Silvers Hollow

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Pub Date 01 Jun 2021 | Archive Date 15 Aug 2021

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Description

FROM THE AWARD-WINNING AUTHOR OF THE HOUSE THAT FELL FROM THE SKY

When a young woman awakens in her childhood hometown with no recollection of how she arrived, she finds a world she doesn't recognize. What follows is an odyssey into the darkest depths of the human psyche, as she searches for not only the truth, but for her very soul.

FROM THE AWARD-WINNING AUTHOR OF THE HOUSE THAT FELL FROM THE SKY

When a young woman awakens in her childhood hometown with no recollection of how she arrived, she finds a world she doesn't recognize...


Advance Praise

"This slow burn, mind-bending horror novel will satisfy readers who will question how the protagonist can escape the blurred lines between reality and imagination."

BOOKLIST


"Patrick Delaney's gripping Silvers Hollow begins in amnesia and impossible memories, stuttering forward through disjointed experiences as its protagonist tries to make sense of a situation whose details continually slip, continually fail to add up.  Wandering the moodily-lit landscape of a Hopper painting, navigating a narrative located at the intersection of Hitchcockian paranoia and the Lynchian surreal, Delaney's protagonist must solve the mystery of her surroundings, which also promises to solved the mystery of herself.  The answer to her questions outer and inner combines in an ending surprising, memorable, and heartbreaking."

—John Langan, author of CHILDREN OF THE FANG AND OTHER GENEALOGIES and THE FISHERMAN


“A visit to Silvers Hollow reads like a mashup of The Twilight Zone and Pleasantville. Delaney keeps readers guessing until the very end. A delicious fever dream.”

—Sadie Hartmann, CEMETERY DANCE


"Silvers Hollow combines eerie atmosphere and frightening imagery to instill a sense of creeping dread. This one stays with you."

—Briana Morgan, author of UNBOXED



"This slow burn, mind-bending horror novel will satisfy readers who will question how the protagonist can escape the blurred lines between reality and imagination."

BOOKLIST


"Patrick Delaney's...


Available Editions

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ISBN 9781735525129
PRICE $14.99 (USD)

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Average rating from 111 members


Featured Reviews

Y’all, I needed someone to talk to the whole time I was reading this. ‘Cause, WOW! My head was spinning, and my mind was all fuzzy and stuff. I didn’t even know what I was reading.

I’m going to try to explain this, but fair warning, it’s not going to pretty—or even remotely coherent. Deal?

Okay, so, this woman is at a train station, right? The train drops her off and leaves, okay? She doesn’t know why she’s there or why her head’s bleeding. Following me?

Then, this creepy cop picks her up and demands to know why she’s at the train station—because the trains haven’t gone through there in 20 years. Mmmm-kay.

But see, it turns out that she’s in her childhood hometown, but things are kinda different. It’s darker and colder, or something. Oh, and time is all funky. Apparently, the town doesn’t have it anymore. Time, I mean. Like, it’s not allowed. Or something.

The other people there are just odd, and our main character has some...baggage. And then, this other thing happens. I can’t tell you, but...what the what? Plus, there’s this hint of... Nope, can’t tell you that either.

She doesn’t know. I didn’t know. I just really kept hoping the author knew. ‘Cause this whole kerfuffle is on him.

I swear, it was like I was reading a dream. Like, the author had this bananas dream, and he’s telling me about it, and I’m nodding politely while secretly wondering if I should call someone, you know?

Anyway, I absolutely loved every word of it, and I read it in one sitting. Side note: there aren’t chapters, per se, just breaks, which I can only assume is a stylistic choice because chapters help readers keep track of time, and in a story without time, the lack of chapters adds to the disorienting feel of things. Patrick Delaney is bloody brilliant!

Fingers on the preorder button, y’all. This is a good one!

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Book Review for Silvers Hollow by Patrick Delaney
Full review for this title can be found at: @fyebooks on Instagram!

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Thanks to Patrick Delaney, NetGalley and Oblivion Publishing for this copy.

A girl wakes up at a train station in her hometown, a place she hasn't visited in years. As she groggily wanders through Silver's Hollow, she begins to realise the town is very similar to how it used to be... And yet there are subtle, terrifying differences.

She continues her tour of the town in perpetual darkness, accompanied by a creepy police officer, who appears to know more than he admits. The nameless narrator is confused, suffering from amnesia, and the characters of the town offer no help... Other than to mention "the emergency"... The story continues to get stranger as we race to its conclusion, and we are left pondering what is real or not.


