While I first met author Ursula Vernon (writing here as T. Kingfisher) in her day job as a children's fantasy writer/illustrator, I have gone on to love absolutely everything she's written for adults as well. When I heard she was writing a horror novel (The Twisted Ones) I was a little leery of jumping in, because it is not my usual genre, but I gave it a go and absolutely adored it. Here we have another eerie entry into her genre of Southern horror suspense and it is just as creepy, human, and compelling. Absolutely loved it!

The blurb suggested everything that I like in a book, but unfortunately this one just didn’t work for me. I wasn’t so sure after the first few chapters and it just felt more juvenile than horror for me. It had the potential to be creepy but the descriptions were confusing for me and I just didn’t like the overall tone and atmosphere.

What a wild ride! Kara is having a bad run of things and move sin with her wonderful Uncle Earl and his museum of wonders. she loves the museum and her uncle And when he asks her to take care of the museum she does. With the help of Simon the barista next door she’s running and cataloguing all the wonders until a strange hole appears and the real wondering begins. After reading the twisted ones I knew the spook fest would be good but the dynamics between Simon and Carrot( what her uncle calls her) makes the book for me!

What a pleasure to read a fantastical novel that is so well written. I became immersed in the story of the Glory to God Museum of Natural Wonders, Curiosities and Taxidermy. As the name suggests, there are strange things in this world we will never understand. Do inanimate objects have an unexpected power? Are there portals to places we could never imagine? I liked the characters and found myself wanting them to succeed against unexpected circumstances. This is a great story that held my interest right up to the end.

I received an Advanced Reader's Copy from Simon and Schuster through NetGalley. The opinions expressed are entirely my own.
#TheHollowPlaces #NetGalley

This is the first book I've read by this author and boy did she ever hook me. Beginning with the seemingly innocuous paragraph "My uncle runs the Glory to God Museum of Natural Wonders, Curiosities and Taxidermy.", T. Kingfisher leads the reader into a world filled with alien creatures, dark humor and suspense.

Kara, nicknamed "Carrot" by her uncle, is recovering from a financially devastating divorce when Uncle Earl asks her to help run the Wonder Museum while he has surgery. Facing homelessness, it's an ideal situation for her to live at the museum and run it for him. Shortly after taking over the museum, she notices a hole in the drywall in one of the exhibition rooms. She asks her friend Simon, a barista at the coffee shop next door, to help her repair it. Taking a closer look at the hole, they find not pipes and studs, but a dark hallway that vanishes out of sight in both directions. Of course, they need to enlarge the hole and explore the hidden corridor. In doing so, however, they stumble into a world filled with portals to other worlds, unseen dangerous creatures and supernatural willow trees. This being a horror novel, the first thing Carrot and Simon do is get lost in this other dimension. The story line follows Carrot and Simon as they try to find their way back home while also trying to stay alive and figure out how to close the portal once they do get home.

All in all it was a fast-paced trip into the world of multi-dimensions and the occult. I confess that I didn't entirely understand all of the multi-dimension explanations, even with analogies to the roadrunner and wile e coyote thrown in. It was a pleasurable read, however, and I look forward to more books by this author.

I wasn’t sure what to expect, but this was one creepy, strange ride. The main character, Kara, finds her way into a freaky other world and I’ve got to say, it was eerie and gave me some heebee geebees. The Wonder Museum is something I’d love to go see, making sure there aren’t any holes to anywhere else first! There are all sorts of oddities and interesting things for people to view in the museum, which sounds like so much fun!!

Anyway, Kara and Simon find themselves wandering around outside of our world and it is seriously intriguing and I had a hard time putting the book down at any given point in time. While I wasn’t scared, I had the creepies and now I’m keen on avoiding willow trees and giant Amazonian otters. Cause hell NO!!!!

The book is vivid and I could picture what Kara and Simon were seeing, even if I didn’t really want to. I recommend this book to those who enjoy reading books that give you the shivers and make you wonder if it really happened. Cause like I said, avoiding willow trees and giant otters probably forever!! Enjoy and don’t worry, it probably didn’t happen. Probably.

Thanks so much to NetGalley and Gallery/Saga Press for the opportunity to read this book for my honest and unbiased opinion.

Amazon review pending publication date.

I think this book will stay with me for awhile, I'm afraid the willows have taken root. I know many people draw the obvious parallels with Lovecraft, but for me this one also had some vibes that brought up touchstones from The Mist (Stephen King) and a smidge of Pan's Labyrinth. Definitely that dark otherworldliness but also the religious and/or mythical undertones throughout.

Sometimes the vastness and imagination that goes into multiverses can be overwhelming but I thought this was beautifully balanced by the characters, with their lightness and their dark humor and being so down-to-earth (which is funny, all things considered!). Carrot and Simon, and even Uncle Earl help even things out and brought levity to a quagmire of disturbing otherness.

