T. Kingfisher is the author and illustrator of many projects in the sci-fi realm, but her newest "The Hollow Places," veers strongly into supernatural horror territory.

Kara has just been dumped by her husband, and her uncle offers her room and board at his curio shop known as The Wonder Museum. She jumps at the chance...mainly because she doesn't really have any other viable options, and she loves her uncle.

While taking care of the shop/museum, which houses an eclectic collection of everything from taxidermy animals to skeletons to odd art, she is told by some visitors there is a hole in the wall upstairs.

After closing, she enlists her new friend Simon, who is a barista at the coffee shop next door to help patch the hole while her uncle is having surgery done.

A decision they will soon regret as they end up in a connection between alternate realities. Realities that are not only strange, but deadly.

I really enjoyed The Hollow Places. The story had influences of H.P. Lovecraft and Stephen King, but was an original story of its own. The descriptive prose made me feel like I was right there with Kara and Simon, even cringing and holding my breath at some encounters with the main "monsters."

I’m giving The Hollow Places by T. Kingfisher a 4 out of 5 stars.

A horror novel set in modern-day smalltown America, though I can best sum it up with an equation: House of Leaves + Algernon Blackwood's The Willows + a little dash of Annihilation = this book.

Kara, a thirty-something graphic designer in the midst of an overtly friendly but low-key depressing divorce and with few job prospects, decides to move in with her uncle and help him run his small and extremely weird museum, the 'Glory to God Museum of Natural Wonders, Curiosities and Taxidermy'. Which is basically just a house stuffed full of inexplicable clutter, from a giant Bigfoot statue to a "genuine" Feejee mermaid to stuffed mice dressed in tiny armor to a collection of thimbles of the world. All goes well enough until a small hole appears in one of the walls. In an attempt to patch it, Kara and her new friend Simon, the gay barista from the coffeeshop next door, discover a mysterious hallway behind the drywall where there is definitely not enough room for a hallway, which leads to a world full of willow trees and things that shouldn't exist and multidimensional creatures that can do much, much worse things than merely eat you.

Kingfisher does an excellent job at evoking cosmic horror: the unknowable, the wrong side of reality, the just plain wrong. Which is fascinating, because now that I'm thinking of it, I can't really name many recent novels that go all in for cosmic horror, and none at all that manage to make it this scary. Because for as creepy as 'The Willows' is, its 1907 language is hard to sink into – at least for me it is. The Hollow Places very much does not have that problem. Kingfisher has done a wonderful job at taking the ideas from that story and making them entirely her own. She also is great at wringing pure terror out of some very innocuous places – an empty schoolbus, a taxidermied otter, a strangely labelled MRE.

So the horror here is A++. I can't quite say as much for the characters; both Kara and Simon felt a little flat to me, a little like fanfic cliches. But that's a very minor compliant for a book that I sped through and would highly recommend.
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3606554155

A sequel in spirit (though not in content) to the excellent The Twisted Ones, The Hollow Places takes us on another journey inspired by another classic work of cosmic horror. This time it's Ambrose Bierce's turn in the barrel, via his famous short story "The Willows", which (unlike the inspiration for The Twisted Ones) I actually have read---long, long ago---and which I found deeply, deeply unnerving.

"Deeply unnerving" is probably the best description I can give of The Hollow Places, and I mean that in the best possible way. Kara, a professional graphic designer and amateur fanfic writer, is fresh off a much-needed divorce and working for her uncle's junk museum of the absurd, when she notices a mysterious hole has appeared in the wall. A hole that leads to a hallway that's much too long to exist, and beyond that hall, a willow-strewn world like something out of a fairy tale. But her adventure soon turns to horror, as she discovers the true nature of the world she's stumbled upon, and just how difficult it will be to escape.

My one complaint about The Twisted Ones was in its ending, which I felt took all the slow-creeping tension of the earlier chapters and just dissipated it. Well, The Hollow Places doesn't fall into that trap; if anything, the creep factor multiplied right until the very end. (With a central mystery that I didn't find mysterious at all, though; not sure if that was because it was so obvious or because I've read "The Willows".) What this book does so well, I think, is the way it manipulates the reader's expectations. There are jump scares, it's true . . . but more often, we see a horror, but don't *realize* we're seeing a horror until much later on. Instead of "oh my god, it's a monster!", we think "wow, that's . . . weird", whistle a bit as we read on, then have the true nature of what we've been seeing all along suddenly revealed. The true horror lies in how little we---like Kara and her buddy Simon---understood what we were seeing. In how easy it was to stumble headfirst into hell.

Overall: highly, highly recommended!

A big thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for providing a free copy in exchange for an honest review!