I'm finding it difficult to review this book. When I initially started it, I found the staccato short sentences quite jarring. I thought I was going to struggle to get through the book... When suddenly, I found myself halfway through, needing to keep reading!

There are a few flaws for me. There are occasional moments where I feel we are told, rather than shown certain things, but these are few and far between.

Where Delaney shines, is how he created tension. There is a feeling of dread underlying this book. The whole story is claustrophobic, and as a reader, it made me want to rip through the pages to get out of it (in a good way!).

I really needed to know what was happening. Who are these people? Where are these people? What's going on?! How can the narrator, and myself, escape this weird place? WHAT. IS. GOING. ON?!

For some, this dreamlike (or nightmarelike) confusion could be off-putting, but I found it fascinating.

If you're a fan of trippy, fast-paced horror, then this one is for you.

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Silvers Hollow is a crazy book. I did not know what was happening most of the time. The story was really well-written and fast paced. I loved the authors writing style. It is confusing though, and I still am not sure what happened.

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A young woman wakes up in an old train station. She suddenly realizes she is back in her hometown, although she has no idea how that happened. Her head hurts. And something is not right…

The best way to describe ‘Silvers Hollow’ is… a labyrinth.
The nameless main character tries to find a way out, tries to understand what’s happening, but no one wants to give her an honest answer. There’s some kind of emergency, some say. An event. And chapter after chapter, the woman tries to gather clues, and you as the reader try to gather clues as well, but as a first person novel you only know what she knows, and you don’t even know if you should trust her as a narrator.
It is really unnerving, sometimes frustrating but always exciting, and maybe you reach the point where you think you know some fragments of what is happening, like the red door, but then you are not sure because she is not sure, and you have no idea of that time it is, neither in the novel nor in real life because you’ve been reading for the last… how many hours? And she wants answers and you do as well, but the novel is not going to give them up without a fight, a feeling amazingly well achieved through the prose and the many unknown layers of the woman.
And then it ends. And no one, absolutely no one, saw the twist coming.
So now you want to read it again, look for clues again, try to find those breadcrumbs you did not know were important in the first place.

And the labyrinth opens its doors… again.

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Thanks NetGalley publishers and author for this advance readers copy!
Talk about a good book! This is everything a reader wants! I enjoyed everything about this read!
The writing was fabulous! The story even better! The characters development was awesome!
Great book!

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3.5 stars rounded up.

Silvers Hollow follows the same vein as The House That Fell From the Sky, but without some of its magic. Set in the same universe, it follows an unnamed protagonist as she wanders around the desolate streets of a place that looks sort of familiar, without knowing why she's there or how she got there, all leading up to an ending that may or may not have made sense.

The story left me in a constant state of confusion. I was so eager to get to the end but when I finally got there I had so many unanswered questions. I don't mind a little ambiguity but this was on a whole new level. Not necessary to read THTFRTS before this (definitely read that one) but if you like The Twilight Zone you'll probably like this.

Thanks to Oblivion Publishing and Netgalley for my auto-approval.

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"I am fire. I am electricity. I am loss. I am regret. But most of all, I am love. I am all the things that I never thought I was, never believed I could be."

We are plunged into the story just as disoriented as the narrator, and the intrigue quickly builds up as we wonder what exactly has happened to her and where she is. She’s hurt, alone, and seems to have some kind of memory loss. I love the concept of an uncanny place that has everything you know, but isn’t quite right, the in-between place that fails to replicate reality. This book has some really vivid imagery, very poetic and dark. I liked the theme of time, the town being stuck in time, the father obsessed with time, the narrator unable to learn what time it is. I don’t think I fully understood the ending, but this was a really engaging and thoughtful story that I couldn’t put down!

Thank you to NetGalley and Oblivion Publishing for providing me with this eARC to review!

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*Warning: Hallucinations and highly intense daydreaming may occur*

"We dream of shadows. And that's exactly where I am now. A world of shadows."

"Silvers Hollow" by Patrick Delaney dives into an illusionary world reminiscent of lucid dreaming except for the dark, sinister atmosphere haunting the town and the young woman traveling within it. Delaney brings to life hidden fears of being trapped in a nightmare, tossed in a realm both familiar and unfamiliar, in which the only way out is through.

A young woman ends up at the train station of her hometown, Silvers Hollow. The station has been closed for years, which raises the question of how she got there and why she's returned. A cop offers to drive her home but takes a detour through the town that is exactly how she remembers it and yet ... is completely different. Things only become stranger from there.

