Reviews with content warning for Violence - Hollow Kingdom

This story is utterly ridiculous.
A sweetly naïve and hopeful, foul-mouthed crow (fowl-mouthed?) seeks to save fellow pets from a zombie apocalypse. I do not recommend that any one read this, it is bizarre and maybe the most gory thing I’ve ever read— really and truly, if you do read this, don’t do so while eating anything.

In a crude and VERY macabre way it is funny. Not hilarious but I did chuckle at S.T.’s (the crow) colorful and creative descriptions. The thing that kept me from stopping was how weirdly poignant the narrative was. Lots of lines like this:

“Those who burst from the shell know the gladiators fight for survival. A bird recognizes that every life that surpasses a first breath is a miracle.”

And Buxton can really write characters. There are all these little vignettes stuck between the chapters of the main narrative about different domesticated animals experiences with the apocalypse. My favorites were Genghis Cat and Winnie the Poodle. Though some of the little side stories felt more like an interruption to get through rather than any substantial addition to the storyline.

What’s really clever about the story is the underlying commentary. No, not the obvious warning that human kind succumbed to a zombie virus transferred through phone addiction. (The science behind which was as far-fetched as the image of a limp-winged crow flying on the back of a bald eagle on the heels of a mob of evolving raptor-human zombies. Which is also a part of the plot. Really got to just ride the crazy train with this book). But no. What’s clever is how S.T. earnestly and endearingly loved humans and mourns their passing when he was raised by a less than exemplary member of our species: Big Jim. Big Jim, who scoffed at tofu and penguins, whose most significant life event seemed to have been being dumped by Tiffany S. from Tinder, who refers to everyone as a MoFo and named his own pet Sh*t turd- S.T. for short. Even the most mediocre of us are pretty amazing, we are all God’s creatures (my take, not necessarily Buxton’s) and each day of life is a gift.

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multiplyoctopi's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional tense medium-paced

Loveable characters? It's complicated

3.0

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ehmannky's review against another edition

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emotional funny medium-paced

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

3.5

3.5/5 There's so much to like in this book--S.T. is a delightful narrator, Dennis is such a great depiction of a hound dog, the depictions of grief and nature and connecting outside of the human world were beautiful, and it was very funny for the most part.

My main issue is that I hate the idea behind the Not Zombies in this book that the reason that humanity as a whole was doomed was because we just couldn't look up from technology to respect nature. I loved the idea of connecting with deep, natural times (and I love the idea of the the Aura), but I just felt like...this just sort of conflates the ecological problems with big tech/environmentally destructive industries/etc. with individuals. Like...it felt like Buxton should have either made the zombies a metaphor for humanity's over-reliance on social media/phones (a la Warm Bodies) or it should have focused on environmental problems caused by by big corporations. Pushing the two together was just sort of messy.

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virtualdragonkitty's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny hopeful fast-paced

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

4.0

I really loved this story, even if at times the pacing felt weird. It was fun reading a book about a zombi apocalypse from the eyes of the animals

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