The Hollows
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**FINALIST for BFS Award for Best Horror Novel, 2023** Folk horror meets ancient gods in a remote snowbound Peak District town where several murders take place… --- In a lonely village in the Peak District, during the onset of a once-in-a-lifetime snow storm, Constable Ellie Cheetham finds a body. The man, a local ne'er-do-well, appears to have died in a tragic accident: he drank too much and froze to death. But the facts don't add up: the dead man is clutching a knife in one hand, and there's evidence he was hiding from someone. Someone who watched him die. Stranger still, an odd mark has been drawn onto a stone beside his body. The next victims are two families on the outskirts of town. As the storm rises and the body count grows, Ellie realises she has a terrifying problem on her hands: someone – or some thing – is killing indiscriminately, attacking in the darkness and using the storm for cover. The killer is circling ever closer to the village. The storm's getting worse... and the power's just gone out. File Under: Folk Horror [ Small Town | Big Terror | Long Night | A Few Good Women ]
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The Hollows by Daniel Church.
The Hollows by Daniel Church is a solid “monsters attack” story. The story read like it could - and maybe should - be translated to the silver screen for a two-hour horror flick. It has all the cliches and tropes of the monster movie, including a slow start, a quiet community, mysterious deaths/disappearances to ratchet up the tension, violent slaughter to really ratchet up the tension, a villain who just won't die, and a nick of time resolution.
My reference to cliches is not meant as a put-down. These stories have to follow the recipe or they will fail to deliver what they promised.
In this case, the variation from the norm is that the quiet, isolated town is located in the Peak District of England, east of Manchester, west of Rotthertham, and south of York. Apparently, it is an area prone to blizzards and being snowed in, because at the start of the story, that is what is happening, cutting off the quiet community of Barsall from contact with the outside world.
Of course, it is at this point that ancient horrors begin to stir to determine whether it is time to summon what I assume is a huge horror from outside of time. People disappear. Horrors wearing flayed human skins begin to mass. The protagonist, Constable Ellie Cheatham, is the only one trying to figure out what is going on. The local Juke and Kallikak clan - the Harper family - plot to be on the winning side, i.e,. with the monsters after the Dance.
I liked the rural England aspect. The story was sprinkled with unfamiliar (to an American) words and expressions. I didn't like the typically English sneering attitude at religion, albeit the main character does wonder at the end whether something happened because of providence and an Anglican clergywoman is presented as a strong character. I also questioned the gender balance of the story. All the main characters were women, with men relegated to supporting roles. This became problematic to me when the assault team on the nest of ancient horrors was composed of a four-women team, including two teenage girls. It seemed like they might have wanted a male in the group in case upper body strength was called for. That said, though, I didn't get the sense that this was intended as feminist ideological preaching, for which I am grateful.
So, it was an engaging read. If you like this genre, you will like this book.
