james7634's review
emotional
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
Eh it’s weird. Love queer rep but the story was strange . Modern Frankenstein story and apparently el wasn’t murderous until the lab pushed him
A lab has a recreated cyborg named el. El wants to escape and he is eventually helped by Mateo a man who el falls in love with. They have a hidden house but Mateo is really tricking el and they are still experimenting on him.
El tries to escape and kills a lot of people before being recaptured. Another engineer tells him that he’ll help him escape.
El imagines what his life like would be w Mateo
A lab has a recreated cyborg named el. El wants to escape and he is eventually helped by Mateo a man who el falls in love with. They have a hidden house but Mateo is really tricking el and they are still experimenting on him.
El tries to escape and kills a lot of people before being recaptured. Another engineer tells him that he’ll help him escape.
El imagines what his life like would be w Mateo
kymmie_rj's review
dark
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
woodenpersonality's review
dark
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
3.5
Content Warnings
Moderate: Torture and Violence
owenblacker's review
4.0
Writer Allor describes Hollow Heart as being “the story of a man trying to save a monster, and inadvertently teaching him to be monstrous”; it’s a delicately paced story with both action and deep introspection, a “moody slow-burn” from the writer–artist pair who previously worked on Tet, “a startling, nuanced exploration of a conflict many of us thought we knew and understood”.
To quote the blurb directly:
Queer writer–letterer Allor adapted from his experience of his father’s decades of living with chronic pain; to quote his interview with Preview World:
And illustrator Paul Tucker, responsible for both the line-art and the colours, brings beautiful depth to the story, including surprising emotion to a hot-pink skull in a mecha suit, and helps obscure the body-horror of our Frankenstein protagonist without removing the horror of the impact of violence.
And importantly, again to quote Allor, “Hollow Heart isn’t primarily a horror story about being queer; it’s a horror story about queer characters” — there is no homophobia, no sexual violence and no awkward coming out: “everyone is queer, … the monsters, the heroes, the villains, everybody”.
Alexandra Iciek puts it perfectly in her review of the 6th and final edition, describing it as being “as heartbreaking as it is genius”. Short and sweet — and beautifully illustrated — Hollow Heart is indeed a great queer monster love story horror and an interesting view into how good intentions towards disabled people are not what we need; intent is not magic and impact is what actually matters.
CN: slavery, murder, chronic pain, body horror, “well-intentioned” suppression of a disabled character's agency.
To quote the blurb directly:
EL used to be human. Now he’s a jumble of organs in a bio-suit. El is also in tremendous pain and has been for a very long time. Hope arrives in the form of Mateo, a mechanic brought in to work on EL’s suit. Mateo sees EL in a way no one else ever has. And what’s more: Mateo offers EL an escape.
Hollow Heart reunites Tet creators Paul Allor and Paul Tucker for a queer monster love story about the choices we make between giving our loved ones what they want and giving them what we think they need.
Queer writer–letterer Allor adapted from his experience of his father’s decades of living with chronic pain; to quote his interview with Preview World:
Empathy is a tool and a burden and a gift … Hollow Heart is about what happens when a largesse of empathy does the same thing. It’s about the overwhelming desire to relieve someone’s burden, and how that desire can warp our view of someone, transforming them from a complex being with conflicting wants and desires, into something more abstract: a person defined only be their pain, and by the need to remove it.
And illustrator Paul Tucker, responsible for both the line-art and the colours, brings beautiful depth to the story, including surprising emotion to a hot-pink skull in a mecha suit, and helps obscure the body-horror of our Frankenstein protagonist without removing the horror of the impact of violence.
And importantly, again to quote Allor, “Hollow Heart isn’t primarily a horror story about being queer; it’s a horror story about queer characters” — there is no homophobia, no sexual violence and no awkward coming out: “everyone is queer, … the monsters, the heroes, the villains, everybody”.
Alexandra Iciek puts it perfectly in her review of the 6th and final edition, describing it as being “as heartbreaking as it is genius”. Short and sweet — and beautifully illustrated — Hollow Heart is indeed a great queer monster love story horror and an interesting view into how good intentions towards disabled people are not what we need; intent is not magic and impact is what actually matters.
CN: slavery, murder, chronic pain, body horror, “well-intentioned” suppression of a disabled character's agency.
graypeape's review
4.0
So, I kinda liked this, but I kinda didn't, leaning more toward liked it. I can't really explain what was going on well, but this feels like a Frankenstein retelling where the monster, El, finds love with one of his creators. There is a running narrative of what seemed to me unrelated stories over the actual story, and I'm not sure what the purpose of that was, but I could've done with less of that, with more explanation of what was going on, why these experiments were happening. This is a story that lets you/requires you to fill in bits for yourself, so be prepared for that. If you're looking for trippy weirdness with decent art (I really liked how El looked, but everything else was a bit, idk, messy), this is your tale. I did get sucked in, and I did like the end, but the constant unrelated narration could've been either more related or not so prevalent.
More...