The Hollow by Jessica Verday

It starts with the disappearance of Abbey’s best friend Kristen. Everybody but Abbey is too quick to believe Kristen much be dead. Abbey’s hometown, Sleepy Hollow, is a small settlement and the nasty gossip and rumors about what really happened to Kristen only serve to make Abbey fell more alone than ever. Visiting Washington Irving’s grave doesn’t even offer the solace it used to. Then Abbey meets Caspian, an alluring stranger whose obvious concern for Abbey’s wellbeing offers the only comfort in her life. Unfortunately, Abbey’s like starts to unravel even more when she learns of the secret Kristen was keeping from her. It makes her doubt everything in her life, from her faith in Kristen’s loyalty to her trust in the mysterious Caspian. There’s something strange and possible sinister at work in Sleepy Hollow, but admitting this just might cost Abbey her sanity.

The Hollow, though for the most part enjoyable, was not quite as well written as I hoped it would be. The main reason for this is because for the first 90% of this lengthy book, I wasn’t sure whether this story was a getting-over-grief one, a twisted, tortured romance, or something relating closely to The Legend of Sleepy Hollow with a hint of the supernatural; a considerable chunk of the plot felt like a tug-of-war between these three options. It frustrated me that such a large portion of the novel was spent leading slowly up to the biggest revelation in the last tenth of the book, and it bothered me that those first 450 pages or so were spent on events that were too drawn out and at times boring; this slow section could’ve been condensed to better maintain the reader’s interest. Though Abbey’s character is well-developed, admittedly mostly during the slow section, realistically teetering on the line between sanity and the unbelievable, the rest of the characters needed much more work. I understand little is revealed about Caspian to keep him mysterious, but his devotion to protecting Abbey was mostly unbelievable and his behavior generally confusing. Ben, Abbey’s school acquaintance, was too nice. I wanted to know the back story and these characters’ motives, and I just couldn’t glean them from the given story. The last revelation may have redeemed earlier section of the novel with its originality especially since it rekindled my interest in the story, and though I would’ve liked some of my many questions about this novel answered, I don’t completely mind that they weren’t since hopefully a sequel will do that for me.

Despite my heavy criticism, I did enjoy The Hollow and have high hopes for a sequel. This novel will be enjoyed by those who liked Swoon by Nina Malkin.

Rating: 3.75

Review copies from publishers Simon & Schuster and Simon & Schuster UK