The disquieting undertones all throughout was classic horror that I greatly appreciate. It's like a feeling you get that something is behind you and that paralyzing moment where you're deciding whether to look or not, to quickly escape or rationalize it away. In willow world or not, that feeling stays with you throughout the story and it's fabulously unsettling. On the flip side the vivid picture painted with some of the more in your face creepy situations, like the bus or Sturdivant, was grotesquely clear and so easily visualized.

I think my favorite part of all though was the last part in the Museum. It brought a whole new heartwarming element to the tale that I wasn't expecting. For lack of a better term, there really is no place like home, and the idea that your home might feel that way about you too is quite touching. All in all this was a fast paced enthralling read and I definitely look forward to reading more from this author in the future.

The Hollow Places started off with Kara getting ready to move in with her mother after getting a divorce. Luckily for her, her Uncle spared her from that fate and asked her to move in with him and help out with his oddities museum. Actually, now that I think of it, was it really that lucky? I mean, she did end up being trapped in a world with portals to other worlds, and there were things trying to kill her, but I digress. She was starting over and her life was certainly about to change.

At first the book starts off pretty normal and the characters are easy to connect with. Uncle Earl is so lovable and her friend Simon…I wish i had a friend like him! Everything seemed great until Uncle Earl had to leave for his surgery and a minor hole appeared in one of the walls. Kara asked Simon for help patching it up but that was when they discovered that it lead to a hidden hallway that lead them to a world full of little islands. At first they were excited and wanting to explore, but then things took a very creepy turn!

I do not want to give spoilers but lets just say that I will never look at school busses, willow trees, and holes the same way again! Kingfisher does a beautiful job creating and atmosphere of unease through out the book. You find yourself suspicious of everything including a little weird looking otter carving from the oddities museum. What helped fill in some of the mysteries of how this island worked was a bible that they found with writing in the margins. It was left behind by a soldier from another world. He documented the events that occurred there so that if anyone ever found it they could have a chance to survive.

Overall, I enjoyed the book! It had a very creepy vibe and really helped me get into a fall state of mind. There were moments where I was pulled into the book and others where I would laugh out loud. I like it when a book is able to add a little light moment after dragging you into scary situations. Granted, there were a few parts in the middle of the book that did drag on a bit, but it was really to give you a false sense of security. It wanted you to think that all was right with the world again, but that was all lies!!! Lies I tell you! So if you are looking for a book to start off spooky season with, check this one out.

What the heck did I just read?! I definitely should not have stayed up so late reading this as it gave me nightmares, but in a good way, if that makes any sense at all. What a creative story, my goodness. I really enjoyed it, so thank you to everyone for the advanced copy.

I really enjoyed this book! I wasn’t sure what I was getting into when I read the description but it was surprisingly good. It was just a little bit spooky in that way that you can’t stop thinking about it but it doesn’t make you scared to go to sleep at night.

This felt like the same character and general vibe as The Twisted Ones, but just reimagined in a different setup, and I was getting flashbacks of how annoyed I was by the constant jokiness that carried over into moments where I wanted it to turn a little more serious and give the situation the proper gravitas. It's very charming until it's not.

Thank you so much Netgalley for the early release of The Hollow Places by T. Kingfisher. This book has made it to my favorite horror books list. I read a few reviews before I read this book and many people said it scared them or was creepy. I started it and to me it wasn't very creepy, but the writing was good so I kept reading. When Kara and Simon investigate the whole in the upstairs drywall and the bunker beyond, I thought that it was getting really interesting. Once they see what was inside though reminded me of a combination between C.S. Lewis and Clive Barker. You take something magical and new and pretty and pull a totally creepy, disturbing, gooseflesh inducing terror to it. I started at 37% last night about 11pm, by 2 am I was still reading and only at 60%. I was afraid to put the book down and afraid to keep reading. I got up this morning and went right back to the book. I had to pause a few times to breathe and remember that the book was not real. I loved this book and am so glad that I read it. It has been awhile since I just plowed through a book in a couple days.

Things I am now scared of because of this book: Holes. John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt. Humming. Willow trees. Always count on coming out of a T. Kingfisher novel with new irrational fears y’all.

This is a fun twist on a) the short story The Willows, if you know it, and b) the portal fantasy. The focus here is more on the atmospheric horror, and I love it - what if you found a place that bought you portals to other worlds, but they were hunting grounds? The characters are fun and provide some much needed levity at times. I also really like the trope of our main finding someone else’s writing that delves more into the world beyond their own experience. (Or at least, it seems to be a pattern with her two books with Saga so far.) I took this in small doses at first because of the sense of creeping horror, but like with The Twisted Ones, I hit a point where I just had to keep going and know WHAT THE FUCK. Our mains don’t come out unscathed, especially with our main’s knee - she knows chronic pain well, and you can tell by the way she writes. It’s a great twist on the portal fantasy trend as of late, and I can highly recommend it. It’s not as bone deep terrifying as, say, the Twisted Ones, but it’ll still leave you unsettled. In my top ten for the year.

