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3.47 AVERAGE
3.47 AVERAGE
People either love or hate this book. Its my favorite. The main problem that people had with the book was the slowness but thats what kept me interested. For me, it hyped up the the suspense.
I'd known about this book for months before it ever came out. I'm even on Verday's mailing list. The premise sounded cool and the cover looks awesome. But it is true what they say, you can't judge a book by it's cover. The story was boring and rather dumb. so let me save you from five hundred pages of tedious description and boring day to day activities...
****SPOiLERS FOLLOW. ****
There are three main parts to the story's plot.
1) Abby's best friend Kristen disappears. A few months later her body if found in the river. It's supposedly a big mystery why she was even at river at night and how she fell in. So Abby's going to find out! About half way through the book she finds a secret journal Kristen kept that talks about a secret boyfriend, D., that she never told Abby about. Abby feels very betrayed. And that's about all on the mystery aspect of the plot. We find nothing else out about Kristen or why she' was at the river or who D is. Abby doesn't even try to find out. And seriously, who would just put the first initial of a person's name in their journal? anyone? unless the whole entry was short hand, i don't think so.
2) Abby meets a boy named Caspian at Abby's funeral. He's kind of creepy in my opinion since he's just kind of there and doesn't answer her questions. And he has skunk hair. But to Abby, he is Hotte (her word, not mine). Which is pretty much the only thing I could figure she sees in him. Anyway, they meet up a lot here and there, mostly at the graveyard or river. Abby spends a lot of the time wondering what is going on with him, as was I because nothing was going on. Their romance really fell flat for me. Then at the very end, we find out that Caspian is dead. He died two years before in a car accident.
3) I'm sure that the story "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" is supposed to be an important part of the story, but besides visiting Irving's grave a whole lot and Abby loving the story so very much, there really wasn't much going on. Abby meets an old couple in the graveyard and she really likes them but then at the end she finds out that they are the Headless Horseman and Katrina. Irving kindly changed the end of his written story to protect them. But really, that's all we find out. Nothing else. Like the Headless Horseman was already dead by the time he fell in love with Katrina, so how is that working for them? They're both old now. And both dead (i think).
So all of these three plots are really sparse in the FIVE HUNDRED PAGE book. The bulk of the book is about nothing. What Abby ate, how she does her hair, trying to figure out what to wear to meet Caspian, walking by the river, visiting the graveyard, who she talked to at school. over and over and over and over and over again. All of which had nothing to do with the almost non-existent plot. And she makes perfume and gets a job. All of which have nothing to do with the plot. And made the book so extremely BORING.
And then there is Ben. i am very confused about why he has so many pages in the book. Is this supposed to set up a love triangle for the next book? Because I felt like all 500 pages was a set up for the next book since NOTHING HAPPENED!
I want Abby to get a backbone and be the heroine in her own story. To define her relationship with Caspian after a month, not after seven months and only after she finds out he's dead. I want her to care that her friend had a secret boyfriend that she fought with a lot and who made her promise not to tell anyone about their relationship. Who is he and what did he have to do with Kristen's death? Take an active roll in finding out, gosh darn it! I wanted her to talk to the old couple in the graveyard and find out what is going on, not run away to her aunt's.
I wanted her to take a stand on something, ANYTHING, instead of drift through days having meaningless arguments with her mother about the prom and having nightmares that had no purpose in furthering the plot.
So I didn't like this book. Which I am so sad about because I really wanted to like it. I read all FIVE HUNDRED PAGES even though I was bored after the first fifteen because I wanted to have something happen that would redeem the book for me. Nothing ever did. It just got worse
****SPOiLERS FOLLOW. ****
There are three main parts to the story's plot.
1) Abby's best friend Kristen disappears. A few months later her body if found in the river. It's supposedly a big mystery why she was even at river at night and how she fell in. So Abby's going to find out! About half way through the book she finds a secret journal Kristen kept that talks about a secret boyfriend, D., that she never told Abby about. Abby feels very betrayed. And that's about all on the mystery aspect of the plot. We find nothing else out about Kristen or why she' was at the river or who D is. Abby doesn't even try to find out. And seriously, who would just put the first initial of a person's name in their journal? anyone? unless the whole entry was short hand, i don't think so.
