A review by ehmannky
Hollow Kingdom by Kira Jane Buxton

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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