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A review by bhnmt61
Hollow Kingdom by Kira Jane Buxton
4.0
I don't know how to describe this book. What happens isn't that complicated: ST is a crow raised by his human Big Jim. When Big Jim succumbs to the zombie apocalypse, ST and Big Jim's dog Dennis set out to save the world. There is lots of profanity (ST stands for Shit Turd, for starters), and potty humor, and sometimes very clever word play-- birds that twitter and tweet, etc. But the experience of reading it is just plain strange. Sometimes I loved it, and it often made me laugh. Buxton has a gift for creating pitch perfect voices for various different animals, and there are a number of genuinely moving moments of insight about the ways humans interact with the rest of the natural world.
But sometimes it was just so hopelessly naive. When you find out why the zombie apocalypse occurred--because humans couldn't get over their addiction to their screens-- my first thought was really? so she wants us all to be luddites? And did she write this whole thing out by hand? never emailed anybody or googled a detail about wolves or watched a youtube video of an eagle in flight? I did enjoy reading it, it is often highly entertaining (it also gets so bogged down in the middle I almost quit reading). I definitely recommend it, especially if you're familiar with Seattle, because there is lots of familiar detail. I just thought that ultimately, Hollow Kingdom failed to deliver on insightful social commentary, which could have been its strongest suit.
But sometimes it was just so hopelessly naive. When you find out why the zombie apocalypse occurred--because humans couldn't get over their addiction to their screens-- my first thought was really? so she wants us all to be luddites? And did she write this whole thing out by hand? never emailed anybody or googled a detail about wolves or watched a youtube video of an eagle in flight? I did enjoy reading it, it is often highly entertaining (it also gets so bogged down in the middle I almost quit reading). I definitely recommend it, especially if you're familiar with Seattle, because there is lots of familiar detail. I just thought that ultimately, Hollow Kingdom failed to deliver on insightful social commentary, which could have been its strongest suit.