A review by abbynlewis
House of Hollow by Krystal Sutherland

dark mysterious sad tense fast-paced

4.0

House of Hollow is a gothic book, through and through. It’s not a mystery, though mysterious events occur. It’s a dark gothic novel with bits of horror mixed in. Think of Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, the movie or the book, if it were written and directed by Hans Christian Andersen. Iris Hollow is 17. When she was young, she and her two sisters went missing around Christmas time. They were there one minute, then their mother looked away then back again and they were gone. No trace. When the sisters finally reappear near their house one day years later, no one can explain how they went missing or how they returned, not even the girls themselves. Such is the lore of the Hollow house. Now, Iris’s older sister Grey is missing again, and strange yet familiar things start happening. Iris knows Grey is hiding something, but first Iris has to find her.

This book was great because even though it had a fairy tale quality, it contained a lot of information and lore-building that was completely new to me. The story felt original, new, exciting. I kept thinking I had a handle on what was happening and then, bam!, Sutherland would hit me with another twist. This is a great book to read if you’re a fan of Holly Black, or if you read Stephen Graham Jones’s The Only Good Indians and were obsessed with Elk Head Woman. It’s got Native lore and Asian mythology elements that fuse into this world that’s reminiscent of a story you know but with an extra twist.

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