<!-- wp:paragraph -->
<p>Review copy provided by the publisher.</p>
<!-- /wp:paragraph -->

<!-- wp:paragraph -->
<p>Aaaaaaaaaah.</p>
<!-- /wp:paragraph -->

<!-- wp:paragraph -->
<p>Aaaaaaaaaah yikes yikes yikes this book.</p>
<!-- /wp:paragraph -->

<!-- wp:paragraph -->
<p>Okay, so it said on the label that it is horror, and I know I am not a big horror reader. But I have been enjoying T. Kingfisher's other books <em>so much</em>, and sometimes when people say horror they really mean dark fantasy, and so I thought, okay, yes, I will read this one!</p>
<!-- /wp:paragraph -->

<!-- wp:paragraph -->
<p>Friends, it is not dark fantasy. It is horrory horrory horror. It is "I made sure I finished this book with enough time to go read a nice short story about nice things before I had to go to bed" horror. It has Kingfisher's (Ursula Vernon's) engaging, entirely readable voice, and it uses that voice to take the reader to some terrifying and unpleasant places.</p>
<!-- /wp:paragraph -->

<!-- wp:paragraph -->
<p>The taxidermy is mostly not the creepy part, is a good gauge for this book. It is full of taxidermied animals, and they are mostly okay. But there are dimensional <em>problems</em> in this book, not just issues but problems, and there are willows, or willow-like entities, and it all adds up to quite a bit of aaaaaah.</p>
<!-- /wp:paragraph -->

<!-- wp:paragraph -->
<p>Kara--known to her immediate circle as Carrot--is living with her uncle Earl in the aftermath of her divorce. He's trying to take care of her. She's trying to take care of him--and when things go pear-shaped, Uncle Earl makes for extremely effective stakes in the story. <em>Must protect Uncle Earl from interdimensional peril</em> is something I was very sold on, yes, we are here for Uncle Earl, Carrot, do the thing. Her relationship with her friend Simon is also extremely well-drawn, and it was exactly these elements that kept me reading a horror novel that does extremely horrory things that aaaaaaaah.</p>
<!-- /wp:paragraph -->

<b>1.5</b>

And I see from other people's reviews that I'm once again in the minority ...

<b>I initially enjoyed this</b> but I got really annoyed with the repetition, ignoring clues (some real TSTL moments here), and the stereotypical sassy gay sidekick (in the author's note she said he's based on real people and that she even toned him down ... but idk how many people would make jokes about anal and wear fishnets and a top hat while exploring another world. And how many times did it have to be pointed out that Kara is SOOOO not his type. All of it was just so over-the-top and didn't really match the tone, imo.)

At about the 30% point, these things started to bug me. Every time something scary or unusual would happen, Kara would make a sarcastic joke and try to laugh it off. The first few times, this was funny and made sense as a coping mechanism. After like the 5th time though it got really old. <b>It kind of ruins the atmosphere if every time something horrifying happens you make inappropriate jokes.</b>

Here's an example of these two things that bothered me, at about the 64% point and on the same page, and this isn't the first time something like this comes up:
<blockquote>For some reason, that struck me as hilarious. I started laughing and nearly fell over. The giant otter gazed past me as I howled. "Oh god! Oh god, I'm trying to pick a fight with another universe!"
"Could happen." Simon grinned. "I mean, it'd be better if you just shouted Yo Mama jokes at it, but, hey ..."

[...]

"First we're going to fix the drywall patch. Then we're going to tie you to the bed."
"... Kinky."
"Yes, but you're not my type, hon."</blockquote>🙄

Aside from the annoying sarcasm and jokes, <b>Kara kept ignoring so many signs.</b> Simon even makes a couple comments early on about how he's seen horror movies before and so knows what not to do. Kara apparently has not because she repeatedly ignores clues about what is going on to the point where you just want to scream at her.