Time doesn't exist. There's no night or day which makes prying apart the days and hours nearly impossible but explains why the neighbor is watering their grass in the dark. On top of it all, residents keep speaking about an emergency but clam up every time the woman asks them to elaborate. What emergency? Does it have something to do with the odd inner workings of the town or is that due to something much more sinister? Why won't anyone talk about it? Most importantly, does it have something to do with the woman's memory loss and her sudden and inexplicable return home?

This story mirrors a dream perfectly. It's disorienting, fluid, lacks a concrete sense of time, and the only purpose of memory is to create a further sensation of alienation to the strange events taking place. What is even more incredible is Delaney's ability to skillfully craft a coherent story while keeping the reader (and main character) completely unhinged the entire time.

Despite the odd turn of events and the disorienting nature of the story, it was easy to follow and understand. A lot of questions are raised throughout the novel, but it's what drives the reader to dig through the details, read between the lines, and find whatever hidden clues are embedded in the story itself to figure out what kind of rabbit hole they've fallen in. Only by cracking open these pages and diving into the deep unknown will readers find any answers (maybe).

Not only is this a crazy, psychological thriller with elements of horror guaranteed to be a joyride from hell, but Delaney is a stunning writer with a knack for creating highly intense and vivid detail that brings a lifelike aspect to their stories. "Silvers Hollow" is highly recommended and worth the possibility of any hallucinations and daydreams that may occur.

The expected publication date for "Silvers Hollow" is August 15th, 2021. Save the date and add it to your reading lists!

A big thank you to NetGalley, Oblivion Publishing, and Patrick Delaney for providing me with a free e-arc of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

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Where can I begin with this book? At once a creepy mystery AND an apocalyptic thriller AND a sad story of family and loss.

Written in the first person by an unnamed narrator, the oddness of the town in which she wakes is palpable, almost pervasive. Meeting a string of interesting characters and trying to come to terms with a haunted past, the character quickly learns that she is way outside of her depth. The book quickly spirals into the last possible ending you could ever expect.

My next step is to find some of the other books by this author and read those as well. I was very impressed by the writing style.

Thank you to Netgalley for allowing me to read this book. All opinions are my own.

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Amazing. This book from the beginning had me racing, I could not put the book down. It is one of those WTF mind fucks that even once you reach the end you feel vulnerable and exposed. Really really fantastic. Thank you Netgalley for the ARC!

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So for this book, Patrick Delaney throws you down the rabbit hole and forces you to claw your way back out. Silvers Hollow was TRIPPY. I won't give too much of the plot away because so much of this story relies on the tiny breadcrumbs Delaney leaves for the reader to piece together. It starts with a nameless woman who wakes up on a train platform in her childhood hometown with little to no memories. So much of what she remembers is just bits and pieces but she remembers enough to notice that something is not right about Silvers Hollow. Everything feels just slightly off and Delaney captures that feeling extremely well. There were plenty of chilling and creepy moments wrapped up in the woman's amnesia. You feel her confusion and physical and mental trauma throughout the book. This is a quick read with less than 200 pages so the structure and pacing is not typical. I'm not gonna lie, Silvers Hollow melted my brain a little bit. I'm not even completely sure how I feel about it because I turned the last page and went "WHAT DID I JUST READ?". If you enjoyed the reality bending and mind twisting plot of Piranesi or other psychological thrillers, this one's for you.

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Wow! Tension just flows from this book, where nothing is quite right!

It has a dreamlike quality, an unrealness that unsettles and yet urges you to press on. While it leaves many questions unanswered, I suspect the answers are open to your own interpretation. This is a book you may have to imbibe slowly, and perhaps digest in smaller chunks.

Thanks to NetGalley for this ARC to review.

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Reading Silvers Hollow feels like a fever dream in all of the best ways. It starts with our main character, who has woken at a train station in her home town with no real recollection of why she’s there. Everyone around her refers to “the emergency” but refuse to give an explanation as to what exactly that might mean. We spend the rest of the story trying to piece together the reality of the situation, which is presented slowly enough to retain interest. I’d definitely recommend this story to those that don’t mind using their imagination to fill in the blanks. I give this story 4 stars.

Thanks to Patrick Delaney and NetGalley for this eARC in return for an honest review!

