Scan barcode
nessa_booknook's review against another edition
i did not care for any of the characters anymore and what was going on with the willow place. The humor was too much for me and it took me out of the atmosphere that i would expect. Also the jokes were too cringy and the same joke every time. I felt like nothing was happening and when they did go into the hollow place it was like 1 thing that "scared" them and then they are back to doing their regular jobs in the regular world. The choices they were making through this was not bad because honestly same, how could you not be curious to explore another world?? like were are naturally curious creatures...overall it was lacking for me.
squid_vicious's review against another edition
4.0
Wrapping up Spooktober with a little Kingfisher novel! Nataliya’s review describes this book as a darkly humorous portal fantasy novel, and frankly, this is just what the doctor ordered. My Spooktober list has been on the tame side this year, but the last couple of months have been so insane that relaxing with a creepy museum story is really the mood I didn’t know I needed! Basically, this book is “Narnia” meets Algernon Blackwood’s “The Willows” , which, as it turns out, is a pretty amazing combination.
When Kara’s marriage falls apart, she has few options of places to go, and ends up staying with her Uncle Earl, who runs a very odd museum full of taxidermy, curiosities and other weird things that would not attract the faint of heart (I have never seen an actual shrunken head, and while I am quite curious about it, I’m sure it’s also rather ghastly). While she is there, Kara gets to work keeping the place clean and adequately catalogued (that dude has been running a museum without cataloguing anything? My archaeologist heart…), but when Earl has to undergo surgery and she is left all alone in the strange place, she comes across a hole in one of the museum walls. The thing is, this hole has no concrete or anything else that makes sense behind it. Instead, the hole leads to a corridor that definitely shouldn’t exist towards a place Kara definitely shouldn’t go to…
The bunker at the end of the tunnel was such and inventive and wonderfully unsettling idea, the liminal space between the world Kara knows and understands, and this new place worthy of a Lovecraft story, is not something I remember seeing in portal fantasy stories before. It’s almost impossible to say more without spoilers, so sufficed to say that once that threshold is crossed, things take a weird and fascinating turn, and really showcase Kingfisher’s talent for world-building and creating eerie atmospheres.
I wondered what she would do with cosmic horror elements, and I was pleasantly surprised with the direction in which she took it. Add a liberal sprinkling of Kingfisher’s signature awkward humor and unique, but very human characters, and you get a creepy little treasure I am very happy to have added to my shelf. Kara, aka Carrot, is great, but I have to say I kinda love Uncle Earl, who is basically a decent human being with very odd ideas and who is a little stuck in his ways of thinking and living, and I really appreciate the level of nuance Kingfisher brought to what could have been an otherwise unremarkable supporting character. This is actually one of her strengths, offering the readers layered characters, even the ones who are not front and center, that make her stories much richer simply by being there.
In some ways, Kingfisher feels to me like a modern-day Ray Bradbury: he was never really a balls-to-the-walls horror guy, but he knew how to make the seemingly ordinary creepy, and how to drop very unsettling elements in stories set in otherwise perfectly normal places, and Kingfisher often does the same thing, just as successfully as Bradbury – even if her settings are much more modern, her female leads generally middle-aged and nerdy, and not smitten with the golden hour hue of nostalgia. But if I had to point out a major difference between the two authors, is that Kingfisher has a very tongue-in-cheek humor, and profound self-awareness as she weaves together tales inspired by her favorite stories. Kara knows she shouldn’t go down the corridor, into the bunker and through the bunker’s door, and lacking a Dean Winchester to lecture her about not going through obviously haunted doors, well, she goes for it!
I understand why some readers were frustrated with otherwise self-aware characters making every dumb horror movie mistake in the book, and it is exasperating at times, but experience has shown me quite recently that if you leave mouse traps (the kind that are ‘hidden’ in a small cardboard box) in a stairwell, an otherwise very smart adult male will totally stick a finger in it to see if it’ll work, I am willing to believe that anyone who finds a portal will just walk right through, no matter how creepy it looks (Alex, if you are reading this, get your shit together, you are a father now, you should know mouse traps aren’t toys).
When Kara’s marriage falls apart, she has few options of places to go, and ends up staying with her Uncle Earl, who runs a very odd museum full of taxidermy, curiosities and other weird things that would not attract the faint of heart (I have never seen an actual shrunken head, and while I am quite curious about it, I’m sure it’s also rather ghastly). While she is there, Kara gets to work keeping the place clean and adequately catalogued (that dude has been running a museum without cataloguing anything? My archaeologist heart…), but when Earl has to undergo surgery and she is left all alone in the strange place, she comes across a hole in one of the museum walls. The thing is, this hole has no concrete or anything else that makes sense behind it. Instead, the hole leads to a corridor that definitely shouldn’t exist towards a place Kara definitely shouldn’t go to…
The bunker at the end of the tunnel was such and inventive and wonderfully unsettling idea, the liminal space between the world Kara knows and understands, and this new place worthy of a Lovecraft story, is not something I remember seeing in portal fantasy stories before. It’s almost impossible to say more without spoilers, so sufficed to say that once that threshold is crossed, things take a weird and fascinating turn, and really showcase Kingfisher’s talent for world-building and creating eerie atmospheres.
