I absolutely loved this book.! It was spooky and delighfully creepy. It kept me sucked in, and I read it in one sitting. I just needed to know how it was going to end!..
Kara has just moved into her uncles Curiosity museum, when she finds a hole in the wall. Her friend Simon offers to help her patch it up, when they realize that there is a space behind the wall.. A hallway.. and what are you going to do but explore it and see where it goes..
The whole vibe of this book was perfect, exactly what I was hoping it would be. It kind of reminded me of the Twilight zone, when something seems impossible, but also perfectly plausible.. Could there be other worlds out there that are so close to ours that the right set of circumstances could have you falling through? What would happen if you did, and what would be waiting for you on the other side? and what would you do to get yourselves back home where hopefully the other world won't be able to follow.
.I will definitley be checking out this authors backlist, and anything she releases in the future..

This is the story of Kara, who is a recently divorced woman who moves back to her hometown. Instead of moving in with her mother, which is a colossally bad idea, she moves into her uncle’s museum and agrees to help out while he is out for knee surgery. Kara (fondly known as Carrot by her uncle) has fond memories of the Glory to God Museum of Natural Wonders, Curiosities and Taxidermy, even if it is mostly full of the oddest kinds of things. One day she finds a hole in the wall, and behind the hole is a door that leads into a bunker in another world. Kara and her friend Simon, the barista from the coffee shop next door decide that they’re going to go exploring. This other world is full of evidence that more than one alternate reality leads to it, but most of all, the other world is full of… creatures. Creatures that seem to be able to hear your thoughts. That, and the people who have fallen victim to the creatures while on their own exploratory adventures.

I liked this one! It had all of the wit that I have come to love from T. Fingfisher, and was creepy as hell to boot, so it was a really entertaining read. It’s a quick read – fast paced and not super long, and so I finished it in just two sittings. Not too much more than a lazy afternoon, in total.

I liked Kara and Simon, and so it was never difficult to stay focused on wanting them to survive the horrible shenanigans that The Hollow Places had in store for them. It wasn’t so scary that I’m going to be having nightmares, but it certainly brought some creepy imagery to the table. I have been in a few shops that were not unlike Uncle Earl’s museum in my life, and so I had no trouble imagining what is more or less a storefront full of weird old taxidermy and other knick knacks.

All told, I had a good time with The Hollow Places. I’m definitely going to check out The Twisted Ones, and hopefully I’ll like it just as much.

Inspired by H. P. Lovecraft’s writing, T. KingFisher creates a very intriguing world, that not only scares you a bit but also messes with your mind.

After Kara’s divorce, she moves into her uncles museum, The Wonder Museum. It’s not your average museum though. The Wonder Museum has a huge collection of weird things. While working and staying at the museum, Kara stumbles upon a hole in a wall. No big deal except that the hole leads to a hallway and a bunker that cannot possible be apart of the buildings architecture. Intrigued, Kara and her friend Simon, decide to investigate where they stumble upon a different universe, world, place, or somewhere they cannot quite figure out.

I know some reviewers DNF’ed this book and I will say it’s not for everyone. It also has a bit of a slow start but I really enjoyed the imaginative world T. Kingfisher thought up. I loved the sarcasm and the banter between Kara and Simon. They repeatedly mention that they’ve seen horror movies and know what they shouldn’t do, but of course do it anyways. Their banter, even in the mist of a horror story, really made the book entertaining for me. I myself also enjoy sarcasm when nervous or scared.

The characters are wonderfully developed and have a dark sense of humor that endeared them to me. The quirky personalities of our main characters honestly make the book for me.

This is an imaginative story, with a phycological horror aspect to it, perfect for Spooky Season! I’m going to have to check out a few of T. Kingfisher’s other novels now. My only complaint is that it’s ruin Narnia for me. Womp.


I hope you enjoyed my thoughts on The Hollow Places. If you liked this review please let me know either by commenting below or by visiting my instagram @speakingof_books. Huge thanks to Gallery/Saga Press for my e-copy!

