This book was creepy, but not the standard horror. I was holding my breath and racing across pages just to try to figure out what came next.

I received a copy of this book for a fair and honest review. I read the blurb for this book and that was something that was just so creepy. It had me thinking of old tv shows I watched with my mother about cursed objects. It in this case it was a camera. It would leave the people photographed feeling empty or hollow. Everything is already wrong in Morgan's life and she is trying to keep it together and her life is already hell. It is only when her sister takes a selfie with the camera does she knows she has to find a way to fix what is happening. It is a chilling story.

Quick Take: Morgan is struggling following the feather of her younger brother in a tragic car accident that she blames for herself. When she discovers a camera with the ability to strip it’s subjects of their humanity Morgan’s life becomes a lot more complicated.

What I Loved: This book was so campus and fun. It seriously gave me RL Stine vibes (Say Cheese and Die anyone?). Morgan what a likeable, relatable character and had a lot more depth than I was anticipating for such a short novel. The book also treated a lot issues I wasn’t expecting including: sexual assault, domestic violence, death of a child, and depression.

What I Didn’t Love: Outside of Morgan, a lot of the characters felt a little flat and one dimensional with virtually no growth on the page. Since it was such a short book it didn’t bother me too much but it was still noticeable.

I can appreciate a short horror story. Slice of life works really well for the genre.
I really debated whether this book should be a two or a three star, but ultimately decided on two.
My biggest issue with this book was the writing. It often felt like it was trying too hard to be current but ended up feeling forced or dated. This book was released this year (2020) but felt like it belonged in 2013.
The characters did not seem realistic, with the exception of Amy, the little sister. The love interest was just a one-dimensional hot British kid, and the best friend reminded me of Jughead in the Riverdale TV show. The main character is supposed to be messed up from her trauma but she has a healthy coping mechanism (running), an average dislike of math, and a fairly normal teenage relationship with her parents.
It honestly fell short in the horrors as well. I thought the premise was interesting but the camera was never explained and did not make sense for the setting.
The message was the shining light. The main character deals with some really heavy problems and in the end, she was able to realize that it was not her fault and that set her on the road to healing.

Truly bizarre. It's like "Alice in Wonderland" meets "The Crow." I don't consider this book anywhere close to being a horror story.

I really enjoyed this book. Morgan is fighting against an invisible and evil enemy throughout most of the book and she feels as though she is cursed. When you discover what the real problem is and see how Morgan deals with some of the events that take place, it is a true revelation. My one complaint is that the first 60-70% of this book seems to drag on, then all of a sudden you're at the end and everything is wrapping itself up with a nice bow on top. I'd still recommend to teen readers, though.

I read this book in a day and did enjoy it but ultimately, I'm already starting to forget it.

This is the story of a girl who finds a Polaroid camera in an abandoned hospital, takes it home, and then weird things start happening. Every time she takes someone's photo, they start being really mean and aggressive. The question is why.

But that's only one part of the story as the girl has been raped by her ex-boyfriend and can't bring herself to admit it to anyone. Moreover, an accident happened before the start of the book that left her mother in a wheelchair and her little brother dead.

So the book is about her trying to cope with all that, helped by her amazing best friend and figure out what's going with the camera. I was interested in both of the aspects of the story and thought they were pretty well done. My only issue is that there's nothing that really surprised me in the book or anything that stood out ; it's quite forgettable but a fun read in a way.

Thank you to NetGalley and Tyche Books for providing me with an eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Morgan has a lot going on in her young life. Her family has been in a car accident that left her mother paralyzed and her younger brother dead. At the same time, she has suffered abuse at the hands of a past boyfriend. She deals with daily bullying from her ex and other students. She is lucky to have a best friend that she can lean on and a younger sister that admires her and wants to spend time with her. Things are not perfect, but they get so much worse. I think this book had a lot of promise, but it was rushed in parts and pacing was off in others. I was left wondering what the purpose of this book was because it ended up falling flat for me. Thanks for the ARC, NetGalley.

