catladylover94's review against another edition
3.0
not as good as i wanted it to be. i was hoping for more. liked the characters, just did not have the story to go with the characters. easy read.
errantdreams's review against another edition
5.0
At first this book seemed a bit mundane, particularly when held up against some of SanGiovanni’s other work, such as Chills, Behind the Door, and especially Thrall. The bad guy is basically just a man with no face, who sometimes whispers frightening things to people. Luckily things pick up, with the Hollower gradually becoming more. We even get a passage told from its point of view, which is surprising, and carried off well. There’s one spot that maintains that it “could be anywhere it wanted, anyone it wanted, at any time.” Unfortunately this kind of begs the question of how anyone could possibly stop it if it wanted to kill someone. But we eventually see snatches of unusual behavior–such as its unwillingness to touch anyone–that make things believable. Eventually SanGiovanni puts the ‘cosmic’ in ‘cosmic horror’, and the world comes apart at the seams.
The characters have a fair amount of depth. Cheryl’s a little borderline, with her giggling and cooing, but luckily there’s a bit more to her than just that. I liked Sean, who is a believably mature eleven without being overly precocious, and Detective DeMarco is probably my favorite character. She’s practical and smart, but knows when it’s time to believe her eyes and her hunches. The pacing is also quite good, ramping up steadily as the book goes on. I look forward to reading the rest of the trilogy!
Consider my rating a 4.5
Original review posted on my blog: http://www.errantdreams.com/2019/02/review-the-hollower-mary-sangiovanni/
The characters have a fair amount of depth. Cheryl’s a little borderline, with her giggling and cooing, but luckily there’s a bit more to her than just that. I liked Sean, who is a believably mature eleven without being overly precocious, and Detective DeMarco is probably my favorite character. She’s practical and smart, but knows when it’s time to believe her eyes and her hunches. The pacing is also quite good, ramping up steadily as the book goes on. I look forward to reading the rest of the trilogy!
Consider my rating a 4.5
Original review posted on my blog: http://www.errantdreams.com/2019/02/review-the-hollower-mary-sangiovanni/
martinroberts's review against another edition
3.0
Whilst I'm not against the writing itself,I just found that I did not care what happened to the characters...
There were moments when I could not read fast enough but all of a sudden I'd feel like I was just thrown out of the plot because the Hollower would just repeat his actions with a new character.
Sadly, the Elm Street franchise is also brought to mind and that hinders the novel too.
The bottom line is that its a good starting point for those new to the horror genre in both books and films.
12/01/02 - I revisited this one over the weekend and felt that I'd been harsh and have consequently decided it to be a three star read.
There were moments when I could not read fast enough but all of a sudden I'd feel like I was just thrown out of the plot because the Hollower would just repeat his actions with a new character.
Sadly, the Elm Street franchise is also brought to mind and that hinders the novel too.
The bottom line is that its a good starting point for those new to the horror genre in both books and films.
12/01/02 - I revisited this one over the weekend and felt that I'd been harsh and have consequently decided it to be a three star read.
boo909's review against another edition
1.0
Really disappointed with this, barebones characterisation, I really could have cared less about the characters, an awful, awful cliched "monster", not particularly scary, in fact it's extremely boring and I really struggled to finish it. The protagonists win through finding some random thing laying around. I've heard good things about this writer so I'll have to try something else but this was terrible.
Edit: I've just realised SanGiovani and Brian Keene have been in a relationship since 2012 which would explain the gushing introduction.
Edit: I've just realised SanGiovani and Brian Keene have been in a relationship since 2012 which would explain the gushing introduction.
More...