My thanks to NetGalley, I received a ARC in exchange for a review.

Terribly sorry if most of the review is incoherent or too much about me, I largely wrote it at three in the morning after finishing The Hollow Places. I have usually liked willows, perhaps my favorite character in Buffy was Willow, a witch, but now I am wondering just what Grandmother Willow in Disney's Pocahontas was. I find it a bit ironic that as far as I know willow bark tea for pain could have helped Kara's knee better than coffee.

My dreams have always been vivid images and things of feeling, some good, mostly weird, memorably bad, but more like worlds. Dreams are as familiar to me as opening a book. Once I read The Lives of Christopher Chant by Diana Wynne Jones around middle school and was so relieved at the sense of familiarity about visits to other worlds through dreams, that it struck me as familiar to myself. I don't talk about my dreams or write them (because if you write, speak it, it's true, real, and you can never take it back).

My mother when I was little used to sing to me, or I misheard this song at a Church chorus enough times that it stuck There is a quiet place, far beyond the wrath of faith, where dreams come true... it's stuck with me for decades, because I got the words wrong, rapid pace, not wrath of faith.

The rest just something that I made up to go along with what I would hum while trying to sleep along with counting sheep and Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep, If I should die before I 'wake,
I pray the Lord my Soul to take. or odd bits of Psalms 23 The Lord is my shepherd I shall not want, He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters/ Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me. a mishmash of odd little things, trying to learn the trick of sleeping (not dreaming), thinking at the time that there had to be some trick of words to keep me from recalling so much of my dreams.

Sometimes I still use them.

There's also things and phrases I use to wake up, because I remember my dreams best when I remember that I am dreaming in a dream. I am not always myself, usually I am not, so the use of "John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt, His name is my name too! Wherever we go out, the people always shout there goes John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt!" by Kara to drive away Them and the light in the willows stuck me as a particularly true thing to do.

The world Kara/Carrot inhabits with Simon and her cat and uncle in a strange museum of wonders and taxidermy beside a coffee shop after a divorce, reminded me of the show Gravity Falls and the first book in a series I have never finished years ago, The Woven Path too. I enjoyed the nods to fandom & fan fic (in more than one way, I suppose as it's largely created on the web among unseen and unknown strangers who can be hungry or curious and know what you think because there's only a keyboard, not a voice, only the hum of a computer between you and they/them and that's a bit like the willows and the world They inhabit).

I would happily read a series of books from the perspective of Kara, or Simon, or uncle Earl, even Kay or the cat Beau/Beauregard. I hope there's a next, and a next, and a next. As many books as there are worlds or dreams as the author cares to explore, I won't tire of the writing. I know I may be reading The Willows soon too.

Fiona Stafford, professor of literature at Somerville College, Oxford, does a series of talks on flowers, trees, and beaches on the BBC that are all well worth listening to, I imagined her voice as Kara's which was mostly soothing but also strange as she's not Southern, but English.

(Oh and I very much recommend following the author on Twitter as @UrsulaV, this is the first book of hers I have read but I have greatly enjoyed following her because of animal pics, funny D&D nights, Coffee Shop stories and more!)

*Thank you to Netgalley, T. Kingfisher, and Gallery/Saga Press for providing me with a free copy in exchange for an honest review."

Synopsis: "Pray they are hungry.

Kara finds the words in the mysterious bunker that she’s discovered behind a hole in the wall of her uncle’s house. Freshly divorced and living back at home, Kara now becomes obsessed with these cryptic words and starts exploring this peculiar area—only to discover that it holds portals to countless alternate realities. But these places are haunted by creatures that seem to hear thoughts…and the more one fears them, the stronger they become."


Review: I initially picked this book up because the cover was creepy and it sounded like a good fall read. The synopsis is incredibly misleading as Kara does not move into her uncle's house as advertised, she moves into the back room of his taxidermy and oddities museum which plays a major role in the story. This would have actually made me want to read this more as having dead animals everywhere around you in the middle of the night is very unsettling in my opinion. She also doesn't just find the words written on a random bunker wall like her uncle might be some kind of crazy person. It's hard to go into too many details without spoiling the story as I feel like I read an entirely different book than what was advertised which is a shame because the book wasn't bad but I went into it in the wrong headspace.

