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A review by emilyrainsford
House of Hollow by Krystal Sutherland
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
4.5
"When one was scared, the hearts of the others knocked. If you cut us open and peeled back the skin, I was sure you'd find something strange: one organ shared, somehow, between three girls."
Three little girls disappear at midnight one New Year's Eve. A month later, they turn up naked but unscathed in the exact same spot with no memory of what happened to them. But then their hair turns white, their eyes dark, and strangeness seems to follow them. What really happened to Grey, Vivi and Iris Hollow all those years ago? And when a mysterious figure in a bull skull mask starts appearing, Iris realises she's going to have to find answers she's avoided her whole life...
Whew this one is quite intense for an apparently "YA" book. The main character might be a teenager but this book really doesn't hold back on the creep factor. I'm talking fetid corpses, ants crawling from wounds, a tree seeping pus. The writing is designed to create that skin crawling feeling even in sentences that could have been innocuous - see example at the top.
This story is essentially a modern fairytale of the dark Grimm variety. It's not quite "fantasy" but neither is it pure realism. The atmosphere is cloying and very well done. There were a couple of times I regretted reading it at night time ha!
Along with all the mild body horror and grossness, this one carries a pretty heavy trigger warning for child death. While off page, I found this the hardest part of the book to handle so heads up. Younger readers without kids of their own might struggle with this less than I did.
If I had to compare it to anything else, the book that kept coming into my head was Follow Me to Ground by Sue Rainsford. The humid fecundity of the atmosphere really reminded me of that book.
There's a slightly ambiguous ending - it almost feels like there could be another book but I don't know if that's the plan or if it's one of those books that just leaves things open to your imagination.
Overall this book was slightly uncomfortable but deliberately so and quite masterfully done. I think it's a book that will stick with me and serve as a yard stick for creepy reads to come.
Three little girls disappear at midnight one New Year's Eve. A month later, they turn up naked but unscathed in the exact same spot with no memory of what happened to them. But then their hair turns white, their eyes dark, and strangeness seems to follow them. What really happened to Grey, Vivi and Iris Hollow all those years ago? And when a mysterious figure in a bull skull mask starts appearing, Iris realises she's going to have to find answers she's avoided her whole life...
Whew this one is quite intense for an apparently "YA" book. The main character might be a teenager but this book really doesn't hold back on the creep factor. I'm talking fetid corpses, ants crawling from wounds, a tree seeping pus. The writing is designed to create that skin crawling feeling even in sentences that could have been innocuous - see example at the top.
This story is essentially a modern fairytale of the dark Grimm variety. It's not quite "fantasy" but neither is it pure realism. The atmosphere is cloying and very well done. There were a couple of times I regretted reading it at night time ha!
Along with all the mild body horror and grossness, this one carries a pretty heavy trigger warning for child death. While off page, I found this the hardest part of the book to handle so heads up. Younger readers without kids of their own might struggle with this less than I did.
If I had to compare it to anything else, the book that kept coming into my head was Follow Me to Ground by Sue Rainsford. The humid fecundity of the atmosphere really reminded me of that book.
There's a slightly ambiguous ending - it almost feels like there could be another book but I don't know if that's the plan or if it's one of those books that just leaves things open to your imagination.
Overall this book was slightly uncomfortable but deliberately so and quite masterfully done. I think it's a book that will stick with me and serve as a yard stick for creepy reads to come.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gore, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Vomit, Body horror, Child death, Death, and Fire/Fire injury