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4.5 stars -- the immediate and escalating sense of cloying wrongness, the twisting of the familiar, is addictive. The surreal violence and desire for answers ended up gripping me -- and even though we don't get all of the answers, it feels perfectly right for this story. There's a simple accessibility to the writing, which allows the imagery and story to really shine through and keep the flow of the plot moving easily. Really enjoyed this!

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I am trying to find words to explain how I feel about this book. I fear I am not quite as eloquent as Mr. Delaney but I will do my best. So, this is a trippy book indeed. It starts off with a woman who is disorientated and it pretty much doesn't let up for the entire story. Throughout I found myself muttering, "what is going on" because that is how you feel. It is very much a fevered dream and that has pluses and minuses. I was desperate to know what was happening but then felt like in the end I still don't know.

Delaney can write and that is evident throughout. He knows how to spin a tale but he also was really good at keeping everything just mysterious enough that you had to keep reading. It isn't a long story, with no chapters and discernable page numbers it's hard to say how long, but it keeps you in its grip. However, I kind of felt by the end that it could have been just a tad bit longer and perhaps took place over the course of a bit more time. It is insinuated that all this happens is during one day but maybe not and of course that is on purpose to keep us confused, but I wanted more interactions with other people. Also, when it ended and what is happening is revealed, it felt anticlimactic. Although I will say once you learn why there are no timepieces and it's always dark you will be surprised but man is the ending vague as ever. If that's not your thing, you won't like this.

All in all, this was an enjoyable read. It kept me on the edge of my seat and made me feel dread at what was to come. That is what we can expect from a good thriller and this fits the bill.

Thanks to NetGalley and Oblivion Publishing for an advanced copy!

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I’m not convinced I understood anything I just read, but I couldn’t stop reading. This story was completely enthralling and dark and mysterious. Overall I considered it great, but maybe I should have read the House that Fell from Sky first?

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The story opens with an unnamed woman waking up disorientated in an abandoned train station in her home town, but with a touch of amnesia. She meets an uneasy police officer who finds her and attempts to get to where she needs to go. The only problem is that this unnamed woman has no idea why she is in Silvers Hollow and how she got there and that is only the beginning of her problems.

From the moment you leave the train station with the woman the story kicks into overdrive and you are thrown into a mystery thriller that doesn't let up throughout it's 160+ page run. The pace of the plot is quick, but coherent enough to follow with ease. The writing style was short, choppy, and claustrophobic - which perfectly fit for the theme and plot of the story.

In a town where there is no concept of night or day, time, people, or even the basic functions of town you are constantly questioning everything you read and learn from the little bits of information that the woman is given (which isn't a lot). The flashbacks to her childhood and family life in the same town that parallel the situation she is in are engaging and add another depth to the already saturated and disorientating story. If you feel confused half the time you're reading, then you're on the right track.

The imagery that Patrick Delaney paints about this desolate and confusing town is at times down right eerie, and you really begin to feel as panicked and confused as the woman in the story. From the constant mentioning of 'The Emergency' with zero explanation followed, to the strange neighbors that say and do things that further how truly bizarre the whole situation is. There was so much tension at times that I truly did not know where the story was going to end up going and to further that point, I think that is what I truly enjoyed the most about this story was that the mystery wasn't completely obvious. I had to really put myself in the Woman's shoes from beginning to end and discover the answers just as she did. There were at least five times I found myself thinking 'Did I miss something? what is going on now?' and flipping back a few pages to re read again to find out that, no, I did not in fact miss anything I just have to keep reading to find out whats going on. I loved the feeling of everything being so unpredictable and almost dream like.

As someone who really dislikes endings to almost every book I read, I didn't mind this one! It was vague and slightly confusing yes, but I let your imagination run a little wild for your own interpretation of everything that happened. I enjoyed it, which surprised me.

If you're looking for a solid horror-mystery-thriller read that you can devour in a single sitting, I highly recommend picking this one up! I will definitely be looking into the authors other works now!

FINAL RATING: 4/5 stars

*Special thanks to Netgalley and Oblivion for this digital reviewer copy in exchange for an honest review!

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Huge thank you to Oblivion Publishing for the ARC of this book and the chance to review for you.

Wow - what a ride! Buckle up because this book doles out tension like sprinkles on a cupcake. From the very first page, I was totally gripped.
Patrick Delaney takes the reader through a mindbending journey around the nightmarish town of Silvers Hollow, where everything is not quite what it seems.
This book is not for the faint hearted! I’m not, so it was fine! 😂 it’s literally the definition of a pageturner! I couldn’t put it down - I just had to keep reading to find out what I’m hell was going on.
A fast paced, exhilarating read. I can’t wait to see what this author does next.
#netgalley #silvershollow

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Silvers Hollow follows an unnamed woman who inexplicably finds herself back in her childhood hometown. But this is nothing like the homecoming you’d imagined. Instead, the once idyllic Silvers Hollow is changed and the events which unfold before us are all at once bizarre, grotesque and utterly terrifying.

