When I was five or six, I saw Bambi, because that is a baffling thing that parents still do to their children.
Fantastic. I don't usually compare books, but in this case I couldn't help but occasionally compare it to Kingfishers other horror novel, [b:The Twisted Ones|42527596|The Twisted Ones|T. Kingfisher|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1567950921l/42527596._SY75_.jpg|58145790]The Twisted Ones. I gave the Twisted Ones 5 stars, and this one 5 stars. So the comparison isn't a method of making me decide if I like the book or not. I loved both of them. The Twisted Ones was based on Kingfishers obsession with a line from a story she read. Similarly The Hollow Places is also based on another story, [b:The Willows|1335601|The Willows|Algernon Blackwood|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1348548258l/1335601._SX50_.jpg|2588003]The Willows by Algernon Blackwood. I now have to read this book to see what it's like, thanks for increasing my TBR lol. In the Authors Note Kingfisher goes in for the kill:
H.P. Lovecraft wrote that "The Willows" by Algernon Blackwood was one of the most terrifying stories ever written. Before I read it, I assumed that this probably meant some of the people in it weren't white,"
T. Kingfisher really upped her game with this horror novel, where in The Twisted Ones she sometimes had the tension break with the characters making jokes - which was fine, but it did mean you never reached a high level of tension - in this one she has the joking and everything placed way better. The characters still make stupid jokes, they still alleviate the tension, but they don't do it every time there is a high tension moment, instead it happens afterwards when they need to move past the shit they just went through. And it worked really well. I don't know if it is better, I didn't mind the tension breaking in the other book, but I also liked it this way too. So both are good I think.
The one area where this one didn't quite match The Twisted Ones is that The Hollow Places lacked the fast female friendships that I so loved in The Twisted Ones. I really did love those friendships. But this one did still have a good friendship between our main character, Carrot who is a woman, and a gay man. This means there was no stupid romance happening, although in one part the MC does acknowledge that if he were straight it is possible they would have had sex after the first horrible thing was over because that is the only way we've really been taught by society to deal with such immediate trauma. It was a super interesting point.
This book, while being an excellent cosmic/Lovecraftian horror, also delves into some other areas and makes some interesting observations and points - like the one above about dealing with immediate trauma. No it's not all full of preachiness or anything, it just wasn't only a horror a novel, and it dealt with the non-horror parts really well and seamlessly I think. Like the main characters slow realisation that she no longer cares about the fact that she has just gone through a divorce, that actually maybe it's a good thing.
We were way off script now. He'd be pissed about it in the morning and figure out how it had been my fault, but for the moment, he was completely at sea. "I'm sorry." Sweet, blithering Christ, why had I married this guy to begin with? I was starting to think that half of the angst of a divorce wasn't the loss of stability, it was the coming to terms with just how lousy your judgement had been.
And of course we should mention the horror itself. It's good. It's cosmic. It's creepy. It creeps up on you and has you wondering what is going to happen next. It's twisty and twisted. And it's interesting, which is always good. I don't want to say much about it though because it's best left explored through the novel. It's really good though, and I highly recommend this book.