Reviews with content warning for Body horror - The Hollow Places

Reviews tagging 'Body horror'

The Hollow Places by T. Kingfisher

155 reviews

chicken_steadicam's review against another edition

dark emotional funny mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

This was so much scarier than I expected it to be, but not in a bad way, just maybe don't read it before bed. Similar vibe to The Twisted Ones and A House with Good Bones.

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smitha_r's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated

4.75

4.8/5 stars. So close to perfect! But alas, horror is not my genre; I'm just a Kingfisher stan. There were also some parts that idk, dragged? There was a lot of grave mulling and excessive conversation that I think could have been pruned. Also I figured out from the very start

that the otter-corpse carving would be the thing to get the plot going/the root of all evil. Seeing Carrot not get it was a bit frustrating.

But overall, this is a fascinating but creepy book that I'm glad I read only during daylight hours hahaha.

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rhi_'s review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

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jems_'s review against another edition

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5.0

Should I keep reading scary books in the dark, knowing I get terribly paranoid from them? Probably not, but I really wasn’t able to stop myself with this one. This is my third T. Kingfisher I believe and I still really love her writing. It’s funny without being eye-roll level ridiculous and still holds enough seriousness to keep the suspense and make you eat up the story.
I‘ll try with a list again to keep my thoughts concise.

+ entertaining writing
+ enjoyable characters and character dynamics
+ interesting setting and world building
+ actually gave me the creeps/made me feel unsettled/made me paranoid of

seeing an albino raccoon in the dark hallway at home at night

+ the end (or rather close to the end but keyword

Prince

) had me tearing up a little and I didn’t see it coming
+ there was a cat and I love him

- only „negative“ I have is that sometimes the explanations end up feeling a biiiit too alien-y to me. I‘ve had that same thing with A House With Good Bones, though it wasn’t as „bad“ here. (It’s not bad, it’s just personal preference and something I‘m getting used to with her books so I really don’t want to actually deduct any points in my rating for it.)

In conclusion, this book did everything it promised for me. It unsettled but also entertained me and while I was quite scared reading it last night (I get scared easily I‘m discovering) that was exactly the point and I wouldn’t fault it for just doing a good job.
Recommend if you‘d like to be unsettled while still having fun with enjoyable characters.

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emmjay's review against another edition

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dark tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot

4.25

Sufficiently creeped out. Moved quickly and kept me interested. The

otter carving was obvious from the jump but

but it didn’t distract too much. A very atmospheric and immersive read. I too love weird little earnest museums.

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sai_like_sigh's review against another edition

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dark funny mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

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tieflingkisser's review against another edition

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4.0

The goofy shit with the main character repeatedly bringing up fanfic/fandom was a bit offputting but the story was overall quite good; definitely the type of existential horror that gets under my skin and sticks with me for a while.

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whatkatyread87's review against another edition

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dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

Kingfisher, KEEP IT UP

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rebeccajefferson's review against another edition

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funny mysterious reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

An enjoyable mysterious read without the hassle of romance or drama. I enjoyed my time in the mysterious other world and like that not everything is answered. I thought the main characters were fairly likeable.

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orizenda's review against another edition

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adventurous dark funny mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Loveable characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

I really liked this one. The concept is really interesting and there are some really scary, grotesque scenes. I really liked most of the characters, too. I will say, I don’t particularly like the way Kingfisher writes protagonist narrators (I’ve only read 2 books but they seem very similar to me) but that’s ok. This is a strong cosmic horror novel, imo, where you can’t fully understand the monsters or what exactly is going on.

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