Overall Rating
5
out of 5
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Top 10 Contributor
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A haunting read!
Date: 15 April 2010
This review is for the
Print
format.
"I have never quite read a book that drove me to tears and chilled me to the bones from beginning to end. The Hollow is one such book, and it is definitely my type of read. Jessica Verday effortlessly combines the mind-numbing emotions of mourning the loss of a loved one with a spine-tingling mystery that once unveiled, would sure be a shocker that I could not help but be entirely fascinated by this book.
What I found most remarkable about The Hollow is how the narration perfectly captures the numbness of grief. Abbey's mourning of Kristen's sudden disappearance seems so real; her longing is palpable and tangible in her voice. I felt that the book, the beginning especially, reflects just how blank and how numb one bereaved can be. While reading I was transported into seeing everything in Abbey's perspective, including the dragging of days, each pitiful stare, and that gut-wrenching pain of emptiness inside...it was enough to make anyone cry. Wonderfully captured - I can only praise the author for this.
I believe the pace of this novel may appear slow and tedious to some. Personally however, I thought it exhibits the author's sensitivity to small details that would or might be later relevant, as well as her careful setting of the romance. With such intense emotions involved the slow pace helped in allowing the reader to reflect, and ultimately makes the reading experience much more engaging.
The intensity of the emotions in The Hollow is but one part of the novel; the other, the one that scared me half to death rests well with its backdrop of the town of Sleepy Hollow, the notorious setting for Washington Irving's 'The Legend of Sleepy Hollow'. Having said that, the novel contains and revolves much on this - I have not read it but found no difficulty following the plot. From both this elements spring an unlikely romance between Abbey and Caspian - a romance with such an unlikely twist I was floored. The addictive romance - and the possibility of another with a secondary character - creates such a wonderful blend.
In terms of characterisation, Abbey was mostly the sole focus of the novel. Again, it is the writing that reflects the characters; Caspian is charactertised by his mysteriousness and distanced approach while Abbey is drawn by her grief and penchant for making perfumes. The secondary characters I felt were not properly developed. However, I did not mind this at all considering the complexity of the twists and turns in the plot. I believe that with simple characterisation, Jessica has given the twist more focus and attention - hence the overall result is not crowded and suffocating.
The resolution sealed the deal for me. The mystery took me completely off-guard, and although I have thought about it as a possible twist, I was still in disbelief by the end of the book. The resolution was duely believable, leaving just enough unanswered questions so as to make me want to read the sequel without making it appear like a cliffhanger.
There are questions, I believe, that will arise at the resolution. However, I felt that The Hollow comes close to a tale that will last long - it is open-ended, with just the right amount of mystery and emotions - not to mention symbolisms and literary devices - to remind me of a classic.
I believe I did not give this book justice with this review. It's a haunting tale with ripe, intense emotions to lift it to a pedestal. A must-read."
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Overall Rating
1
out of 5
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Top 10 Contributor
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Lacking
Date: 28 November 2009
This review is for the
Print
format.
"It does a good job in drawing you in the first few chapters. It kept me interested long enough to get a third of the way through. Then the boredom hit. It was incredibly dull.
The general story, and I would say sixty per cent of it, was about everyday activities. School, homework, perfumes, eating, etc. Out of the 500+ pages Caspian appeared in about 100-150 of them. It felt like the big romance was all in Abbey’s head most of the time because when she did meet with Caspian, the spark of their romance wasn’t jumping off the page. The words used to describe the scene were lackluster and do nothing for the reader. Even the quotes from The Legend of Sleepy Hollow doesn’t pick up the blandness.
The tagline at the bottom of the blurb says, ‘Sometimes love knows no boundaries…’ What love? There is no love in this story. There was more love in the Legend of Sleep Hollow quotes at the beginning of each chapter. The great thing about teenagers and romance is that they have these raging hormones that make it all seem more dramatic and intense. There was none of that. Not even on Abbey’s part- who is four years younger than Caspian. At sixteen years old there wasn’t even a hint of excitement that an older guy was interested in her, but then where is Caspian’s interest in Abbey? It wasn’t on the pages that I was reading.
There was also very little on Kristen and her death. That was the only interesting part of the story and it drops out of the plot right in the middle with not even a neatly tied-up goodbye note for the reader. If it wasn’t for the fact that Abbey thinks about Kristen once a chapter, then you would completely forget about the mystery brought up in the plot.
As for the end of the book- it was rushed, it was lacking and it was a big cop-out. Even with the knowledge that there will be two books to follow this one that will answer all my questions cannot excuse the bad ending. Everything that is left wide open in the plot is done in a sloppy manner. It doesn’t make the reader get excited about continuing Abbey and Caspian’s story. In fact, I will be avoiding the next two books like the plague.
However, I do have a good note for the Verday’s writing; she is fantastic at setting a scene. The town of Sleepy Hollow was vividly described. The reader could imagine everything as though they were there themselves. Unfortunately, this same ability that Verday had didn’t work on her characters because I still don’t have a clear imagine of how anyone looks. They blend in to each other."
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