Kara is recently divorced, and living in the spare room in the Wonder Museum that her Uncle Earl conveniently just happened to have ready for her. This means she doesn't have to go stay with her mother; both Kara and Earl know there would surely be murder done if she and her mother (Earl's sister) tried that. And really, Earl isn't as mobile as he used to be, and could use the help running the museum. His knee, in particular, isn't what it used to be.

The museum is filled with pretty strange and weird items, include
But that's all normal enough, considering this is Uncle Earl and the Wonder Museum. When Earl's knee goes out completely, and he has no choice but to agree to surgery, Kara is lefte running the museum on her own--and discovers a hole in the wall on the second floor, that opens onto concrete corridors stretching further than is possible in the building the museum is in. Oh, and there's a dead body, reduced almost just to bones, in a room off one of those corridors.

Simon, who runs the other business in the building, the Black Hen coffee shop, becomes her partner in exploring, and trying to understand the existence of, the corridors. Unfortunately, they keep going until they've opened a securely locked door at the top of a flight of stairs, that opens into what is clearly another world. It's a spooky and dangerous place, and they quite sensibly retreat back inside, back to the Wonder Museum and the mundane world, and seal up the hole in the wall that leads to those corridors.

The hole doesn't stay closed, and they're faced with the problem that the monsters on the other side might decide to come through. This is truly terrifying; what exists on the other side can and does commit real horrors. A school bus looks empty but on closer examination has children, apparently still alive, inside the seats. Or not quite in that world anymore, but seemingly trapped inside the seats. find the remains of an outpost from some other world or dimension, of a platoon of soldiers who are now gone, and who left such cheery and encouraging information as "Pray they are hungry." Pray who is hungry? Oh, the being or beings or force that moves through the willows.

Simon and Kara encounter living evidence of what "they" can do to living beings if they are bored, rather than hungry.

They can't leave the hole open and just move away; Uncle Earl will be coming back. And Earl is all too likely to take even the most dire warnings as a reason to go exploring.

How can they seal the hole so that the monsters can't come through? And when they do come through, how do they fight back?

Kingfisher gives us what too many horror movies never give us--a real reason why the people confronted with the horror don't get out of there. Kara and Simon can't leave Earl to deal with this.,even if that would really keep them safe.

They are smart, interesting, complex characters, who rescue each other, and deal with the impossible as best they can. Earl, and Kara's mother, though we see less of them, also have some depth and complexity to them.

And I loved seeing Kara starting to deal with her ex, who dumped her, being clingy and wanting her to still be emotionally dependent on him even though he's dumped her, in the way he deserves.

Really an excelling book. Highly recommended.

I received a free electronic galley of this book from the publisher via NetGalley, and am reviewing it voluntarily.

Enjoyable cosmic horror comparable to Kingfisher's previous The Twisted Ones - the characters are a little thin but the atmosphere is wonderfully creepy and will stick with you long after you finish the book.

A fine work of cosmic horror. Regardless of the genre she works in, T. Kingfisher has one of more unique and fresh authorial voices in novels today. Here, I especially appreciate her razor sharp focus on the two central characters. The entire book almost could have worked as a simple two-hander between the oddballs Kara ("Carrot") and Simon, a Clerks like pair working side by side in a roadside museum and coffee shop, respectively. But then you also have the blood chilling Lovecraftian horrors creeping in from the edges, just off the page for a good chunk of the book until they aren't anymore. My Kindle is loaded up with more Kingfisher (The Twisted Ones and more of her fantasy) and I can't wait to get to it.

I know each time I read a novel by T. Kingfisher (Ursula Vernon) that I’m in for a treat. This is no exception.

Inspired by a novella by Algernon Blackwood called, The Willows, Kingfisher introduces her reader to a terror like none other, the horror in a world just beyond our own.

Don’t let the chilling premise stop you from reading; one of the things I love about this author his how she takes you to the brink of fear and terror. Sure, it’s scary but will it leave you with nightmares? Not likely.

She does this through truly genuine and relatable characters. Kara (nicknamed Carrot) and Simon are hugely entertaining individuals. Kara is going through this horrible divorce, yet who can think about that after what she seen!? She’s full of snark and humor and I want her and I to be best friends. Simon is a hoot as well. Often adorned with a top hat (of the mad hatter variety), Simon claims he has a special view into the paranormal due to an…interesting “event” that happened in utero (I’ll leave it to you to discover.)

Bottom line: if a dark and twisty Narnia grabs your attention, this is a must read for you! Spooky, but not utterly terrifying.

