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.

Thank you netgalley and to the publishers for the ARC. I enjoyed the story and plot of the book. It was engaging and the dialogue help drive the story. I enjoyed the ending of the story and would totally read another book by the author.

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.

Thank you so much to netgalley and the publisher for letting me read this. I always want to be first in line when I see a new Kayla Ancrum book is on the way!

Once again we’ve gotten something unique and heartbreaking in a way you don’t even know you needed until you’re reading it. Hollis and Walt will crawl inside your heart and you won’t want them to leave.

an eerie and emotional fable of survival, THE CORRUPTION OF HOLLIS BROWN follows hollis brown, an abrasive, isolated teenager living in a town whose industry left everyone behind. people subsist off what they're able to grow, repair, and share; everyone knows everyone; hardly anyone has the means to leave and find a life elsewhere; and the local high school kids chase thrills the only way they can afford to: gatherings at rose town, the abandoned community outside of town that's been deemed officially haunted. after a harrowing incident during their latest outing, hollis brown's life begins to come undone. in a bid to be alone, hollis goes deep into the woods, screaming into the soil where no one else can hear him. but there he meets a strange, sickly boy called walt, who strikes a faustian deal with him that will change them both—and the town—forever.

as hollis fights his way through the reputation he's carved for himself, he now has to deal with another precarious situation: he's been possessed by walt, a spirit who's survived into the current century by jumping from body to body, running away from his past and trying to find someone who will let him stay. he exists between hollis' bones and nerves, threaded through him like a curse: it's his eyes now, that look out from hollis's face; his voice that speaks inside hollis's head; his will that moves hollis's body as they go about their daily life, hiding in plain sight in front of hollis's closest friends and family. but, as time goes on, the two of them begin to fall in love with one another—for better or for worse.

with her signature boundless compassion, her sharp prose, her deft exploration of human nature, and her gorgeous rendition of possession and otherworldly love, kayla ancrum has written one of my favorite novels of all time. THE CORRUPTION OF HOLLIS BROWN is a queer, passionate elegy to the ghosts of the past—the things and people we lose to time and to each other—and how we can claw our way to a better, more equitable future. this is unquestionably ancrum's finest work to date: at once a fresh new take on possession and a searing love story for the ages, this is a novel you can't afford to miss.

Thank you to HarperCollins and NetGalley for a free ARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions within are my own.

—

The first thing to understand about this book is that it’s not a romance. Ancrum herself describes it as “Southern Gothic horror… set in Michigan…where the romance is the horror.” And I would agree. Make no mistake, there is love at the beating-heart center of this book. Love that ultimately saves both the main character and the ghost who possesses him. But man is that love a train wreck, full of consent issues (addressed and resolved within the text) and codependence. It works for them, and the characters are vividly-drawn enough that I believe it works for them, but I, the reader, found myself constantly caught in a tug of war between caring and discomfort as I read. The dynamic between Hollis and Walt was definitely an interesting one—I don’t know if I’d ever call it romantic.

Unfortunately, the publishing team would beg to disagree, marketing this book as a romantic thriller, probably on the calculation that it would reach more readers that way. And hey, I’m not a marketing professional. All I know is, I spent about half the book deeply confused. Her previous work clearly showed Ancrum to be a deeply emotionally intelligent writer, more than capable of spotting a toxic dynamic. …But this was a romance?

So yeah. Sometimes (let’s be real, frequently,) authors don’t get a say in how their books are marketed. And mis-marketing can draw in readers who are expecting something altogether different from the book they got, which can leave said readers cranky and un-receptive.

And once it was made clear to me that The Corruption of Hollis Brown was fundamentally a queer horror novel with romantic elements, but not any kind of genre romance, that knowledge allowed me to relax and enjoy the complex, flawed characters and phenomenal atmosphere of the book. Paradoxically, it also made me more receptive to the characters’ love story. Sure, it’s kind of fucked up, but so are they, and here they are, building their own fucked up little nest and making something good for themselves.

Unrelated to any of that, I loved, loved, loved Annie and Yulia, and their relationships with Hollis. No one writes resonant, entangled friendships quite like Ancrum! I loved the setting, and honestly wanted more of Rose Town. Ancrum’s spare, vignette-based prose style works very well for my tastes, deceptively simple, but leaving room for beauty. Big fan of the interspersed recipes, too. I’m going to have to make those gingerbread brownies.

That said, was this book perfect? No. While the voices of Ancrum’s teens sounded distinct and believable 90% of the time, periodically I’d find myself going, “man, those high school students sure got their psych degrees, with a certificate in Non-Violent Communication for extra credit.” This was something I noticed in Darling as well. It wasn’t a deal breaker in either case, but I definitely did notice it.

I also found the climax somewhat anticlimactic, with Hollis, our POV character not present for key parts of it. The book had built up to that scene and I felt robbed.

On the whole, I think I’d give The Corruption of Hollis Brown 3.5 stars, rounded up to a four. It was a fast, vivid read. I already liked Ancrum as an author, and will continue to pick up new books by her (as well as her backlist I haven’t gotten to yet.)

Okay okay this was SO good. Kayla Ancrum really went 'oh you like codependent gays? hold my beer.' because nothing beats the inherent homoeroticism of sharing a body with cohabitating souls.

This was peak yearning. Beautiful and healing. Going feral over Hollis and Walt (and Annie and Yulia). Such a unique setting, beautiful prose, flawlessly structured and executed, obsessed with this book, I cannot wait to buy a physical copy.

Thank you to NetGalley & HarperCollins for the ARC!

When I read Icarus earlier this year, I said it was Kayla Acrum’s best, but I think I might’ve misspoken. The Corruption of Hollis Brown has to be the winner of that title, no question. This book was nothing like I thought it would be. I expected Kayla’s gorgeously heartbreaking prose, which I got, along with a story about a boy held as a prisoner in his own body, which I didn’t get. Not exactly at least. Possession isn’t what’s trapped Hollis, it’s what sets him free.
Ancrum is the ideal author to write a story about possession. Her writing style and formatting lends itself to the subject matter so well. It’s abrupt, it’s blunt, it’s haunting. I feel like I’ve been waiting for her to write something like this. So this is a story about possession, yes, but not in the typical way. It’s different from most stories about the topic because it humanizes the possessor. Walt was a human once, before it all. He was only a boy, no different than Hollis.
Without giving away much, Hollis and Walt’s relationship makes me go absolutely insane. Hollis and Walt individually make me go insane. Everything about Hollis drew me in and the more I learned, the more he broke my heart, and Walt is no different.
I say it in all of my review’s of Anrcum’s books, but damn does she know how to write an impactful character. Every character trait is a deliberate choice. Even just describing a possession as a corruption evokes a specific emotion in me I can’t quite name. You can feel the love that was put into this book. From the recipes to the playlist, this was no small feat. Kayla Ancrum has given her all with Hollis Brown and it is a massive triumph. I cannot wait to get my hands on a physical copy so I cannot annotate the absolute hell out of it.
Out March 25, 2025, keep an eye out for The Corruption of Hollis Brown. Thank you to Netgalley and HarperCollins for early access to this title.

I'm not sure where to even start in reviewing this book. Much like the rest of K. Ancrum's books, it's just So Much. And while it's not an immediate favourite like Icarus, I also think I'm going to be sitting with it and thinking about it for awhile. I will continue to read whatever K. Ancrum writes.