A review by literaryjunkie
House of Hollow by Krystal Sutherland

dark mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

3.0

This was a bizarre book (in an interesting way). The story is about three sisters named Iris, Vivi, and Grey. They are notorious for disappearing when they were younger under the watchful eyes of their parents, then repeating a month later in the same street. Since then, they have had a strong bond they can only understand. Everyone in town and school believed they were outcasts with strange powers. This story follows Iris as she ventures to school alone since her two sisters left to forge their path. Grey is a famous model and  Vivi is in a rock band. Iris lives with her mom

and her dad killed himself when they were younger

. They find out their sister Grey has gone missing after she failed to meet her at Vivi's rock band. They spot a mysterious man with a bull mask/face and suspect he had something to do with it

. Grey's ex-boyfriend Tyler Yang wants to help find her because he believes she is hiding and does not want to get framed for her disappearance. Here are the spoilers.

After searching through her childhood room and apartment, they decide to go back to the street where it all happened, and they find a door to a place called "halfway." It is a realm within the liminal space between life and death. Vivi gets lost in the realm, so Iris and Tyler go to look for her. They find three graves that each hold the actual three hollow sisters. Tyler also ends up dying in this realm, but he gets to meet his sister who died before. Iris finds both of her sisters on a stake about to be burned by their father (the bull-man). He came to this realm, then left to find the sisters (whom he believed were not his actual daughters) to seek vengeance. They escape, and the bull is killed. Grey explains that they are not the original Hollow sisters, and she killed them to still their identity by "skinning them", so they could come back to life. She also urged her dad to kill himself (one of her powers) because he was planning to kill them. They are occupying the skin of someone they are not. The sisters leave the realm and decide not to talk to Grey anymore after hearing this news. They go back to stay with their mom (who claims she always knew but Grey threatened her if she were to say anything). She accepts them because it is as close as she will get to her real children. They attend Tyler's funeral. Then, it ends with an ambiguous ending of Vivi and Iris going back to the realm. Grey was the most interesting character though, I wish we could have got some more of her. She took the desire for the love of her sisters to horrific lengths. A true villain.

This book was a rollercoaster, and I did not expect it to go in the direction it did. This has gothic horror themes. Overall, an interesting read. I did not like the ending though.