Review: The Hollow Places by T. Kingfisher

I’ve loved everything I’ve read by T. Kingfisher, though I admittedly haven’t gotten to her horror yet. What better time to start than right now? 😀

Thanks to the author, as well as Saga Press via NetGalley for the review copy. 

Pray they are hungry.

Kara finds these 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 the peculiar bunker—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 you fear them, the stronger they become.

Dammit, I can’t believe I spent so much of my life on a man who would unironically post the line “Today is a gift, that’s why we call it the present.” And in Papyrus, too. 

This is the story of Kara, who is a recently divorced woman who moves back to her hometown. Instead of moving in with her mother, which is a colossally bad idea, she moves into her uncle’s museum and agrees to help out while he is out for knee surgery. Kara (fondly known as Carrot by her uncle) has fond memories of the Glory to God Museum of Natural Wonders, Curiosities and Taxidermy, even if it is mostly full of the oddest kinds of things. One day she finds a hole in the wall, and behind the hole is a door that leads into a bunker in another world. Kara and her friend Simon, the barista from the coffee shop next door decide that they’re going to go exploring. This other world is full of evidence that more than one alternate reality leads to it, but most of all, the other world is full of… creatures. Creatures that seem to be able to hear your thoughts. That, and the people who have fallen victim to the creatures while on their own exploratory adventures. 

I liked this one! It had all of the wit that I have come to love from T. Fingfisher, and was creepy as hell to boot, so it was a really entertaining read. It’s a quick read – fast paced and not super long, and so I finished it in just two sittings. Not too much more than a lazy afternoon, in total. 

“This is nuts,” I said, following him up the stairs.

“More or less nuts than having a portal to Really Bad Narnia in your attic?”

I liked Kara and Simon, and so it was never difficult to stay focused on wanting them to survive the horrible shenanigans that The Hollow Places had in store for them. It wasn’t so scary that I’m going to be having nightmares, but it certainly brought some creepy imagery to the table. I have been in a few shops that were not unlike Uncle Earl’s museum in my life, and so I had no trouble imagining what is more or less a storefront full of weird old taxidermy and other knick knacks. 

All told, I had a good time with The Hollow Places. I’m definitely going to check out The Twisted Ones, and hopefully I’ll like it just as much. 4/5 stars!~

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