The Hollow Places is the latest remixed horror offering by Ursula Vernon, noted children’s author and graphic novelist who writes as T. Kingfisher for older audiences. After reading her fantastic first horror novel, The Twisted Ones, which was inspired by Arthur Machen’s 1904 horror short story The White People, I fervently hoped she would return to that well and was delighted to discover she had a new horror release due out later in 2020.
This time around, the inspiration is the 1907 novella by Algernon Blackwood, The Willows, which was regarded by HP Lovecraft as the greatest supernatural story ever written and its chilling description of “the frontier of another world, an alien world, a world tenanted by willows only and the souls of willows” strongly influences this story.
Our protagonist is the down-on-her-luck, newly divorced Kara who is nearly forced to confront the mundane horror of moving back in with her parents before gladly taking up her genial Uncle Earl’s offers of a spare room at his museum. Of course this leads to the terrifying ordeal that unfolds later, but it was a godsend at the time! Kara assists her uncle with running the Glory to God Museum of Natural Wonders, Curiosities and Taxidermy, and eventually ends up in charge while he’s recovering from surgery. This is when things take a turn for the weird as she and barista Simon from the café next door discover an impossible hallway in their building that defies the laws of physics and their curiosity prompts them to explore where it leads… Spoiler alert: it’s not Narnia. What Kara and Simon have inadvertently stumbled into is a realm filled with terrifying beings beyond comprehension and they’ll need all their wits and a healthy dose of luck to survive.
T Kingfisher is a master when it comes to creating characters that endear themselves immediately to the reader and feel like life-long friends just one chapter in, and The Hollow Places is no exception. This book only has two major characters, but they’re given an impressive level of development to the point where they feel like they could step off the page, fully formed. Some readers may find the plot slow-going at the start, but Kara is such a charming and entertaining narrator that spending time in her head as she adjusts to living at the museum feels rewarding; it’s easy to invest in her fledgling attempts at starting a new life while resisting the urge to cyber-stalk her ex!
At times I find that the heroes in various books feel interchangeable and they fail to make an impression, but this author is blessed with an incredible imagination and morbid sense of humour that results in the creation of unique and unforgettable characters like Simon, a man who supposedly devoured his twin in the womb and has her left eye (which he claims allows him to see strange phenomena) and dresses like a thrift-shop Mad Hatter. If you’re new to T Kingfisher’s style, that should give you an indication of her darkly whimsical style!
The foes which target our heroes are genuinely horrifying, but hardcore genre fans may be left wanting as the real impact of the story is felt in the awful anxiety and build-up of apprehension while in the other realm as opposed to copious amounts of blood and gore in direct encounters with these beings. After reading two horror novels by this author, a common element has emerged in her brand of horror which involves eerie and chilling otherworldly scenarios leavened by bursts of humour to cut through the tension. It makes her books fantastic for those who want to be scared, but also need some relief instead of grim unrelenting terror. I say this as a compliment, these stories are like the comfort food of the horror genre, the kind of books where you don’t ever have to worry that a terrible fate will befall the hero’s cat or dog (a haughty cat named Beau in this one). The main characters are hilariously relatable and freak out like we would in the face of the inexplicably bizarre before deciding to have coffee and “discuss this like people who don’t die in the first five minutes of a horror movie”. It’s witty, irreverent and completely entertaining.
If you like the sound of a suspenseful horror story with a creepy atmosphere narrated by a snarky heroine, do yourself a favour and pick this up once it’s released! With thrills, chills and constant laughs, this is sure to be a crowd-pleaser.
The Hollow Places is available from Amazon, Book Depository, and other good book retailers, like your local bookstore, as of October 6th 2020.
Will you be picking up The Hollow Places? Tell us in the comments below!
Synopsis | Goodreads
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.
