A review by jaybyrd823
The Hollow Heart by Marie Rutkoski

adventurous challenging dark emotional 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? Yes

3.5

I really wanted to like this book as much as the first one. It very much feels like the author had moved on from wanting to create this story but still had to finish writing this.

I was absolutely astonished that by the time we got to Sid coming back to Nirrim and learning all that's happened and being told she needs to save her, we only had 50 pages of the book left. like? Was that not intended to be the climax of the book? Because that's what it felt like and then she just rushed it all out and it was incredibly disappointing. I feel like she neglected Sid's side specifically in the end of the book because we really should've gotten to go with her through getting to Morah and getting to the gods and everything with that. But the way she wrote it completely pulled me out of the book and it was very obvious that I was reading, if that makes sense. Also it's crazy that we one didn't get to see a "mended" Nirrim in the end after getting her heart back. I think it absolutely would've been worth reading her getting her heart back and reflecting on everything she had done since it was traded. I also thought that we'd get some more interaction between Sid and Nirrim than we did? Like they got what? 5-7 pages (maybe) together? That's it? I just was very very disappointed by the end of this book and that was really frustrating.

I really wish she had taken the time to work on this properly because I almost wish I hadn't read this one and just left it at The Midnight Lie.