Into the Woods: Tales from the Hollows and Beyond (A Hollows Novella) (Hollows, #2012)

by Kim Harrison

Enter the woods ...if you dare. New York Times bestselling author Kim Harrison ventures into these mysterious, hidden lands of magic and mystery in her first short-story collection. Into the Woods brings together an enchanting mix of brand-new, never-before-published stories and tales from Harrison's beloved, bestselling Hollows series. The tales here include an original Hollows novella, Million-Dollar Baby, about Trent Kalamack's secret elven quest in Pale Demon; two original short stories, Pet Shop Boys and Temson Woods, that explore just what happens when humanity and the supernatural collide; and two novelettes, Spider Silk and Grace, set in new worlds of imagination and adventure. Into the Woods also contains all of the previously published Hollows short stories-together in one volume. Step into the woods and discover the magic for yourself.

• ISBN10: 0062197630
• ISBN13: 9780062197634
• Publish Date: 15 July 2013 (first published 9 October 2012)
• Publish Status: Active
• Out of Print: 5 April 2024
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Harper Voyager
• Format: Paperback
• Pages: 528
• Language: English

Reviews

[ibeforem]

This book is a collection of already published short stories together with a few new ones. As a big fan of Kim Harrison, I couldn’t resist. I hadn’t read any of the already published stories yet (I don’t read many anthologies), so everything was new to me.

Most of my favorites were, of course, the Hollows-related stories. I liked seeing things from other characters’ perspectives, because normally we see everything through Rachel’s eyes. But the other star of the show was “Grace”, which was a completely new world including a different sort of ability — electricity manipulation. This is the sort of story that I would love to see her turn into an entire series, because it’s unlike anything else I’ve read in urban fantasy. Much preferable to yet another fae story, which is what “Pet Shop Boys” boils down to. I didn’t dislike the story, but it really didn’t excite me like “Grace” did.

On the other side of the coin, dryads don’t ring my bell like they obviously do Harrison’s. I found her dryad stories rather boring, and skipped most of “Temson Woods” and “Spider Silk” entirely.

Overall, this did a great job of filling in the time gap between one Hollows novel and the next for me. And my ARC of Ever After arrived shortly after I finished, so the timing couldn’t have been better!

[Melanie]

Listening to the audiobook.

3.5 stars

I've read all the Hollows stories before, but I loved revisiting many of them. Especially, Jenks and Trent's story to get Lucy. I also liked seeing Kisten with Rachel and his sister. I'm still not a fan of Kisten and Ivy's story. It shows a different side to both of them. They are not the confident vamps that we are used to seeing. I didn't like it. I wish there had been at least one new Hollows story.

For the new stories from "Beyond the Hollows", they were okay. I really liked the Pet Shop Boys story. It had a solid ending, but you could see that there is room to keep the story alive, if she chose to do so. Temson Estates was okay. I didn't love it, didn't hate it. I didn't like Spider Silk. It felt extremely unfinished. I wanted to know more about how everything worked out. Grace had the most solid ending of all the stories.

Overall I enjoyed the book. It will tide me over until the next Hollows book comes out. I hear it has a lot of Trent, Al and Jenks. Less Ivy. That sounds like a great book.