The Hollow (2009) (edit title/settings)

• Rated 2 stars

“What a horribly written book! I wanted to scream with boredom. The main character is what people stereotype as a "depressed, morbid, emo kid." Black is her favorite color. She loves cemeteries. Her hair also happens to be pure black. Oh, and she's also obsessed with corsets. She's also the biggest smart-aleck in the world too.

Albeit that, there was one trait in particular that I really enjoyed. Her interest in making perfume is original, and very unique. That part I do have to give credit to the author as a brilliant idea. I also enjoyed the storyline based around the Legend of Sleepy Hollow. That was pretty cool.

Caspian was an okay character. He was that dark mannered boy in this story, similar to Emily Bronte's Heathcliff in Wuthering Heights. The black streak in his hair was sort of boring, and the fact that he was an artist too, just because he fits into the stereotype of what people would assume emo boys are, and that just bored me.

Another fact that I disliked about this story was that it didn't explain what really happened to Kristen, (I am aware of another book in the series,) and I also disliked that it was just so boring. What was the point of telling us about her holiday season, and how her family was crazy, and all that other stuff? Abbey, the main character also always seemed to have twenty dollars on her, or money of any sort. But that's not all, then they need to throw in the fact that her Uncle owns an ice cream shop, and she's sort of a neat freak and organizes his office, which of course lands her a job that she is getting paid more than minimum wage for.

The way Caspian, Nickolas, and Katy fit into the story is extremely original, and I extremely enjoy it, however, the rest of the story was a bore and was not worth over five-hundred pages of reading. The whole story could have been summed up into two-hundred to three-hundred pages.

Other than that, this book was pretty horrible, and I wouldn't recommend it to anyone. Although a lot of other people seem to be recommending it. I will probably read the next few books just because I want to figure out what happened to Kristen, and what happens with Caspian, but other than that, I wouldn't recommend starting the series.

(Also, after reading the information about the author, it seems as if the author was trying to put herself into the story, because, lo and behold, the author loves cemeteries, abandoned buildings, and rainy nights. That seems just a little bit like the main character. Although I do have to give the author credit of writing the first drafts of her books by hand. I felt that was pretty cool.
I am not trying to bash the author, but this book just seemed to me like her fantasy, and I feel that with some of the stuff that was really good in this book, that she could have written it better.)”

• Rated 3 stars

“that is sooo absurd grr
i cant belive caspian is dead”

• Rated 2 stars

“Really, that was it? I thought it could go so many places but it didn't. Since everything remained visibly un-resolved i'll probably continue reading it.

Happy Reading,
Celery Blackthorn
Team Werewolf/Jacob
"I have not gone to the dark side, but merly stepped deeper into the shadows"
R.I.P. Jason Haley ='(”

• Rated 2 stars

“***Review contains SPOILERS***

Well this books was....weird. LOL. It was OK but it kept me wondering just what was going on and then the "reveal" about the truth behind Caspian, Nikolas and Katy was so anticlimactic for me and it all happened right at the end. And alot of the book narrarated so many mundane deetails of Abbey's life that it got dull. I did quite like Abbey . I found her hobby of making perfumes interesting and her inner monologues were pretty funny. The whole big secret that Kristen was keeping wasn't even a big deal either anad the blurb made it seem like it was. Maybe that will be further explored in the next book, as well as the sudden realization of the Sleepy Hollow legend come to life with Nikolas and Katy and Caspian being...a ghost?”

• Rated 5 stars

“Kristen Maxwell has disappeared and is presumed dead. We join Abigail Browning, Abbey, at this most difficult time in her life. She narrates the story set in the town of Sleepy Hollow, NY. With Abbey you meet a unique individual who makes perfumes and spends a lot of time with her best friend, Kristen, among the tombstones of Sleepy Hollow Cemetery.But it isn't until Kristen's tombstone is among the many, that Abbey begins to find herself unraveling. She discovers that her friend, who she thought she knew so well, was keeping a secret from her that may have contributed to her death. And while sorting through her grief she begins to have feelings for a mysterious boy who finds her at her weakest moment and gives her the strength to go on, all the while harboring a secret that may push her over the edge forever.”

• Rated 5 stars

“This book was full of different emotions and struggle to move on. Abbey has dealt with so much after the loss of her friend. One can truly go and live a normal life after a tragedy loss. To make things worse, people will keep secrets from them that will hurt them even more. I felt sorry for Abbey. If a special someone was taken away from me forever, I would never be the same person that I once was. We all have to move on sooner or later and just be happy for all the memories they let us keep of them.”

• Rated 5 stars

“I´ve just finished reading this book and, omg, it is amazing! It totaly suprised me - main reason for that is probably the fact that I didn´t read spoilers so I didn´t know what will happen.

I must admit that somewhere in the middle of the book it was just a bit boring, lots of "dead ends", but that didn´t last too long.

I´m starting to read next book right now!:)”

• Rated 1 stars

“I'll begin with the elements I actually liked about the book. For me, Abbey, has the potential to be a very unique and compelling character. Unlike the majority of young adult fiction characters, you're not going to find Abbey whining about not fitting in or painting her nails, brushing her beautiful blond hair, going on and on and on about how she's not all that pretty while the author describes her in the most beautiful manner possible and then has more than one boy vying for her attention.... or any of that other preppy girl crap. I found Abbey to remain outside the box throughout the story. She gave her interesting hobbies... that surpassed shopping, mani/pedi's, hanging out at the mall, etc. And, I really liked how she incorporated elements of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. For that, I have to say bravo to the author.

I love that Verday also thought outside the box in developing this star crossed romance between Abbey and Caspian (what a wimpy name!!). Instead of the usual... he's a vampire, werewolf, warlock, she brings in a new supernatural being. While I applaud her for this, I did not enjoy how she went about it bringing it to life.

Jessica Verday is a New York Times bestselling author and I've read many reviews that praised this book. Personally, I suffered through this read. Nothing of any true story value actually happened until the very end of the book. It was less than exciting and I had an enormous amount of trouble staying interested. When the holidays rolled around for Abbey I wanted to bash my head into a brick wall because I was so bored but determined to finish the book and find out what the point was because I was completely clueless. I wasn't even sure what the true significance of her friend's disappearance held-- not even when they unveiled what happened to her. I was like "Ok... And??" But there wasn't really an explanation.

The writing itself was very choppy for me. It didn't flow or even make sense. I really couldn't get inside Abbey's mind or get close to her. Her emotions were just kind of "eh..". I simply couldn't connect with her and that was very disappointing since I had high hopes for her type of character.

Unfortunately, I do not recommend book but I have read many reviews that adamantly recommend it so, if you do read it I hope you find it more enjoyable than I did.
”

• Rated 5 stars

“amazing '-'”

• Rated 5 stars

“I want to read the next book!!
I just loved it :)”