INCREDIBLE as always!! i dont know how many more times i can emphasize how talented and compassionate k. ancrum is with her writing . the atmosphere of a small working class town and the decades of history on its land was just. haunting And community was so integral to the story…… i teared up many times
and don’t even get me started on the concept of being fully known [in every possible way, cohabiting souls , etc] with hollis and walt! OHMYGOD!!!! codependency queerness & community r genuinely the big 3 for ancrum’s writing <3 The prose always hits super emotional for me and i feel very vulnerable every time i leave one of her novels… i will say that some parts toward the latter half felt like a speedrun but that’s also just the beauty of the storytelling! Anyway i cannot WAIT to get my hands on a physical copy :]

K. Ancrum delivers yet another compelling novel. One of the book’s greatest strengths lies in its richly developed characters, each possessing a distinct and authentic voice. Hollis’s relationships—whether with his closest friends or his fiercest adversaries—are dynamic, layered, and engaging.

While the plot itself may not be particularly fast paced or action driven, the novel’s true focus is on Hollis’s internal struggle as he grapples with the unsettling reality of sharing his body with another consciousness. This premise serves as a powerful catalyst for self reflection, as Walt continuously challenges Hollis to reconsider the reckless situations that lead to his classmates beating him up. Their interactions push Hollis toward growth in a way that feels organic and compelling.

Ancrum’s handling of Hollis and Walt’s romantic relationship is particularly fascinating. Given the complexities of their shared existence, their connection is explored with nuance and sensuality, making for an unconventional yet well executed dynamic.

I've never experienced a book like The Corruption of Hollis Brown, and I doubt I ever will again.

What do you call a story like this? Bizarre, certainly, but only in the greatest of ways. Heartbreaking? It hurts, but every shard of yourself is promptly dusted off, kissed sweetly, and fixed back into place until you're something better. There's no denying that The Corruption of Hollis Brown is a love story, but it takes until you're reading through tears to realize that half of that is about loving yourself.

Hollis and Walt are the co-dependent, yearning lovers I'd never thought to ask for, but now wonder how I could have possibly lived without. They spoke to each other--and to the vulnerable, private corners of my own heart--in ways I think every body might need. It's beautiful. Raw. They twist through you, and each other, until you reach that last page with a tears and a smile.

I didn't think that it was possible to love this book more than I loved Icarus, but K. Ancrum keeps surpassing my expectations. This was beautifully written, and it only took a few chapters for me to fall in love with Hollis Brown, his friends, and the town they live in. I want to be able to forget it and read it for the first time again to watch Hollis and Walt meet and learn about each other all over again, but I'll have to settle for rereading it once it's published. I wish every book could make me feel like this. The Corruption of Hollis Brown is undeniably some of Ancrum's best writing so far.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an advanced copy!

This book absolutely fascinates me. K. Ancrum knew what she was doing here!! Her sharp prose bleeds off the pages and the yearning between Hollis and Walt is incredible. both characters are so complex and full of life. they complimented each other so well. i love them

Overall, this book delves deep into the things and people that are lost through time and how there is always a way to be better, even when everything seems to be stacked against you.

I think this was longer than it needed to be. While I really liked the poignant message about dying industrial towns and how they swallow up generations and families like quicksand, how the only way through is sharing and trading and looking out for one another, the meat of this story isn’t that.

The intimacy between Hollis and Walt was really strange to me (though not at the level of the sex scene from The Death I Gave Him; that one was extra special weird) and it felt like we spent so much of the book with just Walt and Hollis kind of talking in circles. Plus while Walt’s story was resolved, it felt rather a lot like Hollis’s wasn’t?

Am I still going to read every book that Ancrum writes? Absolutely.

*I received a digital arc through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Ancrum has been a favorite author of mine for almost three years. Ever since I read the Weight of the Stars, I have loved everything about her writing style and have made it a goal to keep up to date with recent releases. So when I saw the cover of this rolling around, I had to read it. And unsurprisingly, it did not disappoint.

Ancrum knows how her characters work and explains it to the readers in such an illustrative way. It took me a minute to get into the formatting difference for how Hollis and Walt talk to each other and when it clicked in my brain, I was ready for whatever came next. Something about the consistency of care between these two, Annie, and Yulia. Through acts of service, physical touch, something so warm it felt like a grounding technique in an anxiety storm.

The historical roots of the town was a part of the story I wasn't too sure about but as I continued to read and see the ties of dreams, feeling stuck in a path pre-designed for you, and an almost generational haunting by the ideas of the past seeping into the soil of a an empty town, I understood and I loved it more because of it.

