The Hollow Kingdom Book Review

I’ve always loved to read. And as I’ve grown, so have my specifications when deciding on a book to read, and interestingly enough, The Hollow Kingdom did not fit the bill, so to speak. I like larger books, but at two hundred and thirty pages, one could hardly call it fat. That’s a length any reluctant reader would succumb to should they find themselves forced to check out a book. But despite its size, I took the book out, and here is my dutiful review.

The Hollow Kingdom is the first in a trilogy written by a virtually unknown author by the name of Clare B. Dunkle. Why she is so unheard of remains a mystery to me, for in her short two hundred and thirty pages, she captured my imagination so that I trembled while in search of the second book.

The story is set in the nineteenth century, or eighteen hundreds for those of you who immediately assumed I meant 1900 and beyond, following two young sisters who inherit a large bit of land called Hallow Hill after the untimely death of their father. Though the story follows them both, it focuses more on the elder sister, a young woman of unnatural beauty named Kate.

Because Kate is still underage, meaning she would not fully inherit the land until reaching the age of eighteen, they are required to have a guardian. However, the current resident of Hallow Hill, their distant cousin, is none too happy about the girls’ arrival, and insists that the sisters live in the Lodge with their great-aunts, rather than in the main house with him.

But, we’re getting off track. As the inside cover summarizes, in truth Hallow Hill has a tragic history. For thousands of years young women have disappeared from the land, though everyone failed to mention this to either Kate or Emily. Until, that is, Marak decides to share it with them himself, in his own twisted and delicious way. Marak claims to be the Goblin King, and has already decided he wants Kate to be his new queen after his first wife died childless.

Dunkle creates a fantastic twist on reality, and through her descriptive writing brings her grotesque characters to life on the pages in a way no other writer has done in my experience and opinion. Though it is one of the shortest books I’ve read in the last several years, The Hollow Kingdom is without a doubt my favorite. It had me laughing out loud and on the edge of my seat, quite literally, with anticipation and suspense. If you were to read any book this year, any at all, I would recommend until I had no more breath to recommend with that you stop by the library and check out one of the two copies in stock.