source: arc from author
rating:★★★✩✩
from goodreads:
They told him the Hollow was forever.
They weren’t kidding.
When fourteen-year-old Lucas Hale wakes up on a domed island full of sword-wielding guards, the rules are already written—and survival isn’t guaranteed. Students disappear, questions get you noticed, and no one seems to care how any of it actually works. The guards call it discipline. The survivors call it luck. Most kids treat this place as some kind of twisted summer camp. Lucas can’t shake the feeling that it’s a trap.
But he isn’t like the others. He doesn’t remember how he got here, and he’s already behind on whatever “training” he’s supposed to be doing. The deeper he digs, the more he realizes: the Hollow isn’t just weird. It’s hiding something. It’s watching. And it wants something from him.
Because here, magic isn’t the only thing that wants to break you.
And Lucas? He’s not planning on breaking quietly.
my review:
first i want to say thank you to j & j kellaway for letting me arc read the hollow!
so… i liked this book but i didn’t love it. it started off slow for me and i was honestly confused about what was going on, but i think that was kind of the point since lucas himself had no clue what he was getting into either.
the problem is lucas drove me up the wall. i tried to like him, i really did, but he irritated me the entire way through. since the whole story followed him, that made it tough for me to fully enjoy.
when i first signed up for the arc, i thought this was going to be a spooky halloween thriller, but it turned out to be more of an eerie fantasy. the magic and the creatures? super interesting! the concept was solid. but lucas’s hyperfixation on escaping (while ignoring literally everyone trying to help him) and his obsession with his supposed best friend’s girlfriend? major ick.
the ending though? after what happened with danny, i was actually hurt. he really pulled me back into the story and also helped highlight professor steele’s character, who i actually liked. steele tried so hard to guide lucas and ground him, but lucas just didn’t care.
if this had followed a different character (ryder, maybe?), i think i would’ve loved it so much more. the story itself gets 4, but because lucas was THAT unbearable, my overall rating had to drop.
favorite quotes:
"most truths will reveal themselves to those who listen."
favorite quotes:
"most truths will reveal themselves to those who listen."