When it releases, it will be put on my employee picks shelves at work and honestly? I don't think it will move away. This was my first 5-star of the year and that tends to be an all-time favorite.

This book is literally like if K. Ancrum wrote The Wicker King, went "Mmmh, next time they need to be in so co-dependent that they are literally sharing a body" and wrote The Corruption of Hollis Brown.

Is it because I'm just a house? For you? "No," Walt said into the smoke and the gloom of the bathroom.
"You're not just a house for me"

My brain chemistry is forever altered now. The atmosphere was so good, surrounded by the woods, at the edge of a small haunted town in the middle of winter.
I loved every characters, they felt like real people. I loved the connection Hollis and Walt had, I love them so fucking much it hurts. I was going insane screaming in my pillow for this book over the span of the two days it took me to read it. The level of co-dependency was so high, I ate it up.

PLEASE read it, I need to scream about this book to more people.

"Do you like our house? Is there a garden for your roses? Do you want to paint my fences white?"

Review 7.7/10📖 This was one strange book. At first I was like hmmmm idk about this, but the writing captivated me until I grew to love the story in all of its weirdness.

The first book I read by this author was Icarus. I fell in love with how they wrote characters and the relationships between them. The style of the writing was right up my alley so even if I felt parts of the story were meh I still overall enjoyed the book. That was very much true for The Corruption of Hollis Brown as well. I don’t know if I would’ve liked this story as much had another author written it. It needed K. Ancrum’s style to really execute it so beautifully. I also LOVE the short chapters. I know some people are not a fan but I would like every book to be written in 1-3page chapters please!

You can check out the blurb to get an idea of the plot as it’s kind of hard to explain. I don’t usually read anything described as horror, but I do dapple in non gory thrillers occasionally. This book definitely has some eerie moments and uncomfortable scenes, but I wouldn’t really call it horror (as I’ve seen some posts do), or even a thriller past a certain point. It’s overall a tale of perseverance, hope, and love. Which is definitely at odds with the thriller vibes, but like I said it’s a strange book.

This book comes out end of April 2025! If you enjoyed the style of Icarus I would recommend giving this one a go. The characters are just as lovable and the friendships touching. It has a similar passion filled romance and an MC with those neurodivergent vibes.

Thanks to @netgalley and Harper Collins for a copy of this book!

one thing about k. ancrum—she knows how to craft the most mesmerizing prose.

ever since a friend recommended me the wicker king a few years back i feel like i’ve just been chasing the high of reading it the first time, a style of writing that feels accessible to all but cuts just as deep as some of the more traditional literary fiction. and i feel like the only person who can write so well in this vignette format, each time more gripping than the last, is kayla. i don’t read a lot of YA these days but as soon as i realized the digital ARC was available, i requested and promptly cleared my whole schedule to devour it. and as always i’m just amazed by the sheer beauty of the art her words make up.

this book is a story about two boys who find each other and become something greater together. does it matter that this is via possession trickery and is reminiscent of venom in ways that made me gasp a little (annie getting temporarily possessed comes immediately to mind)? well yes and no, but i think to do this any other way is just not kayla’s style at this point. i really liked hollis and the way his anger and depression are written about, especially intertwined with walt’s own depression and guilt to work through. i also really was obsessed all the lines about hollis’s body being their house like…that really did something to my brain. tbh some of the dialogue reminds me of depression era stucky fics which is not necessarily a Bad thing but i was more taken aback with the way kayla continues to writes about small towns and underrecognized communities with this deep understanding and hope for something better that really inspires me. honestly i could go on and on about the structure of this book because it really is just so easy to fall into and so easy to empathize with everyone involved. plus there’s even little recipes sprinkled throughout which make me wish i was decent as baking anything from scratch.

the only reason this i can’t rate this higher is because i do feel like some of the school story beats mirror too much of the ones in icarus, and some of hollis’s interior thoughts reminded me of icarus too. i wouldn’t necessarily consider that a bad thing—i’ve enjoyed the through line of community support (or lack there of) and teens having to survive things bigger than them in all of the vignette books—but it just feels too fresh in the mind for me despite reading it several months ago. i do think this is a great starting spot for anyone wanting to check out k. ancrum’s work, and i can’t wait to see where she chooses to take us next.

amazing, captivating, wholly engrossing. k. ancrum's style of telling stories in vignettes creates such a unique reading experience, especially when she writes about teenagers in their small towns. she creates a great sense of place with all these short glimpses at their lives, as we follow hollis's small town, his interactions with his parents and friends, and the small things he does to make life bearable- and with k. ancrum's writing, the simple things feel extraordinary. it's more than just a possession story, and i found myself very touched by all of hollis's relationships and how they progressed. i love how when k. ancrum's characters have conflict, their love for each other is always present- they'll never end the relationship but they just want to do what they can to be together again. there's a deep sense of melancholy here but the sense of hope and love within all these characters shines through. i think this book requires a certain level of disbelief, can get a bit weird, and has several sincere emotional beats that won't work for everyone. but for me, this is one of the most unique books i've read.

