This is a fascinating story that reminds me of a couple of other books that I have enjoyed recently. One of those books discussed the relationship of fantasy and horror. We think of these as completely different genres but they are really more of a spectrum that is based on how much real life versus fantastical pieces of the story. Horror often has many parts of the story that are based in the normal world but with influences of fantastical elements.
This book falls in this mixture of a fantastical story that involves a girl who visits her grandfather’s “museum” that is filled with “a lot of junk” and where she discovers a portal that opens a different world to her.
The story is okay. This wasn’t my favorite but it was good.

#TheHollowPlaces #Netgalley #GalleryPress #Saga

While I’d read one of this author’s previous fantasy novels, I hadn’t realized she also wrote horror – until I started thinking about the bad guys from Paladin’s Grace. I feel like the highest praise you can give a horror book is that it gave you nightmares. After making the (glorious) mistake of starting this book before bedtime, I woke up in the middle of the night absolutely terrified of the trees outside my window. It’s weeks later and I’m still having nightmares. If that’s not a stellar recommendation, I’m not sure what is!

After a surprising divorce, Kara has gone home to Hog Chapel, North Carolina and her uncle’s Wonder Museum. A quirky place chockfull of taxidermy and sunflower-seed portraits, it’s a good environment to lick her wounds – and just far enough away from her mother. But all Kara’s worries are soon eclipsed when she discovers a hole in the wall in the museum that leads to another place. Soon Kara and Simon, the barista from the coffee shop next door, are exploring a world full of little islands in a seemingly serene forest of willows… until it isn’t.

“Come on, let’s go back to the coffee shop and I’ll make us Irish coffees and we’ll discuss this like people who don’t die in the first five minutes of a horror movie.”


Both Kara and Simon are amazingly realistic characters and they feel human. They react like normal people confronted with some pretty crazy circumstances, though probably with better humor. One example is how Kara spends some of her initial evenings in the museum. It doesn’t have wifi, so Kara curls up against the wall connecting to the coffee shop so she can use their internet to stalk her ex-husband on social media. The visual of her in the dark, surrounded by the whimsical and grotesque exhibits, somehow separated from the rest of the world, really stuck with me. The story builds slowly – sad divorced woman! quirky taxidermy mice! mysterious hole in the wall! Narnia-like forest! – but when it hits, it hits hard. There’s lots of quiet moments to let the tension build (“oh, thank goodness, they’re totally safe now… right?”) and I especially loved the addition of the epistolary-like Bible narrative, which follows a group of soldiers who also end up in the willow world. If this were a blockbuster movie, they’d be the main focus of the movie – instead, we get two average people, a barista and a graphic designer/part-time museum employee, and that’s what makes this book amazing.

“We cannot save the world with sheet metal and batik!”
“Why not?”


I read this book weeks ago and keep thinking about it – not just the scary bits (trees why trees) but also bits of the plot. Pain is a reoccurring theme, both Kara’s emotional pain from the divorce and physical pain. When Kara arrives at the museum, emotionally spent from the divorce and barely holding herself together, it’s Uncle Earl’s back pain that leads to Kara cataloging the collection, and then later [it’s Kara’s hurt leg that saves her from Them.] And in the end, it’s being surrounded by the place and people she loves (and who love her back) that are what help Kara get over her divorce (never mind the holes in the universe filled with monsters) and what save her. Even reeling from her divorce, Kara knows she’s still loved, like when her Uncle Earl sets up her room with her childhood favorite, a taxidermied Roosevelt elk head she named Prince. I think what this author does exceptionally well is writing a book that’s simultaneously terrifying and comforting, and the mix worked perfectly for me.

Overall, I adored this book and I’ve already picked up the author’s previous horror book. Easily 4.5 stars, and I can practically guarantee this book will be on my top 10 of the year list. Highly recommended!

I received an advance review copy of this book from NetGalley. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Thanks to NetGalley for providing this copy to review.

Representation: Gay supporting character, casual references to queerness.

