Kingfisher created an amazing multiverse novel in "The Hollow Places". The author was able to draw readers in with excellent character development of Kara (Carrot) and Simon, before venturing into the science fiction aspects of the book. I was emotionally invested in both Kara and Simon, and even Uncle Earl, and that helped propel me through the action in the book. The emotional toll from the experiences Kara and Simon encountered in the willow world was well portrayed. This helped create tension and fear for the reader, making this an excellent choice for horror fans in addition to science fiction readers. The dark comedy and snarky dialogue lightened tense moments and reconnected the reader with the characters during times of intense action. The descriptive style used in creating the willow world was enough to help readers picture to world, but not so much that it took away from the action and plot. I appreciated the tense end scene, which was the scariest thing I have read in a while! This book is highly recommended.

I read the description of this book on NetGalley and knew I had to read the whole thing. A menacing warning about an ambiguous/otherworldly “they”? And why do I want them to be hungry?! Obviously I was enthralled and thrilled when I was approved for the title. Unfortunately, the book didn’t quite live up to my expectations. I’ll start with the good. First, that cover is perfect. PERFECT! Second, I connected easily with the main characters and their humor-filled attitudes. Third, I was anticipating an unsettling atmosphere and the author 100% delivered in that regard. Certain portions of the story were downright disturbing and I ate them all up. My biggest criticism (and the one that bumped my rating from 4 to 3 stars) is that the ending fell flat to me. I was hoping for a big payoff full of world-destroying, fiery revenge but there was absolutely none of that. Maybe this leaves room for a second installment? If so, count me in. I liked the characters enough to give it another try. I will also issue a warning that this book is very “campy” in some ways. If that isn’t your style, I would probably steer clear. Despite these couple criticisms, I did enjoy most of the book and thought it was worth the read!

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book ahead of the publication date in exchange for an honest review!

Another great book by this author. I have come to look forward to anything she writes. This one kept my attention in one full swoop. Read in one day. Great story. Lots of twists and mystery.

As a child, I longed to find another land at the back of a wardrobe, just like Lucy did in THE LION, THE WITCH AND THE WARDROBE. But sometimes the other land that you find is not a friendly one and getting caught there might end you ... This book freaked me out. I started reading it at bedtime, which was a huge mistake! The tone is playful, the characters delightfully snarky but then things get really scary, really fast! Images from within this book have stayed with, not in a good way. Which means that Kingfisher did a great job!

A special shoutout to NetGalley for allowing me to read an ARC in exchange for an honest review, let's get to it shall we?

The Breakdown:

Cover Art: 9/10
Inital Grab:9/10
Content:8/10
Characters:8/10
Setting: 9.9/10
Readability Factor: 8/10
Overall: 8.5/10
Likely to Recommend: 9/10

First things first, you will never see a willow tree in the same light. This book has an overall feel of a Lovecraftian meets Pan's Labyrinth meets a dark Alice in Wonderland meets horrific Narnia. Long story short, it's a dark-toned tale that I had a hard time getting into initially, but eventually, the pace picked up for me and it built into a truly great overall story. I really liked the dark elements and loved the overall tone of the novel. Honestly, this is a great book and it's definitely worth the read!

Huge thank you to Netgalley for granting me an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This review may contain light spoilers...don't read ahead if you don't want to know!
.
.
.
.
.

This book feels like a romp in Narnia where there are world eaters waiting for their next snack.

The Hollow Places delivers unbelievable/macabre horrors in the same way that the Twisted Ones did. I love how Kingfisher is able to create a world of the impossible and to terrify us when the impossible meets with reality. This book is primarily an inter-dimensional somewhat cautionary tale about what can happen if you stumbled onto a portal to another world. Compared to the Twisted Ones, the pacing in this book picks up the focal point of the whole story almost immediately. At first, I wasn't sure that I was going to be a fan of getting to the 'meat' of the thing right away, but quickly realized that there would be so much more to the story even after we end up falling down the rabbit hole.

