A review by booksalacarte
House of Hollow by Krystal Sutherland

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.5

Iris Hollow and her two older sisters are unquestionably strange. As children, they disappeared on a Scottish city street only to return a month later with no memory of what had happened to them or where they'd been. More troubling, their appearance began to change: their blue eyes now black, their dark hair now white. And as they grew older, odd, eerie occurrences seemed to follow in their wake. People find them disturbingly intoxicating, unbearably beautiful, and inexplicably dangerous.


Now seventeen-year-old Iris is doing all she can to fit in and graduate high school on time- something her two famous, glamorous, globe-trotting older sisters, Grey and Vivi, never managed to do. But when Grey goes missing, leaving behind bizarre clues as to her where-abouts, Iris and Vivi are left to find her--but they aren't the only ones looking. As they brush against the supernatural, Iris quickly realizes that the story she's been told about their past is unraveling and the world that returned them seemingly unharmed ten years ago might just be calling them back again.

✨my opinion✨

This is mystery, horror, magical, suspense, feminine, complex, grotesque, disturbing and ethereal… all wrapped into one. 

I didn’t quite understand what was going on, with all of the background writing, warring with the MC trying to remain normal…until halfway through the book,  then the plot took of at breakneck speed- and just kept going. My heart broke at the end for what the MC, and her family went through, while also being horrified and not sure how I felt at the end.

It was creepy. It was disturbing. I would not have been able to handle reading this as a teenager. I would have been sleeping with the lights on for weeks. It’s easily one of the strangest stories I have ever read. I think I liked it…. But I’m so conflicted that I’m not quite sure. That’s a pretty unique response and so I’m giving it 4.5 stars!!!
Expand filter menu Content Warnings