Kara is going through a divorce, and she absolutely *cannot* bear to be around her mother for very long, so instead, she goes to stay with her eccentric uncle at his Wonder Museum. This museum is chock-full of all these odd things - a ton of dried cane toads, taxidermy taking up a lot of space, unique carvings here and there. Kara grew up in this museum, so none of it bothers her while she helps her uncle out for a while. Uncle Earl has to go into surgery for a while, so Kara takes over with some support from Simon, the barista that works at and lives above the coffee shop next door. The first day, they discover there's a hole in the wall that they assume a tourist carelessly broke and ran off. But when they take a closer look at the hallway through the hole, they realize that the proportions are impossible. They explore some and discover it leads to some strange world filled with willows and quiet islands dotting foggy water. *dun dun dunnnn*

Rating: 4.5/5 Normally, I'd tell you a bit more about this, but that was kind of all I knew, and let me tell you, that's the best way. This is a horror story after all, but if you desperately want to know more details, I'd be happy to tell you more! This is the first I've read from T. Kingfisher, and I definitely would love to read more from this author! I really loved the writing in this, it was beautiful and sufficiently creepy when needed. The humor woven throughout, both regular and gallows humor, was fantastic. I really appreciated that the main characters, Kara and Simon, were very relatable, and they didn't suddenly have some special ability or were already completely competent. They were just regular people, trying to figure this out, understand space-time physics, other dimensions, and all this science stuff that they're definitely not qualified for. If you like horror that has some humor thrown in, this is for you!

This was a really interesting book.
This book is about a woman who is picking up the pieces after a failed marriage. She tries to find a sense of normal by working in her uncle's Museum. She used to go there a lot when she was a little girl so it still feels like home. What she doesn't know is that in her uncle's Museum there is a portal to another dimension. She accidentally signs this other dimension with a friend named Simon and has an unpleasant experience that is quite unsettling.

I thought this book overall was a really interesting and unique. One of the things I really appreciate it about it is that despite the backdrop of coming back from a failed marriage, there really isn't any romance in this book at all. It is full of friendships and family, but no romance. To me this was refreshing.
If I had one criticism, it would be that sometimes the World building is a little too abstract. I really like the atmosphere the author built, but sometimes it was hard to picture what she was describing in my head. However, that could have been part of what she was doing to help make the atmosphere more unsettling. I just personally like to have a little bit more I'm a full picture of what's going on in the scene.

All in all I really like this book and I thought it was interesting and spooky. It was definitely a good read for Halloween and I will be looking out for more books by this author.

Publisher: Saga Press
Pages: 352 pages
Part of a series?: Doesn’t seem to be.
Recommended?: Depends how ok you are with creepy stuff.
The Hollow Places is the second horror novel by prolific author T. Kingfisher, also known as Ursula Vernon. I found it a very quick read, and it gave me “Coraline for adults” vibes.

After a somewhat sudden divorce, Kara goes back home to her uncle’s Wonder Museum, which is filled with a variety of oddities. One day, Kara accidentally finds a bunker in the museum’s wall, and she and her friend Simon decide to go through it to see what’s there. (Never do this). After she makes this Choice, Kara and Simon have regrets that last for the rest of the book.

Kingfisher writes Kara’s voice very realistically. Kara just wants to start over after what she thought was her life had ended, but then she has to deal with this horror nonsense, and she hates it so much. Additionally, Kara’s reactions to the horror nonsense are fairly realistic (the qualification is there because she saw the creepy hole in the wall and didn’t decide to ignore it forever). Despite that plot-necessary nitpick, I read The Hollow Places in about two sittings.

If you’re on the fence about The Hollow Places, here’s a little more information about the structure without giving away much more about the plot. Earlier in this review, I said that The Hollow Places gave me “Coraline for adults” vibes. In Coraline, in case you don’t know, the eponymous character wanders into another world and finds things there that are ultimately very upsetting. However, what I’m trying to get at is that the horror there (and in The Hollow Places) is unequivocally otherworldly. The classic horror book I would compare it to is The Haunting of Hill House. Even though ghosts appear to be the trouble in that book, there are other explanations that could fill in that are just as creepy. I have a feeling that would be a harder read for someone trying to get used to the genre.

(Sidenote: if you’re looking for a recent comp to The Haunting of Hill House, go directly to your book purveyor and pick up Mexican Gothic. Those are the rules.)

Although it’s not not creepy, I would say that this is a good crossover book for people who like horror or people who like the less creepy sides of speculative fiction. I recommend it if you’re looking for something to get your mind off of… everything.*

*I dream of the day where I can stop referring to the horrors of the world obliquely. But then, of course, the world will probably be simultaneously on fire and underwater, so that’s cheery.

Here’s the Bookshop.org link to The Hollow Places!