Early on too, she makes a really dumb decision to mark where the door to her world is with a stick in the ground. Because, you know, nothing could possibly disturb a stick and I'm sure that stick is super identifiable from all other sticks. 🤦‍♀️

Now this might've just been a problem with my brain, but <b>I had a really difficult time visualizing what the willow world and the bunkers looked like.</b> Even the layout of the museum and the building it's in was confusing to me. Usually I have no issues with creating a map in my head of corridors and rooms (thanks, video games) but for some reason while reading this I was completely lost. I kept getting confused about whether the stairs were leading up or down and how the doors were arranged: are they in a hill or flush with the ground or something else entirely? Idk, maybe I read it too quickly and just missed something.

Something else interesting, is that for me <b>the actual monsters weren't the scariest part</b>. I found the school bus and the dude in the bunker to be WAY creepier than the hungry things. Oh, and speaking of that. The whole "PRAY THEY ARE HUNGRY" was ... eh. After you get the explanation I thought it would've been creepier if it was revealed that the person who scratched it on the wall just missed a comma. "PRAY, THEY ARE HUNGRY" seems way scarier.

<b>One last thing.</b> Kara gets divorced and is looking to move in with her mom but thankfully her uncle who owns a weird museum has space for her. Then he conveniently has to go to the hospital for surgery and she's left all alone to deal with things. And of course her mom is too far away and can only frantically call Kara to find out what's going on. So even though the MC is in her 30s, that didn't stop the author from using the <a href="https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/AmbiguouslyAbsentParent">absent parent trope</a>.

<b>In the end, I was confused about and annoyed with a number of things so my enjoyment waned as the story progressed.</b> It probably sounds like I hated this, but that's only really true for the last half, so ... I suppose that isn't good lol. This kind of reminded me of the books I read as a teen in that I flew through it and it was mildly scary. The concept was a cool idea (even if it referenced Narnia [checks Kindle ...] 17 times), but the execution wasn't so great. I think if she writes a sequel though, I might check it out just to see what happens next.

<i>ARC provided by NetGalley</i>

Being from North Carolina, I got a chuckle out of the "Glory to God Museum of Natural Wonders, Curiosities and Taxidermy in Hog Chapel NC". If that doesn't sum up NC then I don't know what does. The amount of laughter I got from this book alone makes it 4 stars. Thank you Saga Press @sagasff for gifting me with an Advance Reader's Copy of Hollow Places by T. Kingfisher which is due out October 6th. Overall I found it imaginative and engaging. I could identify with and liked the characters as well as enjoying the odd nature of the alternate universe. "Down the rabbit hole" applies to this book in some ways. Being lost and out of control are two of the greatest fears people have. Add in something unnatural hunting you and you have an intimidatingly creepy winner. I especially enjoyed the use of negative space as a means of drawing out trepidation. Very creative. In the Author's Note "The Willows" by Algernon Blackwood is credited with inspiration for this novel. I look forward to reading more of this author's writing.

#ursulavernon #thehollowplaces #horror #horrorbooks #horrorbookstagram #netgalley #booklover #newbooks #bookreview #taxidermy #readthis #tkingfisher #books #currentlyreading #booksareforever #bookaholic #bibliophilelife #bookworm #readersofinstagram

This review is posted on Instagram, Goodreads, Twitter and in multiple virtual bookclubs as well as Facebook.

I started reading this book in the evening. Do I know better than to start a horror novel at night? I do know better. But also…apparently I don’t actually know better. Presented with atmospheric horror at its finest, I very much had to sleep with the lights on. The beginning of this book lures you into a false sense of security, with light-hearted and snappy prose, far more cheerful than you might expect when it opens on a woman dealing with the emotional and financial blow from the collapse of her marriage. Unable to afford a place of her own and unwilling to move back it with her mother, Kara, “Carrot,” is thrilled when her uncle offers her a spare room at his museum—the “Glory to God Museum of Natural Wonders, Curiosities and Taxidermy,” or Wonder Museum for short. While some people find the place to be a bit creepy or unsettling, Carrot has many fond memories of the place as a child, with the added bonus that none of those fond memories are tainted by association with her Ex. Everything is set to roll on a quirky small town “finding yourself” flavor of story when she finds a small hole in the wall of the museum, right next to the wall of Thimbles of World. There is a problem. The hole doesn’t lead to insulation or whatever ought to be between the walls of an old building. It leads to an impossible concrete hallway and a locked door. This is the story about the in-between places, the hollow places.

