The Hollow Boys is one of the most arresting thrillers I have read for a while. I devoured it in a day and cannot stop thinking about it, let alone talking about it and convincing everyone I know to pick it up.
Tariq Ashkanani is one of the most formidable writers in the thriller space right now. His work has this wonderful tension between horror and thriller spaces where it feels like other forces might just creep in. You are reminded of the monstrosity of humanity but there is still the feeling of something lurking in the shadows. The Midnight King still haunts my nightmares. That was a book that sat right in the pitch-black depths of hell and dared you to join it. It was unsettling, atmospheric and stayed with you long after the final page. The Hollow Boys delivers again on all of these fronts. It is a haunting book that just gets under your skin.
The premise of this book is an unforgettable one: two boys went missing, one returns but changed and insists he is the other boy. It is a clever take on a familiar trope that immediately brings some of life’s worst fears to life. Anything involving children and violence will always bring feelings buried deep right to the surface. It is one of our greatest taboos and a cultural terror that runs deep. How Ashkanani chooses to explore it is masterful. You feel the ripple effect of the disappearance and return reverberate all around this small town. That opening scene is ripped straight from a film, packed with tension and details that bring you right into the action. What transpires from there is a tragic tale about trauma, cyclical violence and that cloying, claustrophobic atmosphere of a small town on the brink of collapse.
Ashkanani has a gift for setting too. Aurora truly feels like another character in this story and the sense of it rotting from the inside out is palpable on every page. It casts this gloomy atmosphere of inevitability over proceedings, which is chilling. Nothing good can come of this place so the bloodshed and violence feel almost like second nature. This is a doomed place and yet these people keep pushing through every day. I loved how Ashkanani captured that strange balance of feeling trapped and loving a place sliding towards destruction all at once. This is their home and they will cling on to their lives by their fingernails if they have to.
The pacing is spot-on. There is enough happening to keep you glued to the pages but also enough room given to let characters breathe and for the reader to appreciate their layers. I really enjoyed following John Deacon, who is the moral heart of this book, even as he struggles with his own guilt and issues. He is nowhere near perfect (none of these people are) John Deacon and their fallibility is what makes them feel so authentically messy and human. I liked how Ashkanani moves away from easy categorisations of heroes and villains and instead sits in the grey, murky area in between with all of the characters. They are all hiding secrets and unpicking their layers is addictive reading. Everything builds to a spectacular ending that made me need a minute after finishing. It is perfect for this story but it lands with quite an impact.
The Hollow Boys is the type of book that makes you stare into space upon finishing, needing to process everything that has just occurred. It leaves you with an unnerving tale of tragedy and complex characters that will walk in your dreams.
The Hollow Boys is available from Amazon, Waterstones, and other good book retailers, like your local bookstore.
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Synopsis
Two children lost. The wrong one found.
The town of Aurora is waiting to die. A few miles away a deep seam of coal burns underground, the fire creeping closer ever year. Businesses close. Families leave. Hope dwindles.
And then one day, nine-year-old Danny Yates comes back from the dead. He walks into town half-starved and silent, ten months after he and his best friend Will Keefe were presumed drowned. But when Danny does finally speak, he swears that he’s not Danny anymore. He’s Will.
Danny’s mother is convinced that her boy has come back wrong, and that the town itself is now at risk from whatever dark force returned her son. Chief of Police John Deacon is more interested in how the sinister disappearance of two boys could have been written off as a tragic accident, and who was responsible. What happened to Danny to make him take on his friend’s name, his personality? And does Danny’s return mean there’s a chance that Will is still alive?
