Reviews with content warning for Excrement - Hollow Kingdom

Reviews tagging 'Excrement'

Hollow Kingdom by Kira Jane Buxton

10 reviews

3martini's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense medium-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? Yes

5.0

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annaplatypus's review against another edition

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Not my sense of humor. I felt like the pacing of the book was way thrown off by inappropriately timed jokes and asides, plus a generally repetitive writing style. The whiplash between dumb potty jokes and overwrought emotional ponderings was sometimes jarring or genuinely upsetting.

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leguinstan's review against another edition

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I was really delighted by S. T.'s crass sense of humor when I first started reading the book and it was a joy to read from the perspective of character with such a distinctive voice and with such a strong personality. I found myself laughing so much during the first ~100 pages of the book.

Unfortunately, I felt that the humor got old really quickly. At a certain point I found myself getting more excited about the sporadic chapters from the perspective of other animals since they provided a break from S. T.'s incessantly vulgar roasting of other characters. The personality of the animals are just as colorful as S. T.'s personality and they were funny in their own unique ways.

Like I previously said, S. T. made me laugh at the start but I just don't think he's 300+ pages worth of funny and the plot was not nearly gripping enough to make the comedic loss worth it. More specifically, S. T.'s main objective kept changing so much that the overall plot feels unfocused. It's hard to get invested when you have to keep reminding yourself what the characters are currently trying to achieve.

The final nail in the coffin was the moment when one of the characters warns S. T. & co that

a war is brewing between different animal factions

. Some may feel differently about this but I tend to get stupendously bored with lengthy descriptions of

battle prep and large-scale warfare

. The little bit of investment I had left vanished in an instant and I simply could not bring myself to read another page.

It's such a shame it didn't work out because I think the author is very imaginative and talented (especially when it comes to narrative voice!). Perhaps it would've done better as a novella instead of a full-length novel?

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aardwyrm's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional funny sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

When you go high concept, you have to nail it. There are moments that veer too saccharine or too gruesome where the balance fails, but overall, the Hollow Kingdom sticks that landing. ST's voice wobbles from time to time, but he draws you in anyway. The post-apocalyptic adventure log is a forgiving genre. Come for the touching moments, stay for the nightmarish body horror. The book falls into a few amateurish pitfalls, namely that main characters have deaths and sacrifices mourned and treasured while nameless side characters fall by the wayside immediately forgotten, and the clumsy attempts to shoehorn science into what is clearly a supernatural change, but ST and friends carry you past.

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zorhose's review against another edition

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dark funny hopeful slow-paced

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

3.0

I originally rated this 3.75 stars, but after giving it some time I had to knock it down a notch.

I really wanted to love this book. The cover is incredible and the story sounded like it could be as well. But actually reading it was another story.

Something about this book made my brain turn off, and my reading pace was half the speed it usually has (the same happens with me and Tolkien).

Maybe it were the constant local references that probably make this book fun for people who live there or know the area, but were quite meaningless to me.

Also, while I personally like stories with animal protagonists (especially if they're sarcastic little assholes) they have their own terms for certain human things and their different perspective requires getting used to, which didn't make the reading easier for me.

I probably won't read the sequel, but if this is ever adapted for TV, I think it could either be really cool series or a garbage fire and I'd be interested in watching either way.

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chelseahart's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful tense fast-paced

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

5.0

I loved the main character's voice in this. Between shifting from domestic life to wild, balancing curiosity with self-preservation, and challenging his own biases, ST shows us this scary world in a determined and hopeful light.

I've always loved animals, with crows topping the list. If you feel at all similar then I highly recommend this book! It brought me to tears at moments and it made me laugh a bit too (two of my favorite things for a book to do to me!) I felt it to be fast-paced, with enough descriptors to make vibrant images without bogging down the narrative.

I found out about this book by seeing the sequel in-adore which I almost bought instantly before realizing it wasn't a stand alone. After enjoying Hollow Kingdom so much, I'll definitely go back for that next book!

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