The impact K. Ancrum’s writing has on me needs to be studied because WOW. Like her other works something about this story was so intoxicating, from the characters to the atmosphere to the overall plot.

Our main character is possessed by a ghost resulting in them having to share a body! That as a concept already had me vibrating with excitement. Hollis and Walt created such an interesting dynamic together. Your honor, they are codependent to the highest degree. Everything was so emotional and raw yet still hot and intimate.

The chapters are deliciously short while being packed with wonderful prose. There were so many quotes and passages I highlighted so I can continue to obsess over them in the future. This was another one of those books where I wished every book made me feel the way that this one did.

Come release day I will 100% be going out to pick up a physical copy.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and HarperCollins for providing me with this ARC.

Thanks to HarperCollins and NetGalley for the free e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I've been eagerly awaiting The Corruption of Hollis Brown by K. Ancrum. I've read all of her previous books and enjoyed them, and this was no different. This book follows, obviously, Hollis Brown. After encountering a stranger and attempting to help them, Hollis becomes possessed. And the longer the possession goes on, the more we understand about who is living inside him.

Kayla writes yearning and angst so well. I love those story elements in general, but she's a master at making you feel it. This book is no exception. Hollis is such a sweet kid, but he puts himself in dangerous positions, and the possession forces him to confront a lot of things about himself. I loved the character work in this book, as well as where the plot takes us. This might be Ancrum's best book yet!

“‘You’re just a house I’m haunting.’”

Holy shit. It’s unprecedented for my first book of the year to be a five-star read, but this is exactly my kind of weird. I adored Ancrum’s The Wicker Man, and fans of that one are sure to find a lot to like about this. The vibes are very similar, and anyone who didn’t like it is going to run into similar problems here. While I would argue this book is at least as much romance as horror (and even surprisingly wholesome at times), it’s still very much a horror novel, and I would maybe tack a “dark” onto that romance descriptor as a warning. But it’s also right in the description that Hollis falls in love with the being possessing him, so… were you expecting it to be all fluffy and wholesome? It’s complicated and dark and toxic at times, and since I’m disturbed (obviously) I love that about it. As with most enemies to lovers stories, it turns out it’s very hard to hate someone once we understand them.

Hollis and Walt’s relationship is the main focus of the novel, and I adored both of them. They’re the best kinds of shades of gray characters, neither entirely good nor entirely bad. I’ll admit it’s creepy as hell when Hollis is first possessed. It’s not often a book gives me genuine chills like that. It’s also surprisingly erotic for characters who can’t touch each other in the usual ways, and there are some unexpectedly sweet moments too as they come to learn and care for each other. There’s so much emotion packed into this book, from terror to love, and both boys are heartbreakingly seventeen. The relationship reminds me of Symbrock (Eddie + Venom) without the superhero angle, in that it’s nontraditional and a little codependent but also ultimately symbiotic: they are better together than they are apart. I also liked Hollis’s two best friends, Annie and Yulia, and they bring some additional queer/poc rep to the novel.

Ancrum’s chapters are so brief, it made me feel like I was flying through them. The only time the pace lagged a little for me was after the exorcism, when the characters spin their wheels a bit trying to decide what to do about Rose Town. Admittedly, that plot isn’t as strong as it could have been, and the conclusion for it is a bit quick and obscure. At that point, I didn’t really care though. The main thrust of the novel is Hollis and Walt’s relationship, with the ghost town being more of a side plot. Overall, I loved it, and I’ll be looking for a copy for my shelf when it comes out. I received a free e-ARC through NetGalley from the publishers at HarperCollins.

I review regularly at brightbeautifulthings.tumblr.com.

I first discovered K. Ancrum earlier this year when I read ‘Icarus’. That book changed my life. It has stayed in the back of my mind for months, and when Kayla announced her newest book I knew I had to snag an e-ARC at all costs.

K Ancrum does an exceptional job at writing a story that you can’t look away from. The chapters are bite sized and the writing is poetic. The story of Hollis Brown and Wyatt is unique, addicting, and captivating.

