Thank you so much Netgalley and Publisher for this arc!

I just want to start this review by saying that the cover is a big part of why I even requested to read House of Hollow. Oops! ;)

House of Hollows is an urban fantasy/supernatural-esque novel, featuring three otherworldly sisters with unusual powers over other humans. When the eldest sister Grey dissapears, sisters Iris and Vivi (and Grey's boyfriend Tyler) are thrown into a blood soaked, vomit fueled, gut wrenching mystery.

This book is dark, gloomy, a little gorey, and a whole lot of what the f*ck-y

My rating is a strong 4.7/5, with points being lost to the fact that I predicted one of bigger twists way early on, (though while predictable it was still very enjoyable to unravel)



Read this book!!!!!

Thank you so much for giving me the opportunity to read an ARC of this deliciously creepy book!

House of Hollow is a bit hard to define, genre-wise, but I suppose I would classify it as a YA dark fantasy in a contemporary setting. The main character, Iris Hollow, disappeared for a month as a child, along with her sisters Vivi and Grey, and all three sisters came back changed. Now Iris is seventeen, and when her sister Grey disappears, she has to confront the truth about what happened to her so many years ago, and she ends up discovering some dark secrets about her sisters and herself.

I absolutely loved every aspect of this book. The writing style works very well for the story, and the plot sucks you in from the first page and keep you on the edge of your seat until the very end. The main character, Iris, has an interesting and unique voice, and I really enjoyed getting to know her. I loved learning about her relationships with her sisters and with her mom, Cate, and I also enjoyed learning the secrets of her past along with her. This book is incredibly dark, and it deals with a lot of very heavy themes. The whole story works incredibly well, and at the end I was satisfied but also yearning to know more.

Highly recommend to fans of dark fantasy!

The Hollow Sisters have always been on the outside. Seen as other worldly and untouchable due to the sisters disappearance when they were young. For Iris, she wants to melt into the shadows and try to forget what happened to her as a child. But when her oldest sister disappears, she will have to confront her identity and embrace her Hollow blood. House of Hollow is an eerie adventure down the rabbit hole. Sutherland leaves bread crumbs for the readers, leading down a dark and twisted plot that will have them leaving the light on at night. The plot is a steadily up hill advancement; adding more and more tension and suspense. The dark shadows come out to stalk and is a visceral world building. With each turn of the page, the looming darkness over takes the reader and makes you look over your shoulder. The Hollow sisters have an air of mystery and as the layers are pulled back, more questions arise pushing the plot forward. Where the story falls short is the abrupt ending leaving the reader with a sense of unfinished business. Leaving more questions unanswered than solved.

She glances in the mirror, her haunted reflection staring back at her. Her once beautiful dark hair has faded to white, and her once soulful eyes are now black as night. The stench of decay envelopes her, her insides feel as if they’re rotting. She is not the girl she remembers anymore. Something’s wrong.

House of Hollow is wickedly wild. I was engrossed in this book from page one and could not stop reading. It has elements of similarity to the Wayward Children series, but the horror version. And I loved it!

This book is gruesome in every way. We meet three sisters, Grey, Vivi, and Iris, who were kidnapped when they were younger. A month later they miraculously are found and returned home, but they will never be the same and a link to their time away is haunting them.

If you’re looking for a horror fantasy book with LGBTQ+ rep characters, than look no further! This one is so good.

TW: Kidnapping, Murder (gruesome descriptions), Descriptions of Dead Bodies, Suicide.

I was very drawn to the premise of this book. The first few lines drew me in with "I was thirteen years old the first time I realized I was strange." However, I got lost in the details of the sisters and the weirdness that followed. I am no stranger to books about fae and other strange beings that wander the woods, but this story really just overwhelmed me with references to culture I did not understand and sister descriptions that were just over the top with their behavior (ie. Vivi with the teachers and her band). I would like to say that I was able to stumble through, but sadly I could not. I abandoned the book when one of the sisters disappeared. There are just too many books out there to waste on one that I just did not like at all. Sorry.

