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Book Review: House of Hollow by Krystal Sutherland

cover art for House of Hollow by Krystal Sutherland

House of Hollow by Krystal Sutherland

G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 2021

ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0593110348

Available: Hardcover, paperback, Kindle edition, audiobook ( Bookshop.org  | Amazon.com )

 

 

House of Hollow was shortlisted for the Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in Young Adult Fiction this year.

 

Ten years ago, Grey, Vivi, and Iris Hollow mysteriously disappeared, reappearing a month later without clothes, covered in strange white flowers, and with their hair and eye colors changed. Their father, shortly after, died by suicide. Grey, Vivi, and Iris all have the power to seduce people into doing what they want.

 

Grey is now a model and fashion designer, estranged from their mother. Vivi is a nomadic rock musician. Iris still lives at home and attends school. One day Vivi, Grey, and Iris arrange to meet and Grey never shows. It’s a sign that something is very wrong.

 

The body horror is strong in this. Girls coughing up decayed plants, flowers growing out of wounds, ants crawling from inside the skin, constant descriptions of rot and decay, flayed bodies. And yet it’s also very much a fairytale, with the girls walking through a portal and finding themselves in a lost place. It’s gruesome and yet also gorgeous, and a horrifying tribute to just how far sisters really will go for you.

 

 

Reviewed by Kirsten Kowalewski

Posted on December 11, 2022 by , Reply

Book Review: Howl by Shaun David Hutchinson

 

Howl by Shaun David Hutchinson

Simon & Schuster, 2022

ISBN: 978-1-5344-7092-7

Available: Hardcover, paperback, Kindle edition, audiobook ( Bookshop.org | Amazon.com )

 

Virgil Knox is a gay teen who has moved from Seattle to live with his grandparents in his father’s rural hometown in the South with his father while his parents resolve their divorce. Following a party, he finds himself in rags with bloody claw marks and a bite mark, certain he has been attacked by a monster but unable to remember what happened or how. He is told by multiple people it didn’t happen. Captured on video, he goes viral and receives a lot of hate and nasty jokes from other students. The only class he cares about is theater, and a student from that class, Tripp, and his cousin, Astrid are his only friends. As the cuts heal, he notices his body is changing in disturbing ways. His classmates Finn and Jarrett swing from being friendly to being cruel. Virgil is afraid there is a monster inside him trying to get out. The question is, will he become a monster or master it?

 

This is a supremely uncomfortable book to read. While there is no explicit description of rape the description and narrative around the main character’s attack is suggestive of trauma caused by sexual assault combined with gaslighting (it is unclear what actually occurred as he is blackout drunk). There’s self-harm, body dysmorphia, hazing, severe bullying and cyberbullying. The town’s treatment of Virgil is the real horror of the story.

 

 

Reviewed by Kirsten Kowalewski

Posted on November 26, 2022 by , Reply

Book Review: The Honeys by Ryan La Sala

Cover for The Honeys by Ryan La Sala

The Honeys by Ryan La Sala

PUSH, 2022

ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1338745313

Available: Hardcover, paperback, KIndle edition, audiobook.

( Bookshop.org |   Amazon.com )

 

 

When genderfluid teen Mars Matthias’ twin sister Carikube dies violently in front of them after running away from summer camp, Mars insists on attending the camp for the rest of the summer. They agree to placement with the boys, but their real goal is to rediscover Caroline, especially through The Honeys, her girlfriends in Cabin H, which tends to the camp’s beehives.

 

Mars’ previous experience at camp involved the other boys tying them to a wooden scoreboard and setting it on fire so their experiences are mixed. Camp authorities prefer to let campers solve conflicts on their own, not great news if you can’t defend yourself. While the rest of the camp participates in mandatory activities, the Honeys do their own thing, and they invite Mars to be a part of it.

 

But the Honeys aren’t just tending bees, they are the hive– the collective mind of all the bees, seeking a queen, and being pressured by the adults around them to create umbral honey (created as it feeds on living, albeit predatory creatures (such as camp counselor Brayden), that will give them real-world power.

 

This is an interesting look at how genderfluidity and societal and parental expectations affect teens in a different environment and a genuine and authentic exploration of grief and the complicated feelings that arise when someone you have mixed feelings about dies.

 

Early in the book, a counselor points out that an aspen grove is actually a colony, with one original tree, effectively making the aspens around the camp disturbing. The whole collective hivemind, blood honey and giant honeycombs, is incredibly creepy, too. It’s one thing to know you are surrounded by interrelated creatures out in nature (nature being something you expect to encounter at summer camp), but it’s horrifying to  experience being absorbed into them against your will. Recommended for grades 9+

 

 

Reviewed by Kirsten Kowalewski

Posted on November 7, 2022 by , Reply
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