Wake the Hollow

by Gaby Triana

[layawaydragon]

Confession time, here’s what I got: I’ve never read The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.

My experiences have all been with adaptations with Tim Burton’s 1999 film Sleepy Hollow the first to come to mind and pop culture references. Which I love. Hence, jumping at the chance to be a part of this tour.

Now, I’m stuck. I enjoyed it. It succeeds at building an eerie, creepy atmosphere. I loved Mica, except the romance, which was the main letdown. The plot is my absolute favorite part. But I can’t discuss it without spoilers. >:(

So now what?

While The Legend of Sleepy Hollow is fundamental, it’s more about Irving’s past as the town’s idol and Mica’s present issues of nightmares and voices.

Since I knew nothing about Irving, it was pretty interesting to find out about him and the surrounding speculations. Enough so, I actually looked him up online after the fact.

Did you know?

Aaron Burr, a co-publisher of the Chronicle, was impressed enough to send clippings of the Oldstyle pieces [Irving’s pseudonym] to his daughter, Theodosia, while writer Charles Brockden Brown made a trip to New York to recruit Oldstyle for a literary magazine he was editing in Philadelphia.

However, if you’re looking for a retelling like Tim Burton’s, you’ll need to keep looking. It doesn’t rehash the tale and try to make it new. It rolls with it to the contemporary times. Don’t get me wrong, The Legend of the Sleepy Hollow is important but it’s famous ghosts don’t get much screen time. Its prominence and author are the lifeblood of Wake the Hollow.

The atmosphere is right, there’s violence and death, a love triangle, a dashing horse rides, and fortunes to be made or lost, but it’s fundamentally different. Tourists come for the Headless Horseman, but the main attraction in Wake the Hollow is the townspeople.

Paranormal or Magical Realism?

I shelved Wake the Hollow as paranormal and left it at that. That’s where my gut still lies, but several days ago (a week now that this review is posted) I had my mind expanded. One of the amazing I people I follow was involved in this conversation about magical realism, its Latinx authors and influence. It started with white people ignoring Latinx in the genre and generally being assholes.

Now I can’t stop thinking about that conversation when trying to review Wake the Hollow. And that’s a very good thing. First, here’s the two main threads to check out (please come back after you’re done!)

Since I’m white and am not in the loop, I don’t feel quite comfortable labeling Wake the Hollow as magical realism, though it certainly fits the bill. Beyond the wiki definition (yeah, I know), I cannot get past how it goes THIS so fucking beautifully

http://thebrokebookbank.blogspot.com/2016/09/reviewing-wake-hollow-by-gaby-triana.html

Even if it’s not exactly magical realism, I think fans of the genre will enjoy Wake the Hollow nonetheless. It’s more than another retelling of a ghost terrorizing white people or two dudes fighting for a woman’s hand or town fortunes. Of course, it has all of the above intertwined but it’s Mica, a Cuban-descended American, coming home because of her mother’s death.

Saying more might bolster my argument, but it’d ruin the story. Instead, I’d love it for you to read it and tell me what you think. Or I can spoil it privately on request if you’d like to know now.

Romance:

I’m going to sound silly right now and complain of a love triangle in a Sleepy Hollow retelling but yeah, I wasn’t a fan. Not because it was there, but I don’t think it played out well.

Mica is dealing with her childhood friend turned hunky knight and the new professor, who I kept imaging as a Hispanic David Tenement repeating the theme struggling between your roots and your future.

I was on board for quite a while with this actually, having clearly picked a favorite. Then things started happening and Mica made some decisions and things were discovered and…

Like the plot, it didn’t come off smoothly. There weren’t enough clues planted beforehand to support it. Instead, it came out of the blue. “WHAT? But what sense does that make?” I think about it now and I can see it but it abruptly pulled me out of the story while reading.

I wish this had a better foundation so it didn’t feel like a slap in the face and the ending such a disappointment with underdeveloped relationships leading the way. And that’s the only damn thing that brought the book down for me. What a pity.

4 stars: For everything but the romance drama and chunky character twists. But ya’ll know my picky, iffy opinions on romances so take that as you will.