Oh also - the cat lives.

Thanks to Net Galley and the publisher for a copy of this book to review.

The Hollow Places
by T. Kingfisher

What a unique and exciting novel. I really enjoyed this author's previous novel “ The Twisted Ones” but The Hollow Places blew my mind!

The story revolves around Kara,a woman, recently divorced, who goes to stay with her Uncle Earl in his “Wonder Museum” and Simon the eccentric barista next door. The Wonder Museum contains an eclectic mix of artifacts, gimmicks and old taxidermy.

Kara loves the Wonder Museum and has spent years of her youth in the unusual building. When Uncle Earl needs knee surgery, Kara offers to take over the museum while he is in the hospital thinking what could possibly go wrong?

This is the point in the novel where the 'Lovecraft' style of horror fiction begins, a hole in the wall behind one of the old artifacts leads Kara and Simon to another.....dimension that holds mysteries and terror beyond their wildest imaginations.

This is a wonderful book. I didn't find it scary but terribly interesting and would highly recommend it, 5 stars.

When Kara goes to work in her uncle’s museum of oddities, she is shocked to find a portal to another dimension(?). She steps into it with reminiscent thoughts of the Narnia books. What she finds is far more terrifying.

If you are looking for a book to creep you the freak out, here it is. I am not easily spooked, but this book was very creepy. I think I had goosebumps at certain parts. It was difficult for me to imagine the imagery at times and I would have loved an illustrative guide. I understand some readers like to use their imagination, but not me. I’d love to see a movie of this come out so I can put some visuals in my brain. I love spooky stories that have more to them then spook. This book had some witty great characters, as well as good humor. Exactly what I like to see in a horror book.

The Hollow Places comes out 10/6.

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

I have always wanted to travel through a portal to another world, but not anymore!! If you want to keep that fantasy alive then don't read this book! The description of a bad news Narnia is the perfect way to describe this tale. Filled with spooky characters and setting The Hollow Places transports you to a world you could only imagine in your nightmares. It is the perfect story for you if you want to not sleep ever again and constantly search your house for holes in the wall.

This book has some trigger warnings for body horror. This book also reminds me a lot of Lovecraft in that it is horror that will crawl under your skin it's a pretty good book I really like the setting in the visualization.basically you have a woman who is going to go through divorce so she decides to move back home to a weird museum where she finds a door of some sort to another dimension.

REVIEW: The Hollow Places by T. Kingfisher, 4/5. Thank you so much, @Netgalley and @SagaPress for the digital review copy. This was the perfect entry into my fall #spookyreads and if you want something transformative, hauntingly normal, and totally mind-numbingly overwhelmingly intense...you have to check out The Hollow Places.

The premise is simple - Kara, a mid-30s recent divorcee, moves in with her beloved, eccentric Uncle Earl who owns ‘The Wonder Museum’, a strange roadside attraction filled with weird taxidermy and strange paranormal artifacts. When he needs to take a few days off for a knee surgery Kara, belovedly called ‘Carrot’ by those who love her, takes over the shop. However, a hole mysteriously appears and when she calls in Simon, the barista next door, they find a bunker that leads them to a strange, alien landscape where dozens of worlds seem to combine and parallel universes abound. When they go to explore, they are confronted with the horror of the place...and...well...I can’t ruin the rest!

I *love* horror novels like this that are so relatable. The way Kara and Simon react to the alien world, how mundane her divorce is treated in comparison, and the way she deals with the worlds she is confronted with is so, well, human. Kara doesn’t pretend to be an intrepid explorer or fearless hero - like any one confronted with other realities she is confused, intrigued, curious, terrified, and horribly unsure. The reality of our characters, especially Kara and Simon, make the horror that surrounds them all the more realistic and all the more terrifying.

Not to mention, like many horror greats before her, especially cosmic horror juggernauts, Kingfisher is able to craft a terrifying monster-filled world that is all about the horror of the unseen rather than describing a super creepy monster. The monsters live in-between the skin of the world and they seem purposeless in their terror and destruction. The unknown motives of the creatures and the willows makes these ‘bad guys’, well, unfathomably bad. You can’t destroy something with no known intentions, much less without weapons.

Filled with relatable characters, moments of humor through the darkness, intriguing monster descriptions, and an entire world built just behind a hole in the wall, The Hollow Places is a can’t miss this fall.

This book was not my cup of tea.

First, I mistook this book as a science fiction initially. (Personally not a fan of science fiction)

Second, I felt like there was not enough horror or the suspense. There were moments of horror ,but they were short.

Third, I didn't relate with the main character, Kara, or the minor characters!

...... Please read other reviews. This may be the perfect book for you!

Thrilling story of a woman looking to start her life over after divorce. She moves in with her uncle and along with the barista at the cafe next door discovered an alternate universe. A lot of wonderful descriptions of creatures from another world. A definite must read!