Slow starter

This is the first book in The Hollows series. I had been pre-warned by several different people that it was a slow-starter, but that the series gets better and better. Well, they weren't kidding! If it wasn't for my faith that it would, in fact, get better, I may not have got through the first 100 pages. It was such a slow start. The writing style doesn't flow, I kept stumbling back and forth and having to re-read bits. There is an inordinate amount of info-dumps—Harrison clearly has a very distinct world full of weird creatures and a society fully aware of supernaturals, and she wants to tell you about the whole thing all at once—and yet at other times she will mention something matter-of-factly, that you have absolutely no clue what she's talking about at all.

However, it did get better. I feel like perhaps this book is the mountain which you have to climb to get to the good stuff. You have to pay the reading piper for the privilege by slogging your way through about eight incredibly tedious chapters. (In fact, there was an escape-type scene about 8 chapters in, and I couldn't help thinking she should have started the book there, and just referenced everything that happened before that in retrospect, Sort of a "it all started when I quit my job" thing). Also, I don't feel like I know much about leading lady Rachel yet. She was kind of busy in this book running for her life, granted, but I couldn't really tell you much about her.

Anyway, onto what I did like, which can almost be summed up in a word: Jenks! I love him. He's a 4-inch tall pixy and he just completely rescued this book for me. His dialogue is hilarious and I just can't wait to see more of him.

We met a villain (I think) whose motives I'm not really sure on at the moment, so I want to find out more on him. There's a potential love interest character as well, but he leaves me a bit cold to be honest. Rachel's vampire room-mate is also up to something, so I want to know more about that. And the guy that lives over the road... yeah, something fishy about him, too, I reckon.

So it seems quite a few little seeds of intrigue have been carefully planted despite my reservations, which will make me pick up the next one. Let's hope it starts a heck of a lot faster than this one did!


(Edit: Two years later... This review is now hilarious to me considering this is now one of my all-time favourite series (I'm at book 11 now). So I guess I can safely confirm it does get better! I stand by my review, however, because that's how I felt at the time).

I have soooo many thoughts about this book. But before diving into what I wasn't a fan of, I'll start with what I loved :

♡ This book was super entertaining as a whole (even though it lost me toward the end).
♡ I think Jenks is so hilarious and the funniest character I've ever read tbh. The way he picks on people, especially Rachel, literally made me laugh out loud every time. He's definitely one of the main reasons that I kept reading when I felt like giving up toward the end. I also loved how I could clearly picture what he looked like with his cool ass wings and pixie dust.
♡ Besides Jenks, I also loved Ivy's character. She seems super complex, and I hope we get to see more of who she is/where she came from in the next book.
♡ Speaking of Ivy, I was ROOTING for her and Rachel to get together. Unfortunately, that didn't end up happening. I felt like they had such good vibes and chemistry in the beginning, but it seemed to diminish as the book progressed :(

Here are all my complaints :

✿ The beginning made me think I was gonna see some super neat and spooky spells, but that didn't happen. All I got was sleep spells and Rachel turning into a mink 100 times lmao.
✿ Speaking of Rachel being a mink, her being held captive, and the rat fight scene last wayyy too long. It was super boring and dragged out
✿ I felt like Nick's character came out of nowhere?? He seemed too quick to want to help Rachel in her quest to catch Trent imo.
✿ It was sooo frustrating when Ivy was literally gone for the last section of the book (I don't care if she was being held by the FIB lol). I missed her angst so much and it just felt weird that Nick was kinda taking her spot in helping Rachel. Thankfully she came back for the last like 20 pages lmao.
✿ Also Nick and Rachel dating?? Literally ew, Ivy needs to be with her!!

Overall thoughts :

I NEVER read fantasy, but I will say this book has made me want to explore that genre so much more. It was really easy to keep up with everything going on and it wasn't confusing to me at all. I loved the world-building and I can't wait to continue this series. And even though it took me forever to get through the second half, I'm so glad I read it :)