The Hollow Places by T. Kingfisher is an adult horror novel that is inspired by the 1907 novella by Algernon Blackwood, The Willows. The story follows Kara a recently divorced young woman who is working and living in her uncles small town museum full of old taxidermy and other oddities. One day a hole is busted into a wall in the museum which opens a door way to a different world of islands surrounded by willows with bunkers on some of the islands. When Kara and her friend, Simon, venture into the world they find a place that connects many worlds but house creatures that hear your thoughts and the more that you think of them the stronger and more deadly they become.

I received a copy of this book from NetGalley and I absolutely loved it. The writing is very good and Kingfisher created a amazing horror atmosphere that made me feel physically anxious and fearful for the characters. It one of those books that I had to stop reading at points because of how creepy and unsettling everything was but at the same time I wanted to keep reading to find out what happened next.

Kara is one of those characters that is written in a way that makes her feel very relatable and someone you want to root for. Simon is mostly there for some add comic relief during some of the most tense situations but I loved this quirky character. There were a few moments that I felt like the characters had to do things that in reality no one would do just to move the story and plot along but it didn't take away from my enjoyment of the story. I would recommend this book to anyone interested in horror and those who love creepy stories.

The hollow places by T. Kingfiaher was a funny and terrifying thrill ride. I loved the main character Kara who I thought was funny, entertaining and really relatable. I couldn't help laughing along with her crazy thoughts and hysterical giggles, and Simon was a great character as well. The duo made a great team who also adding comic relief into a terrifying topic. The story was a little hard to follow at times mostly because you have no idea what is going on or what the monsters are exactly, but the story was very intriguing and the end really did pick up for a fast paced ending. The thing I love about Kingfisher 's writing is her characters, they are so relatable and I fall in love with all her characters. The setting is also very atmospheric and I would definitely recommend the read if you enjoy horror mixed with humor!

What a creepy book, I loved it.
A idea taken from Algernon Blackwoods book called the Willows, this story follows Kara who is going through and divorce and moving in with her uncle at his wonder museum. Everything is going fine at the museum as she is helping her uncle who is having a hard time getting around because of his knee. But then her uncle leaves her in charge as he goes in to have surgery. After her uncle leaves she finds a hole in one of the upstairs walls and upon inspection she finds a portal to another world, a world filled with bunkers and willows. With the help of Simon who owns the coffee shop next door they decided to explore this tunnel finding horrors at every turn and even though they manage to escape the willow world seemed to follow them.
Filled with horrors, creeps and chills, this book will keep you guessing to the end with what is actually going up and maybe even keep you up at night.

Kara stumbles upon a portal in her uncles museum that leads to a terrifying world that seems to be full of other portals. These portals all lead into different worlds and universes. That premise alone is what got me to read this book - I hear alternate reality or parallel universe and I’M IN. This book gave me strong Stranger Things vibes like the similar world of the upside down. There was some quirky humor which I did enjoy but at certain times I felt that it tried a little bit too hard. I still enjoyed the humor as Kara also used it as a coping mechanism for dealing with the portal to hell.

Certain parts were extremely creepy, I think this would actually make a pretty cool movie because of the imagery and descriptions. I wanted more from the other worlds, I felt like that could’ve been explored more so I was a little disappointed with that. I also think that the location of a creepy museum is terribly convenient of a location. Other than that, this is a fun book just in time for spooky season.

Thanks to netgalley and to the publisher for sending me an advanced copy!

WHEN WE WERE YOUNG & BRAVE is an unforgettable novel about impossible choices and unimaginable hardship, and the life-changing bonds formed between a young girl and her teacher in a remote corner of a terrible war. Following the events of Pearl Harbor, the Japanese Imperial Army invades and takes control of the Chefoo School for American and British missionaries' children based in Yantai, China. The teachers and students must adapt to their new way of life under the watchful eye of Japanese soldiers.