Although one of Kingfisher's earlier novels is already in my TBR pile, this one marks my first experience with her writing. And I have to say, I absolutely loved it! It's delightfully spooky (as contradictory as that sounds) with the tension nicely broken up with humor - either through narrator Kara's amusing interior monologue or funny banter between characters. Post-divorce, Kara moves in with her beloved Uncle Earl who runs the Wonder Museum in Hog Chapel. An overgrown curio cabinet of a museum, it's kitschy and fun... until strange happenings begin, resulting in Kara and her friend, Simon, crossing over into an otherworldly adventure. There are nods to other fictional predecessors here, but this remains fresh throughout. Really, it's so much to read!

There are scary moments that may leave readers staring hard at the next willow tree that they see, and cat lovers will rejoice in a fictional hero to root for. This is an exciting, original and really fun read. I truly loved it from start to finish - it's a great October read and can't wait to read more from Kingfisher in the future!

This was the first horror novel I've read in many years and i'm glad to be getting back into the genre with this book! It was plenty suspenseful, but the main character would occasionally make asides to let the reader know she was reflecting on her experiences in the "vacuae" as a way of saying she made it out alright in the end. This book is definitely best for someone who can't handle something too spooky, but still wants to enjoy the thrills it has to offer.

I really enjoyed the dynamic of the main duo and the way they supported each other with humor. They were both likeable and made even the darkest moments brighter. Kara's voice was full of personality.

The final 10% of the book was dedicated to revealing most of the secrets behind the "vacuae," but enough was left to the imagination that my curiosity about the "vacuae" and its portals to alternate dimensions didn't diminish. I would've appreciated the reveals be a little more measured throughout the novel, but overall this was a quick read that I had trouble putting down.

I have been on a horror kick and when I read the blurb for The Hollow Places and realized this was the same author as Twisted Ones, I needed to get my hands on it.

Poor Kara is living out her horror story. Divorced, poor, and now has to live with her mom. Joy. So when her Uncle offers her room and board for her help running the his museum, she jumps at the chance.. Little did she know, she'd live to regret it, as her curiosity gets the better of her and she finds a mysterious door that leads her to a Pan's Labyrinth / Narnia dimension and the scares are just beginning.

This was delightfully creepy, quirky and funny! It's horror and sci-fi, with great pacing and characters. This is exactly what I was looking for and the perfect time of year for it.

I’m just going to flat out say it at the start of the review. The Hollow Places by T Kingfisher has been the best book I’ve read all year. Possibly the best book I’ve read in the past two years. If you care at all about my reviews, or my opinions on books, you’ll just go on ahead and pre-order it right now online, or make a plan to head to your local bookshop to pick it up in person. I know I’ll be walking down to my local for a physical copy tomorrow. This was absolutely so unsettling, so scary, and at the end, touching. Everything I look for in a horror novel.

We start off with a really weird opening at first about the Wonder Museum where the protagonist grew up. It felt, at the time, like such a throwaway but afterward, it makes perfect sense to start there. That one bit is the only bit of that seems to fall out of the story. By that, I mean that everything else follows a smooth, linear narrative with great pacing. There is never a dull moment. Seriously. I mean, the tension just continues to grow to the point where I would have to put the book down because it got to be too much (I’m a chicken.)

Characters were great. Protagonist and narrator, Kara, feels fresh. She is well-rounded and seems real. From the small tidbits of her hobbies (that are SO relatable), to the emotions she goes through and how her priorities shift. Heck, even her response to dealing with the events of the novel are so realistic, it’s what I always say I would do should anything wild happen to me out of a movie, or in this case, a book.

Finally, what really packs a punch when it comes to The Hollow Places, is the absolute heart and emotion present throughout it all. Yes, it is scary. Yes, it is creepy. But, it is also packed with love. The love the characters have for their families. The love the characters have for their community and those within. Even though it was a tense and terrifying read, the ending brought tears to my eyes.

Please, take the jump and pick up The Hollow Places by T Kingfisher. It is such a great novel and a spectacular horror novel full of heart. The tension and pacing are superb making this such an intense read that you’re torn between putting it down and continuing through at lightspeed. This is seriously my top pick for 2020, regardless of genre.

The Hollow Places is a very creepy sci-fi story about a portal to another dimension. It definitely is a unique and interesting take on another dimension.

This is my first T. Kingfisher book, and I was extremely impressed by the quality of the writing. A sci fi-horror buffet with a Steven King and Lovecraftian flavor, with a side of Stranger Things. Here we have a bad breakup, a curious museum, and a portal to another dimension. (I mean, who HASN'T wanted to teleport to another dimension after a crappy breakup?) The description of the landscape - gorgeous; the dialogue - great; the plot....leaned a little too much on the sci fi "creature" aspect and lighter on the horror for my tastes, but should be very pleasing to those more sci fi inclined than I am. Basically a haunted evil Narnia, and who doesn't enjoy that? There's also a little bit of HItchcock flair in the horror of the unknown here.

