House of Hollows by Krystal Sutherland
Publisher – Hot Key Books
Published – Out Now
Price - £10.50 paperback £4.79 Kindle eBook
Iris Hollow and her two older sisters are unquestionably strange. As children, they disappeared on a Scottish city street only to return a month later with no memory of what had happened to them or where they’d been. More troubling, their appearance began to change: their blue eyes now black, their dark hair now white. And as they grew older, odd, eerie occurrences seemed to follow in their wake. People find them disturbingly intoxicating, unbearably beautiful, and inexplicably dangerous.
Now seventeen-year-old Iris is doing all she can to fit in and graduate high school on time—something her two famous, glamorous, globe-trotting older sisters, Grey and Vivi, never managed to do. But when Grey goes missing, leaving behind bizarre clues as to her whereabouts, Iris and Vivi are left to find her—but they aren’t the only ones looking. As they brush against the supernatural, Iris quickly realizes that the story she’s been told about their past is unraveling and the world that returned them seemingly unharmed ten years ago might just be calling them back again.
YA and horror should go together more often. The teenage years are full of horror and indeed a lot of the horror genre has focused on the young adults who accidentally cross the paths of the monster/serial killer/clown/insert where applicable. Understandably people just starting to undergo physical and emotional changes and discovering the adult world are perfect for bad things to happen to but it is also about people finding out who or sometimes what they are. Battling our worst natures, rebelling against what we are told to be and walking out a safe way through life why yes I can see why horror suits those years and this work very very well for the chic grungy and surprisingly nasty slice of horror that is House of Hollows by Krystal Sutherland which I hugely enjoyed.
The three Hollow sisters on New Years Eve in Edinburgh vanished walking down a street with the parents. Just as the police were getting ready to charge the Hollows with kidnapping though the girls re-appear on the same street naked, with no memory of what happened in their lives; and each has a small crescent scar on their throats. The Hollow sisters became a sensation; a modern-day mystery ready for the internet and conspiracy theorists to work out what happened, and the sisters have started to make waves in other ways. Grey is a fashion designer and supermodel known for her ethereal nature. Vivi is the grungy, punk rock star very much living in the moment and living a fast-paced life around the world and all of which leaves Iris the youngest still at school with her over-protective mother trying very very hard to be normal. Trying not to use the powers that the Hollows appear to have. Then Grey goes missing and the remaining siblings need to find Grey while they become aware of a dangerous presence now tracking them down too.
I was initially expecting this to just be another tale of a magical siblings finding their power but this story has quite a few dark surprises in store. It is both extremely glamourous with rock stars and models and a fast-paced tour through glamourous locations but there is a darker side to everything. Underneath wallpaper lies rots and corpse flowers, modelling and rock stars have alcohol and dependence issues and the sisters’ powers are more about compelling people to do what they want than helping people. The Hollows here are less heroes and more just main characters that we start to wonder in particular regards Grey the eldest if they actually are the good guys. This is a story that knows the fantastical can be alluring and dangerous as well as wondrous. The whole story feels like you’re ina very elegant house but noticing increasingly the shadows and cracks around you widen and getting closer.
In terms of character, I liked Iris our central narrator who you know is trying very hard to be a good girl but often we also feel she is holding back and probably could have the same powers as her sisters. Vivi seems all sharp edges but hides a kinder side while the fae like Grey is more in her absence a dangerous mystery whose trail the girls are following and definitely the more we learn she is not someone to feel comfortable around. The sibling relationship here has that accurate feel of people you know far too well, love and sometimes despair about at the same time. The more we learn about Grey the more the mystery of the girls gets darker and more sinister, and we see the impact their return had on the family which was not positive. What exactly happened to the Hollows to make them so different and now powerful? Also a shout out for the disastrous top model and former boyfriend of grey Tyler who brings much needed lightness and humanity to the story and we care what happens to this shallow(ish) funny and humane himbo as the stoiry progresses! A nice inversion of many horror tale character tropes!
Which leads nicely to the plot. This is indeed a horror story and not a dark fantasy. Bad things happen and as bodies and decay run loose, we soon realise no one is safe in this story. Sutherland has a great eye for the dark and this tale increasingly feels like no happy ending is coming. As the mysteries are revealed we find ourselves having to work out as readers what is a good outcome here and whose side are we on. This includes body horror, child death and suicides and is very much bordering the boundaries of adult horror. All of which I enjoyed but I would not recommend for the younger side of the YA spectrum.
Overall, I was impressed how dark and disturbing this story got. Sutherland has a great writing style to slowly suck you into a nightmare and while an uncomfortable read in places it is also an absorbing one. I was very impressed by this and highly recommend it to horror readers!
