Synopsis (Publisher):
A car accident shattered sixteen-year-old Morgan’s family. Now her brother’s dead, her mom’s paralyzed in more ways than one, her dad lives at work and her seven-year-old sister Amy tries too freaking hard to salvage everything. What’s more, high school is its own special kind of hell, where her ex-boyfriend delights in spreading rumors that shred her reputation and make her feel like a loser. When she finds an old camera in a creepy abandoned hospital, it seems like her luck is finally changing. And it is changing–from bad to worse. Because of course it is.
Each time Morgan photographs one of her classmates they become corrupted versions of themselves. It’s like the camera steals their goodness, their essence, and leaves them hollow. Then her sister uses the camera to take a selfie. No matter what the cost, Morgan will find a way to reverse the effects of the cursed camera and save Amy, before her already-fractured family completely self-destructs.
Edition:
Kindle e-ARC (Net Galley)
My Thoughts:
Well, for starters: CW: rape
Ok, moving on from there…I enjoyed this book quite a bit. Its GoodReads page clocks it in at 316 pages, but it read really fast. If I had been asked to guess, I would have gone with half that length – but I’m notoriously garbage at those ‘guess how many whatevers in this container’ games, so…what do I know.
With that being said, those of you who know me also probably know that I am pretty-YA averse, generally speaking. I only even picked this one up because it fulfills the Women in Horror Month #lohfreadathon elusive prompt #5:
YA/MG Book
But ya know what? I’m not mad that I did. It was a totally interesting concept, and the story was very well executed. Not only was it (as I mentioned previously) a fast read, but it was a pretty damned good one! I will admit, I haven’t read a ton of YA/MG, but the reason for that is because I feel like I get burned every. freaking. time. with bad writing, poor character development, and predictable storylines (not saying this is always the case, not knocking those of you who like the stuff, etc. – just simply stating my experience/feelings).
Hollow definitely flew in the face of my expectations on all three counts. The writing was polished, the characters felt pretty well fleshed-out, and the story was solid.
About the Author (from Net Galley):
Like a magpie, Rhonda Parrish is constantly distracted by shiny things. She’s the editor of many anthologies and author of plenty of books, stories and poems. She lives with her husband and three cats in Edmonton, Alberta, and she can often be found there playing Dungeons and Dragons, bingeing crime dramas or cheering on the Oilers. Her website, updated regularly, is at http://www.rhondaparrish.com and her Patreon, updated even more regularly, is at https://www.patreon.com/RhondaParrish. Book will also be available as a paperback
Rating:
I say give this a try even if YA isn’t usually your speed – you might be surprised.
Hollow Rhonda Parrish Tyche Books Horror, YA ISBN: 9781989407158 Expected Publication: March 24, 2020 E-book, Paperback 316 Pages Links: Author Patreon Author Amazon Author Twitter Author Facebook Author GoodReads Author Website
I’m not the hugest fan of YA titles either but you’ve caught my attention with this one.
Yeah, I was honestly surprised by how…not YA-ish the writing felt. I mean the story still definitely revolved around teens, but…it was written better than a lot of YA books I’ve read.
I feel like that sounds really assy, but I feel like although a lot of YA might feature older characters, the writing still skews toward a much younger crowd, you know? And I’m really not into that. This one didn’t feel that way to me.