This one as a historical fiction was hard for me to get into, I'm not even sure of actual date that I started it and usually I keep really good track of that! It's not a really dark read by any means. It's just an honest, detailed story that makes you appreciate things you may take for granted. I even stopped myself from texting my husband at work today about something that was so petty because of what the characters went through in the book, even though fictional, by the authors research some were real.

The story is told in two points of view by one of the adult woman teachers and one of the young girl students, over a long span of time. Not gonna lie, I shed a few tears near the end. My favorite part of the whole story is how the two main characters learned and grew from each other, even though the teacher was already an adult at the time.

The only thing that left me a bit unsatisfied at the end, is that the author didn't tell how the main woman's brother or best friend made out in the future, as she explained for some other characters. Just my humble opinion and disappointment, otherwise I enjoyed this one, that I wouldn't have normally picked up on my own.

Thank you to #NetGalley and #williammorrowbooks for and an Advanced Readers Copy of #whenwewereyoungandbrave by #hazelgaynor, #goesonsaleonOctober6th.

This book was a very dark, creepy and had and was unpredictable in the outcome. However, the descriptions of the environment was vague and in some areas the plot stalled out. I enjoyed this book, but it could have been much better despite having original ideas.

While staying with her uncle, who runs the Glory to God Museum of Natural Wonders, Curiosities and Taxidermy, Kara discovers a hole in the wall of the museum that leads to a dark and dangerous supernatural dimension.

Initially, I was really into this story. I loved the quirky tone. Horror laced with humor is one of favorite things and The Hollow Places certainly delivers on the comedic aspect. But I quickly found myself struggling to stay engaged with the book. It felt like it was bogged down with too much dialogue and unnecessary details. There wasn’t enough meat to the story for my taste and the portal elements were not as chilling or action packed as I had expected.

Kara and Simon were definitely likeable characters and their fun rapport kept pushing me forward, even though I felt let down by the aforementioned elements. I was hoping to see a good outcome for both of them through the haze of another dimension.

I also liked it when Kara, due to her graphic design background, detailed things like very specific shades of color and font variations to the reader. Unlike the parts that felt frivolously descriptive, this was always an entertaining idiosyncrasy that I enjoyed reading about.

Overall, I didn’t find the story to be especially engrossing, but it had its absorbing moments. I think it fits horror more for its gruesome content than its scariness. Although I don’t think it’s the stuff nightmares are made of, if you like fun, campy reads that gross you out a little bit, you might want to pick up a copy of The Hollow Places for yourself. It will be available for purchase on October 6.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for my review copy. All opinions are my own.

This book looks at a different aspect to finding a door to another world that we read as children, but shows the scary and dark aspects of what can be beyond that door we may all wish for at one point in our lives. T. Kingfisher created a deeply interesting world that the narrator falls into and her road to understanding what she just happened upon in her Uncle's museum.

It was a twisted story that keeps you on your toes about what is going to happen next and coming up with all the situations that they could possibly fall into. This novel reminded me of the Wayward children's series and Cthulhu mixed into one intoxicating tale.

“‘If there’s a way into hell, someone will always find it.’”

On the heels of a divorce, Kara (Carrot, affectionately), is faced with moving back in with her mother or helping her uncle run his much beloved museum of curiosities. It’s an easy decision, but her uncle’s knee surgery soon leaves Carrot alone at the museum, where she discovers a hole in the wall that leads to another world. At first, the water-logged world full of cement bunkers and eerie willow trees is merely uncanny and impossible, but she soon realizes that it’s populated by horrific, unseen monsters capable of crossing dimensions. Can Carrot escape back into her own world and, if she can, what’s to stop the creatures from following her there? Pray they are hungry. I received a free e-ARC through NetGalley from the publishers at Gallery Books/Saga Press. Trigger warnings: death, body horror, gore, disembowelment, dismemberment, severe injury, guns, violence, divorce.

