etc., but really, what kind of story would that make? I will keep an eye out for more work from this author.

If you love the Twisted Ones, short stories of King, Lovecraft, and Tremblay, this one is matched made in heaven!

While I first met author Ursula Vernon (writing here as T. Kingfisher) in her day job as a children's fantasy writer/illustrator, I have gone on to love absolutely everything she's written for adults as well. When I heard she was writing a horror novel (The Twisted Ones) I was a little leery of jumping in, because it is not my usual genre, but I gave it a go and absolutely adored it. Here we have another eerie entry into her genre of Southern horror suspense and it is just as creepy, human, and compelling. Absolutely loved it!

The blurb suggested everything that I like in a book, but unfortunately this one just didn’t work for me. I wasn’t so sure after the first few chapters and it just felt more juvenile than horror for me. It had the potential to be creepy but the descriptions were confusing for me and I just didn’t like the overall tone and atmosphere.

What a wild ride! Kara is having a bad run of things and move sin with her wonderful Uncle Earl and his museum of wonders. she loves the museum and her uncle And when he asks her to take care of the museum she does. With the help of Simon the barista next door she’s running and cataloguing all the wonders until a strange hole appears and the real wondering begins. After reading the twisted ones I knew the spook fest would be good but the dynamics between Simon and Carrot( what her uncle calls her) makes the book for me!

What a pleasure to read a fantastical novel that is so well written. I became immersed in the story of the Glory to God Museum of Natural Wonders, Curiosities and Taxidermy. As the name suggests, there are strange things in this world we will never understand. Do inanimate objects have an unexpected power? Are there portals to places we could never imagine? I liked the characters and found myself wanting them to succeed against unexpected circumstances. This is a great story that held my interest right up to the end.

I received an Advanced Reader's Copy from Simon and Schuster through NetGalley. The opinions expressed are entirely my own.
#TheHollowPlaces #NetGalley

This is the first book I've read by this author and boy did she ever hook me. Beginning with the seemingly innocuous paragraph "My uncle runs the Glory to God Museum of Natural Wonders, Curiosities and Taxidermy.", T. Kingfisher leads the reader into a world filled with alien creatures, dark humor and suspense.

Kara, nicknamed "Carrot" by her uncle, is recovering from a financially devastating divorce when Uncle Earl asks her to help run the Wonder Museum while he has surgery. Facing homelessness, it's an ideal situation for her to live at the museum and run it for him. Shortly after taking over the museum, she notices a hole in the drywall in one of the exhibition rooms. She asks her friend Simon, a barista at the coffee shop next door, to help her repair it. Taking a closer look at the hole, they find not pipes and studs, but a dark hallway that vanishes out of sight in both directions. Of course, they need to enlarge the hole and explore the hidden corridor. In doing so, however, they stumble into a world filled with portals to other worlds, unseen dangerous creatures and supernatural willow trees. This being a horror novel, the first thing Carrot and Simon do is get lost in this other dimension. The story line follows Carrot and Simon as they try to find their way back home while also trying to stay alive and figure out how to close the portal once they do get home.

All in all it was a fast-paced trip into the world of multi-dimensions and the occult. I confess that I didn't entirely understand all of the multi-dimension explanations, even with analogies to the roadrunner and wile e coyote thrown in. It was a pleasurable read, however, and I look forward to more books by this author.