Dark Hollow by Brian Keene Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Dark Hollow
Book Review: Losing Me
Summary: 3 Stars
I was really into Keene after The Rising, City of the Dead, The Conqueror Worms and Ghoul, but the last two things I have read "Terminal" and now "Dark Hollow" have been very flat for me. The story takes places in rural Pennsylvania with a Pan like gods back to wreak havoc with magic and sex. I found parts of the story very derivative of Richard Laymon who also went very over the top with blood and sex in almost all of his stories and I found the dialog a little off. It was enough so that it took me out of the story at times. Parts of the book worked well, but enough didn't that I can't recommend it.Book Review: Loved It
Summary: 5 Stars
What a great read. Adam is a writer, he writes mystery novels, he lives in a close knit neighborhood and knows all his neighbors. While taking his trusty companion for their daily walk one day they hear pipe music and end up in the woods. There they see a neighbor doing things to a statue of a satyr. This is the start of one heck of a good ride. As people, especially women, start going missing, storeis of the cursed hollow and the family that made it so start getting everyone wondering what to believe.
This is a page turner, plain and simple. There wasn't one part of this book that was boring. Adam and his neighbors are all likeable characters. My favorite being Big Steve. The author had no trouble putting the reading into the book. You actually feel like you are living it with Adam. My only complaint is why did Big Steve have to die? Always kills me when the faithful dog has to die saving his master.
If you want to read a good spooky book, this is the one. It's not going to give me nightmares or anything and the gore level was perfect. Like all good scary books dealing with the supernatural, there is plenty of edge of the seat thrills and sex.
Book Review: Loved it!
Summary: 4 Stars
Important Note- 3/24/11: Many Dorchester (which includes Leisure and more) authors have recently announced that Dorchester has been failing to send their royalty payments since mid-2010 and is also selling digital copies of books they no longer own the rights to and haven't owned the rights to since December 2010. Furthermore they are refusing to release rights to books they aren't paying royalties on and using you, the reader, as their excuse. More information is available at briankeene.com and while there are many wonderful writers under the Dorchester umbrella I have to, at this time, highly recommend that no one buy new books, print or digital, from Dorchester as the money is NOT going to the authors as it should.
I found The Conquerer Worms disappointing so it took me a while to pick up Dark Hollow by Brian Keene. And once again I'm disappointed, but this time it's because I put it off reading this book for so long.
Dark Hollow is the tale of a small town in Pennsylvania, once a farming community, now home to Adam, a midlist mystery writer, his wife and their dog. But their town is also home to something else, an other-worldly creature, summoned long ago and finally awakened again with the first day of spring.
Dark Hollow is a very compelling tale. Sure there's a monster in woods, and some creepy carnivorous demon trees, but the real horror is in the effect the events of the story have on the characters, particularly Adam and his wife. Keene is able to drive a man's loyalty into very dangerous places, pitting his own nature against his ideals. The conflict made Dark Hollow hard to put down and held up through the very last line.
It's easily my favorite Keene work so far. While it counts as horror, there's less gore and violence and far more dread and conflict, which is exactly why Keene seems ready to cross the line into a position rare for a horror author-mainstream acceptance.
Book Review: Not Keene's Best
Summary: 2 Stars
I enjoy Brian Keene. He isn't the greatest horror novelist out there right now, but he certainly isn't the worst. I have, for the most part, enjoyed his novels. I love the mythology he pulls into it. The only parts of Dark Hollow that made this a worthwhile read for me was when he was talking about powwow and other sorts of folk magic. I like the allusions to other stories of his, although he isn't very subtle about them.
Overall though I just found this book to be lacking. I felt it was one of his more poorly written stories. The characters seemed two dimensional, especially women. This book seems to have been written just so it could be referenced in Ghost Walk excessively.
This books is really for only the die-hard Keene fan. That's why I read it in spite of hearing about how awful it was. I don't regret reading it, otherwise I wouldn't fully understand all the references and back story in Ghost walk, but it was really an excuse for flat characters and graphic sex scenes.
Book Review: Not Keene's best
Summary: 3 Stars
I don't really know what to say about this. At times it was captivating but at others it was just plain silly. Keene lost me when the characters started using made up powwow. The book started slow and really didn't pick up pace until the last third.