I was very much looking forward to reading HOUSE OF HOLLOW and I am very happy that I did. It is definitely different than anything I have read before and is actually quite dark at times, I found the overall plot extremely interesting, but did find that the author took quite a circuitous route to get us to the climax of the story. Overall, though, it was definitely a unique story and one that I had fun reading.

Thanks to Penguin Random House Canada and NetGalley for giving me the chance to read and review this E-ARC. I will publish this review on my blog (A Bookish Star), Amazon Canada, Barnes & Noble, and Instagram (@ABookishStar) closer to the publication date.

Where do I even begin!? House of Hollow hooked me from the very first page. The first chapter introduces readers to unsolved mysteries and a craving for answers. Sutherland's writing style is hauntingly beautiful. The words written throughout the novel brought this world, the characters and the story to life. I felt the dialogue between the characters was realistic. The author's words were able to invoke various emotions in me. I found myself laughing at the humorous moments and squirming at the creepy scenes.

The mystery of the past, and present, kept me hooked for the entire novel. I couldn't put this book down because I needed answers. The characters were unique, and all stood out with their various personalities. The Hollow sisters consisted of Grey, Vivi, and Iris. Iris was the narrator of the story. Some side characters include Tyler, who is Grey's boyfriend, and Cate. Cate is the mother of the Hollow sisters. They all had a fascinating relationship with one another and fascinating backstories.

My favorite characters is Iris and Tyler. My third favourite character is Vivi. I related a lot to Iris's character. Iris is quiet, lives with Cate, and just wants to blend into society. She doesn't want to stand out, and she doesn't have any friends. When I was in high school, I lived with my mother and, I didn't have many friends. It felt safer and easier to blend into the crowd, then stand and be bold. Iris doesn't want to be like her sisters (who are bold and independent), but instead, she wants to be the opposite. Her journey throughout this book is one of independence, acceptance, and not accepting abuse from others.

I'm not going to go into too much detail about the story. I think this novel is best discovered by reading it on one's own. I will say that I find this story that Sutherland has created to be fascinating in its own right. The atmosphere was well shown. I felt like I was watching a movie unfold in my head. I honestly wouldn't mind a film adaptation of this book. My only critique is that I wish there were a bit more description of some of the places that were mentioned throughout the book. I also want a sequel for House of Hollow. That is because I felt the ending was open-ended. It is one of those endings where I'm guessing it leaves it up to the readers' imagination of what happens next in the story. This ending bothers me because I had two questions that were left unsolved by the end of House of Hollow.

Overall, I loved reading the House of Hollow. This is one book that I will be recommending to anyone looking for book recommendations. I felt the writing, the characters, and the story were spectacular. I hope there will one day be a movie adaptation and/or a sequel. If you're looking for a hauntingly mysterious book, then I recommend checking out House of Hollow.

A big old wet kiss of a thank you to Ashley at Penguin who graciously read my arc request and promptly sent over the NetGalley widget.

Gorgeously written and creepy. This book has a cover to match the story and is seriously one of the best books I have read in 2020. I expected a semi-creeptastic story about sisterhood, but I was given a fairy tale horror masterpiece that read like a cult film.

Three sisters, Grey, Vivi, and Iris disappeared as children only to turn up a month later with no recollection of what had happened to them. Now older, they've gone their separate ways. Grey is a supermodel while Vivi has a punk band and drinks a lot. Iris decided to stay in high school and be as normal as possible. But normal is not a word the Hollows know. After Grey disappears, the younger Hollow sisters embark on a journey to find their sister, even if means stepping back into a terrifying past that could expose the truth once and for all.

This book is dark. This book made my stomach squirm. Every word seemed to wrap around me, squeezing like a carnivorous vine. ut beneath all the scary bits is a story about the love of family, and the deep instinct to survive.