Kara aka Carrot finds herself divorced and in need of a place to stay. Taking up the offer by her somewhat eccentric uncle who run an oddities museum, she finds herself settling into a new life of cataloging and caring for taxidermied animals & quirky displays. That is, until a hole to another universe appears. Carrot & Simon begin to explore this odd, impossible hole in the wall that just doesn't seem to end. They become curious enough to even cross over the threshold to a more impossible place- a seemingly new world / portal to other worlds. The spookiest parts of the book come into play here. At first, I was entirely excited by the prospect of what they were finding, until slowly, slowly the fear creeps in as Simon & Carrot barely escape. Even once they find a way back to their world, how are they to know nothing has followed them? I constantly found myself eyeing the shadows from the lights in my room & perking my ears whenever I heard shuffling outside my door. Kingfisher's writing slowly seeps into your subconscious & will stay with you long after you finished.

For the most part this book unfolds fantastically. There were a few parts that seemed disjointed (transition from sleepwalking to meeting boatman in the hole), but that could have just been my perception & ultimately didn't pull focus from the story.

4.5/5 stars

Thank you for the opportunity to review The Hollow Places, by T. Kingfisher. This is outside of my usual genre and I approached the book with some trepidation. Post-read, I can say that the trepidation was completely misplaced. This is an excellent effort, well worth adding to your TBR list and one I'll recommend to friends.

Once I started with this story, I couldn't put it down until it was over. And that was no easy feat, as it got spookier, and more spine-chilling the more I read. It became even more frightening as darkness fell, because of what was included in those pages, outside of the safety of the concrete bunkers, where willows took over and the shadows fed without end.

Yup, that sounded extremely chilling... because it is. I couldn't take my eyes away from the willows that brought forth the spirits in the silver light. Or, keep my mind off of the more sinister beings that could do hauntingly, twisted things, to the human form. Believe me when I say, those images are the most grisly out of all this novel. You really don't want to get caught by these creatures when they aren't hungry.

What was even more captivating about this story, is how the author wrote and showed the reader this in-between dimension to other worlds. It was so well written, that every little bit of it felt like I was there, wishing I wasn't, but somehow not able to get myself out of the hole in the wall. If you need a little insight into that, find the scene with the bus and what lays within it, and you'll know how darkishly intriguing this story can become.

My only little bumps along the way, had to do with the over-the-top Narnia references (I love Narnia also, but there was a lot of just that one comparison in here), the continual religious remarks (lots of usage I could really have done without), and the unnecessary mentions of the main characters only being friends (really, as the reader, I could tell from the start, no need to mention it multiple times).

Aside from those tidbits, this was a great story. The setup with Kara and Simon, at her Uncle's Wonder Museum, was the best. It led to the creepiest, most petrifying, moments in the novel. Just wait until you get to those pages... if you thought this whole novel had scared you enough, you'll find you were greatly mistaken when all those things go bump in the night. Such a good novel!

***I received this copy from Gallery/Saga Press, via NetGalley, in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.***

Oh man I wish that I had left this one for October. Its soo twisted and spooky it was soo good!
Kara is down on her luck and recently divorced and its all still fresh. She's still checking in on her ex and she's staying with her mom. When he uncle has to go have a knee surgery when she is left alone in her uncles museum, she discovers a path a way to get to alternate universes.
Now, this isnt the cool Narnia type of universes but like one with full of terrifying creatures, the things that nightmares are made of. Its all so twisted and it seems like the more she tries to escape the more she goes down the rabbit hole.
This is a great adventure novel that is absolutely shocking, twisted and dark. It is addicting though so dont start the book if you can only devour a couple chapters. This is a hook line sinker type of book! Definitely recommend!!!

What an incredible (and scary) journey this one was!

I have to be up front with you: I totally read this book based on the cover alone. I only gave the synopsis a cursory glance and saw it mentioned a girl dealing with a divorce, which I myself have experienced and that was all it took.

So you can imagine my surprise when it turned out to be a horror book - totally not my preferred genre. However, I was hooked. This horror story was creepy, but had humor in all the right places. It was the perfect blend.

This book flowed - it was so easy to fall into this story and not want to leave. I didn't want to put it down.

Our main characters are Kara and Simon and you absolutely fall in love with them from the beginning, although I must admit that Uncle Earl stole the show anytime he was mentioned. We follow Kara and Simon as they find themselves in another dimension/world, quite by accident....then their curiosity (unfortunately) took over and they began to explore.