This book is quite unlike anything I’ve read before. It is pacy, atmospheric, tense, disturbing, confusing and everything in between. Patrick Delaney does an excellent job in conveying a dreamlike setting throughout the whole book. We are, like our protagonist, completely lost as the events unfold and the story screams towards its climax.

It is all at once dystopian, apocalyptic and nightmarish. It is also addictive. I finished it quickly...because how could I not? I needed to get to the end, to the answers. Like the main character, I wanted to understand what led us to this point and why all of these things were happening.

Delaney does a fantastic job of setting each scene up with just the right amount of detail to make you feel uneasy. Every chapter is as bizarre and confusing as the rest, but in an addictive kind of way. There is a disorienting dreamlike quality to the whole thing, which leaves you both detached and invested - very much like the narrator, in a way. We know nothing of her. No concrete backstory, personality traits, accomplishments, etc. Instead, we experience what happens to her through her. And, boy, is it trippy AF.

While the ending was a crescendo, it didn’t quite have the closure I was hungering for as I devoured the story. But I can’t help but think that’s rather the point. It does not end completely wrapped up with a neat bow but leaves a multitude of possibilities in its wake. Which is all at once frustrating and satisfying.

If you are looking for a horror/psychological thriller you can devour in one night and keep you up long after you’ve put it down...then Silvers Hollow is for you!

Thank you to NetGalley and Oblivion Publishing for the ARC of Silvers Hollow in exchange for an honest review. I loved every unhinged minute of it and I’ll be chewing on the ending for a long time!

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Thank you to NetGalley and Oblivion Publishing for this copy.

What could be more disconcerting than waking up in a place you know from your past with no idea as to how you got there? On top of that everything looks familiar but at the same time is just a little bit off. The tension rises as the main character explores her surroundings and finds that the people inhabiting Silvers Hollow seem to be hiding something and there seems to be an “emergency” happening but nobody will share with her what that emergency is.

The story races along to a startling conclusion forcing the reader to try to decide what is real and what is imaginary. I can’t wait to read this book a second time and see if there were things that I might have missed after the first reading.

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⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ - Silvers Hollow by Patrick Delaney, I could not put this down. I stayed up way too late last night (well this morning) reading this. Another Netgalley approval led me to this book. It’s everything I want in a book, horror, thriller, and twists. I don’t want to spoil anything!! I WANT a copy of this book when it comes out and have added it to my wishlist. Another book that has left me without words. Wow. #silvershollow #NetGalley #twisted #scary #lovedit #givememorebooks

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A young woman who wakes up on a railroad platform with a headache and no knowledge of how she got there. It appears as though she's in her home town and .returning home to Silver's Hollow will turn out to be a trippy, nightmarish fever-dream. The town is different, yet the same. The few people she meets are familiar, yet changed. Something is off. What is "the emergency" everyone speaks of? Why are they so afraid?

If you've ever had the pleasure of remembering a remarkable, very vivid dream then Silver's Hollow will recall such a dream. The narrative is so effective if you think of it this way, the way that dreams go south and bounce between pleasant to scary to odd and back again. This is a dream/tale that I enjoyed greatly. It works best if you let your imagination go wild along with the story and just experience it.
Thank you #netgalley for allowing me to read and review #Silvers Hollow. It was a fun trip.

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Silver hollows puts the “creep” in creepy, that is for sure! I absolutely enjoyed how uncomfortable this book made me feel, and at times questioning myself! The writing style was easy to follow and it was definitely a page turner. I would definitely recommend this to anyone who enjoys a good psychological thriller.

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I was impressed by Patrick Delaney’s previous novel, The House that fell from the Sky, an entertaining spin on the haunted house tale, which was slightly let down by the fact that it was too long. However, rarely do you hear of buildings which quite literally drop out of the sky, an event brilliantly described in the opening sequence and the catastrophic destruction which follows, so it is also worth further investigation. The author does not make the same mistake twice and Silvers Hollows is a much leaner beast and a significantly shorter 186-pages, featuring a tightly constructed and streamlined story. Admittedly, proceedings may well have some readers scratching their heads (okay, everybody), but at the same time it was very easy to remain invested in reading a few extra pages in the off chance another piece of the perplexing jigsaw might fall into place (forget it).