2) Abby meets a boy named Caspian at Abby's funeral. He's kind of creepy in my opinion since he's just kind of there and doesn't answer her questions. And he has skunk hair. But to Abby, he is Hotte (her word, not mine). Which is pretty much the only thing I could figure she sees in him. Anyway, they meet up a lot here and there, mostly at the graveyard or river. Abby spends a lot of the time wondering what is going on with him, as was I because nothing was going on. Their romance really fell flat for me. Then at the very end, we find out that Caspian is dead. He died two years before in a car accident.
3) I'm sure that the story "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" is supposed to be an important part of the story, but besides visiting Irving's grave a whole lot and Abby loving the story so very much, there really wasn't much going on. Abby meets an old couple in the graveyard and she really likes them but then at the end she finds out that they are the Headless Horseman and Katrina. Irving kindly changed the end of his written story to protect them. But really, that's all we find out. Nothing else. Like the Headless Horseman was already dead by the time he fell in love with Katrina, so how is that working for them? They're both old now. And both dead (i think).
So all of these three plots are really sparse in the FIVE HUNDRED PAGE book. The bulk of the book is about nothing. What Abby ate, how she does her hair, trying to figure out what to wear to meet Caspian, walking by the river, visiting the graveyard, who she talked to at school. over and over and over and over and over again. All of which had nothing to do with the almost non-existent plot. And she makes perfume and gets a job. All of which have nothing to do with the plot. And made the book so extremely BORING.
And then there is Ben. i am very confused about why he has so many pages in the book. Is this supposed to set up a love triangle for the next book? Because I felt like all 500 pages was a set up for the next book since NOTHING HAPPENED!
I want Abby to get a backbone and be the heroine in her own story. To define her relationship with Caspian after a month, not after seven months and only after she finds out he's dead. I want her to care that her friend had a secret boyfriend that she fought with a lot and who made her promise not to tell anyone about their relationship. Who is he and what did he have to do with Kristen's death? Take an active roll in finding out, gosh darn it! I wanted her to talk to the old couple in the graveyard and find out what is going on, not run away to her aunt's.
I wanted her to take a stand on something, ANYTHING, instead of drift through days having meaningless arguments with her mother about the prom and having nightmares that had no purpose in furthering the plot.
So I didn't like this book. Which I am so sad about because I really wanted to like it. I read all FIVE HUNDRED PAGES even though I was bored after the first fifteen because I wanted to have something happen that would redeem the book for me. Nothing ever did. It just got worse
This book, in my opinion, was really slow and dragged on unnecessarily. It would have been much better if the author had written everything in three hundred pages instead of five hundred, because there really wasn't a need for it to go on for so long. At all. Yes, she's mopey. We get it. Abbey also got on my nerves sometimes with her whole oh-poor-me attitude, especially about the whole Thanksgiving thing. I could hardly read, I was rolling my eyes so hard at her. But, you know, it was pretty interesting, I suppose, when not going on and on and on. Though I think the end events should've been in the middle and the author should've gone from there, I guess the endings okay. If my library gets the next one, I suppose I'll read it. As long as it's better than this one. 2.5 stars.
This was a very melodramatic book with a main character who didn't notice what was completely obvious to the readers. The ending wasn't a proper ending either: none of the plot points were resolved. Not a single one.
Okay, so I'm a bit frustrated today, boys and girls. I read this book with this beautiful, amazing cover and this fantastic summary. The book is called The Hollow (as in the story of "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" by Washington Irving) by Jessica Verday. It's the first book in a trilogy. It started out sooo great. We have Abby, the main character, who just lost her best friend Kristen. She just met this incredibly hot guy who claims his name is Caspian Crane, who's handsome and considerate and clever and an "older man" (he's two years older than Abby, I believe). This book has sooo much going for it!