I do think the book ended before it should have. I wanted more and I wish the author had expanded more on how a particular item had been made....but maybe that's a story for another book. Here's hoping!

I won't say any more than that except it got to a point where I only wanted to read this book while sitting in direct sunlight. The boatman ain't no joke folks!

You just read this book. T. Kingfisher just became an insta-buy author for me and I cannot wait to read the rest of her work.

A Smart, Sassy, Southern Riff on Lovecraft/Blackwood

This is a marvelous book. Almost literally marvelous. It had everything I like and nothing I don't like. Wonderful.

About a quarter of the way in I realized I was reading a modern take on Algernon Blackwood's "The Willows". That's a good thing, considering H.P. Lovecraft admired Blackwood above all other writers, and considered "The Willows" to be Blackwood's masterpiece. It's also a good thing because "The Willows" is considered by pretty much everyone else to be Blackwood's masterpiece as well. I felt awfully darn clever to have seen the connection, until I saw blurbs and reviews for the book and found out that everyone else had also seen the connection, thank you very much, including the author, who gracefully acknowledges "The Willows" as her inspiration. Anyway, I mostly mention this because you will enjoy this book even more than usual if you read "The Willows" first. It's only novella length and it has been in the public domain for so long that there are free or 99 cent downloadable copies of it everywhere. (Or get the brilliant graphic novel adaptation by Nathan Carson.) Either way, read "The Willows" and you will be rewarded by a great book, you'll be totally set up to enjoy this book, you'll already be on the right Lovecraftian horror wavelength, and you'll get all of the many clever allusions in this book to the original "Willows".

Now, put that "Willows" stuff aside. I won't try to summarize the plot. That wouldn't do it justice, as a lot of the book is built on mood and small scenes rather than plausible events and plotting , and it's even a little bit beside the point. Suffice to say that the author nails old school creepy horror, alien "Others", and the eldritch terror that lurks just beyond the veil, (or in an "alternate parallel quantum universe", which is just the modern way to say the same thing).

The exceptional additional appeal of this book is the two main characters. Our heroine, Kara, is in the sassy southern chick style, but way better. She's smart, she's funny, she's perceptive and thoughtful, and she isn't written to have any of those Southern-stupid mannerisms that pass for characterization in lesser books. This isn't all Krispy Kreme donuts and chitlins. Kara is a sophisticated woman who is both vulnerable and tough. She has a fondness for her southern roots, but no corny hee-haw touches. On top of that she gets a great sidekick. Kara is running her Uncle's weird wonder museum, and next door to that is a coffee shop. The barista there is gay. But he's a gay version of Allan Quartermain, (which may actually be a redundant statement). He's smart, courageous, rational, and studly, even if he does wear fishnet stockings as part of his explorer's kit. He's witty, she's witty, and the two of them together are a brilliant double act.

This does take a little while to get rolling. If you didn't know better you'd start to suspect that this was going to become a chicken-and-waffles rom-com with a side of green tomatoes. But just be patient. Wait for the appearance of the creepy carved thingy and then the hole in the museum wall. Adventure, terror, and a surprising number of laughs, (big laughs and also nervous laughs), await you. Both modern and old school, and almost endlessly inventive, this is an elegantly conceived and written top drawer find.

(Please note that I received a free advance ecopy of this book without a review requirement, or any influence regarding review content should I choose to post a review. Apart from that I have no connection at all to either the author or the publisher of this book.)

Only T. Kingfisher could make me love a terrifying thriller. Loved the portal fantasy and humor. Longer RTC near release date.

I enjoyed this book much more than the authors previous novel because I KNEW what I was getting into! The Hollow Places is a quirky horror novel with interesting (and somewhat absurd) characters! The characters have a comedic side to them that dulls the horrifying events, but not too much to take away from them. I still found this one to be really creepy! I love the authors unique ability to bring us horror like this and am looking forward to the next book!

Thank you to Gallery Books for sending me a free galley of "The Hollow Places" in exchange for feedback.

Seriously, Gallery Books, I always say that when I'm reviewing a book I got from NetGalley, but thank you so much, because I have been looking forward to this book, and in fact I've had it preordered from my friendly neighborhood bookstore since the day I learned about its existence, so I was SO excited to get to read it early.

