The Hollow Places

This book was riveting, it got to a point it was so creepy, so weird and unnerving that I needed to stop reading. But I couldn't it's just too good. I read it far too quickly. This was an amazing story. It reminds me of the weirdness of Jeff Vandermeer. Every now and then you read something wonderful that you won't forget.

Having just finished "The Twisted Ones" I thought that this would make a good follow up. I was right in that it's just as good and just as scary. I really don't think that it was good for my psyche to read them one after the other though. I really must find something gentler for my next read. In conclusion, I highly recommend this book but not immediately after "The Twisted Ones".

A really unique story with very good sarcasm mixed in with horror. I didn’t get as pulled into the atmosphere as I would have liked, I think because at times there was a bit too much exhibition. Still enjoyable with really vivid characters!

This is a seriously creepy book. I love the Wonder museum and Simon and uncle Earl, but the willow world is a place full quiet menace. You know in that world nothing is what it seems and the most innocuous thing is going to eat you. T. Kingfisher is such a great storyteller I love the world's and adventures she is able to create and fill with wonderful characters, those you love those you hate and those seriously twisted ones (please read the twisted ones). I would recommend The Hollow Places, it is a fantastic book and well worth you time and money

Well now, I'm half way between what the **** did i just read and WOW, this was such a fun book but it had this unsettling energy to it while you read it, Kara and Simon were such amazing characters and the world they entered was terror inducing, so quiet and empty but also not as empty as it seems and thats half the terror not knowing where the Monsters are or even what they look like, I did love The Wonder Museum its sounded like such a fun and quirky place to visit. But no to the portal to another world thank you very much I am happy right here 😊.

When I picked this book up, I couldn't put it down. I was totally engrossed. The characters feel like real people. The whole story feels very real. I feel like I want to take a trip to this museum and take a long hard look a particular wall. Cosy Horror. Haunted house. Comedy and quick witted quips. Freaky deaky stuff going on. I'm off for a well earned coffee and a Chinese 👍

I read this book over three angst laden evening, which is pretty quick for me!! 🥶 The writing puts you there with Kara and Simon every frightening step of the way constantly looking over my shoulder .. this is imagination to die for! At the turn of each page I feared for Kara especially!! The school bus and those scary images of the children trapped within, the stuff of nightmares!! Creepy and that's an understatement!! Excellent!!!! Looking forward to more of T. Kingfisher in the not to distant future

Firstly, I’ll level up, I read this on the back of ‘What Moves the Dead’, ot 100% sure exactly WHY I bought that apart from it bring a random Amazon suggestion but I enjoyed that riff on Poe’s ‘Fall of the House of Usher’ immensely! And …Yes! I’ll write a review soonest, but back to task… For Me, myself and I, I really do prefer my Machenesque, Blackwoodian, Mythosque and Poesque riffs to be set in the past, I just do it ramps up the spookiness and, for me, at least, the relatability. My ability to relate to the (now) compulsory inclusion of a non-binary supporting character doesn’t. I actually liked Simon, a lot, but apart from the ability to have a secondary lead alongside the female Prime Jars, WITHOUT there being any you-know-what, seemed almost gratuitous. It’s ALMOST as if the attempt was to bring-in the YA audience as well as the Lovecraftian, seamlessly and it doesn’t (quite) come off. Close though. Truth to tell, I don’t remember reading a Titan Publication I didn’t enjoy and I DID enjoy this rehash, and ‘brought-into-the present days’, ‘The Willows’, itself abrogated by Blackwood’s ‘The Man who Loved Trees’ but, from this readers perspective, less contemporisation and MORE ELDRITCH spookiness would have elevated it to a 5. Mrs ‘Kingfisher’ aka Ursula Vernon is a very gifted writer, her prose flows effortlessly but I’m a horror and fantasy reader not a comedy addict so there’s a half point dropped there. I’m being hyper critical because this is a review and because it didn’t creep me out, summon chills, put me in awe of the timeless horror of the eldritch powers or leave me afeared of being home alone but i DID enjoy it, no, really I did but slightly darker, more atmospheric, ramping up the shivers and it would have verged on excellence. Id HONESTLY like to read a series using these characters, in this setting but it needs darkening. The last sentence indicates the author is considering this and I hope she does, there’s enough here for substantive expansion, perhaps reincarnating other classic macabre works? Caw caw spoke the Raven? Id recommend it TO FRIENDS but it’s not a chill-fest, thst would have been misleading. Still… Another winner from Titan - always a guarantee of entertainment