T. Kingfisher is quickly becoming one of my favorite authors. I first became familiar with her work last year via her podcast The Hidden Almanac, which she wrote (under the name Ursula Vernon) and produced with her husband Kevin Sunny. Over the past year I have made my way through several of her short story collections and stand alone novels, and each time I have been delighted by her facility with language and ability to evoke fear, longing, and delight with only a handful of words.

I am extremely thankful to NetGalley and the publisher for giving me the chance to read this book early and have already preordered a hard copy for my personal library.

I fell in love with T. Kingfisher's storytelling and characters in The Twisted Ones and the love affair continues in The Hollow Places! The concept of this story, a woman finds a portal to another (terrifying) world in her Uncle's museum of curiousities, is a definite Yes Please!

T. Kingfisher has a particular talent for filling her books with funny relatable characters who stumble/tumble there ways through horrifying experiences in a way that feels real. They don't suddenly turn into unrealistic badasses with a hidden talent for fighting or reveal a hidden armory on their person. They laugh nervously, tell inappropriate jokes with awkward timing in high stress situations, their injuries don't magically disappear with a good night's sleep (as they so often seem to do in action type movies/books), and, most importantly. And to be able to balance the humor and sense of reality with such atmospheric creeping dread - Chef's Kiss! I love when a book can cause a phsyical response to the dread being built, I regularly found my eyes widening, my hand coming up to cover my mouth, and my body trying to sink deeper into my chair and out of sight of the happenings in the book.

Fantastic balance of terror and time to hang out and get to know the characters - highly recommend! T. Kingfisher's horror is now a definite insta-buy for me!

Thank you Net Galley for my advanced reader's copy of The Hollow Places.

Unfortunately I didn't finish it (which is rare for me) I read The Twisted Ones earlier this year and it looks like I am having the same issues with this story. First, the story/characters are pretty similar to The Twisted Ones. I guess the main characters are just not my cup of tea because the whole quirky/trying too hard to be silly is a detractor from what is supposed to be a horror book (btw I love well placed humor in horror). I had a really hard time believing that they were supposed to be 35-40 years old!? Just like in The Twisted Ones, I was excited for the idea of the story and probably would have kept reading if I could have taken the characters more seriously.

4 stars

This is my first T. Kingfisher novel, and I was not disappointed.

Kara, the main character, is 34, going through a divorce, and moving in with Uncle Earl at his Museum of Wonders while she collects her thoughts, finances, and life. Early in the work, Uncle Earl has a medical situation that requires Kara to stay alone in this truly bizarre setting, minus the occasional - and important - interjections of Simon, her neighbor, tenant, and ultimately friend.

There is so much that I enjoyed here. The characters are fantastic. I loved Kara's reactions to both the fantastic and mundane experiences she has. Her interactions with supernatural, terrifying stuff make her realize that she really shouldn't sweat the small stuff, and so she just doesn't anymore. Though she makes decisions that aren't exactly what readers might hope for at times, she demonstrates pretty amazing growth, especially under the circumstances. Uncle Earl is superb, and my greatest point of sadness is that he is not a more integral figure overall. I get why he can't be, but man, MORE EARL, PLEASE. Simon is also excellent as a sidekick and a rounder one than expected. Even Kara's ex and mom, as well as the whole cast of characters from that other place, are all expertly drawn. Also, ALL of the animals. I'll keep that point intentionally vague, but I loved their various roles.

