When I got onto the Hollow Kingdom waitlist at the library, it was a really long wait. Like several months. It was a fairly new zombie apocalypse book at the time AND it was early during covid, so again, a long wait.

In this 2019 release from Kira Jane Buxton, we follow pet crow ST and pet dog Dennis on their journey as more and more humans become zombies. ST, who always identified more as a human than a crow, and Dennis, a bloodhound, who lost their owner to the zombie virus set out to save other former pets from the Hollows – what the animals call humans because they are no longer connected to the environment. With humanity on the brink of extinction, pets are their legacy.

It sounds very compelling, right? I didn’t hate the book. In fact, I found it very funny (and very upsetting) in some parts. The main characters were pretty great and the secondary characters were interesting. The problem with the book – which follows our non-human heroes on their quest to save animals from zombie-afied humans – was that it mostly lacked a plot. It was a lot of wondering around in the woods and things happening but with nothing really tying the events together.

There’s apparently a sequel that came out last year or the year before called Feral Creatures. I knew when the book ended there’d be another because of where they left off at the end of the first book. I might check it out. The characters are engaging and maybe the next one will be better now that the world is built and they’ve set up for more of a plot.

Tagged: authors: kira jane buxton, books: hollow kingdom, genre: fiction, genre: science fiction