This book was insanely creepy—and I don’t get scared that easily! I loved our two main characters since they brought some comedic relief to the story. I loved the writing style and I thought the pacing was good. The only thing I wished was that It was a bit longer!

Coverage for Frolic can be found here: https://frolic.media/perfect-pairings-books-and-horror-movies/
(It is a Halloween inspired post that pairs novels with popular Halloween films!)

Thank you so much for sending over an early copy!

The Hollow Places by T. Kingfisher is a story about the worlds that creep into the places below our own and open up when we least expect them.

Kara is going through a divorce and has returned to her roots taking care of her uncle's curiosity museum. When doing her rounds one day, she discovers a strange crack in the wall leading to a concrete hallway that doesn't seem like it should be there. She enlists the barista next door, Simon, to help her look into the mysterious corridor that turns out to be a portal to a strange and dangerous world of monsters, alternative dimensions, and tortured souls that seems to be turning the universe itself slowly into a block of swiss cheese. Arm yourself with a steady heart and mind when you delve into this one, and "pray they are hungry".

I LOVED The Hollow Places. Simon and Kara were both human disasters and their banter and friendship was hilarious and fun, adding levity to the extremely unsettling setting of this tale. Unsettling is the key word, here. There were parts that were terrifying and the entire thing was unsettling but also so interesting and fun. I've never read anything that I could describe as both "a humorous buddy comedy" and an "unsettling story of alternate universes" --it felt like the love child of a Will Ferrell movie and an HP Lovecraft story of horror. I FIVE STAR believe it's a must-read for anyone who loves a good horror story. I don't think I'll look at willow trees and fog the same way.

Thanks to NetGalley and Gallery/Saga Press for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for the above fair and honest review.

Strong Stranger Things vibes in this one! We stumble across a hidey hole in the back of Kara's uncles' museum that leads to a horror type Narnia with all the fog, creatures, willow trees and odd messaging one would expect in a horror fantasy land. The details in places bogged me down some, but overall this was a solid read and kept me wanting more. This is not my typical genre style of choice, but it was entertaining nonetheless!
Willow trees will never look the same!
Thankful for the ARC!

Had to really think about this review. First of all, the writing grips you. It's atmospheric, witty, and also scary in unconventional ways. Due to time constraints though I kept putting it down and coming back to it, and it would loose its steam. The one big think I took from this - it is very imaginative. And even though I couldn't find it frightening, it has all those elements for a creepy horror story. Characters though were charming in their own ways. Was there a lot of growth for them? No. But at least they were quirky and interesting, and their humor and banter had the story moving along.

This is going to be an author I will go back to for more, I really enjoyed her style and imaginative world.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher tor providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. When “Carrot” and her husband divorce, she moves into her uncle’s museum of oddities to help him run it. While he is out with an injured knee, strange things begin to happen and Carrot and her uncle’s tenant find themselves in some sort of creepy alternate world, struggling to make it home alive. What caused the portal to open and how can they stop the willows from invading their own world? This story is so imaginative and well written I finished it in one sitting!

i always enjoy Mr. Kingfisher's writing, he always has a great scary and suspenseful writing style that I enjoy. this book was great and had what i was looking for.

I received an ARC for honest feedback. My rating 4.5/5 stars
Hollow. Empty. Thud.
These are the words that came to mind when reading (also the words are from the Rosenhan experiment). The author's description of the strange world our heroine explores are along the lines of a Creepy AF Narnia. A disturbed fascination infested inside me as I read, and kept me turning the page late into the night. The eccentric museum and side characters bring down your defenses before you enter the hungry Narnia-otherworld.
Story, plot, and the shocks I experienced reading, were enough alone to rate it 4.5, but there were a few areas that weakened the plot (but by very very little and not enough to drop the rating an entire star.)
The Narrator was my only true issue. She speaks in such a casual, real world tongue, and in a past tense that makes it clear that despite the very gory danger, the reader doesn't have to worry about her safety. She telling you the story AFTER it's happened. She even address the reader directly a few times and that ripped me out of the story each time. I thought both of these points weakened the experience and suspense.
My second issue with the Narrator is that she was the wrong choice to tell the story. She was less interesting or unique when compared to her partner in crime, Simon. Simon, who has the eye of his dead twin could literally SEE things our Narrator couldn't and if we had experienced the story through his eyes we would have had a more foreboding, more intense, more awe invoking (although terrifying) experience in the Willow World. Simon brings diversity to the story, and why not put him in the spotlight? He could see and experience things our narrator couldn't. He would have taken the book to the next level. He was the more entertaining and intriguing character of the two.
I would recommend this book to anyone looking for horror and adventure. I would read this book again! I would read any followup books or additional book by this author, but I hope next time the diverse and strongest character gets the spotlight.