I couldn't put it down. It was fantastic, even better than Kingfisher's first horror book, "The Twisted Ones," and that's a high bar. Like "The Twisted Ones," this is loosely based on a deep-cut old scary story, but you don't need to read the previous book to enjoy this one. Or maybe 'enjoy' isn't the right word for this book. 'Not stop reading until you get to the end.'

I loved the first chapter, which is not at all horrifying in any way, in which Kara is dislocated by a divorce and returns to a much-loved childhood haunt, her uncle's eccentric museum of curiosities and taxidermies. The museum is not creepy at all, the way Kingfisher describes it, but cozy and strange and loving, and I would be all in for reading the alternate, sweet version of this novel in which Kara settles in, learns to help manage the museum, and maybe falls in love or solves a crime and gets a cat.

But this is not the cozy version of this story, and while there is a cat, some bad stuff happens to it. In this version, the lovable uncle has to leave for perfectly reasonable reasons, leaving Kara with only her friend the neighboring barista to help when the portal to an alternate world of water and willow trees and stalking horrors.

"Pray They are hungry," says the writing on a wall, which is both completely true and entirely unhelpful, because it doesn't appear to matter what you pray, They will come when they come and they'll do what they'll do, and the things they'll do... T. Kingfisher, what is WRONG with your brain? How did the writer who created the honey-sweet Hamster Princess books also come up with some of the awful, awful things that happen to people in this book, things that would never even have crossed my mind might be things to worry about? It's reasonable for me to be afraid of murky things floating in the water, but why am I now also afraid of the spaces between willow branches, school buses, and the unraveling of fabric?

Anyway, this book is going to be released just in time to be fantastic Halloween reading, and you should probably preorder it right now, just to be sure.

After only 6 hapters into this Horror about a woman who finds a portal into alternative realities in the wall of her Uncle's Curiosity Museum, I knew it was for me!
Firstly, this got me:
"And you had to be careful when you posted pictures of skulls and taxidermy because there were always people who wanted to tell you that this made you a murderer and the moral equivalent of Ed Gein."

Followed by a passage discussing how to survive if the characters were in a horror movie...

How can a book be equally terrifying and get hilarious?! The Twisted Ones was both and The Hollow Places is even better. I actually had to set this aside at night because the creepy fucking portal trees were freaking me out! I love how the characters interacted and there's a strong female protagonist who isn't thinking about sex after divorce!

The cat character was fun and I was so nervous he would die and thank goodness he didn't!!

I need this author to keep writing because she's my new obsession!!

A Creepy and deliciously satisfying scary novel that kept me on the edge of my seat with a door that’s a portal to another world with it’s frightening inhabitants. I highly recommend.

I must admit, I was not expecting this one. I read the first pages and they blew me away. Not often you get hooked from the start and cannot stop thinking about a book!

Deliciously dark and creepy, The Hollow Places was a fast paced, hectic, tense nightmare of a read. Kara moves in with her uncle and his museum of oddities shortly after her divorce and stumbles across a portal to another world filled with not-things that are there and aren't there. It's hard to describe the not-ness of something but Kingfisher creates more terror in the absence of something than a lot of authors with stock bad guys. The writing style is sharp and witty, the characters are brave and brazen and the plot just raced by. Great read!

Review Copy

A little bit scifi and a whole lot of horror equals one fantastic story with some of the most fun characters - based on reality - to be found in fiction. THE HOLLOW PLACES starts out in a Twilight Zone, slightly disturbing type of way and races pell mell into full blown gut wrenching shrieks of darkness.

This is a perfect blend of friendship, humor and how did this happen-ness. Don't miss the authors note at the end as she describes the basis for everything.

A perfect read but one not for the faint of heart coming soon from Simon and Schuster.

This book surprised me in a good way. Although it's written in a breezy style that seems out of place for the horror genre, the novel has some beautifully atmospheric elements and a few genuinely creepy moments. While there were some predictable plot points, overall I enjoyed the storyline, liked the main characters, and loved the setting. This was an engaging, imaginative read that made me remember why I love this genre.