So just so we're clear, a) this review is going to be relatively short, b) it is FULL of spoilers, and c) this book disappointed me a lot. Which stinks! Because the writing is actually really good! And I love slow-steamers where it takes a bit to get going with the action and creepy stuff. That's one reason I love Nevermore, by Kelly Creagh! And there were neat-o quotes from "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" at the beginning of each chapter, too!
BUT! This book disappointed me. I'm sorry, Ms. Verday, but you made me a crud-ton of promises with both the summary and the first 3/5 of the book, and you did not deliver. I am sad now.
So the basic plot of this book is given out in the summary. Abby's friend Kristen is missing and presumed dead, Abby doesn’t believe she's gone, there's suspicion of foul play, Kristen was apparently hiding something, there's a hot guy named Caspian that Abby falls for, she makes friends with this nice elderly couple who Caspian despises for some reason, and there's this big secret or secrets that make Abby question Kristen, Caspian, the old people, and her own sanity. Plot in a nutshell, and all of it pretty exciting, right?
Wrong. It could have been exciting. It could have been so cool and gasp-worthy. But it wasn't.
Is Kristen really dead? Yes. Is she a ghost or a zombie or any other cool undead thing? No. Which wouldn’t be a problem except that the question of Kristen's death or non-death was belabored to the point that, along with Abby's recurring and seemingly psychic dreams of her, if she's not dead, or there is something weird going on with that whole thing, we should have found out about it in this book, or at least gotten some kind of hint. We didn't. And the book is pretty long. At least 100,000 words. Now maybe we did get a hint—the dreams, for instance—and it was just too subtle for me, but I don't think so, because a character who would know told Abby Kristen was dead, legitimately no-ghosty-resurrection dead, and we've had no indications that Abby has any powers that would supersede this character's proclamation on said death.
Suspicion of foul play regarding Kristen's death is toyed with throughout the book, but is never confirmed nor denied. We don't even get anything beyond a hint that someone other than Fate or Chance might've been involved. She drowned crossing a river known for its dangers (Abby and Kristen even had a rule about never crossing alone, because you could slip, fall in, and drown—which is basically what happened) and the only hint that someone might know something is, we discover Kristen had a secret boyfriend. Not that he was physically abusive or threatened her or anything. Just that he existed and was the "typical" teenage boyfriend who sent his girlfriend spiraling through the ups and downs of "young love." And we don't even discover that until about halfway through the book, and that particular subplot never really goes anywhere, either. Abby considers the idea that the secret boyfriend might be involved somehow or know something maybe, but it's a brief thought that whisks away within twenty pages.
The big secret that wrecks everything? Caspian and the old people, Katy and Nikolas (an elderly married couple) are ghosts. Which would be cool if they had some kind of destiny or prophecy to deal with or there was some kind of dark fate awaiting them that we find about in this book! But we don't. If anything looms on the horizon for these three, we don't find out about it here. Why does Caspian despise the old people? That's never actually explained, except that he knows they're ghosts and it freaks him out. Does he know he's a ghost? Yes. So why does it freak him out? Not really explained.
The big secret that wrecks Abby's fond love for Kristen and makes her feel betrayed (Kristen's still her best friend, but she's mad at her now)? Kristen's secret boyfriend. I don't know, I'd like to think I wouldn’t spaz out about it like Abby does. I'd want to know why my best friend wouldn’t tell me something like that, and maybe I'd be a little hurt, but I wouldn’t get angry about it.
Also, just a pet peeve, Caspian's hair is ridiculous. One black streak amidst platinum blond. I've only seen bizarre-colored like that it two things (Daughter of Smoke and Bone and Fruit's Basket) and it worked then, but it didn't work now. For one thing, the timing's off. He got the black streak, which identifies him as this one type of ghost called a Shade, from a near-death experience that happened ten years before he died!
