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A review by batesbarb
The Hollow Places by T. Kingfisher
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
T. Kingfisher is fast becoming one of my favorite authors. Her POV characters tend to be very relatable to me, with an absorbing and engaging voice. Much like her other horror books, this one kept me up too late a few nights running because the creeping flashes of something very wrong at the periphery kept me too scared to put it down until there was a break in the story.
I will say that this book had the same issue that I've had with most of her horror stories, which is that they're incredibly tense and frightening until the last quarter. Once the main character (and the audience) see and interact with the monsters, they're never anywhere near as scary as what we've made up from the glimpses out of the corner of our eyes. It's a common problem in horror, but I think it's a bit amplified here because Kingfisher is so good at building and escalating the early tension of the imagination and the search that the falloff once we have an actual, visible problem to face is a bit more extreme.
I will say that this book had the same issue that I've had with most of her horror stories, which is that they're incredibly tense and frightening until the last quarter. Once the main character (and the audience) see and interact with the monsters, they're never anywhere near as scary as what we've made up from the glimpses out of the corner of our eyes. It's a common problem in horror, but I think it's a bit amplified here because Kingfisher is so good at building and escalating the early tension of the imagination and the search that the falloff once we have an actual, visible problem to face is a bit more extreme.
Graphic: Body horror and Violence
Moderate: Drug use, Gore, and Alcohol