Well, obviously, hello! (I have no idea what to write in this first paragraph) *guiltily skips it*

• Title: The Hollow Places
• Author: Ursula Vernon (under the pseudonym of T. Kingfisher)
• Genre: Horror, Fiction, Mystery, Thriller
• Publication Date/Publisher: October 6th 2020 by Gallery / Saga Press

When Kara divorced her husband, she moved into her uncle’s museum, also known as the Wonder Museum. A museum filled with all sort of things like stuffed otters, raccoons, deer, elks and ”feejee” mermaids as well as stuff with ”Made in China” at the bottom. Everything goes fairly well for Kara since she is mostly busy the whole day, cataloging all the artefacts in the museum or suddenly bursting out crying because of her divorce.

When her uncle has to move in the hospital because he has to operate his leg, Kara is left in charge of the museum. This is when everything starts to become wrong. A tourist has punched a hole in the museum wall and curious Kara decides to poke her head into it and discovers something unexpected…

A mysterious passageway.

Uneager to explore it by herself, she calls to the barista of the nearby café shop, Simon who is also her friend. As they get into the passageways and investigate, they deduce it to be a bunker and further and further they walk until they reach a place with a hole on top….sunlight streaming in.

Kara and Simon discover alternate worlds where there are wicked willows that seem to come alive in the dark, emitting this strange silver light. They nearly get lost into that weird willow world themselves. Haunted place this thing is and evil creatures that hear your thoughts and with every thought, every fear, become stronger and stronger. Kara and Simon have to find a way to get out of this mess quick before that willow world takes a hold on them and never lets them go.

About The Author:

T. Kingfisher is the vaguely absurd pen-name of Ursula Vernon. In another life, she writes children’s books and weird comics, and has won the Hugo, Sequoyah, and Ursa Major awards, as well as a half-dozen Junior Library Guild selections.

When she is not writing, she is probably out in the garden, trying to make eye contact with butterflies.

[text taken directly from Goodreads]

My Ratings: 3/5

My Thoughts:

I liked this book but I felt that there were many things missing in the book. Maybe this is just me but I’m not sure. This isn’t a horror novel, it is a mild horror. I think I really did set my expectations a little to high. The aspect of ‘other-worlds’ was great but I wished we talked more about it in the book. You know, just to get a little deeper into the what I call ‘willow-world’ so we get to understand it better. It felt mostly hazy but more interesting things happen that clear of the haze a little but not fully. The ‘willow-world’ didn’t feel as scary and as bone-chilling as I wished it would be but it sparked my interest very much so I was constantly wanting to know more about it.

The author’s style of writing was significantly beautiful but I have the feeling that not enough things happened in the book. The ending explained a lot about the rest in the book and seriously it was way out of my mind. It was much more interesting than the other chapters and I was constantly wishing the book was as interesting as the ending itself.

Well, I haven’t talk about the characters a lot have I? Well, the author has a sense of humour which she expresses very well through the dialogues between Kara, Simon and Uncle Earl and the other people but they didn’t feel real enough to me. Sometimes, the adventures through the ‘willow world’ felt a little to easy but they definitely made me relax and say ”Finally!” *with huge sighs*

I am still unsure about what to write over here but I think I still have a lot to say about the book but it would just be spoil kingdom. This mostly sums up about what I think about it.

See you with another book!

-Hermione

P.S. I just finished reading Made in Korea by Sarah Suk and I seriously can’t wait to share my review with you guys because the book was beautiful and a real bagful of multi-coloured emotions and happiness. I mean, it cheered me up so much it left me smiling for a whole day after…*tells myself not to start rambling about this book over here and remembers that I have a whole post to look forward to and talk how much I want about the book*