The blurb mentions “Hitchcockian paranoia and the Lynchian surreal” and this is an honest hook which should be used to sell and hype Silvers Hollows. This is one of those books where it is very difficult to figure out what exactly is going on and the not knowing is a major part of the fun. Nothing is quite what it seems in this odd little town. Some readers might find this frustrating, as very little makes immediate sense, and everything is self-consciously weird or obscure. However, you will quickly find yourself being sucked into a mystery, in which the protagonist is not even sure herself what she is attempting to solve, as her memory is fragmented, but feels in her bones something is off.

Deliberately disorientating from the opening pages, a young woman wakes up in the train station of her hometown, a place she has not visited for years. She is immediately picked up by a policeman, he tells her things have changed and are now different (but from what?) and she vaguely recognises him from years earlier. She also has the impression little has moved on but does notice small and unsettling contrasts which put her on edge. Much of the plot centres around time and memory, how old is the woman? Is it really twenty years since she last visited? How much can we read into the hints of what has been going on in the previous two decades? Clues are dropped about a key episode from the past and there are very few people populating the empty streets. What the heck is going on? Welcome to a cross between The Twilight Zone and Blake Crouch’s Wayward Pines, or any other oddball town you can think of.

The main character obviously has baggage and there are flashbacks to when she was a kid, much of which centres upon her sister Ivy and the obscure issues she had with her parents. I do not want to say much more about the plot, as Silvers Hollows is best read not knowing too much in advance. The work also has an oppressive atmosphere which adds an extra layer to proceedings, this is topped by the clever descriptions of the location which might give a few indications to the direction the story is heading.

Much of the success of Silvers Hollows depends on how you rate the ending. Often books which have a convincing hook or concept are let down by their big finish or lack of it, but this is not the case with this story. As I was reading it, I played out various permutations, possibilities and wild guesses, a couple of which were not too far from the mark. One could argue the story was slightly one paced, in that everything revolved around the questions being asked by the main character and there was little in the way of threat. Ultimately the plot unfolded like a bad trip, with the reader observing an unfolding nightmare or experiment, following the protagonist discovering the breadcrumbs. You will have fun following the trail and I was pleased I guessed the ultimate direction of the plot.

Silvers Hollows is an easy and fast paced read which keeps the reader guessing with some decent twists, well described location and brooding atmosphere. Coming in at under 200-pages there is plenty of fun to hold your attention for a few hours. This was a very solid follow up from The House that fell from the Sky and also pleasingly different, a very good indication that Patrick Delaney is an author to watch.

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This book is about a woman who wakes up at a train station from her childhood, but she can’t remember how she got there. Throughout her residence in the suburb she acknowledges some acquaintances from the past, however they behave seemingly odd.
I really enjoyed this novel, it’s fast paced, creepy, and incredibly well written.
The author got me hooked from the first page and he managed to build up a dark and eerie setting.
Almost till the very end I was absolutely clueless about what is actually going on and I really liked that I couldn’t foresee where this storyline was heading.
If you liked the „Wayward Pines trilogy“ and „The Stepford Wives“ you will definitely love „Silvers Hollow“ by Patrick Delaney.

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Silvers Hollow by Patrick Delaney ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ /5


A woman wakes to find herself in her childhood hometown. Dark memories resurface as she goes from place to place, things that don’t quite seem to match up with who she meets and what she sees...How did she get here? Why has she returned? What exactly is going on in Silvers Hollow?


I really enjoyed this novel. I read it in about a day! I love the surreal, dream-like setting and characters. There are a few characters and scenes that I cannot stop thinking about. It is disturbing and detailed, mysterious, emotional, and unsettling. (Reader be warned, it does get graphic. Not for the faint of heart 😉). If you like Iain Reid’s I’m Thinking of Ending Things, you will love Silvers Hollow.

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Any time I don’t have a watch on my wrist, I am conscious of its absence. It’s a lot simpler to look at my watch than it is to reach for my phone and get the time from there. I’ve always worn a watch and I feel close to naked if I am, for whatever reason, not wearing one. I suppose I’m like most people in that I need to know what time it is, what day it is, and–in these pandemic times–what month it is. So imagine waking up one day with no recollection of any of these mundane facts. That would be scary, right?