✨ Thank you NeGalley and Harper Collins Publishing for this ARC in exchange for my honest review ✨

I started with four stars, then I tacked on the fifth because dang it, this was just so unique. K. Ancrum is straight up a genius of writing pairings that you maaaaaaybe ship but absolutely cannot help but want them to be together. This is so weird, this is unsettling, honestly until the last 20% or so I wasn't entirely certain where it was going and that was great because any of the ways it could have gone, it would have been a fascinating story. It reminds me a little bit of Venom??

Summary: Hollis Brown is a seventeen year old boy in a dead end town - survival here means long commutes to other cities, since families are too poor to leave and there's no work in town. One night, after an altercation with a classmate, Hollis finds himself possessed by the spirit of another boy named Walt. Walt and Hollis must learn to coexist in one body, avoid raising suspicions in the people who know Hollis, and tackle the reasons why Walt became a spirit in the first place.

Review: WOW!!! K. Ancrum has really done it. This book was poetic, filled with longing, overcoming despair, and hope. This book was unafraid to look at the harshness that can inherently come with being alive and a part of society as we know it today, without giving up and feeling hopeless. As Hollis says at one point, "I'm not afraid of work". I was unsure how the love story would work, but it DID, managing to be both believable and also completely relatable, tackling why we search for connection in the first place. Without spoiling it, I was incredibly satisfied at the ending.

Why/Who I would recommend this:
- I looked through some other reviews, and most people who didn't love the book didn't love the short chapters. If you read K. Ancrum's other recent book, Icarus, and loved it, or aren't bothered by chapter length, THIS IS FOR YOU!
- This book is really more thriller than horror, so if that's your alley, THIS IS FOR YOU!
- If you're looking for a book that is honest with emotions and feelings, including the less-than-savory feelings like depression or anxiety that stories sometimes shy away from, THIS IS FOR YOU!
- If you're looking for a love story where the fantastical elements are integral to how the characters fall in love, THIS IS FOR YOU!

If this is my last book I finish in 2024, I am mighty pleased with that!

I didn't know quite what to expect from this book. I didn't know the author, and, more importantly, I don't read YA that often.

'The corruption of Hollis Brown' follows Hollis, seventeen, living in a town without any prospects. Hollis is a bit of an ass, not faring so well mentally, and seeks to express himself fully, even if it ends with him being beaten up. Frankly, I found him unpleasant and annoying at the beginning. Way more than the boy he meet a little later, and ends up in Hollis's body. Walt was easier to be invested in, he seemed less... blunt. Sure, he isn't perfect, at all. But there is a kindness that shone through from the start, even while he took possession of Hollis. Don't get me wrong, Hollis is kind too, but I have a hard time with characters who attack other, even verbally, especially when said attacks are aimed at weak points, a thing Hollis did from he very start of the book.

Following Hollis as he gets used to Walt presence, learning more about Walt (and Hollis), with the repercussions of using the same body was interesting. What was even more interesting was the way the relationship between the two boys grew and shifted. There is beauty in it, a creepy beauty I am a desperate for.

Loneliness and hopelessness are central to the story. Either from Hollis's present perspective but also Walt, as we learn about his life when he wasn't yet a ghost. There is also a thin side plotline about a haunted place that got resolve quickly in the end. I think I might have liked it to be a little more on the front, to know more about how, precisely, it got resolved, to dig a little. Still, because it is linked to Walt and Hollis's situation, it was satisfying enough as a resolution. Like their resolution, too. I was afraid of a certain event happening, but I'm happy to say it didn't. I am glad their story finished as it does.

My main issue with the book is the length of the chapters. It's not that the short chapters aren't working, but for me, it would have been easier to get really invested with longer chapters, looking less like small flashes following each other. I could also say that the story lacked an overall feeling of... gritiness? It felt quite smooth to me, which isn't bad, it simply lacked a bit of texture sometimes. Some things passed too quickly too, making it hard to remember the timeline.

Overall, a good read. I would recommend it to people seeking a story about finding yourself and your place, a kind and creepy romance with a setting that might resonate with people feeling a bit stuck in life.

super interesting idea. codependency turned up to absolute insane levels. 4 stars. tysm for the arc. would recommend.

i am feeling generous in the evening that i am writing this review, so i will start off with the positives. the atmosphere of this book was so good. i am a sucker for stories that take place in stuck-in-time towns where the main character feels like they are going to be stuck there forever. my only gripe with this book is that the chapters were short. by that i mean the average length of the chapters was two pages. it made the story flow quickly and i read it in a day but i wanted more. i just feel like we could have gotten more out of the story with longer chapters so that more could be shown on the page. also, the random recipes do not give anything to the story. please get rid of them.