Overall a very entertaining book by an extremely talented and lyrically inclined writer. This book made me very interested in picking up one of T. Kingfisher's more traditional horror novels. A very talented voice to watch, especially if you are into sci fi.

Thank you to Netgalley, T, and Gallery for an advance copy of this book.

Just another cold Swedish meatball in the TV dinner of life.

What a weird and humorous ride! This is my first T. Kingfisher book, but I doubt it will be my last. Don’t be fooled by my initial statement – while there is plenty of comic relief throughout The Hollow Places, it is still an incredibly spooky fun October read.

Kara (Carrot) finds herself 34 and divorced with no home. In lieu of going back to her parents house, she agrees to stay with her Uncle and help him run his wacky museum of oddities. When she is left to run the place on her own, she stumbles upon an alternate universe hiding in the walls. Her and the barista next door end up on a wild ride trying to keep whatever is ‘out there’ from coming ‘in here.’

I adored the characters. Typically in horror and thriller, I don’t feel that it’s common to really get to *know* the characters, but Carrot and Simon felt like old friends by the end of the book. And of course I loved Uncle Earl. Even the side characters that we only meet briefly, or never even fully meet but are discussed were brilliant.

The story itself (inspired by a Lovecraft story) was super engaging. It’s very rare that I make one book my sole focus (I am very guilty of reading 5-6 things at a time), but this book was the only book I read for the two days it took me to get through. The horror aspects were truly horrifying. Objects that are not scary suddenly become terrifying. Having to do a double take at everyday objects. Extremely gruesome methods of ~undoing~. Overall, this was a fantastic kick off to my month of nonstop horror/thriller books.

"Does your uncle know there's a portal to Narnia in his museum?"

Kara is living and working with her uncle after her recent divorce. When she finds a secret tunnel/portal in her uncle's museum, she and her friend Simon decide to check it out. Needless to say, they will wish that their curiosity did not get the best of them because entering the bunker/portal/tunnel leads them not to Narnia but to alternate realities which will have their hair standing on end, their hearts thumping and we will witness them trying to control their own thoughts.

"We're going to die here, aren't we?"

Well, they will not be going on a joy ride or a happy stroll through some underground secret tunnel. This was a refreshing, chilling, creepy, humorous, and horrific book. Love horror with a twist of humor? This is for you! I really enjoyed the originality and the inner dialogue of Kara. This was a nice fast-paced read which did not disappoint. This was my first book by Kingfisher and it will not be my last.

Pray they are hungry.

I also prayed that this book did not end. I found it to be an enjoyable walk on the dark side. The characters are likable, and the story sucked me in immediately.

Do not miss this book. Highly Recommend!

Imagine that you have discovered a Narnia-like door as an adult, but instead of a magical place filled with talking lions and Turkish delight, it is filled with horrific creatures that feed off of your fear! Shivers!!

T. Kingfisher has done it yet again!!

I would like to thank Netgalley, Gallery Books and T. Kingfisher for providing me with an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

I could not have been more excited to see that T. Kingfisher, the author of The Twisted Ones, was coming out with a new novel just in time for Halloween! I can not think of a more perfect way to usher in the month of October than with her riveting new horror novel, The Hollow Places!

Kara is a recently divorced 34 year old caffeine junkie (aren't we all) starting a new chapter in her life. She moves in with her Uncle Earl's wacky Wonder Museum filled with all of the bizarre things you never knew you needed to see. Her and her friend Simon are watching the museum for her uncle one day and happen upon a whole in the wall. They decide to investigate further and discover an entry to an alternate dimension filled with fog, willow trees, mystery and dread. For in this dimension are sinister creatures that feed off of their fear.

Taking inspiration from, "The Willows", by Algernon Blackwood, this horror weaves horror, dread, weird and the occasional comic relief. I love how relatable the characters in Kingfishers' novels are. I love the caffeine riddled strong female protagonist in both works and her zany friend Simon in this novel. IF YOU ARE LOOKING FOR A SPOOKY HALLOWEEN READ LOOK NO FURTHUR!

Newly divorced, Kara returns home and finds a bunker behind the wall of her uncle's home. Pray they are hungry is written on the wall, and she begins to explore the area. There are portals to other worlds that are haunted by creatures that can hear thoughts. The more they are feared, the stronger they become.