The main character in Patrick R. Delaney‘s latest novel, Silvers Hollow, faces such a bizarre and disconcerting situation. She is anonymous to the reader, remaining unnamed throughout the book, and despite having some memories, she is practically anonymous to herself. The premise is a simple one, if deceptively so. A woman wakes up on the platform of a deserted train station, with the train she may or may not have been on pulling away. She has no memory of how she got there, or where she is–or what time it is. Leaving the station she meets the first of the supporting characters that drift in and out of the narrative. The woman finds herself in the back of Officer Smith’s ancient police car, and he takes her on a strange and meandering journey through what seems to be her childhood town of Silvers Hollow.

Nostalgia ain’t what it used it be, the saying goes, and this particular trip down memory lane is anything but comforting. Delaney’s main character is put through the wringer, emotionally and physically. Silvers Hollow itself seems stuck in time, with none of the modern amenities you would see and take for granted today. And it’s always dark. The story, as it unfolds, leaves the reader and the woman without any light at all. There is a reason for this, but you need to stick the course to find out. Meanwhile, the woman has to contend with the mystery of why she is where she is, and what, if anything, her family has to do with her predicament.

The people she meets on her journey are equally as scared, but of what, they can’t or won’t say. This adds to the sense of menace and dread that permeates the book. Delaney’s decision to allow the reader to follow closely beside his main character is an excellent one. All throughout the book I felt the same things the woman felt. It was like being a companion to someone else’s dream, and it wasnt a comfortable experience at all. But I kept reading because, like the woman, I wanted answers.

Silvers Hollow makes full use of its brief running time, coming in a couple of pages shy of 190. But don’t let its brevity fool you: there’s a lot going on here, and nothing is what it seems. Patrick R. Delaney has crafted a well-written, atmospheric, psychological horror story. The end is both dystopian and apocalyptic, and you’ll never ever want to have a dream like it.

NetGalley and the publishers of Silvers Hollow provided me with an ARC in return for an honest review. I thank them for the opportunity. The book will be published June 1, 2021, and is available to pre-order.

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I DEVOURED this book whole in one sitting. It’s ominous and eerie nature had me turning pages so fast because I just needed to know what was going on.

With that said, I wish I would have read The House That Fell From The Sky first to give it a little more context but honestly, this book blew my mind. And that was definitely intended.

I love mind boggling books and this fit the bill, big time.

A woman wakes in a train station. And she doesn’t remember how she got there. Just that she left Silvers Hollow and never intended on coming back. She finds a family photograph at her feet but she has no idea how it got there, let another anything else. She’s confused, disoriented and has a laceration on the back of her head.

A police officer finds her and puts her in his cruiser. But there is something eerie and troubling going on. The mist is creeping around the lights and she still can’t remember anything. She hasn’t seen a clock and her watch has mysteriously gone missing....There is no time here.

Was it all a just dream? More like a nightmare.

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True rating is a 3.5, but I'm rounding up.

The story in this was fascinating, reminding me simultaneously of the Twilight Zone and the movie Vivarium. I attempted to read Delaney's previous book, The House That Fell From the Sky, and gave up because the characters just did not click with me. Even then, I did find myself enjoying his writing style, finding it to be very readable.

And it turns out- I was right! This was a VERY readable little novel, and it keeps you turning page after page. I found the mystery of it all intriguing enough to keep going, and felt mostly satisfied with the way it all tied up.

However, I did find some of the answers rather vague. I saw another reviewer mention that this book relates back to his previous one, so that could be why. Even with this factored in, I found it an enjoyable read and would recommend it. Definitely looking forward to more from this author!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing a free copy in exchange for an honest review.

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Patrick Delaney is too good.

Last year, I was extremely surprised by The House That Fell From The Sky. I didn't think it was perfect but it was absolutely enjoyable. I wanted more. And still want more. (Cue Colombia and Magenta: More, More, More)

Silvers Hollow, Delaney's next work, is on a whole new level. The last time that I was gripped by a book that had a deep psychological hold on me was back when I read House of Leaves. From the beginning, I was along for a ride of which I could never figure out the destination. Delaney captures the classical strokes of horror while hanging us on the brink of an unfamiliar horizon.

I am so glad I didn't go to High School with Delaney and have to settle for the second-best writer in English class.

My expectations were shattered.

Delaney's place in the genre will only become more cemented in the coming years.

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Is this one of the weirdest books I've ever read? - yes.
Is this one of the best books I've read in 2021? - also, yes.

