Review by adancewithbooks - The Hollow and the Haunted

adancewithbooks 's review for:

The Hollow and the Haunted by Camilla Raines

5.0

dark emotional mysterious sad medium-paced

Thank you to Titan Books and Netgalley for the review copy in exchange for an honsest review. This does not change my opinion in anyway.

The Hollow and the Haunted has in interesting cover and looked to be perfect for the time of year, spooky time. I was very right with that.

There was something completely mindnumbing about the repetitive motions of gravedigging - the crunch of his blade in the ground, the swoosh of the shovel, and the quiet thud of dirt that followed.

We meet Miles just as he is digging up a grave and hoping that zombies aren't actually real. Of course they aren't. Ghosts are. Digging up graves and dispelling the ghosts and hauntings they do is the family business that he has been roped into since he was 13. And he is okay with that. Sort of. But when he gets a premonition of a boy in the mirror, it shakes up his whole world.

I was smiling and chuckling all throughout the first chapter and I knew then that I was going to really like this book. I took an instant liking to Miles. Responsible Miles who is a bit sarcastic as a young adult should be. I felt for him instantly. Its not that his family is bad, they just don't quite see him. Not his wish to go to an art school, not that he is actually gay. And you wish so much better for him.

'No,' Gabriel said dismissevely. 'We rarely lock it.'
'Doesn't that kinda contradict the point of having a scary fence in the first place?'
'What would we be afraid of getting in?' He gave Miles a rueful smile that made it impossible to tell if he was serious or not. 'The monsters already live here.'

Enter Gabriel, our premonition boy. And if you suspect he is the love interest, than you are spot on. But it doesn't matter for the story. It is a slow build, there is no talk of loving each other yet by the end. I appreciated that so much. It is just cute young adult love. Amidst murderous ghosts and all.

Gabriel was initially the cold hearted bastard but it is clear that there is so much more underneath him. That he is just scared about this death premonition about him. I feel like they were truly starting to get to know each other by the end of the book. They still had a lot of discovering to do but the start was there.

I also appreciated the friendship that Miles had with his cousin and the relatinship that Gabriel had with his brothers. They felt warm, each in their own way.

All in all, despite the murderous ghosts and all that, this book left me with a warm feeling. It is probably for that reason why I felt like screaming and throwing my phone across the room for that ending. Honestly, you can't end it like that. (Well you can, if you are going to have a sequel)

Content Warnings