Scan barcode
A review by abditoryalive
The Hollow Places by T. Kingfisher
dark
funny
tense
fast-paced
5.0
My internet armour had been built up in the fanfic battlegrounds and was thus impenetrable, but Uncle Earl was a gentle soul, and I was afraid someone might hurt his feelings.
I didn't have that many boxes. most of them were books. I have always been one of those who rhapsodized about the book as a physical object, but having to pack and carry the boxes were enough to make me want to throw over physical books altogether and just live on an e-reader.
🦦 Recently, I’ve developed the terrible habit of reading horror books at night—so much so that my husband close to enforcing a strict daytime-only reading rule. I adore T. Kingfisher, and after What Moves the Dead didn’t spook me, I thought I’d be safe here. I was wrong.
I went in expecting something along the lines of cozy horror (is that a genre?). What I got instead was a creeping, insidious kind of terror that burrows into your brain and whispers unsettling things in the dark. There’s no blood-and-guts spectacle here—just a surreal, Lovecraftian nightmare unfolding beyond a mysterious hole in the wall. Possibly black-mold-induced, definitely spine-chilling.
🦦 The entire setting had such a distinct and immersive aesthetic, like stepping into a fever-dream version of Ripley’s Believe It or Not! museum. Set in her uncle’s delightfully bizarre establishment—The Glory to God Museum of Natural Wonders, Curiosities, and Taxidermy—it’s a place where taxidermied armoured mice and shrunken heads share space with eerie oddities, all curated by a man who firmly believes Bigfoot is the missing link in human evolution. Throughout, Kingfisher’s prose made it all
so incredibly vivid—I could see every dusty relic, every unsettling exhibit. The descriptions of the Feejeean mermaids in particular - especially the description of 'clacking teeth', I could hear it - sent a chill down my spine, stirring up long-buried memories (and nightmares) of a third-grade field trip I had completely erased from my psyche.
🦦 Kingfisher truly has a rare and wicked talent: making you laugh out loud right before something terrifying happens and you're reading between the gaps in your fingers. Her characters Kara and Simon’s were beautiful. They had such a dry, easy going humour followed by completely relatable panic. Their friendship felt effortlessly real, with banter so natural and believable that it grounds the story even as the world around them descends into nightmare fuel. I've seen some critiques on this aspect, that it spoiled some of the horror with the wisecracking but I found it instantly relatable.
He dressed like a thrift-store Mad Hatter, with fingerless gloves and strange hats. He looked exactly the same now as he had the last time I had been here, five years ago, and exactly the same as he had when I first met him, nearly a decade ago. Simon had to be nearly forty, if not older, but he looked about eighteen. Somewhere a portrait was probably aging for him.
🍃This is the second time I've seen a "Wonder Museum" or "Wonder Engine" in Kingfishers work. Such a minor critique but I'm still unsure if that was intentional or not. Is it a link to themes that places with "Wonder" in the name going to a place brimming with oddities and unsettling relics that hint at something far darker lurking beneath the surface? Or a creative shortcut, recycling. An interesting pattern, but not I can't unsee it.
🍃There are many cosmic horror elements to The Hollow Places, meaning that some things remain unknowable at the end. As such this might not satisfy some people who prefer a neatly wrapped ending. Full disclosure, this could be user error - I’ll admit, I didn’t read some parts of the ending as closely as I would have liked— as I was too caught up in the tension, desperate for answers
🍃 Fans of different dimensions, portals- stranger things-esque, nightmare at the museum, Cosmic Horror and "Narnia from Hell".