The cool things in this book: Katy and Nikolas's true identities. That was pretty epic. Also, Abby (for the most part). She makes perfume. Perfume! How freaking cool is that? Gotta also admire a girl who can make perfume that smells like snickerdoodles. Also, the fact that the author managed to integrate Abby's school and work into the story, as well as cover half a year of time so smoothly in one book. And the characters are all very fleshed out and three-dimensional, and the writing is technically good. Her descriptions and settings rock, too.
BUT! The big problem: a lot of promises that fall short on delivery. Supposedly there's a lot of danger and mystery and spooky stuff in this book. No, there's really not. No danger at all, in fact. I'm going to read book two, The Haunted, with the desperate hope that some stuff actually happens and I find out what the big deal is, but this book just made me sad and disappointed me. It was almost like the ghosts were an afterthought, in a way. Like, "I need something to make Caspian's come-hither-stay-away thing not douchey, and to make Katy and Nikolas exciting. I know! I'll make them ghosts." It probably (hopefully) becomes a bigger thing in book two. We'll see.
Honestly, this book gets 2/5 stars. The two stars are for the creative bits I mentioned above, and for the technical writing skill. But I wouldn’t buy this book, unless I saw it with the pretty cover in hardback for like, a dollar or two (that's a bargain) and didn't have to pay $4 shipping from Amazon. If someone gave it to me, I'd be happy, but I wouldn’t get excited about it.
Hopefully The Haunted impresses me enough to change my opinion.
Signing off,
LA Knight
So just so we're clear, a) this review is going to be relatively short, b) it is FULL of spoilers, and c) this book disappointed me a lot. Which stinks! Because the writing is actually really good! And I love slow-steamers where it takes a bit to get going with the action and creepy stuff. That's one reason I love Nevermore, by Kelly Creagh! And there were neat-o quotes from "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" at the beginning of each chapter, too!
BUT! This book disappointed me. I'm sorry, Ms. Verday, but you made me a crud-ton of promises with both the summary and the first 3/5 of the book, and you did not deliver. I am sad now.
So the basic plot of this book is given out in the summary. Abby's friend Kristen is missing and presumed dead, Abby doesn’t believe she's gone, there's suspicion of foul play, Kristen was apparently hiding something, there's a hot guy named Caspian that Abby falls for, she makes friends with this nice elderly couple who Caspian despises for some reason, and there's this big secret or secrets that make Abby question Kristen, Caspian, the old people, and her own sanity. Plot in a nutshell, and all of it pretty exciting, right?
Wrong. It could have been exciting. It could have been so cool and gasp-worthy. But it wasn't.
Is Kristen really dead? Yes. Is she a ghost or a zombie or any other cool undead thing? No. Which wouldn’t be a problem except that the question of Kristen's death or non-death was belabored to the point that, along with Abby's recurring and seemingly psychic dreams of her, if she's not dead, or there is something weird going on with that whole thing, we should have found out about it in this book, or at least gotten some kind of hint. We didn't. And the book is pretty long. At least 100,000 words. Now maybe we did get a hint—the dreams, for instance—and it was just too subtle for me, but I don't think so, because a character who would know told Abby Kristen was dead, legitimately no-ghosty-resurrection dead, and we've had no indications that Abby has any powers that would supersede this character's proclamation on said death.
Suspicion of foul play regarding Kristen's death is toyed with throughout the book, but is never confirmed nor denied. We don't even get anything beyond a hint that someone other than Fate or Chance might've been involved. She drowned crossing a river known for its dangers (Abby and Kristen even had a rule about never crossing alone, because you could slip, fall in, and drown—which is basically what happened) and the only hint that someone might know something is, we discover Kristen had a secret boyfriend. Not that he was physically abusive or threatened her or anything. Just that he existed and was the "typical" teenage boyfriend who sent his girlfriend spiraling through the ups and downs of "young love." And we don't even discover that until about halfway through the book, and that particular subplot never really goes anywhere, either. Abby considers the idea that the secret boyfriend might be involved somehow or know something maybe, but it's a brief thought that whisks away within twenty pages.
