Book Review: The Hollow Places by T. Kingfisher

T;LDR: A haunting yet humorous tale, The Hollow Places by T. Kingfisher is a terrifying take on what happens when curiosity and curious items overtake common sense.

My rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ 3/4

A woman suffering from the end of her marriage with nowhere else to go retreats to her Uncle’s Wonder museum while she figures out what to do next. A portal to another world opens up and she and her neighbor Simon decide to explore it.

I am not a dark fantasy or horror reader, so I went into this feeling trepidation, even though everyone raves about T. Kingfisher’s writing. And I was pleasantly surprised. I laughed out loud in multiple places and the adventures in the Hollow Place (yes, I’m capitalizing it; it was that scary) were short enough not to freak me out and long enough to freak me out… if that makes sense. In short, I liked this book a lot, but I won’t read it again, which is why it falls just short of 5 stars for me.

The Plot

Kara retreats to her uncle’s Wonder-filled museum after her marriage fails and she has nowhere else to go. Her uncle leaves the museum in her capable hands while he has surgery on his knee. Somewhere in the night, a portal to another world is smashed through the wall and she, along with her neighbor, Simon, decide to explore it.

They crawl out of a bunker to an empty space of water, sand, and willow trees. There are similar bunkers on many sand hills just like the one they left. Once they start exploring, however, they find where they are is not a fun place to be. In fact, there are creatures – bad ones – who feed on fear. After getting lost and having scary adventures, they finally find their own bunker and escape back to their world.

But it doesn’t end there. The portal isn’t closing and Kara is dreaming about it. Can Simon and Kara close the portal before what is on that side invades their own?

What I liked & liked less

As I mentioned, I didn’t go into this book expecting to like it, but I did. I think one of the reasons I did was the humor. It was funny. Kara was warm, intelligent, flawed, terrified, a mess, and all the things in between, but also quite funny.

I loved her character and I loved that she grew from the experience. I also loved that what they faced on the other side of the portal shifted her priorities back to where they always had been – the people she loved.

I also liked Simon’s character. He has his own flaws, but was a fully-fleshed out character I’d want to be friends with. They both handled the scary moments in their own ways and also came back as scarred as you’d expect them to be.

The portal world had that thin layer of normalcy hiding a scary reality of what could really happen if we opened up doors to another dimension. It was as ominous as it needed to be, with a side of seriously messed up-ness, which made me take a break from the book because I don’t need it to feed my own creative brain.

I liked that the bulk of the book happens in our reality, because it didn’t feel as scary as that other place behind the wall. It was still scary, but I could read it and enjoy it. And that’s why I liked it – I could finish something I wouldn’t have had they remained in that nightmarish place for most of the book.

If I’m getting really picky, I will say that Kara not putting two and two together sooner for the reason the portal was opened in the first place might have stretched it too far. Without giving away spoilers, things happen in her reality after they return and she has mundane excuses for them. Really over the top mundane excuses for them. You could explain it as her brain not wanting to go there, but… I don’t know about that.

That’s it, the weak spot. I loved the writing style, the humor, and the characters. The story kept me interested and reading way past when I normally would have stopped and it had a satisfying ending. Neither character is suddenly fine – no, they’re haunted and will be for the rest of their lives.

To Sum Up (Too Late!)

I feel like I’m saying this a lot lately, but if you’d told me a year ago I’d read and like a book bordering on horror I would’ve called you nuts. Okay, jokes on me, because I liked The Hollow Places by T. Kingfisher, a lot. It had an interesting second world scary enough to invade my dreams, fun characters, a sense of humor, and a strong character arc. For all that and more, I give it 4.75 stars.

About the Author

T. Kingfisher is the vaguely absurd pen-name of Ursula Vernon. In another life, she writes children’s books and weird comics, and has won the Hugo, Sequoyah, and Ursa Major awards, as well as a half-dozen Junior Library Guild selections.

This is the name she uses when writing things for grown-ups.

When she is not writing, she is probably out in the garden, trying to make eye contact with butterflies.

If you wish to purchase this book, pick your vendor of choice here, or just cave to the man and get it from Amazon here.

Originally published on Feedium. This fills in the Weird Ecology square on my Fantasy Bingo 2022 card.