I enjoyed Kingfisher’s first adult horror novel, The Twisted Ones, but in some ways it very much felt like a “first” novel, as though she hadn’t quite found her stride in the genre. The Hollow Places resolved almost every issue I had with it, and it’s turned out to be one of my favorite horror reads of the year so far. Fans of the other novel will find a lot to enjoy about this one, and they have plenty in common. While THP also relies a bit on an outside narrative (Carrot reading a book she took from the willow world), it’s incorporated much better into the main story here. There are excerpts here and there of important details, but it doesn’t slow down the pacing the way the diary in TTO did.

Mouse and Carrot are almost interchangeable as main characters, both in personality and in narrative voice. It’s hard for me to attribute any specific characteristics to either of them; mostly, they work as almost invisible narrators, characters whose mindsets it’s easy to slip into because there isn’t much to them. They’re nice enough people who have realistic reactions to the horror around them, and it’s effective in putting us closer to the action. I also enjoyed Carrot’s sidekick, Simon, a gay barista who dresses like the Mad Hatter. There isn’t a lot of development either way because it isn’t that kind of book, but there is a small amount of personal growth when Carrot puts her divorce into perspective. Compared to being trapped in a horrifying world full of inter-dimensional monsters, who has time to stress about an ex, really?

My favorite thing about The Twisted Ones was how genuinely creepy it was, and The Hollow Places excels in that area just as much, if not more. Kingfisher has a gift for creating atmosphere and capturing the creeping, uncanny sense of stumbling into a place that can’t exist. Most of the time, it still looks a lot like our world, but the subtle sense of wrongness is palpable. I’d love to see it on a screen, but at the same time, who could capture a feeling like that? (Maybe Alex Garland, the guy who did Annihilation). This book also ramps up the gore and the body horror in a couple nail-biting ways, and I was effectively spooked in some chapters. There aren’t really any plot twists; the realization it takes Carrot most of the book to have is pretty obvious to us from square one, but I don’t feel like that detracts from the story at all. I hope Kingfisher keeps writing horror novels so I can keep reading them.

I review regularly at brightbeautifulthings.tumblr.com.

Don’t poke a hole in the drywall

Kara is minding her Uncle's "museum" (read junk shop) while he's in the hospital. A tourist seems to have poked a hole in the wall upstairs, but when Kara and her friend Simon, the barista from next door start the repairs, they find a whole new and very scary world.

A couple of story details (like why are Kara and Simon barefoot) distracted me and lowered my rating

The concepts in this book were SO fascinating. A hole to a weird bunker found on a wall in Kara's Uncle Earl's shop of creepy and strange "Wonders." Graffiti on the walls, Pray They are hungry , and a doorway to an eerie place full of grassy knolls and so many willow trees. I won't describe this place at all, so as not to give anything away, but it is SUPER fascinating.

My favorite parts of this book take place in that place. The rest of the book takes place in a little southern town while Kara oversees her Uncle's shop of odd things, such as taxidermy animals, supposedly haunted things or relics found in various places. She frequents the next door coffee shop and teams up with the barista to eventually explore this weirdly sudden hole.

So many nods to other works of note - I got a Needful Things vibe from the shop itself, a House of Leaves vibe from the hole and beyond, and Lovecraftian strangeness from the "beyond" place. Kingfisher mentions her inspiration from Algernon Blackwood's novella "The Willows" in her afterword, which I guess I'll definitely need to read. I haven't yet read T. Kingfisher's "The Twisted Ones" but I will push it to the head of my TBR list because I'm now convinced this author knows how to write great creepy tales.

This was a delightful read. The Hollow Places is a mash up of Algernon Blackwood’s The Willows (one of my favorite short stories ever) and Night at the Museum. It’s a quirky, but deeply unsettling, take on cosmic horror with a relatable protagonist who I genuinely liked.