Patrick Delaney is a clear fan on Black Mirror/Twilight Zone esque storytelling. This was unlike any thriller I've read and that's what makes it so great. There's a main character - who's name we will never know. There's a town, bathed in darkness and strangely quiet. There's a policeman with a weird mustache and a decades old car. There's a childhood home, that's no longer familiar expect for the locked door.

This short book manages to blow your mind quickly and efficiently. I want more.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for the opportunity to read and review this book.

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Silvers hollow by Patrick R. Delaney.
Wow. What a read. I surprised myself by finishing it it one go. Couldn't put it down. I had a theory but I think I was partly right. Very enjoyable read. 5*.

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4.5/5

This would be really fun to talk about with someone. Maybe that someone could explain it to me. I mean I’m not stupid or anything, but the ending just sort of made sense to me when I think it should have made complete sense. From what I can tell it was a perfect conclusion to a perfectly disorientating, confusing, mind-boggling little gem. This is the type of book where you have to abandon all hope of understanding and just go with it. At least until the end when it all comes together. It does, doesn’t it?

Thank you for this opportunity to read this wonderful book.

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This is a super quick, but incredibly intense mind f**k of a book. It will pull you in, keep you guessing and then drop your jaw with brutal gore and a refreshing storyline. I am finding that Delaney’s writing is full of not only shock value, but visceral human connections.

A young woman wakes on a train platform of her childhood hometown, but quickly finds that this is nothing like the place she remembers. Sifting through her childhood memories and trying to figure out what is actually happening in the Silvers Hollow she has found herself in, she has to uncover the truth about “the emergency” that the odd townsfolk keep referencing.

This is a profound read full of psychological and carnal horror and I definitely recommend it!

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I took a few days to think about Silvers Hollow. Knowing this was from the author of The House That Fell From the Sky, I thought I was prepared for the kind of book I would be getting. I was only about half prepared. You know when you are reading a scene and you start to realize it’s a dream? This is like that backwards. You are reading what you feel has to be a dream and then you start to realize that the character is experiencing what she is describing. You spend all of the pages trying to find out why. And what. And, even who. It is obvious that everyone else knows what is happening. This can be a really hard line to straddle. Sometimes it is just frustrating and annoying and sometimes it is intriguing. Patrick Delaney did it the right way. Saying much more of anything would be too much. Just know that as you are reading you will think you are figuring out at least parts of it. You will most likely be wrong at least some of the time. Enjoy it.

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This is the second time I've been reading a book by Mr. Delaney and while I had some mixed feelings about the first one, I was very much in love with this one. This book is one very delicious mindfuck and I really hope Mr. Delaney will continue to write horror-thrillers like this one because it was amazing.
There were a couple of references to The House That Fell From The Sky which I considered smartly done, since the books seem to be taking place in the same universe.
I have a weakness for clueless characters who only learn about their past and purpose peu a peu and the characters in this book were horrifyingly well written. I greatly enjoyed reading this book and I am looking forward to the future works of the author.
Hopefully we'll be able to make further connections between the future novels set in this universe; I am really excited to see whether or not all these plots are eventually going to end up tied together in a seperate novel - and if that's going to be the case; I know I will read the heck out of it.

I received a free ARC by Netglley in exchange for an honest review.

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A woman awakens at a train station in her home town with no recollection of how she got there. After hitching a ride with a local police officer, things start to get weird when she begins noticing something’s not right with the people and landscape around her. She is then lead back to her childhood home, where the secrets of her past and the truth behind why she’s back in Silvers Hollow is revealed.

Well, this book was quite a trip! And I mean that in the best way possible because I loved it. Silvers Hollow is a quick, weird little book that really packed a punch, while also being creepy and keeping me on the edge of my seat. This being my first book by Patrick Delaney I didn’t know what to expect, but I was quite pleasantly surprised and enjoyed the mix of horror, thriller and science fiction that he combined to tell this story. 

I didn’t have any major issues with this novel, the writing was good and the pacing of the book was well done. My feelings about the ending are conflicted, on the one hand it took a turn I enjoyed but wasn’t quite expecting, but I also felt some aspects didn’t fit with the rest of the story. Mostly, I enjoyed it and appreciated feeling satisfied with an ending that actually explained what was going on. If you are someone who likes more ambiguous endings, this would not be for you. 

Overall this was a well written, thrilling, and weird story that I would highly recommend. Patrick Delaney is definitely on my radar.

This review was posted on NetGalley, Goodreads, Instagram and a more detailed review is on my personal blog (chaptersxthepage.ca).

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