The Hollow - Jessica Verday - 3*

The Hollow

[The Hollow #1]

Jessica Verday

***

No Spoilers.

The Hollow is set in the town of Sleepy Hollow. Complete with the chilling legend of the Headless Horseman, it would be a spine-tingling mystery and romantic story if it was not so... dull.

The story start off at a Funeral. Abbey has just lost her friend, Kristen and is determined to find out what really happened to her, she is depressed and struggling to come to terms with her grief. Aside from the gossiping townsfolk saying terrible things about her best friend. Abbey is set on finding out how she died and why. It is at the Funeral that Abbey notices a dashing guy. He sits with her in the dark basement of her dead friend’s house and is intrigued by how ‘hot’ he is...

Caspian is your run of the mill love interest. He is mysterious, dark and brooding and wants to look out for the female character. He ticks al the boxes, but he matches Abbey’s... dullness. The twists in the story that come right at the end, you can get the gist of throughout the pages. There are a lot of pages for a book that only really starts getting good the last 50 pages.

I have never really turned pages numbingly before, but talking the reader through every little detail was so, painstakingly mind-numbing that I was sure I was going to miss something. But no, the pace is slow and I was waiting for it to pick up. It did in parts. You were left wanting to know how the legend paid a part, how Irving Washington did, and you wanted to know what really happened to Kristen. But again, I finished The Hollow asking more questions than getting anwers. I have the complete trilogy as I picked them up as a set in a charity shop, but I am dubious on contuining. Don’t get me wrong, I do love some brooding, dark and mysterious boys, but Caspian didn’t really cinch it for me.

A story that show grief in all of it’s forms. If you have ever lost someone close to you, you will understand. At times when Abbey was going through the motions, I related, but then thought that maybe the author was trying too hard. For a book that L.J Smith calls ’spectacular’, I want to know what she classes as ‘mind-blowing’.

A great idea that needed a bit more flesh added to the bones and not so much filler. I will probably pick up and start the sequel, just to see if the questions can be answered.