Gets 5 stars for most unsettling realistic book so far this year. ( )

Strangely Enjoyable

This is my first read by T. Kingfisher this is one of my first attempts at reading the genre of fantasy in 2020. I have a hard time connecting with the genre there for I am super selective. The book however had many spooky qualities that made it closer to horror for me which made me intrigued enough to want to read it. To me this book is like Alien meets The Chronicles of Narnia which shockingly enough I just finished a day ago with my nephew. At page one I fell in love with Carrots relationship with her friend Simon and what made it more enjoyable for me is that one of my closest friends has the name Simon. I felt like I was Carrot and he was in the story with me. I loved how Kara (Carrot) moves in with her Uncle and pretty much runs the museum as her uncle recovers and what is more entertaining is that while he is recovering the world comes undone. I loved every minute. There is a hole in the wall of the museum that leads to a new creepy place that the readers get to explore. creepy willows, shadow things, scary people, other worlds, bizarre bunkers, and so much more to keep the pages turning. I want to apologize for my delayed review to all involved because my delay has no baring on how good this book is. I recommend this to anyone who loves horror mixed with a little bit of fantasy. Also a Finalist in the 2020 Goodreads Choice Awards very well deserved! ( )

Partly inspired by Algernon Blackwood's "The Willows", a story H.P. Lovecraft thought was one of the most terrifying stories ever written, The Hollow Places is a rollicking, fun, Lovecraftain horror story from the brilliant mind of T. Kingfisher. In The Hollow Places, T. Kingfisher takes on another classic of weird fiction by presenting a hole in the wall of a Curiosity Museum which leads to the “region of singular loneliness and desolation” described in Algernon Blackwood’s 1907 The Willows.

The tale starts innocently enough. After her divorce, a graphic artist named Kara goes to live with her gentle and eccentric Uncle Earl (he calls her Carrot). Settled in the back room of his museum of strange objects, Kara can live rent-free as long as she helps him categorize his oddities. Next door to the museum is the Black Hen, a coffee shop whose barista, a nutty and lovable guy named Simon, may have eaten his twin in the womb. He's a weird and fun dude, but not the source of horror.

The objects in Earl’s museum are what you’d expect. There are statues of Bigfoot and Mothman, a Feejee mermaid and all manner of sad, taxidermied animals, including an eight-foot-long giant river otter. Fans frequently send objects to Earl, and one day an item that Kara finds especially sinister arrives. But like everything else, she inventories it and puts it somewhere among the oddments. Then, as is the case whenever something really creepy comes into an already creepy museum, strange things start to happen. This is when things take a turn for the weird as she and barista Simon from the café next door discover an impossible hallway in their building that defies the laws of physics and their curiosity prompts them to explore where it leads… Spoiler alert: it’s not Narnia. What Kara and Simon have inadvertently stumbled into is a realm filled with terrifying beings beyond comprehension and they’ll need all their wits and a healthy dose of luck to survive.

Kingfisher’s superpower is her ability to describe things that cannot possibly be, things that can’t be there but are—things that the human mind can’t wrap itself around. She is also great at characterization. Her characters are very relatable. Kara and Simon endear themselves immediately to the reader and feel like life-long friends and are given an impressive level of development. Kara in particular is a charming narrator and spending time with her as she catalogs oddities within the museum is quite fun. She is also an easy character to root for when the horror starts to happen. You want her to survive and you want her to solve the mystery within The Hollow Places.

The book is a page-turner, and the elements introduced all come together to a very satisfying conclusion in the finale. The Hollow Places is a treat for fans of the weird. Do yourself a favor and read it soon!

For fans of Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Annihilation, H.P. Lovecraft. ( )

I absolutely loved this book. It wasn't the hair raising scary horror that many had said it was, but it was just creepy enough to keep me turning the pages.

From the first I wanted Kara and Simon to be my hang out friends, I thoroughly enjoyed their interaction and humor, and how even in the face of the unexplainable they kept going and didn't fall apart. My kind of people. The interaction between Kara and her Mother was so relatable too to many.

Even if you aren't a lover of this genre, I think that anyone would enjoy this book. Read this and enjoy. ( )

I enjoyed this, but it wasn't really to my taste. More snark than I want in my horror, too much of the protagonist missing conspicuous signs, too much left unexplained, etc. ( )