Scan barcode
caidyn's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
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
4.5
Wow, this was an explosive conclusion to this series. It's very different from the first book, something that took me a bit to adjust to. Multiple perspectives and a very different, more violent, tone. But am excellent read.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder, Blood, and Death
Moderate: Sexism
cagneynicole18's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
inspiring
tense
slow-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
4.0
okay here we go...
the first 2/3 or the book dragged to me which was deviating because I loved the first book, but finishing the book was worth it. I do wish that she made the ending much longer and kept writing. I do feel like the author got tired of the book at some point and rushed the rest. I loved finding out Nirrim's origin that was incredible to me. Honestly, I wish we got three books instead of two I'm sad it's over.
the first 2/3 or the book dragged to me which was deviating because I loved the first book, but finishing the book was worth it. I do wish that she made the ending much longer and kept writing. I do feel like the author got tired of the book at some point and rushed the rest. I loved finding out Nirrim's origin that was incredible to me. Honestly, I wish we got three books instead of two I'm sad it's over.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Blood, and Violence
Minor: War, Lesbophobia, and Homophobia
orchidd's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
hopeful
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Murder, Death, and Violence
Moderate: Gaslighting and War
imaginingly's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
i enjoyed how this book ended although i wasn’t the biggest fan of nirrim’s character for this book i really enjoyed the development of (almost) each character we met from the midnight lie and how it all came together in the end
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood and Death
Minor: Classism, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Genocide, Grief, Gun violence, Torture, Toxic friendship, and War
booksthatburn's review against another edition
I hadn't liked the love interest in the first book, so switching perspectives to that person and a very altered version of the previous protagonist resulted in a book where I dislike both of the point-of-view characters. That alteration fits the plot, so if you liked the first one this might work for you, it just didn't for me. I can say it starts to deal with the fallout of the protagonist's actions in the first book, so while I don't know how it ends up, I can confirm that it didn't resolve it quickly nor cheaply.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Violence, Body horror, Death, Genocide, and Cannibalism
Minor: Self harm, Slavery, Emotional abuse, Blood, and Colonisation
angstifies's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
tense
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
honestly so disappointing, this sequel should’ve focused on actually being a sequel not to give content about the other series the author wrote. i wasn’t interested in anything that was going on most of the time, i’m so sad because i truly loved the first book and now i wish i had read it as a stand-alone.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, Blood, Death, and Murder
Moderate: Child abuse, Confinement, and War
Minor: Death of parent
yvonne_cl's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
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? Yes
4.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence and Blood
Moderate: War, Abandonment, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Lesbophobia, and Murder
Minor: Death, Death of parent, and Gun violence
beforeviolets's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
TW: blood, violence, decapitation (onscreen), war, mental torture, gun violence, attempted murder, forced drug use (past, offscreen), addiction (past), death, described corpses, emotional abuse, poisoning, colonization, self-harm (a character pierces their own ears), amputation (past, mention), alcohol (mention)
My thoughts on The Hollow Heart are hard to express, because though I enjoyed the book and thought there were a lot of beautiful things about it, I felt that it really disappointed me as a sequel.
Contrary to The Midnight Lie, this book uses multiple POV's, a choice I really enjoyed. Not only did we experience the POV's of our two main characters, we also had a third, omnipotent POV that helped add a mysterious narrative and gave Rutkoski more room to manipulate our understanding of the world,
both past and present. It offered more wiggle room to play around with timeline and connections in a way that I felt was really unique and made the work more godpunk in genre, which I'll never say no to.
But as much as I love Marie Rutkoski's descriptive writing and as much as I adore the characters and the world of this series, the sequel just fell short for me. There was a powerful, heartwrenching, almost Greek Mythology-style tale filled with conversations of heroism and love and mortality built into the framework of the story but seemed to only start about 75% of the way through. To be given such a beautiful tale only in the last handful of pages really just felt like a waste, and by that point, I had been waiting so long for the plot to kick in that the story had lost almost all of the stakes and all of my interest. I really wish those last pages had been stretched out and expanded upon throughout the whole narrative instead of jammed in at the end.
And all the elements and details that I loved so dearly in The Midnight Lie (the romance, the banter, the characterization) were just completely discarded in this book. Part of it made sense for the character arcs but it mostly just made me feel like the heart of the story itself was hollow. The romance was no longer believable, the story was disjointed and anti-climactic, and the characters felt lackluster when they had previously captured my heart.
In the art world, when making comics or graphic novels, there's a rule that states that you should draw the joints of a figure above or below a frame, but never right on the edge of it, so that our brains can subconsciously continue the image offscreen. If you draw the joint right at the edge of the frame, it disrupts the visual flow of the body and causes the viewer's brain to stop the image at the joint. It's jarring and subconsciously difficult to process, and I think that's exactly what Rutkoski did. With the two books, she sliced the plot right in the middle, right at the joint, in a way that disrupts the flow and makes it difficult to be able to connect the two stories.
EDIT: My friend El and I JUST figured out (while writing this review) that this duology is a spin-off of one of Rutkoski's other works. With this knowledge, I'm realizing that the reason that I found so much of this book confusing or wasteful or empty in terms of plot was actually because Rutkoski just spent a large chunk of this book retconning her other series. (This required a lot of recaps and info dumps that seemed useless to wrapping up this duology.) To me, especially considering this series is never mentioned to be connected to the other in terms of marketing or otherwise, that is such an act of disrespect to the story of The Midnight Lie. Sid and Nirrim deserve their own full and complete narrative, not for their story to be coopted as a way to fix the issues in Rutkoski's former work. And now this series is the one to contain glaring issues that need to be fixed since much of it was dedicated to telling another story. Truly such a failure on the author's part.
