Farren's Reviews > The Hollow Ones

My first audiobook ARC! Thanks NetGalley and Hachette Audio for providing the advanced copy

I really admire Guillermo del Toro. I think he's absolutely brilliant, and I love watching him (with the highest level of envy) show off his horror collection. But for some reason I just don't love his novel writing. Since his books are almost all coauthored, I can't ascertain how much he actually writes himself, and it's quite possible that he's the idea guy while someone else puts his creative energy on paper. However, I can say with certainty this book has almost identical vibes to The Strain (likely due to teaming up with Chuck Hogan again), and I think that if you enjoyed that trilogy then you would really like this book as well. I preferred that this one had less "technical" writing, fewer points of view, and characters whose fates I actually cared about. The three timelines were easy to follow and gave the characters a lot of depth, and they came together superbly at the end.

Now this is a just a personal preference thing, but this type of writing really isn't my style. I think a lot of people would love this book, particularly readers who are fans of Stephen King's descriptiveness, and I would still recommend this book to those who enjoy the genre. My 3 star rating isn't bad because I did like the book, but I didn't love it, and that's solely a reflection of my personal tastes and not the quality of the work. I would rather watch Idle Hands, or an episode of Charmed or Supernatural that contains a similar theme. Maybe that makes me a dumb dumb, but don't judge me, k? It's rude.

As for the audio format, Brittany Pressley is the reason I requested the ARC to begin with, and she did a wonderful job narrating as usual. She kept me hanging in there when I would start to lose focus or get bored. She's so good at becoming her characters that she is Odessa, and I refuse to see anyone but her play Odessa should this become an on screen adaptation.