The big secret that wrecks everything? Caspian and the old people, Katy and Nikolas (an elderly married couple) are ghosts. Which would be cool if they had some kind of destiny or prophecy to deal with or there was some kind of dark fate awaiting them that we find about in this book! But we don't. If anything looms on the horizon for these three, we don't find out about it here. Why does Caspian despise the old people? That's never actually explained, except that he knows they're ghosts and it freaks him out. Does he know he's a ghost? Yes. So why does it freak him out? Not really explained.
The big secret that wrecks Abby's fond love for Kristen and makes her feel betrayed (Kristen's still her best friend, but she's mad at her now)? Kristen's secret boyfriend. I don't know, I'd like to think I wouldn’t spaz out about it like Abby does. I'd want to know why my best friend wouldn’t tell me something like that, and maybe I'd be a little hurt, but I wouldn’t get angry about it.
Also, just a pet peeve, Caspian's hair is ridiculous. One black streak amidst platinum blond. I've only seen bizarre-colored like that it two things (Daughter of Smoke and Bone and Fruit's Basket) and it worked then, but it didn't work now. For one thing, the timing's off. He got the black streak, which identifies him as this one type of ghost called a Shade, from a near-death experience that happened ten years before he died!
The cool things in this book: Katy and Nikolas's true identities. That was pretty epic. Also, Abby (for the most part). She makes perfume. Perfume! How freaking cool is that? Gotta also admire a girl who can make perfume that smells like snickerdoodles. Also, the fact that the author managed to integrate Abby's school and work into the story, as well as cover half a year of time so smoothly in one book. And the characters are all very fleshed out and three-dimensional, and the writing is technically good. Her descriptions and settings rock, too.
BUT! The big problem: a lot of promises that fall short on delivery. Supposedly there's a lot of danger and mystery and spooky stuff in this book. No, there's really not. No danger at all, in fact. I'm going to read book two, The Haunted, with the desperate hope that some stuff actually happens and I find out what the big deal is, but this book just made me sad and disappointed me. It was almost like the ghosts were an afterthought, in a way. Like, "I need something to make Caspian's come-hither-stay-away thing not douchey, and to make Katy and Nikolas exciting. I know! I'll make them ghosts." It probably (hopefully) becomes a bigger thing in book two. We'll see.
Honestly, this book gets 2/5 stars. The two stars are for the creative bits I mentioned above, and for the technical writing skill. But I wouldn’t buy this book, unless I saw it with the pretty cover in hardback for like, a dollar or two (that's a bargain) and didn't have to pay $4 shipping from Amazon. If someone gave it to me, I'd be happy, but I wouldn’t get excited about it.
Hopefully The Haunted impresses me enough to change my opinion.
Signing off,
LA Knight
I had my hopes on this book because when it first came out last year in the blogging world, there was so much excitement and curiosity that it spiked my excitement too. Admittedly though, The Hollow was impressive but at the same time, disappointing.
The disappointing part of the novel was the lack of the mystery - I never figured what exactly Kristen was hiding besides the journal and what she had written in it. I was hoping for Jessica to show some light on what the "mystery" was but instead, she wrote mostly about Abbey and her lust for Caspian.
Even the relationship between Abbey and Caspian was disappointing. In the beginning, I was excited for the budding romance but when Caspian finally admitted something to Abbey, I was extremely disappointed. I was all ready for the forbidden love to happen but sadly, it was not the case.
A redeeming point that I enjoyed thoroughly, was Abbey's hobby with making perfumes. It was weird how much I liked this part because the whole story is supposed to be about this mysterious past that Kristen had but the part I liked best was the perfume. I found Abbey's hobby unique and fun. It was satisfying to read what types of oils she had to mix to find the correct formula to make a new scent.
I also enjoyed the twists and turns of the plot. There wasn't much in the beginning but when some things started to come to light, you'll see how much twists The Hollow really has.
