I wanted to enjoy this book much more q I did.I didn't like the characters and found the plot uninteresting.

Kara has come back to help her uncle Earl with his curiosities museum while he's recovering from surgery. While she's exploring the museum, she finds a hole in the wall which eventually leads her to a corridor and an old door that's rusted shut. Eventually Kara and her friend Simon are able to open the door and they encounter another world, full of "willows".

The book is a strange mix of humor and horror, and while I love both genres, this book ultimately just didn't draw me in enough to care about how it ended. I finished 65% of the book but finally gave up. I"d definitely like to try some other works by the author because I think the style of writing is interesting.

This book pleasantly surprised me. After reading the first few chapters, I wasn't sure how I felt about it, but I decided to keep going. It ended up being very interesting and different from most of the other books I've read recently.

I read The Twisted Ones in September for a book club and was absolutely terrified. So much so that I thought, “That was fun...let’s do it again!” I am easily scared so please don’t come for me if you didn’t think either of these books were scary 😂.

First thing I want to mention is this had a lot of the same elements as The Twisted Ones. Set in a very small town in the middle of nowhere, MCs who’s job just needs a computer, a good deal of time spent at a cafe, a book within a book, a slightly kooky side character, and a pet that you just pray makes it out of this alive. I personally didn’t mind the similarities but if you didn’t like one of these books you most likely won’t like the other. The MC also had a similar personality to Mouse from The Twisted Ones, which once again I didn’t mind since I really liked Mouse, and I think I would be best friends with either of them.

Second thing, I did not find this book as terrifying. Technically I was more scared while reading it but that’s just because I read this mostly at night. Two things made this not as scary overall 1. This just happened to not have one of my worst fears as part of the plot. 2. The big climax scene doesn’t really feature much of what you would assume the scary things are going to be based off the summary. This kind of happened in The Twisted Ones but not to the same extent.

I was happy with most of the answers I got but would have loved more details just because I’m that kind of person.

I received The Hollow Places by T. KingFisher from NetGalley in return for an honest review.

I rated The Hollow Places 4 out of 5 stars. I was drawn to this book because of the eerie cover page as well as the menacing description of the book.

The reader is introduced to Kara “Carrot” and her fond love of her Uncle Earl who owns an oddities museum. As a young girl, Carrot loved to get lost in the museum, calling it home and adopting some of the taxidermy as her pets. Now an adult, Carrot finds herself living in the museum following a divorce and managing some day to day operations for her uncle.

Carrot’s life however is rapidly turned upside down upon finding a hole in the wall of the museum, along with her sidekick Simon (who I could picture as a Russell Brand-esque person). This hole leads them on an adventure they could’ve never expected to another world, another dimension quite like anything they have ever seen.

This book was jam packed with mystery, creepiness, and vividness. T. Kingfisher had a way in crafting an environment to be both beautiful and menacing. The willows play a major role in the story line and the author brings them to life as their own characters in a way. The overwhelming dread the reader is faced with as Simon and Carrot explore the unknown left goosebumps as I read and lead to some pretty rough dreams after reading before bed. That is what I hoped for though, a book that caused a response.

The unknown as the predators throughout this book and the mind/psychological aspect the unknown played on the characters offered a scary element. The descriptions throughout the book of various elements of the new world discovered were enough to invoke images of doom, dread, and something right out of a horror movie.

I would highly recommend this book for those who are lovers of H.P. Lovecraft!

I loved the creepy vibe of this book. I felt like I was in the tunnels with them. Great atmospheric writing and some humor thrown in to break up the stressful situation our MC was dealing with. Overall, solid horror story. The more I read by this the author the more I want to read.

This was a really bizarre book. The first half reminded me a lot of Mark Z. Danielewski's House of Leaves. After reading the whole thing, I'm still not entirely sure I understood what was going on. The descriptions were nice and detailed and I really felt like I could see the environment the characters were living in and exploring. It got a bit repetitive for me a few times and I did not feel very resolved at the end of the story. I was entertained by the main character, though, especially when she breaks the fourth wall with the reader. I might try another book by this author, but the plot would have to be fairly different from this one in order for me to be interested.

A spooky, thrilling, and interesting read! And it takes place in an old curiosity museum, which you know will figure into the supernatural plot somehow, and it's glorious when it does. Simon has the potential to be annoying, but gracefully trees the line between comic relief and best friend.

I read this book in 1 day, it was super creepy and I am sure I'm going to have nightmares tonight!!

I would have given 5 Stars but I felt that even for someone who personally uses laughter when I am nervous, uncomfortable and scared, Kara and Simon were way too relaxed and 'joking' about stuff too much. It ruined some of the feelings of fear for me.

Overall it was a great read and I can't wait to recommend to a few people who like creepy scary books!

Thank you Netgalley and Gallery Books for an ARC in exchange for an honest review and I am just sorry I couldn't read this awesome book sooner!!

This book was so good! I loved how funny it was. Yes it was a horror story but it also a large amount of comedy as well. The main character was plucky and made you want to root for her. There was just the perfect amount of suspense and thrill to keep you turning the page and scared out your wits.

I wouldn’t say The Hollow Places is scary—and boy, was I hoping to be afraid to go to sleep! But it is a fun and quirky read with an interesting premise. I’d never given much thought before to alternate worlds, but the writing is solid and it made for an extremely entertaining read. If you like your horror mixed with a side of humor, I don’t think you’ll be disappointed!