My thoughts on The Hollow Heart are hard to express, because though I enjoyed the book and thought there were a lot of beautiful things about it, I felt that it really disappointed me as a sequel.
Contrary to The Midnight Lie, this book uses multiple POV's, a choice I really enjoyed. Not only did we experience the POV's of our two main characters, we also had a third, omnipotent POV that helped add a mysterious narrative and gave Rutkoski more room to manipulate our understanding of the world,
both past and present. It offered more wiggle room to play around with timeline and connections in a way that I felt was really unique and made the work more godpunk in genre, which I'll never say no to.
But as much as I love Marie Rutkoski's descriptive writing and as much as I adore the characters and the world of this series, the sequel just fell short for me. There was a powerful, heartwrenching, almost Greek Mythology-style tale filled with conversations of heroism and love and mortality built into the framework of the story but seemed to only start about 75% of the way through. To be given such a beautiful tale only in the last handful of pages really just felt like a waste, and by that point, I had been waiting so long for the plot to kick in that the story had lost almost all of the stakes and all of my interest. I really wish those last pages had been stretched out and expanded upon throughout the whole narrative instead of jammed in at the end.
And all the elements and details that I loved so dearly in The Midnight Lie (the romance, the banter, the characterization) were just completely discarded in this book. Part of it made sense for the character arcs but it mostly just made me feel like the heart of the story itself was hollow. The romance was no longer believable, the story was disjointed and anti-climactic, and the characters felt lackluster when they had previously captured my heart.
In the art world, when making comics or graphic novels, there's a rule that states that you should draw the joints of a figure above or below a frame, but never right on the edge of it, so that our brains can subconsciously continue the image offscreen. If you draw the joint right at the edge of the frame, it disrupts the visual flow of the body and causes the viewer's brain to stop the image at the joint. It's jarring and subconsciously difficult to process, and I think that's exactly what Rutkoski did. With the two books, she sliced the plot right in the middle, right at the joint, in a way that disrupts the flow and makes it difficult to be able to connect the two stories.
EDIT: My friend El and I JUST figured out (while writing this review) that this duology is a spin-off of one of Rutkoski's other works. With this knowledge, I'm realizing that the reason that I found so much of this book confusing or wasteful or empty in terms of plot was actually because Rutkoski just spent a large chunk of this book retconning her other series. (This required a lot of recaps and info dumps that seemed useless to wrapping up this duology.) To me, especially considering this series is never mentioned to be connected to the other in terms of marketing or otherwise, that is such an act of disrespect to the story of The Midnight Lie. Sid and Nirrim deserve their own full and complete narrative, not for their story to be coopted as a way to fix the issues in Rutkoski's former work. And now this series is the one to contain glaring issues that need to be fixed since much of it was dedicated to telling another story. Truly such a failure on the author's part.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Violence, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Torture, Death, and Colonisation
Moderate: Murder, War, and Self harm
Minor: Addiction, Drug abuse, and Drug use
amabel_xo's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
hopeful
inspiring
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
It’s truly an amazing book
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death
Minor: Sexism, War, Death of parent, Violence, Murder, and Lesbophobia
plumpaperbacks's review against another edition
dark
emotional
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
After thoroughly enjoying The Midnight Lie, I was so excited to dive into The Hollow Heart. Unfortunately, I found it incredibly underwhelming, and even considering DNFing more than once. I pushed through because of how much I liked the first book, thinking it had to get better. And while it did, marginally, it never managed to achieve the same levels of intrigue, emotion and romance as its predecessor.
The slow pacing and long chapters made reading this feel like an uphill battle. At risk of sounding dramatic, it was sort of a Sisyphus situation—every time I would start to get invested, an especially long, boring chapter would ruin that for me. I shudder to think of what this book would’ve been without Sid’s chapters; I love her to pieces, 10/10, my favorite character, book girlfriend material. In all seriousness, her narration was what saved the story for me.
The girls were reunited in the final third, making it somewhat but not entirely better than the first two thirds. What really could’ve upped my opinion is a more detailed ending, because I feel like I was cheated. Not nearly enough sapphic content or story resolution, in my opinion.
Honestly, this might be one of my most disappointing reads of the year, alongside Kingdom of the Wicked. Whereas KOTW was a case of a book not living up to internet hype, The Hollow Heart was a sequel that I don’t think lived up to the first book, and that, I think, is so very sad. :((
Representation
The slow pacing and long chapters made reading this feel like an uphill battle. At risk of sounding dramatic, it was sort of a Sisyphus situation—every time I would start to get invested, an especially long, boring chapter would ruin that for me. I shudder to think of what this book would’ve been without Sid’s chapters; I love her to pieces, 10/10, my favorite character, book girlfriend material. In all seriousness, her narration was what saved the story for me.
The girls were reunited in the final third, making it somewhat but not entirely better than the first two thirds. What really could’ve upped my opinion is a more detailed ending, because I feel like I was cheated. Not nearly enough sapphic content or story resolution, in my opinion.
Honestly, this might be one of my most disappointing reads of the year, alongside Kingdom of the Wicked. Whereas KOTW was a case of a book not living up to internet hype, The Hollow Heart was a sequel that I don’t think lived up to the first book, and that, I think, is so very sad. :((
Representation
- sapphic protagonist of color
- biracial lesbian love interest
- sapphic romance
- queer side character
- side characters of color
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Gore, Death, and Murder
Most of the murders in this book are done by beheading, which is mentioned and briefly described, but never in graphic detail.