Along with the characters, the sense of place is remarkable. The museum is a riveting space on its own and becomes central to all aspects of the plot and Kara's lifelong development. There's the historical space that readers and Kara learn about through a discovered writing, and that space is clearly drawn, too. What happens in willow world is next level.

Truly, throughout the entire book, I wanted more Earl, and there were moments when I wanted a little less description/thinking through of what to do next. But these are minor points and do not detract from the overall quality of this wild ride.

I can't wait to read much more from this author. This book...put down roots in my brain...?

The Hollow Places kept me hooked from beginning to end. Not really knowing what to expect and not having read T. Kingfisher before, I was surprised by how much I enjoyed this.

Kara, a newly divorced graphic designer moves in with her Uncle Earl in his museum of taxidermy and other oddities. It is a place she loved as a child and still feels at home in today… until she unexpectedly discovers a hole to another world.

While initially thinking this would be a scarier tale, I would say this one is more a fantasy with horror elements, offset by some fantastic humor. The best part of the novel for me was in fact said humor, which Kingfisher manages to weave throughout the story. The characters are endearing; I loved every one of them. And the dialogue between them is damn funny!

I would recommend going into this one with no expectations. Just know that you are going to crack more than one smile while reading this fantasy-horror.

Dark, entertaining, and slightly weird horror book. Highly recommend for fans of "The Twisted Ones".

“Pray they are hungry”

T. Kingfisher’s ability to draw readers in with a sentence that they will not soon forget, continues in “The Hollow Places.”

For those who loved “The Twisted Ones”, “The Hollow Places” will not disappoint. Once again, Kingfisher’s characters endear themselves to the reader and you find yourself wishing that you knew them in real life. Kara (aka Carrot), the protagonist, finds herself newly divorced and needing to move back home. Before, Kara is forced to move in with her mother, a thought that fills her with dread, her Uncle Earl offers her a room in his museum of wonders. While overseeing the museum and its curiosities in her uncle’s absence Kara finds a portal to alternate universes within its walls. Along with Simon, the eccentric and amusing barista from the coffee shop next door, Kara finds that the horrors that lie within the space are not something they can easily escape.

The characters and the museum drew me in immediately, and I found myself breezing through the pages wanting to know what would happen next and just what exactly had Kara and Simon stumbled upon with in the walls of the shop. There were elements where I could foresee events before Kara was able, but they didn’t diminish my overall love of the book; rather it was more like watching a horror movie where you want to yell at the main character to THINK ABOUT IT! or OPEN YOUR EYES! Without giving too much away in terms of plot, the overall horror element of the book may leave you with just enough uneasiness that the bustling of the breeze through the trees just might send a chill down your spine.


Thank you, NetGalley and Saga Press, for an advance uncorrected proof of "The Hollow Places".

This was a wild trippy ride that was dark and delicious... I loved the world - building here. It was original and eerie and fascinating to see what would come next. Literally anything seemed possible. The plot was engaging, although I must admit it dragged on a little bit for me as they slogged through the middle of the adventure... It wasn't a very big deal, but it did slow down the action a little. Things perked back up though and from there on out it was a thrill a minute until the bitter end! I'm a big fan of T. Kingfisher and this reconfirmed why - excellent story telling skills, fabulously real characters, and wholly original constructs that take stories that seem familiar and throw them into a blender before delivering them...

T. Kingfisher's novel, The Twisted Ones, was one of my favorite books from last year, so I was excited to get this review copy from Netgalley and the publisher. I wasn't disappointed. T. Kingfisher writes the best characters. Except for the spooky killer characters, and/or the annoying spouse, these are people who you'd like to know. They're just odd enough to make them interesting and endearing.

Although I'd like to hug the characters, there are frightening and chilling "things" and victims of the "things" that are a constant and dangerous menace.