Hollow
by Rhonda Parrish
Tyche Books
Horror | Teens & YA
Pub Date 24 Mar 2020


I am reviewing a copy of Hollow through Tyche Books and Netgalley:


Sixteen year old Morgan's family is shattered when a car accident kills her brother, leaves her Mother paralyzed in more than one way, her Father is always at work and get seven year old sister Amy is trying too hard to salvage everything she could.




Not only does Morgan have to deal with the Hell she is going through at home, but Highschool is it's own kind of torture. She has an ex boyfriend who seems to take great pleasure in spreading rumors that only serve to rip her reputation to shreds and make her feel like a loser.





After finding an old camera in an creepy abandoned hospital, things go from bad to worse. It seems that Everytime Morgan takes a picture of her classmates, or anyone else, the camera steals the goodness of the one.




When Morgan's Sister Amy uses the camera to take a Selfie, Morgan is determined to do what ever she can to reverse the effects so she can get the good part of her sister back.



If you have a young adult reader who likes horror fiction, that isn't to gruesome I would recommend Hollow.


I give Hollow four out of five stars!


Happy Reading!

The hollows follows the main character Morgan, she is having a hard time in high school after her brother die in a car accident and her toxic ex boyfriend is spreading horrible rumors about her in school.
Weird things begin to happen after she found out a old camera in a abandoned hospital that apparently suck the good out of people.
It was an original story but I was expecting a more supernatural ending.
thanks to netgalley and tyche books for the copy

This book had potential. The plot was solid and had an interesting premise, but I found myself disappointed with the outcome. The main character had gone through trauma that it seemed the author was trying to just hint at, but it was obvious, and she seemed a bit one dimensional. Once things actually started happening in the story, which took a bit, it got more interesting. The conclusion felt kind of rushed and one of the main characters suddenly disappeared from the story completely. Overall, good plot idea but not impressed.

Teen dealing with way too much

Morgan's house is devoid of happiness since her little.brother was killed and her mother paralyzed in a car accident. Her Dad works all the time now, her Mom hardly ever comes out of their room, and Morgan is basically raising her younger sister and herself.

At the same time she's having to deal with high school bullies that are making her life miserable. The only thing she's still getting enjoyment from is photography and her best friend, Sevren.

Toss in an abandoned hospital that is supposedly haunted.Ted across the street, a camera she finds there, and a strangely colored magpie.

This book did have its spooky moments but it is mostly a book about loss and the ways people deal with it plus a look at a sad teen life.

CAUTION (might be spoilers):
This book is advertised as a Young Adult book but be aware of language, adult situations, and a rape scene.

I would have rated this 3 1/2 stars if I could have.

I received this book from Tyche Books through Net Galley in the hopes that I would read it and leave an unbiased review.

This book, following Morgan after he brother had died. I found this book a little difficult to read. As a younger writer and reader myself, I felt that this book was more intense than I was expecting. Also, the rape component in the book was more than I was expecting. I love a good horror story, but this felt to fall a little bit outside of that category. I am not sure that this book did for me what I heard from others who have read it. I found it to be more focused on the dark than the light and seemed to miss those parts.

Creepy and that's a mild word for this book. Don't start this book at night or I can promise you that you'll sleep with the lights on if you sleep at all. Read it though. It's really good. Happy reading!

LOVED THIS BOOK!!!!

<b>Trigger warnings</b> - sexual assault, loss of a loved one.

I was first drawn to this book because of the eerie yet minimal cover, which sucked me in straight away. After reading the blurb I was intrigued. I am not a big horror fan but I really loved this book. Even being a YA horror it did not read like a typical YA story but it didn't feel overly adult either.

As a Psychological Thriller Hollow is not overly violent or gory but it really does suck you in.

We follow 16 year old Morgan, your typical High School student going through a pretty rough home life. We learn very early on that Morgan’s Brother Aric was killed in a car crash and her Mother is now disabled leaving her bound to a wheelchair. Morgan is the responsible for caring for her Sister, Amy.

Morgan’s school life isn't much better. With Sevren, her best friend and a toxic ex-boyfriend, Keith intent on making he life a misery and spreading vicious rumours about her, poor Morgan doesn't have it easy.

