#BookReview ‘The Hollows’ by Mark Edwards

About the book…

From the bestselling author of The House Guest comes a chilling story set deep in the woods…

With his marriage over and his career in freefall, journalist Tom decides to reconnect with his fourteen-year-old daughter, Frankie. Desperate to spend precious time together now that they live an ocean apart, he brings her to Hollow Falls, a cabin resort deep in the woods of Maine.

From the outset there’s something a little eerie about the place—strange whispers in the trees, windchimes echoing through the forest—but when Tom meets true-crime podcasters David and Connie, he receives a chilling warning. Hollow Falls has a gruesome history: twenty years ago this week, a double slaying shut down the resort. The crime was never solved, and now the woods are overrun with murder-obsessed tourists looking to mark the grim anniversary.

It’s clear that there’s something deeply disturbing going on at Hollow Falls. And as Tom’s dream trip turns into a nightmare, he and Frankie are faced with a choice: uncover the truth, or get out while they still can.

‘The Hollows’ was published in July and is currently available as an e-book,at a ridiculous cost of free for those who have Kindle Unlimited subscriptions, and , again, free if you have Audible Plus (I think this included in all subscriptions? I have a basic package of a book a month and access to a large, and growing, catalogue of fab audios!)

Also , it is available in paperback, which I think I am going to get, as, a teeny tiny confession here, the audiobook was….not great.

The narrator puts on a Buffalo Bill-esque voice for the antagonist, which made me grind my teeth in annoyance. The teen characters, especially Frankie and Ryan were highly annoying, and I did struggle to stay with the story to the bitter end.

At the start, the notion of dad, Tom, down on his luck (professionally speaking) and a part time parent of teen , Frankie, having a quiet holiday away, with no internet, no distractions sounds like that would be horrific enough for both parties.

But, not having checked Yelp, Trip Advisor or anywhere else that reviews summer camps, Tom has booked him and Frankie into The Hollows, a Maine based version of every single slasher movie campsite that ever existed.

This is the archetypal camp, in the middle of nowhere, nearest town is full of people who hated vacationers and they have more reason to than most as in 1999, 2 teachers were brutally, ritualistically, murdered. Since then, the goings on in the woods should have put off most travellers. Except the unaware and the true crime fans.

Tom finds himself sharing his summer with true crime aficionados that have an encyclopaedic knowledge of these killings and a bloodthirsty need to find out more, so called ‘Dark Tourists’ who thrive on staying in places like this.

It raises interesting questions, as on one hand there is Tom and Frankie trying to re-kindle their father/daughter relationship versus the Shining-esque twin offspring of camp owner, Greg.

And there in also lies the problem, there is too much -esque to make this book stand out. It’s a bit Stephen King (who is name dropped repeatedly) and it’s a bit Harlan Coben but never, really, it’s own beast.

The teens’ dialogue feels forced, and like an adult would expect them to speak. As a mother of 5 daughters, the youngest 3 in their teens and living at home, they just don’t talk like this with their friends. The shoe-horning of a gay character and the whole ‘if only he was straight’ longing from teen Frankie just made me roll my eyes so hard I was almost concussed.

It feels as thought there is a good book in there somewhere, if it was edited a little more tightly, and was less expositional so that it maintained the frankly creepy and ominous atmosphere of the start, instead of turning into a kind of vanilla thriller, I think it may have been more effective at going the distance.
When the end  comes, a)it is not a shocker and b) you feel relief that it is the end. And that is not a good thing.

I’ve only ever read one other book by Mark so have little to hold it against, but the audiobook was such a slog. Definitely going to try and read it to see if that makes a difference to the overall experience. It is a solid book with a good central motif, but the exposition and clunking plotting made it more of a chore than possibly it could have been (this is just my personal opinion, I listened to this over several days to the very , very end and other readers may find it more their type of book and love it.)

Mark Edwards a 3 million book selling author, he is beloved and enjoyed by so many readers and The Hollows is a solid 3 star read, but to say more than I just liked it would be untrue.

About the author…

Mark has sold over 3.5 million books since his first solo novel, ‘The Magpies’, was published in 2013 and has topped the bestseller lists numerous times. His other novels include ‘Follow You Home’, ‘Here To Stay’ and ‘The House Guest’. He has also published six books co-authored with Louise Voss. His latest book is The Hollows, published in July 2021.

Mark lives in the West Midlands, England, with his wife, their three children and two cats.

Link-http://www.markedwardsauthor.com/

Twitter @mredwards