There were times I foresaw what would happen. For instance, I guessed the evil object creating the havoc before the protagonist did. But, the humor (Kingfisher is very funny) and the fun characters (even the cat is fantastic,) and the peril more than make up for the fact the sometimes the reader is ahead of the game.

I love both The Twisted Ones and The Hollow Places. I look forward to future Kingfisher novels.

This book is an absolutely mind-blowing read. It felt like the "Interstellar" of books. I loved the look at alternate realities and the scary things within were more than enough to keep you on the edge of your comfy reading chair or couch.

2, "did I just read the same story again stars?"

Ok...I just finished this and...I feel like I just read a different version of The Twisted Ones.

I read The Twisted Ones about four months ago, so the story was still very fresh in my mind when I cracked this one open. At first, I thought it was just one of the quirks of the writing style. BUT, as I got further into the story, I couldn't help but think "Ok, I've basically already read this."

Which was obviously disappointing. I didn't love TTO because I'm not a huge fan of folklore, but I loved the author's writing style because it's quirky, cheeky and made me laugh out loud. Which I did do while reading this book a few times.

But still...I didn't want to read the same story, just set in a different world again. So...

Writing = great, funny and engaging.
Actual story = follows exact same pattern as TTO.

If you read TTO, you know it's about a woman going through something who moves back to a family home and is exposed to another world, makes friends with the quirky neighbors and her and said neighbors go on an adventure to survive this world.

That is essentially the plot for this book too. So If you want another book very similar to TTO, you'll really enjoy this. If you don't want to read another iteration of TTO, like me, you will be bored.

A big thanks to Gallery Books/Saga Press/NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest opinion!

This was my first T. Kingfisher book & I really liked it. The beginning had me hooked, however I feel it did trail off near the middle. I can't wait to read more books by this author!

The Hollow Places is the latest horror novel by author T Kingfisher (the pen name of author Ursula Vernon). It's also a spiritual successor to her highly acclaimed "The Twisted Ones", which took a line from an old classic horror story and expanded upon it into a modern quaint horror story in rural North Carolina. As I've said before on this blog, I'm not really a horror fan (though I love Vernon/Kingfisher's work) but I enjoyed The Twisted Ones, even if it didn't quite scare me as much as it seemingly did for others.



The Hollow Places however, was genuinely scary for me, relying a bit less on jump scares (though there are some) and more on atmospheric horror. It's another novel based upon a concept from an old horror story that I've never read, and it works really really well, with a very strong lead character and sidekick, and a plot that kept me mostly on edge throughout. It's not nearly as witty at times as The Twisted Ones could be, but it still works incredibly well and I highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys horror.....





------------------------------------------------Plot Summary--------------------------------------------------------

Kara was not looking forward towards moving back in with her mother after her divorce removed all stability from her life, and so the offer by her Uncle Earl to move in to his spare room at his museum - the Glory to God Museum of Natural Wonders, Curiosity, and Taxidermy in Hog Chapel, North Carolina - is a godsend. The "museum" is more a small store that allows visitors to see a bunch of oddball stuff - crazy taxidermy and objects of weird relevance and provenance - but Kara grew up loving it and her uncle and is glad to help him take care of it as he suffers from bad knees and gout.



But soon after her uncle has to leave her alone minding the museum for health reasons, Kara finds a hole in the museum's wall. And when she explores that hole with her neighbor Simon, she discovers a corridor that can not exist, leading to a place that cannot possibly exist: a world of islands and water, filled with bunkers, and willow trees that give her and Simon the absolute creeps. And then there are the words scrawled about throughout: "Pray They Are Hungry" and "They Can Hear You Thinking".



The more they explore this impossible place, the more Kara and Simon begin to realize the terrible danger they've found themselves in.....but is it possible for them to escape before it is too late?