Overall, there is some work to be done in the sequel of this novel. I hope that some questions will finally be answered and maybe, hopefully, Caspian can redeem himself somehow. :)
The disappointing part of the novel was the lack of the mystery - I never figured what exactly Kristen was hiding besides the journal and what she had written in it. I was hoping for Jessica to show some light on what the "mystery" was but instead, she wrote mostly about Abbey and her lust for Caspian.
Even the relationship between Abbey and Caspian was disappointing. In the beginning, I was excited for the budding romance but when Caspian finally admitted something to Abbey, I was extremely disappointed. I was all ready for the forbidden love to happen but sadly, it was not the case.
A redeeming point that I enjoyed thoroughly, was Abbey's hobby with making perfumes. It was weird how much I liked this part because the whole story is supposed to be about this mysterious past that Kristen had but the part I liked best was the perfume. I found Abbey's hobby unique and fun. It was satisfying to read what types of oils she had to mix to find the correct formula to make a new scent.
I also enjoyed the twists and turns of the plot. There wasn't much in the beginning but when some things started to come to light, you'll see how much twists The Hollow really has.
Overall, there is some work to be done in the sequel of this novel. I hope that some questions will finally be answered and maybe, hopefully, Caspian can redeem himself somehow. :)
Find the original review here: http://thisisthestoryofmyreadinglife.blogspot.ca/2014/01/miniviews-1the-hollow-tiger-lily.html
Oh how the premise had me excited. But this one just ended up lacking in almost everything; plot, dialogue, emotions, character development. It's very reminiscent of the Twilight era and I(embarrassingly) probably would have rated it a lot higher if I had read it back then. Abbey is another Bella Swan. And add in super cheesy dialogue and a "dead" love interest and it's Twilight in another setting. The only reason I gave this one a 2/5 is because of that ending. It was actually pretty realistic in how I would imagine someone acting when finding out about these supernatural beings around them.
Oh how the premise had me excited. But this one just ended up lacking in almost everything; plot, dialogue, emotions, character development. It's very reminiscent of the Twilight era and I(embarrassingly) probably would have rated it a lot higher if I had read it back then. Abbey is another Bella Swan. And add in super cheesy dialogue and a "dead" love interest and it's Twilight in another setting. The only reason I gave this one a 2/5 is because of that ending. It was actually pretty realistic in how I would imagine someone acting when finding out about these supernatural beings around them.
I bought this book as it was recommended on a few lists here on GR. Well, I must admit I enjoyed the first half of it but as the book went on and on and on, I started to like it less and less.
Thinking about this book I find I need to give a lesson in plotting. EEEK, you say, I hate thinking about plot. Well, as a writer I agree with you 100%. However.... Well, let me show you instead.
This is a typical plot line:
-^----^^--^-^--^^-^^^^-^-- The peaks are conflict, the dashes are story.
Now, the plot line for The Hollow goes like this:
-^-----^-----------^-
That's it. No plot peaks = NOTHING HAPPENS!
We only find out about what makes the love interest so interesting, but that's it. The big premise in the beginning which is also drawn out to some extent in the middle, falls by the wayside. We are left hanging there with nothing to entice us to pick up the next book (and there are two!). Bad plotting. And even the best writing can't make up that shortfall.
Thinking about this book I find I need to give a lesson in plotting. EEEK, you say, I hate thinking about plot. Well, as a writer I agree with you 100%. However.... Well, let me show you instead.
This is a typical plot line:
-^----^^--^-^--^^-^^^^-^-- The peaks are conflict, the dashes are story.
Now, the plot line for The Hollow goes like this:
-^-----^-----------^-
That's it. No plot peaks = NOTHING HAPPENS!
We only find out about what makes the love interest so interesting, but that's it. The big premise in the beginning which is also drawn out to some extent in the middle, falls by the wayside. We are left hanging there with nothing to entice us to pick up the next book (and there are two!). Bad plotting. And even the best writing can't make up that shortfall.