During one of Morgan’s daily runs, she finds herself in the notorious, abandoned and supposedly haunted hospital. She makes her way to the former psych ward where she comes across an old antique camera. Unbeknown to Morgan however this is no ordinary antique camera. This camera has the ability to suck the goodness out of people. Prior to knowing this Morgan snaps a shot of a few classmates and her sister uses it to take a selfie. Then the drama really begins.

We follow along as Morgan faces her biggest fears in order to restore all the people the camera has made hollow. Thi was definitely a page turner and I loved it.

I think this book would really resonate with a lot of today's young adults. It deals with topics many of them face on a daily basis. School is a hard place for some kids and others don't have great home lives either.

This book was fast paced and super easy to get through. I think I finished it in 2 days and the characters are just so easy to gel with. I found Rhonda Parrish's writing style easy to get on with and honestly I was sucked in straight away. I felt quite disappointed when it ended and did want to read more.

Definitely recommend this books for fans of YA horror fiction.

The perfect creepy mystery to read in one rainy day under your bed covers.

After an accident in which Morgan lost her brother, she has been trying to move on but things will never be back to normal. One day she finds herself inside an abandoned hospital where she finds a mysterious camera. There are many creepy and disturbing stories told about this hospital and what really happened there before it was shut down.

Morgan takes the camera home and it is not until she starts taking pictures of people that she realizes, the camera will not only take your photo, but also your soul.

High School can be a horror story. The main character Morgan is having a tough time in her life with a recent car accident that killed her little brother and crippled her mother. This doesn’t stop some of the boys in her school from being jerks and harassing her daily. When Morgan finds a soul sucking camera in an abandoned hospital things get even worse for her. Will Morgan find the strength within herself to set things right?

I liked Morgan right away. She reminded me of my teenage self. She’s strong, smart, and funny but has been brought low by a tragic series of events and is fighting to find her way back. The story is told from her point of view and we are in her head experiencing everything with her. Her thoughts were very relatable and I couldn’t help but cheer for her to find her way out of the darkness.

Spoiler below:

<spoiler>The ending was a metaphysical journey into Morgan’s mind, along with those of her sister, best friend, and the ex-boyfriend who had become her harasser. This was an elegant construct to show Morgan working through her problems and relationships but I have to say that I kind of wanted a creepier supernatural solution.</spoiler>

In the end I was mostly satisfied by how everything turned out. This was not the chilling, spooky novel I was expecting but it did turn out to be horrific in its own way. If I have nightmares after finishing they will be about my own high school experience which should be plenty terrifying.

Thank you to Tyche Books for providing an Electronic Advance Reader Copy via NetGalley for review.

I received a free digital copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I enjoyed this book, but it wasn't one that will stick with you for a long time. It had a good horror/fantasy aspect to it.though. The writing was good and the characters were really well thought out. I really was expecting more suspense than it contained. I wish there had been more to the story. This could have been drawn out so much and made into a deeper more suspenseful story. Otherwise, this was a quick and easy read with a decent plot.

Thank you kindly to the author, the publisher, and NetGalley for this review copy.

I am very sad that I was not able to read this book. I was having issues with my amazon account. It was not sending it to the kindle app. By the time I got it fixed (hopefully) this book had already been archived.
Please ignore the star rating of this review. It is just the average of most other reviewers for this book.

Following a car accident that left Morgan's mother in a wheelchair and her brother dead, her family is barely getting by. High School is no better as Morgan's ex is determined to spread vicious rumours about her. Her luck is about to change when she finds when she finds an old camera in an abandoned hospital... from bad to worse.

The first thing that I will say is that this book needs to come with a content warning for sexual abuse (also infant death but that is explicitly stated in the blurb).

I didn't hate this book but it wasn't a hit for me either. Parrish's writing style makes this book a very easy read even if the subject matter is everything but.

The characters felt realistic and the plot felt a little spooky and scary which felt refreshing, unfortunately the ending felt a little weird and a like a crude metaphor.