I wondered what she would do with cosmic horror elements, and I was pleasantly surprised with the direction in which she took it. Add a liberal sprinkling of Kingfisher’s signature awkward humor and unique, but very human characters, and you get a creepy little treasure I am very happy to have added to my shelf. Kara, aka Carrot, is great, but I have to say I kinda love Uncle Earl, who is basically a decent human being with very odd ideas and who is a little stuck in his ways of thinking and living, and I really appreciate the level of nuance Kingfisher brought to what could have been an otherwise unremarkable supporting character. This is actually one of her strengths, offering the readers layered characters, even the ones who are not front and center, that make her stories much richer simply by being there.
In some ways, Kingfisher feels to me like a modern-day Ray Bradbury: he was never really a balls-to-the-walls horror guy, but he knew how to make the seemingly ordinary creepy, and how to drop very unsettling elements in stories set in otherwise perfectly normal places, and Kingfisher often does the same thing, just as successfully as Bradbury – even if her settings are much more modern, her female leads generally middle-aged and nerdy, and not smitten with the golden hour hue of nostalgia. But if I had to point out a major difference between the two authors, is that Kingfisher has a very tongue-in-cheek humor, and profound self-awareness as she weaves together tales inspired by her favorite stories. Kara knows she shouldn’t go down the corridor, into the bunker and through the bunker’s door, and lacking a Dean Winchester to lecture her about not going through obviously haunted doors, well, she goes for it!
I understand why some readers were frustrated with otherwise self-aware characters making every dumb horror movie mistake in the book, and it is exasperating at times, but experience has shown me quite recently that if you leave mouse traps (the kind that are ‘hidden’ in a small cardboard box) in a stairwell, an otherwise very smart adult male will totally stick a finger in it to see if it’ll work, I am willing to believe that anyone who finds a portal will just walk right through, no matter how creepy it looks (Alex, if you are reading this, get your shit together, you are a father now, you should know mouse traps aren’t toys).
plaidvader's review against another edition
3.0
Stephen King 'lite', good but felt like it could have been a bigger story
dllluebbe's review against another edition
5.0
Creepy, and I appreciated that no one made any inherently stupid decisions.
tmaltman's review against another edition
5.0
It's rare to find a horror novel that so deftly blends in humor and creates such compelling characters that you fear for what happens next. This dark version of Narnia was a perfect Halloween read. I'll look for more T. Kingfisher in the future.
shereadsceaselessly's review against another edition
5.0
A total creepfest with two lovable weirdos, Kara (Carrot) and Simon, one badass cat, Beau and a whole bunch of bizarre otherworldly stuff.
If you love fantasy/horror and [a:Ursula Vernon|36276|Ursula Vernon|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1271095776p2/36276.jpg]'s signature quirky writing style, you have to pick up [b:The Hollow Places|50892288|The Hollow Places|T. Kingfisher|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1600022295l/50892288._SY75_.jpg|75788139]. Experiencing Kara and Simon's freakouts, as they explore and try to escape from not-Narnia, is exactly the dark and twisty novel to make you even more uncomfortable about being locked up at home during quarantine.
If you love fantasy/horror and [a:Ursula Vernon|36276|Ursula Vernon|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1271095776p2/36276.jpg]'s signature quirky writing style, you have to pick up [b:The Hollow Places|50892288|The Hollow Places|T. Kingfisher|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1600022295l/50892288._SY75_.jpg|75788139]. Experiencing Kara and Simon's freakouts, as they explore and try to escape from not-Narnia, is exactly the dark and twisty novel to make you even more uncomfortable about being locked up at home during quarantine.
weaponizedfun's review against another edition
3.0
Creepy, gross, but also funny. But, I felt like it took a while for the momentum to build and for me to get into it.
sofresh's review against another edition
4.0
T Kingfisher is quickly becoming one of my favourite authors! She combines her witty prose with a dark and horrifying Lovecraftian story that still somehow has so much heart. It feels almost like cozy horror, which I don't think is a thing but it should be.
In the author's notes, she says she was inspired to write The Hollow Places after reading the story Lovecraft recommended as the scariest. This is a brilliant novel in the genre of cosmic horror. Even when you think it's over, it just continues. The horror follows the characters into their safe world. It makes the characters question their reality, which a great cosmic horror does.
And I loved the characters, which is so important in horror because you actually have to care about what happens to them. I loved the dynamic between Kara, the fanfic-writing divorcee, and Simon, her eccentric gay barista neighbour. They bounced off each other really well and both provided comic relief in the direst of situations. Overall, The Hollow Places is a love letter to weirdos and oddballs. The Wonder Museum itself is full of oddities that would spook most people but are loved by Kara.
I can't wait to read more T Kingfisher.
In the author's notes, she says she was inspired to write The Hollow Places after reading the story Lovecraft recommended as the scariest. This is a brilliant novel in the genre of cosmic horror. Even when you think it's over, it just continues. The horror follows the characters into their safe world. It makes the characters question their reality, which a great cosmic horror does.
And I loved the characters, which is so important in horror because you actually have to care about what happens to them. I loved the dynamic between Kara, the fanfic-writing divorcee, and Simon, her eccentric gay barista neighbour. They bounced off each other really well and both provided comic relief in the direst of situations. Overall, The Hollow Places is a love letter to weirdos and oddballs. The Wonder Museum itself is full of oddities that would spook most people but are loved by Kara.
I can't wait to read more T Kingfisher.
hoffkin_donuts's review against another edition
4.0
Fun read with some creepy vibes. Got a little weird, but that's not rarely ever a bad thing.