The Hollow Places by T. Kingfisher
Blurb:
A young woman discovers a strange portal in her uncle’s house, leading to madness and terror in this gripping new novel from the author of the “innovative, unexpected, and absolutely chilling” (Mira Grant, Nebula Award–winning author) The Twisted Ones.
Pray they are hungry.
Kara finds the words in the mysterious bunker that she’s discovered behind a hole in the wall of her uncle’s house. Freshly divorced and living back at home, Kara now becomes obsessed with these cryptic words and starts exploring this peculiar area—only to discover that it holds portals to countless alternate realities. But these places are haunted by creatures that seem to hear thoughts…and the more one fears them, the stronger they become.
With her distinctive “delightfully fresh and subversive” (SF Bluestocking) prose and the strange, sinister wonder found in Guillermo del Toro’s Pan’s Labyrinth, The Hollow Places is another compelling and white-knuckled horror novel that you won’t be able to put down.
Review:
“If there's a way into hell, someone will always find it.”
-T. Kingfisher, The Hollow Places
In The Hollow Places by T. Kingfisher, Kara, a thirty-something old woman and freelance graphic designer loses all of her prospects and her future when she divorces her husband. Although the divorce was mutual and pragmatic, she’s forced to return home to her mother, whom she’s never got along with. A phone call from her uncle, Earl, who owns a museum entitled the Museum of Wonders, says she can live with him if she promises to help him upkeep the shop. Desperate for a way out of her mother’s impending arms, Kara decides to work for and live with her eccentric uncle. But things aren’t as she remembered at the museum, and when a hole appears in the drywall of an exhibition, leading to a world brimming with eldritch horrors and nasty beasts, Kara drags her friend Simon into an ulterior universe that wants to feast on them—or change them in strange, horrific ways forever.
When I say a T. Kingfisher novel never disappoints, I mean it. Kingfisher has a way with words that I’ve never read by any other author. She’s a master of prose that is simple yet evocative, making it easy to comprehend and envision the scenes that take place in all of her books—not just The Hollow Places.
By way of T. Kingfisher’s clever worldbuilding, haunting narratives, and authentic characters, Kingfisher has become one of my all-time favorite authors. She’s a legend in the making, comparable to Stephen King. It’s a compulsion, really, to want to buy all of her books and read them for the rest of time and space.
One of the things I absolutely adore about Kingfisher’s work is how real and raw her characters are—especially the main characters, but in her stories overall. Kara is a strong-willed but suffering kind of person and following her along her journey of not only trying to survive parallel worlds but also discovering her strengths and healing in ways that she sorely needed was thrilling. Simon, another prominent character, was a joy to read and a breath of fresh air that helped the narrative move along.
Everything in The Hollow Places escalates so well and so smoothly that it’s a page-turner even amid all the things I had to do in real life this week. It was all-consuming, hooking its teeth on me and dragging me through the pages. I strayed up until 1 AM one night reading—and only put the book down when the stakes rose, things got even creepier, and I started freaking out.
Kingfisher provides an absolute masterclass on writing tension, stakes, satisfying endings, and stories that scare. I absolutely love her work. It’s so fun to dive into a new novel of hers, knowing I’m getting a treat and a book I’ll with a guarantee absolutely love. She has a way of drawing you in, making your heart stop and stutter as if you’re the characters experiencing the things in the story itself.
Definitely check out The Hollow Places if you ever need a horrifically wondrous read. Kingfisher makes horror feel like an all-year-round genre!
