Reviews

Hollow by Karina Halle

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red_raven22's review against another edition

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dark tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

countesslemongrab's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

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

3.25

The plot was pretty good for the most part. The “big reveals” weren’t very big because they were very predictable. Where the book ends feels weird, like there should have been more to the story.

Content Warnings

bailees_bookshelf's review against another edition

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5.0

5 SPOOKY AND WITCHY STARS
Check Trigger Warnings

Tropes
-MMF/MF/MM
-Dom/Sub
-Why Choose

Kat is the niece of very powerful witches that run a school for witchcraft in Sleepy Hollow. When her betrothed disappears, her mother allows her to attend, but everything at this school isn’t what it seems. Professor Ichabod Crane immediately feels a connection to Kat that he doesn’t understand, something connects them. Enter Brom Bones, Kat’s betrothed that’s been missing for 4 years. But something’s off.. there’s secrets that need to be uncovered about the witches of Sleepy Hollow..

Hollow fulfilled my spooky, witchy dark academia needs. This is by far my favorite Karina Halle book I’ve read to date. These characters were so interesting and there are so many secrets that still need to be brought to the light in the next book, but she set it up perfectly. The spice was hoooot, as always Ichabod Crane, everyone. I had so much fun reading this and can’t wait for Legend!

ladypemberton's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense

3.75

in_dire_read's review

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adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

kaya92's review

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5.0

Probably one of my favourite books I've read by Karina! It was the perfect mix of spiciness & creepy! And I absolutely love the MMF storyline, I cannot wait for the next book

mollyofgreengables's review

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3.0

I was given a free ARC to review this book.

The premise is great - Sleepy Hollow retelling, school for witches, age gap, MMF. There’s a lot of creepiness to be had, and that’s perfect for the spooky season.

I enjoyed the plot and liberties that KH took with this retelling. I think it has great potential, and I’m hopeful that I enjoy the sequel more.

I think this one just wasn’t for me. Some of the sexual aspects just didn’t jive. I love a good smut book, but this, at times, felt like sex for the sake of it and it didn’t really drive the relationships or plot forward. It’s also a little insta-love/insta-lust. I’m not a fan of insta-love, and I do believe there’s a reason for it coming, but for now it’s just something I’m not a fan of. We’ll see if there’s more to it than that in Legend.

Part of the issue for me was with the monster. He is possessing one of the MMCs and is driven to have sex with her and it just feels so random and gross. It’s aggressive and predatory which is probably the point. But it’s not good. I don’t like where that’s going - if he, as the monster, sleeps with her, I’m gonna feel some type of way about it. It just didn’t work for me. It was just too sex for the sake of sex the way it came across.

Some of the dialogue didn’t sound realistic but that’s also probably because of the who the character was - she’s supposed to be odd.

I think this book just needed more time and another pass by a developmental editor. It could have been so great, and that’s why I’m so hesitant to rate this 3.

I think there are a lot of good elements. But there also several that just took me out of it and I couldn’t get past. I love KH, so I’ll try Legend.