The Mystery of Hollow Places

by Rebecca Podos

A mystery writer's daughter sets out to find her missing father and, along the way, begins to understand the loneliness that has gripped them both since her mother abandoned them years before.

• ISBN10: 006237334X
• ISBN13: 9780062373342
• Publish Date: 26 January 2016
• Publish Status: Out of Stock
• Publish Country: US
• Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
• Imprint: Collins
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 304
• Language: English

Reviews

[readingwithwrin]

See reviews first on my Blog



"Like, you keep saying it's your job to find your dad. But I don't get it. You're not a detective. You're not a superhero. I don't remember you becoming, like, 'one with the night.' It is literally the police's literal job to find him. So shouldn't we tell the cops what we know?"



Imogene has essentially been taking care of herself and at times her father since her mom left them. When she left Imogene's father started having bad periods of time and Imogene would deal with them as best as she could, and eventually her dad decided they would see a counselor and try to make things better. Which is when he gets on medicine and starts not having bad times as much as long as he takes his medicine and then he ends up marrying the therapist (Lindi) who helps manage everything and ends up becoming the driving force of the household.
When Imogene’s father disappears in the middle of the night leaving her with a memento from her grandma on her mom’s side, Imogene believes that he has gone to find her to try and see why exactly she left. Imogene immediately tries to start finding clues and where exactly he went to all while trying to keep her stepmother Lindi at a distance, so she won’t try to stop her. With the help of her best friend Jessa, Imogene is able to get information on her mom and where she has been the past few years. But she wasn’t expecting to find out certain things about her mom.
Even though she finds that information out she still hasn’t found her dad and she is running out of potential options of where he could be.
I ended up liking this book far more than I was expecting to, even though Imogene keeps her stepmom at a distance you can tell she does like her. Plus Lindi is very caring towards Imogene and at times seems more interested in making sure that she was okay then finding her husband.
I really enjoyed Imogene and Jessa’s friendship. While I do think Imogene doesn’t give Jessa enough credit and just considers her to be materialistic you can tell that by the end of the book that they’ve grown as friends and Imogene doesn’t see her in that way anymore. As for Jessa I found that she was far smarter and knew more about different things in the world than Imogene did. Together they were able to put the pieces together that Imogene’s father and the police couldn’t /weren’t able to.
There is slut-shaming, you can tell that this opinion was dropped by the end and was resolved for the most part.

This was my first book with mental health being a prominent part and I surprisingly really enjoyed it, and I will be looking forward to future books by Rebecca Podos.

[Amber]

The Mystery of Hollow Places is a quiet YA mystery. By that I mean the plot kind of just plods along as its own pace, without any huge reveals or exciting scenes. There was nothing thrilling about it, and while I did keep reading to find out what happened to Imogene’s father, who goes missing in the beginning, it’s an easy book to put down and forget about.


I didn’t connect with the main character at all, mostly because I found her very cynical and dark. Some people might like that, and sometimes I do, but in this case it just didn’t work for me. Imogene just wasn’t someone that I enjoyed reading about, although I did sympathise because both her parents left her. Sad times.

Having never suffered intense depression nor bipolar disorder, I can’t really comment on how this book portrays those mental illnesses. Imogene’s mother was severely depressed, and she ran off and left her daughter and partner behind. The Mystery of Hollow Places follows Imogene as she tries to find her father, who leaves her at the beginning of the book, and as a result she finds out more about her mother and her past.

I wasn’t engrossed in the mystery at all, to be honest. I think I had a problem connecting to Podos’ writing style, which just didn’t work for me in terms of pulling me in and keeping me interested. The author’s writing was good enough, but it was nothing outstanding and I wasn’t blown away by it.

Overall, this is a very flat debut that had such promise. I wish I was able to connect with Imogene more, but her voice along with her treatment of other people was such a let down that I just couldn’t.

[shannonmiz]

This review was originally posted on It Starts at Midnight
The premise of the story is about Imogene, and the fact that her dad has left home with no indication of where he is going, when he'll be back, or if she and her stepmom should be worried sick, which of course, they are. Her stepmom calls the police because she is normal, but Imogene thinks that she will know better where her father is- and suspects it has something to do with her birth mother and the mysterious circumstances that her legacy has been shrouded in.

Let us begin with the stuff that was really great about the book.

• First, and foremost, family. This book was so, so much about families and both the love that brings them together and the ugliness that can tear them apart. It's clear that these people, no matter how flawed, care for each other. Imogene's stepmom is awesome. She is not in any way made out to be an "evil stepmother"- she's just a nice, normal lady who wants her family back together. And she's both kind and firm to Imogene, not that the firmness actually deters Imogene from doing anything, but the point is, she tries.
  

  "She said I was a 'partner in the family', and never treated me like a pain, or the price of marrying Dad, or some pathetic little half orphan."

  
  And despite all this nonsense with Imogene's mom, her stepmom is definitely in it for the long haul. I approve.


• Friendship is also big. Jessa is Immy's best friend, and Jessa puts up with a lot of undeserved crap from Immy, because she is just a quality friend, and knows that  Imogene is going through a really tough time. And when Jessa can't help out, she enlists her brother Chad, even though she knows that Imogene has had some feelings for Chad. And then he steps up to the plate to help out. Clearly, they are pretty decent human beings.


• Despite Imogene's flaws, or maybe because they were similar to a lot of my own flaws, I related to her. She was so insecure of some things, yet so confident about others. She definitely took her stress out on people who didn't always deserve it, but I think that is a flaw that most of us can openly admit to. And she is stubborn as hell when she thinks she's right, and I have some experience in that particular arena ;)


• I felt like a lot of the "life lesson" stuff was really on point. No one was perfect, and everyone was just trying their best. And the revelations that came to pass during the book especially highlighted that point.


• The writing was quite good, and I was definitely curious as to what would happen next. I didn't feel bored, and I was genuinely curious about the situation with Imogene's family.

So, of course, there has to be stuff that wasn't really my favorite. 

• Some of the events that happened were a bit... farfetched.  I suppose plausible, but not likely. Especially for so many unlikely events. I guess I could have given a pass to one or two, but damn, this girl had incredible luck on her side.


• There are some mental health bits in here that I didn't love the handling of. Again, I am not saying that any of it was outlandishly impossible, it's just that Lindy, the stepmom, was a therapist, and yet she didn't seem to take any family member's mental health into consideration. It just felt... weird. And it also felt a little glazed over in general.


• Despite the positives that I found while reading the story, I think the main reason I had trouble with the book is that I felt underwhelmed- especially toward the end. When I expected things to pick up and get extra intense, they simply... didn't. And while I never like to tell any specifics about the end of a book, I just felt a bit let down, like I wanted more. And unfortunately, it made the book in general feel quite anticlimactic.

Bottom Line: The writing was solid, and I think this author absolutely has a ton of potential. This wasn't a bad book by any means- in fact, there is a lot I enjoyed about it. Perhaps it was even my expectations of the end being more epic that got the best of me. But I can't deny that I felt disappointment when I was finished, so take that for what it's worth. Still, worth a read for the character/family development alone.