Thank you to NetGalley and Gallery Books for the ARC, and best of luck to the author!

This book had an interesting premise and I love stories with portals to other worlds. However, this book was not for me. Thank you for the ARC.

This book centers around a newly divorced, down on her, luck middle-aged woman named Kara. She decides to move in with her uncle to help him run his "trick shop" of sorts. Things start to go awry when she stumbles upon a hole in the wall of her uncle's shop that may or may not house some evil creatures and an alternate reality.

I had such high expectations for this book and sadly...I was let down. It never really peeked my interest at all. The writing was great and the setting was unique and interesting. However, it was also super hard for me to picture in my head. Having a book with such a rich atmospheric vibe, it took a lot away from my enjoyment of it. I feel as though the descriptions weren't rich enough to convey the images they were meant to.

Once I was about 30% in, I found myself pushing through in order to get to the end. The ending was super unsatisfying as well. Overall, I did not enjoy my experience while reading this book. This is my first T. Kingfisher novel, and I have no idea if I would want to pick up anything else by this author after this.

What a delightfully fun yet creepy book! When I was a child I used to dream of finding a secret portal to another realm hidden in my closet. Childhood me obviously never read this book. I think I’ll pass on the portals from now on. Kara, a newly divorced woman who moves to help her uncle Earl take care of his museum of weird stuff, and her friend Simon, discover a secret entrance but it is not to Narnia. Witty, fun, scary, disturbing, great characters. I’d love to see a sequel, or an adaptation.

Wow! My 2nd 4.5 star read this week. This is another one that just sucked me right in.

When Kara finds herself divorced, she moves back to the small town of Hog Chapel to help out at her uncle's Wonder Museum. The museum is full of all sorts of curiosities like taxidermy animals, skulls, and strange knick knacks. When her uncle goes away for a bit to have surgery, Kara is left in charge of the museum. One evening, she discovers a whole punched in the wall of the museum. She assumes some tourist must've made it. With the help of the barista from the neighboring coffee shop, Kara investigates the hall and determines it leads to a mysterious impossible bunker that is way too big to be in the same building as the museum. They discover a dead body in the bunker and that if they go through a door it leads to a strange watery world with lots of willows and a strange light. This world is occupied by mysterious things including a presence that can apparently hear you thinking.

This book was quirky, weird, spooky and oh so good! I love quirky and weird stuff so this was near PERFECTION for me. I loved the wry observations of the characters such as them calling it the "portal to really bad Narnia". This is an AWESOME entry into the world of portal fantasy/horror.

I really enjoyed this one! Super creepy but also super funny. It's the perfect mix of both. I loved the descriptions and originality in this one!



A super big thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for giving me a free copy in exchange for an honest review. I'm sorry it's so late!!

Ever read a book that made you rethink the world around you? The Hollow Places is unnerving and eerie in all the best ways possible. When Kara moves back to her home town to piece her life together, she never figured that it would be as far from normal as possible.
I don't want to give anything away so if you're up for an unsettling, fast paced but really creepy read, this is def the book you want to pick up next.

The Hollow Places was not at all what I was expecting - in fact, it was better. I was craving a deeply scary Halloween read, which isn't necessarily what I got with T. Kingfisher's newest book. The Hollow Places incorporates dark, gory fantasy elements with a horror novel to fantastic effect.

I do think the characters - particularly Kara - are the true strength of the novel. When the novel begins, she's down on her luck but after she goes to live with in her uncle's museum, discovers a portal to a new and terrifying world. There's not much that can be said without spoiling the novel, but I do want to mention the surprising amount of humor packed into such a dark novel. This is absolutely a book I could seeing myself re-reading each year during spooky season.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

The Hollow Places
by T. Kingfisher
Based of the the horror book The Willows by Algernon Black wood, nominated as the scariest book ever written by H. P. Lovecraft, this story is amazingly frightening. I had nightmares just reading this story. Take this review as a warning. A hole in the wall crosses between worlds, allows a young woman, newly divorced, to find a horrific world. Her personal struggles are overshadowed by the horrific nature of the world she has found. She is overwhelmed in the horror of the Willows, and lost in the mysterious nature of the hole between worlds. It's a cunning mystery, and a devious horror of a story.

I'm not much of a horror reader but I've been really interesting in reading a full length novel from T. Kingfisher and this sounded interesting. I think the confluence of subject and character interests really worked for me, this felt like an adult mash-up of Gravity Falls meets Stranger Things meets Annihilation (the movie) and I just loved that.

Our protagonist is watching over her uncle's curiosity shop while coming to terms with the end of her marriage when a hole appears in an upstairs wall, leading her to a strange and creepy in between world full of monsters just out of sight, pressing in against the fabric of the world. I found it incredibly creepy, but I'll admit that I'm pretty easily frightened so I can understand that more experienced horror readers might not find this especially scary. For me though, it was just creepy enough to be chilling, but combined enough interesting multiple worlds theory stuff to keep me interested.

My one complaint with this novel is that the answer to the question it was asking was way too obvious from the jump but it took the protagonist an excruciatingly long time to realize what was going on. Basically the foreshadowing was way too on the nose. Still, and overall tingly weird read and I look forward to reading more from Kingfisher.