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

As with any novel, you really don't want to spoil too far in, but that goes perhaps double for a horror novel, when the unknown is just as big an element of the fear as anything else. This is especially true for this novel, which is fairly short - as a result, I tried to be vague about the setup as much as I could above. Like its spiritual predecessor (The Twisted Ones), The Hollow Places features an early middle age protagonist coming back to a family location and discovering a horror she couldn't have imagined. Unlike that novel, the setup is different in that Kara already has people she loves or likes and cares about in the area (her uncle and Simon), but she's still mainly on her own when the horror hits. Like that novel, she and Simon are fairly aware of horror tropes....for whatever good that'll do them.



Because the horror in The Hollow Places was a lot scarier for me than it was in The Twisted Ones. The prior novel relied a lot on jump scares, and well they were pretty well done, but that doesn't do it for me. The Hollow Places instead follows the classic formula of setting up an incredibly creepy atmosphere, introducing more and more creepy elements that provide a feeling of dread, and leaving much of what is causing that fear and creepiness to the characters' - and readers' - imaginations. Perhaps a better comparison might be Annihilation (the book) in how it sets the atmosphere, but then it's more overt about its horror than that novel, as the reader and the characters discover more and more in the strange impossible place they discover. In the prior novel a lot of the terror came from the words in a diary that the protagonist discovered, and there are similar words here, but they somehow make an even greater impact in even less time and words. If that makes sense.



There isn't really much else to say here - it's a pretty damn scary horror novel, which is what you're looking for in horror. All of our characters involved are pretty damn good, which makes the horror more effective as you care what happens to them, and they're all very believable - and of course they're not your typical movie horror protagonists (our main duo is a mid 30s divorced woman and a mid 40s gay man, not some college students or teens). I could totally see this becoming a movie and scaring the bajeezus out of people, as it's already damn scary in text. Heck, this novel didn't have the same wit and humor that I really enjoyed in The Twisted Ones, but it works so well otherwise I didn't really have a problem with it. The novel only really has one negative - there's one element of the plot which any consumer of media will immediately expect to have some relation to the horror elements, especially after it comes back fairly quickly, but the main character (despite being generally pretty savvy) completely misses it for way too long. But that's a small gripe and yeah I'd highly recommend this one.

I freaking loved this book. I couldn't wait to return to the world to see what would happen next to Carrot and Stephen. I spent much of my Sunday lying on the floor reading, which is a feat of itself when you have two kids and an attention span that goes along with it.

The Hollow Places

Kara finds a hole to another universe within her uncle’s creepy museum. Naturally, she and her friend have to investigate this unknown world. The pair instantly regret their curiosity when they find the place overcome with unnatural creatures. Will they ever get home?
T. Kingfisher knows how to scare the absolute pants off me. I will avoid talking about my behavior after reading “The Twisted Ones”. Moving on…

Kara is likable. Her inner monologue is funny enough to break some of the tension within this quick read. Simon is the gay, funny best friend we all wish we had. The descriptions Kingfisher weaves about the Willow World is scary enough to give you goosebumps and quickly regret reading this book at night. Newsflash…it isn’t hair!

You’ll laugh..you’ll cringe…and you’ll close the book and NEVER look at willow trees again…

Thank you Gallery Books and Netgalley for this arc

4⭐️

Synopsis:
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.

The main character Kara has a lot going on as it is already, and finding the portal and go through more than she could ever imagine is indescribable. I mean, its fun but scary at the same time. The characters are funny and exciting. The story is both terrifying and humorous. It felt like watching a horror movie, and just when you thought you’d have a heart attack, it will switch on something hilarious to lighten it up. The author seriously scared and cracked me up at the same time. It is amazing!

Thank you to the publisher and to Netgalley for the advance copy of this book!

I loved this book. The atmosphere was everything I wanted it to be. A bit creepy and I loved the plot and the twist in the book. I loved the characters in this story. The Hollow Places is one book I will not forget. It gave me all the feels I was looking for when I started reading this. I highly recommend this author. I loved the writing. I will be looking for other works in the future from this author.