I am 100% sure this book is going to get the highest praise. It felt like a nightmare version of Narnia where Aslan goes after the Pevensie children in the real world and tries to drag them back to Narnia to kill them. That's the only way I can describe it.

Loved, loved, loved this book! The atmosphere was gorgeously eerie. The mystery surrounding Vivi, Grey and Iris is intriguing and the supernatural aspect was superbly written. Teens (and adults too) are going to fall in love with this book.

I wanted to like this book so much more than I did. Having received an early copy from NetGalley, I was excited to have access to a new style from an author I’ve loved before. I knew this was supposed to be a darker style for her, but I didn’t realize how horror genre driven it was going to be.

The story to me felt cliché in many ways. We have a string of beautiful sisters who can seduce people into following their wills. They often run off and galavant across the country doing whatever they please, while they youngest is the good daughter at home. They have a dark and delicate past making their mother want to hold on to the youngest forever. Eh, okay.

I was really hoping to have more of a thriller and mystery than a dark horror story. I didn’t feel like a lot of what was happening made sense, even at the end when it was broadly explained. I didn’t like the world building on either end because there was so much movement. I also didn’t think that the books pacing was well done. It felt really stagnant at times even though the characters were never in one place for long. Iris’ schooling adventures seemed completely unnecessary. Vivi’s musical background seemed to be her only character trait.

With all of that, I could have appreciated a creepy fairy tale, however, I found even the dark magical elements were weak. Creatures with skull masks and the smells of rotting earth. It was overdone and felt flat. There was so much of the same happening between the crime scenes and the unknown lands, that it never felt shocking or as if you were discovering something new.

Maybe I’m cynical because I went in expecting one thing and got something else, but I just didn’t feel captivated by this. If the ending had given Gray what she deserved, maybe I’d feel different, but I felt completely unsatisfied by the ending as well. I’ll still pick up Sutherland’s books, but not if they’re being pegged as a dark tale.

Sutherland wasn’t joking when she said this would be dark. From the get go, the preface even, you know this isn’t a sweet story of magic. It’s creepy and it’s weird, and it’s awesome.

And when I say weird do not take it lightly. It was not pleasant, and it took inspiration from stories old and cruel. But I never read the book for pleasantness so I was fascinated instead of disgusted. It does really seem like the after math of a very dark, horrible and grim fairy tale. It feels like the story of the leftovers. If that makes sense? It’s a story of what happens after you think the book is over.

I also loved the sisterhood aspect of the story. Much of the plot is started because they care about each other, and despite their differences, know each other intimately well. They all love each other so strongly, and I will never, ever be tired of sisters being willing to pull the earth down for one another, and sticking together in times of weirdness.

It’s dark and grimy and it’s not pretty. It’s beautiful maybe, but only in the way terror and tragedy tend to be. This book absolutely captivated me, and I’m so glad I got to read it

This book was not what I expected, but in a good way. It was a bit darker, spookier, and haunting, and was still enjoyable to read. The sisters have an unusual relationship, and wish more information was given on how it came to be.

This was a terrifying, modern take on a fairytale. Not my usual selection, but I could not put it down. It was part thriller, add some family drama, magic, fantasy, terror, and you get this haunting book. I was absolutely scared at many points in this story. I don't normally like to feel afraid, but it was so well written that I do not regret this one bit.

I loved this book! The premise was interesting and unlike other books I have read. The characters in it are engaging and I felt invested in what happens to them. The plot was mysterious and kept me reading to find out what was going to happen next. I will definitely recommend this to our young adult readers when it is released. I do believe that it could have a little more detail about magical doorways and folklore. It is difficult to classify this book as well. Is it a mystery...yes. Is it horror...yes. Is it dramatic...yes. Some who like mystery may not like the horror aspects of it. Some parts of the book are pretty gruesome and scary. There is a good backstory about family connections especially siblings. Also, about how everyone is trying to find how they connect to each other and to the world which I think is relevant at this time in history.