Our protagonist finds a hole in the wall of her uncle’s museum. She and the barista next door venture in to find another world at the end of the corridor. This is a world full of islands, willows, ethereal beings who can hear you think but whom you can’t see, and unexpected terrors.

T Kingfisher writes in a very conversational tone, and at first, I thought that tone wasn’t going to work for me with this novel. As the story progressed, I was proved wrong. Maybe it’s because The Willows left its mark on me, priming me for fright here. Or perhaps it’s just because T Kingfisher is incredibly accomplished at providing both levity and fright. There were many moments my heart genuinely beat faster and I was flooded with dread. This novel actually scared me!

If you’ve read The Cipher, that is a story about a hole that is bleak and dark and gritty and hopeless; like a friend that drags you down, depresses you, confronts you with all the blackness of life, and encourages you to do terrible things. The Hollow Places is your quirky friend who drinks coffee laced with whisky, rags on your ex with you, and wears fishnet stockings, all in the face of existential terror, running with you from monsters who can hear you think about how scared you are of them.

Did I mention the monsters can hear you think??

One of the things I love so far about cosmic horror (which I’m just getting into) is how very real it seems. How vast is the universe? What - or who - is out there? What if we are entirely insignificant? What if the fabric of space and time is so thin it could tear? What if there is another dimension on the other side of the wall? The scares of a horror novel mixed with a very real feeling of insignificance when faced with the magnitude and power of the universe is incredibly effective, and deeply unsettling.

I absolutely loved this. Props to T Kingfisher for creating a work that both deeply unsettling and fun.

I received this book free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. I also preordered a copy. I’ll definitely give this another read!

“The Hollow Places” is somewhere between Vandermeer’s Annihilation and RL Stein of the 1990s. A woman and her snarky neighbor/sidekick discover a hole in the wall of her uncle’s kitschy Wonder Museum (aka curiosities and taxidermy) and mystery ensues. The first half of the book is pretty tense and ominous, I found myself very nervous for the characters in the way that a good horror movie makes you feel when you know the unaware characters are walking into the killer’s lair or something. The descriptions of the environment and isolated landscape were great. For every scary moment, there are equal parts campy and cheesy, with a healthy mix of sidekick banter and classic multi-dimension sci-fi tropes. The 2nd half of the book definitely becomes muddled compared to the thrill of the 1st half, and that is where the RL Stein qualities come into play. You know when you watch a subpar horror movie and the whole time think to yourself, “Just leave! Walk away!” — that is how I felt for the majority of the 2nd half. I liked this book for what it was, but I wouldn’t go out of my way to recommend it unless someone was looking for a very specific type of horror book.

very curious story... good characters.. interesting plot and made me curious to know what was to come. spots kept me curious on what was next.. it was action packed and i enjoyed it a lot.

*I received an E-ARC copy in exchange for an honest review*
You're going through a divorce. He's seeing someone else. Now you have to move back into your Uncle Earl's Wonder Museum filled with taxidermy animals, strange statues and other oddities. What is a woman to do? These are the questions Kara, known as Carrot to the quiet town of Hog Chapel, had to face as her life is starting to spiral. Throw in the portal to another world with invisible monsters, strange fixtures and danger you can't quite put your finger on? Things just keep getting better and better.

I was very surprised by this book. I went in expecting a creepy horror novel and I ended up getting a funny, sarcastic pseudo-horror novel? I would have definitely liked more of a horror aspect. Especially when it comes to creating your own made up world, the opportunities are endless. Speaking of creating another world, it also would have been helpful to go into more detail. about what is found in the world. If it is made up, the readers definitely don't know anything about it. I would have loved more information about the things they described.

BUT the saving grace was the humor. The humor was on point in this novel. Between Carrot with her optimistic self-depreciation, and her gay best friend Simon with his quick comebacks and dressing better than even myself, that hit the nail on the head to make this a very enjoyable ride. The witty banter between the two characters made me repeat "Girl, SAME!"

Overall, there were good and bad qualities, but definitely a novel to experience and talk about with your friends!