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A review by lostlenore_
House of Hollow by Krystal Sutherland
3.0
This book has been hyped so much on bookstagram (+it has a gorgeous cover) so I had to get to it and see if it's all justified.
To be honest, the first part of the book was very cleverly constructed apart from the weird exposition--the main heroine, Iris, revealed things very slowly to the reader because the writer wanted her to do so and not because Iris herself had to do it. I'm not sure if you get my point here but what I'm trying to say is that I had an issue with the way the writer hid intentionally things from us, from the first point of view. She didn't do with a sort of elegance let's say or a build-up, she just used Iris's narration to tell us the important stuff when she deemed convenient. In my eyes, this means that the book is more plot-driven than intended and I don't particularly enjoy plot-driven books.
On the flip side, the writing is very good and there's this somber tone that escorts the heroine whenever she goes. The mystery is shielded well until the midpoint where things start happening more quickly and the villain turns out to be the most obvious person ever. Ya literature is not rumoured to be good at external stakes and, unfortunately, this book is proof of that.
The way myth and magic are used is interesting but not all the way... there. Something was missing and I think it was the way a marriage between a mystery and urban fantasy happened--a bit tasteless and somehow rushed.
The Audible narration is excellent and the book is fast-paced. It's an interesting choice for your weekend but having this all-beautiful cast and this sort of strong foreshadowing of something ominous happening to be justified so easily (my opinion) just won't cut it for me.
To be honest, the first part of the book was very cleverly constructed apart from the weird exposition--the main heroine, Iris, revealed things very slowly to the reader because the writer wanted her to do so and not because Iris herself had to do it. I'm not sure if you get my point here but what I'm trying to say is that I had an issue with the way the writer hid intentionally things from us, from the first point of view. She didn't do with a sort of elegance let's say or a build-up, she just used Iris's narration to tell us the important stuff when she deemed convenient. In my eyes, this means that the book is more plot-driven than intended and I don't particularly enjoy plot-driven books.
On the flip side, the writing is very good and there's this somber tone that escorts the heroine whenever she goes. The mystery is shielded well until the midpoint where things start happening more quickly and the villain turns out to be the most obvious person ever. Ya literature is not rumoured to be good at external stakes and, unfortunately, this book is proof of that.
The way myth and magic are used is interesting but not all the way... there. Something was missing and I think it was the way a marriage between a mystery and urban fantasy happened--a bit tasteless and somehow rushed.
The Audible narration is excellent and the book is fast-paced. It's an interesting choice for your weekend but having this all-beautiful cast and this sort of strong foreshadowing of something ominous happening to be justified so easily (my opinion) just won't cut it for me.