Reviews

Hollow Kingdom by Kira Jane Buxton

osborne2read's review

adventurous emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted reflective sad tense fast-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

5.0

mbenzz's review

Started out strong, then lost steam. I wasn’t a huge fan of the underlying message here, that you shouldn’t be who you THINK you are, and who you want to be, you need to conform and be what society KNOWS you to be, and behave the way you’re supposed to behave within the confines of whatever species you were born into. (This seemed thinly veiled as behave as whatever GENDER you were born into, though maybe I’m overthinking it....)

In this case, a Crow thinks he’s a human (a MoFo). But when the human race suffers a zombie-like extinction, ST (our Crow) faces backlash and discrimination from the others Crows for being different. They repeatedly tell him he is not a human and is not allowed to behave in the manner which he does, and he needs to accept that fact that he was born a Crow and start acting like one.

Idk, that message was starting to grate on my nerves, and ST and Dog’s journey was becoming more and more boring, so I decided to throw in the towel and move on. Usually with these types of books I’ll plow through to see why humanity ended, but this time I just didn’t care enough.

The writing is well done, it’s just the story that I didn’t like.

luminous's review

4.0

I loved it! S. T. is both wry and naive and it's wonderful to hear his interpretation of MoFo behaviors and objects. Like other reviewers, I could have done with it ending around chapter 31 or 34 (I forget which). And the action sequences, particularly in the last third of the book, aren't written especially masterfully. They're written decently, but not well enough to make them feel alive and urgent. I can't say exactly what the issue is, because I listened to the audio WHICH YOU MUST DO BY THE WAY.

Liked the earlier parts/days best and liked S. T. reminiscing about pre-apocalypse. I enjoyed the later parts but I wasn't as into the whole animal kingdom working together thing or what happened to the MoFos.

tawnarita's review

adventurous dark funny hopeful medium-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

Really enjoyed this one! A fun read even though I cried at one point. Ending was a little “really?!” But overall a good book 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death

bebe_elise's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny medium-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

gabygee's review

adventurous dark funny hopeful medium-paced

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

5.0

pennygale's review

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious reflective tense 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? It's complicated

4.5

mclose20's review

adventurous funny mysterious 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

3.5

abbie_o's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny inspiring reflective medium-paced

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

3.75

niknak_paddywhack's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Not my chosen genre, and I didn't love a lot of it for the gore, but the quality of the writing and Buxton's ability to draw the reader in make this an excellent choice for anyone looking for something unusual. Narration was well done. Thanks to my library for making this an inter-system read for the year, well worth it.