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.
Category Archives: science fiction
Hollow Kingdom
The Dark Half
The Dark Half is a horror novel by Stephen King, I think maybe writing as Richard Bachmann at the time. Bachmann was a penname of King’s during the 1970s and 1980s. It’s one of two books by him I read in 2019 (the other being Pet Sematary).
The story opens with Thad, an author and recovering alcoholic, living somewhere in Maine. Ludlow, I want to say. Thad’s books aren’t very successful, they’re a dense literary fiction, fairly cerebral, and he finds success under the penname George Stark, writing crime novels about a psychotic killer.
When it becomes known that George Stark is actually Thad, Thad and his wife stage a phony funeral at the local cemetery that attracts a bunch of attention, including from People magazine. I can’t remember exactly why they decided to get rid of Stark. I think it was because Thad became kind of a shitty person while writing as George (drinking heavily and chain smoking and being a general nasty piece of work) and with people discovering Thad was George, he didn’t need George so much anymore.
Well, as things usually go in horror stories, George did not stay dead. He emerges from the graveyard with a physical body and equipped with the “personality” Thad gave him while he was writing as George. George goes on a killing spree (like the psychopath Thad wrote about in his crime books), killing everyone associated with his death, including the author of the People magazine article, Thad’s editor, etc… George is not a very nice guy. The murders are investigated by Alan Pangborn, the sheriff of Castle Rock (and one of King’s recurring characters). Thad has alibis, and doesn’t much want to answer questions, but his fingerprints and recordings of his voice are found at the scene, and Pangborn believes Thad is guilty of the murders, he just isn’t sure how.
Anyway, after Thad realizes he and Stark have a mental bond and realizes his twin children also have mental bond, he and Pangborn figure out that Thad had a twin reabsorbed in utero, and that this parasitic twin was removed from Thad’s brain as a child. (Gross, y’all). So the question becomes if Stark is a malevolent spirit separate of Thad, or Thad manifesting an alternate personality? And who would win?
I love pseudo-psychology/scientific stories like this. They’re fun and ridiculous, and this was no exception. In addition to being a horror book, it was also something of a whodunit, which are one of my favorite types of stories, and it kept me very interested as I pulled up carpeting and painted my new home (before moving in). As with many of King’s books, I was left feeling rather creeped out and thankful I didn’t have a twin (at least none that I know of). *shudders*
Miss Peregrine’s Home For Peculiar Children, Hollow City & Library of Souls
Miss Peregrine’s Home For Peculiar Children, Hollow City, and Library of Souls are a trilogy of young adult novels written by Ransom Riggs which I thoroughly enjoyed.
I picked Miss Peregrine’s Home For Peculiar Children, the first book in the series, up off the table at Barnes & Noble because of the cover. It was a little girl levitating. And I bought it because of the pictures inside, which were all of children in pictures doing hard to believe things. Some of the pictures were funny, some were creepy, all were in black and white, all were intriguing, and it convinced me to buy the book without really investigating it first.
So when I started it, I had no idea it was a YA book.
People piss all over YA books as if they can’t be enjoyed as adults because they aren’t sophisticated enough, and act as if you are an immature neophyte simpleton if you do enjoy them. While I find a lot of them not so good (paranormal romance isn’t much my thing – romance in general isn’t much my thing), every so often I find a YA book (or series of books) that I really, really enjoy. People are really snobby about this, but I have nothing against YA books, just STUPID YA books. But, to be fair, I’m pretty against ALL stupid books, YA and adult alike.
The premise of Miss Peregrine’s Home For Peculiar Children is that 16 year old Jacob Portman watches his grandfather die, killed by a monster that only he can see. It sends him into kind of a PTSD depression, which is understandable, since after telling his story, everyone thinks he’s crazy. Following a series of clues, some suggestions from his psych doctor, and taking advantage of the fact his parents are desperate for him to recover from his illness, he convinces his father to take him to Wales, where his grandfather had supposedly survived in a children’s home as a Jew during the Holocaust.
Exploring the house, which is now in ruins, Jacob meets and follows a girl who can create fire with her hands and who calls out his grandfather’s name upon seeing him. Jacob is later confused to find that the inn where he and his father were staying is different, as are the town residents. He’s rescued by the girl, named Emma, and a boy, Millard, and finds himself transported to the children’s home of the stories his grandfather told him when he was a kid. The children in the home are all “peculiars” (children with some sort of supernatural/enhanced/strange ability; Emma can create fire, Millard is invisible, Olive can levitate, etc…) and the headmistress is Miss Alma Peregrine, an Ymbryne (a woman who can transform into a bird and create time loops).
After some investigating, Jacob discovers that his grandfather was also a peculiar, with his ability being that he can see hollowgasts – monsters that feed on peculiars for their souls. Jacob realizes that he has inherited his grandfather’s gift and that the monster that he saw kill his grandfather was a hollowgast.
The story goes on from there over the course of that book and the other two books.
I loved these books – loved, loved, looooved. They were a fun story with all the things that make a great fantasy story – fun, adventure, epic consequences, quirky characters, friendship, loyalty, and even a dash of romance (fairly well done romance, as far as romance goes).
I also enjoyed the appearance of new characters throughout the series, but not so many it was overwhelming (looking at you, George R.R. Martin). One of my favorite characters was introduced in Library of Souls. Sharon is a boatman who ferries and guides the kids through Devils Acre. I find Sharon very darkly funny and very relatable. The books had a lot of humor in them as well – some of it rather dark, which always appeals to me.
So it’s YA lit but it’s enjoyable for any age. If you want something fun to read with your kids, or just for you, these books are it.
words in scarlet ink 