Recently divorce Kara Has to find a place to live. She doesn’t want to go live with her parents as her mother will “drive her nuts” to say the least. She can’t afford anything as she has no money to get a rental. Uncle Earl calls and tells Kara (aka Carrot) that she can stay in his spare room at his museum. She decides to take up his offer and moves in. His “Wonder Museum” is full of odds and ends including taxidermic animals, fantastic creatures, animal skulls and other strange odds and ends. Uncle Earl has things donated to his museum by his friends and others. Uncle Earl is going into the hospital for knee surgery. Carrot has been there long enough to know how to run the museum while he is gone. Visitors come down the stairs and mentions that someone must had punched a hole in the wall. After they leave, she goes to check it. She can’t believe her eyes. Later Carrot goes next door to tell Simon (the barista) at Black Hen Coffee Shop. When Simon comes over to look at the hole, Carrot and Simon become curious as to why there is a hall behind the hole. They explore the hall to find a bunker door at one end of the hall which has them opening the door and decide to explore. What will they find? They see willows growing on little islands and bunkers. Why? Will they find anything else?

The intensity of the story had me hooked. Kara and Simon had such courage to do what they did. (I won’t tell as I don’t want to spoil the story. There is also another mystery that surprised me as I didn’t expect it. It is a creepy horror novel that made me hold my breath. I love this novel!

Kara, or Carrot to her family, is going through some shit. She’s getting a divorce, which she thought was caused by a mutual growing apart, but her husband fell for another woman and won’t stop calling her about it. She moves back to her hometown, and stays in the apartment attached to her uncle’s Wonder Museum, a cryptozoology and oddities attraction that rakes in tourists year round. The building is shared with a coffee shop, and she befriends the barista and owner, Simon. After one day at the museum, Carrot realizes that a customer had left a hole in the wall near some exhibits. Upon inspection, the hole in the wall led to a secret corridor, which Carrot and Simon examine. On one end of the corridor is a bunker. On the other end, a door. Through the door lies a world which neither of them has ever seen, as it threatens both their sanity and their world view. Monsters you can’t see, but can hear. And they can hear your thoughts.

I really enjoyed this read, and I think it was perfect for the season. I also enjoyed the casual tone of narration; Carrot’s not fancy, and she’s not going to use a lot of big words to describe what’s happening. I predicted the ending about halfway through, but it didn’t spoil my enjoyment. I’d recommend this book to anyone trying to make the most out of their Halloween season!

Finally, a book on my Oct TBR I really enjoyed. This book is for those of you that like the weird and the super odd. I enjoyed the contrast between the sarcastic writing and character dynamics and the truly horrific portal world. My biggest complaint is that there wasn't enough time in the portal world. Their journey there and back took up only about 70 pages of the 350 page book. The rest is them trying to figure out what to do about it plus a little extra action at the end.

I didn't think I would like the taxidermy museum angle, but the weirdness of that just worked for the weirdness of the rest of the book. I will definitely be picking up more from this author.

Many thanks to #NetGalley and the publisher #GalleryBooks for an advance review copy of The Hollow Places by T. Kingfisher. Wall opinions are my own.

I am going go be the outlier here when I say that I was not as impressed by this book as many other readers were. I enjoyed reading it, however I found it dragged on in places and it was not that scary to me. It was really just okay as for as I'm concerned.

What I liked about the book was the eccentric uncle Earl, the proprietor of the Wonder Museum, a little museum of all kinds of weird items. The museum felt like some places that might actually exist in some small corner of America. I also liked the friendship that existed between Cara and Simon, the barista at a coffee house located in the same building as the museum.

I can see why others enjoyed this book but it just was not a winner for me. Unfortunately, I cannot say I would recommend this book, but that doesn't mean others won't enjoy it, as evidenced in the other reviews.

l have a hard time saying this was scary but then again I am very hard person to scare when it comes to books and movies, I've seen and read it red it all so don't take my word for it. To me the book felt like Gravity Falls for grownups. Weird hoaxy museum run by an elderly uncle on paranormal ground, Which made the whole thing feel more cute than scary. I also had a hard time attaching to Kara. For a protagonist we don't really know much about her other than how she sees everyone else around her, but half the time I forgot her wasn't even actually carrots. Overall if you like Gravity Falls you'll probably find this book enjoyable but it wasn't great.

**Thank you NetGalley for this arc**

Twisted and creepy, and really funny. As much as those words may not seem right together, that’s the only way I can describe this book. I really enjoyed this book. It’s a night at the museum gone wrong and Kara is a gem of a character. It was a fun read with well thought out characters, including an uncle we all wish we had.