Kara's normal life is emotionally difficult in the wake of her divorce, which anyone who has experienced loss can empathize with. Her uncle is a wonderful character and is supportive of her as he gives her a place to live and a day job as she freelances as a graphics designer. This abruptly changes when the hole in the wall leads to a hallway that defies the building specifications; I immediately started thinking of House of Leaves and hoo boy, this certainly does follow in a similar vein. There is a lot of creepypasta in this other world, with eerie sensations that I can visualize very well despite my usual difficulty doing this. I'm so glad she crossed over with a friend; she has Simon to lean on in emotional moments, and he leans on her as well. As they put it, only one of them can fall apart a time, and it helps them as they explore the other world full of portals.

There's tension in each half of The Hollow Places; in the first, it's finding their way back home, and in the second it's trying to figure out why they're trying to return or what might have followed them back. That adds a layer of creepy over the ordinary world Kara and Simon are from, and they only have each other to fight it. Telepathic creatures interested in eating or unraveling people? Very no thank you! There's not much bad language in this, so any age able to handle interdimensional creepypasta creatures can read it, just in time for Halloween!

This was a pretty dang good story. It had mystery and suspense and horror. Some of it corporeal and some of it ethereal. There are many moments here where I envisioned a movie with jump scares and a booming soundtrack, and I found that super cool. I had to suspend my disbelief and go with the action as it unfolds and that was a little bit of a bummer. In the end I was satisfied.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/3502779589?book_show_action=false&from_review_page=1
https://www.amazon.com/gp/customer-reviews/RQCS0X4HENTDY/ref=cm_cr_dp_d_rvw_ttl?ie=UTF8&ASIN=B084G9KFDF
https://www.instagram.com/p/CFcPP1MgWqJ/

Truthfully, based on the synopsis, I was hoping for more alternate realities. More horror. Something more than what it was.

Don't get me wrong, I really enjoyed our characters of Kara and Simon. I liked having our protagonist be in her 30s and closer to my age than a lot of the characters I have been reading lately.
I also thought that the body horror aspects were done really well. Those were creepy.

But then you lost me. I felt like there was too much 'science' woven into the plot. (I'm not sure any of it was actual science, but it was trying to be technical.) I did not understand where or how or why the place beyond the bunker existed. And I'm not sure it was explored enough.

I thought that the last 20% just seemed to get more and more ridiculous without any substance to back it up. I wished there was more of a reason for the ending.

That being said, I'm very curious to check out more of T. Kingfisher's work.

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

I received an ARC Kindle edition of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

If it is possible for a book to be creepy, dark, weird, and funny all at the same time, then this is the book. This book started with a bang, but after a while it did start to drag on. During the first half of the book I would have said, "Loved. It." By the end, the feeling was more like "It was ok."

Unfortunately, the book was a little predictable. What kept me going was to see how everything connected. Even though this was my first book by the author, I would definitely try another.

This was a great book to start October off. I liked that the story was was based off of a short story by Algernon Blackwood. It was creepy, it was tense in parts, but it also had some humor in it. All around great read.

This is my first Kingfisher and I completely see why people love this author. The writing style is unique and I loved how downright weird this story was. Let’s not forget the eerie foreboding and utterly creepy atmosphere of this portal world.

This is also another book I highly recommend going into blind. All you need is the synopsis and a healthy dose of imagination. Kingfisher had me swiping pages faster than ever on my little kindle app and for the first time in a good bit I finished a book in a day. The characters are so easy to connect with and relate too. Kara (aka Carrot) is the MC and let’s just say that I want to be like her when I grow up or in the otherworldly event of a portal from some hellish land opening up in my house. Between her, her friend Simon and the cat, Beau, I laughed and cringed and nodded along at the absurdity of what l read. Pretty sure I yelled more than once at their choices too. I also enjoyed the Lovecraft vibe I felt while reading.

I typically find when reading horror novels that the scary scenes would be better suited for the big screen. Sometimes the scare just doesn't translate in an author's writing style. I did not think this reading The Hollow Places. The author deserves praise for making the hairs on my arms stand on end at times. There are some scenes that dragged for me or felt a little like filler but not enough to take away from my reading pleasure. I cannot wait to get my hands on more by her and to find the audiobook of The Willows mentioned in the Author’s Note.

Thank you to Gallery/Saga Press for the opportunity to review this novel for an honest and unbiased opinion. I highly recommend this one for October TBRs or for anyone who enjoys weird and creepy reads all year long!