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Hollowstone

by Dennis R. Upkins Jr. (Goodreads Author)

2.77 of 5 stars 2.77 · rating details · 52 ratings · 22 reviews

Life for Noah Scott changes drastically when he is accepted to Hollowstone Academy, one of the most prestigious boarding schools in the country set in the mountains of Eastern Tennessee. Within the hallowed halls of the illustrious school, Noah soon discovers that the world of the privileged is rife with social hierarchies, politics, depravity and corruption. It is also th...more

Paperback, 248 pages

Published June 2nd 2011 by Createspace

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Nov 13, 2011 Amber rated it 1 of 5 stars

The book is about a Gary Stu trying to solve the murder of another Gary Stu, who manages to upstage everyone with his spectacular violin-playing skills in a music theory class.

In an interview I read, the author claimed to treat women characters with respect, but they're nothing more than very offensive caricatures. Brianna is the kind of character only a misogynistic male could come up with, and the treatment of her is just horrifyingly sexist. At one point, the main character "figures" her out...more

like 37 likes · see review

Oct 27, 2011 John Egbert marked it as not-in-a-gazillion-years

Shelves: no-just-no, not-even-for-the-lulz, sounds-bad, wtf-is-this, youre-doin-it-wrong, cover-fail

This book sounded decent...I found it marked on my friend's shelves as "would-rather-eat-my-own-vomit-than-read" and "never-will-I-ever" and wondered why. I researched it...and I found out rather quickly.

No thanks. Not even for the lulz.

(EDIT: And may I add something else about this book? THE COVER SUCKS. I mean, really? Yellow font over, what is that, bronze? Seriously, dude? And that font. THAT. FONT. It's terrible. It doesn't even match the rest of the cover for god's sake. AND THE LIGHTNING...more

like 11 likes · see review

Sep 13, 2011 Calimie rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: will-never-read

I'll be honest. I haven't read the complete book, but I read enough excerpts to know it's so misogynist I don't care to know more.

Edited: to fix spelling.

like 7 likes · see review

Sep 13, 2011 A. rated it 2 of 5 stars

FULL DISCLOSURE: Given the hype and my familiarity with it, I'm going to be somewhat specific in my thoughts on Hollowstone. Those unfamiliar with my personal rating system (why WOULD you be familiar with my rating system?) know that I tend to rate everything lower rather than higher; 2 stars literally means what the mouse-over says, "it was okay".

While I enjoyed it, I think I could've enjoyed it more had it benefited from more editing. I guess I had higher expectations in that regard. While th...more

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Sep 11, 2011 Maru Maru rated it 1 of 5 stars

***SPOILERS AHEAD***

I have two main issues with this book's plot (besides the author's virulent misogyny, but I've spoken enough about that in my own Tumblr, so I'll keep this review book-specific)

First, why is this book being promoted as being LGBQ-friendly? The main character is straight and the white bisexual 'protagonist' is paired up with a guy five seconds after appearing, not that she even appears enough to be considered a main character. This book isn't LGBQ-friendly, and it's certainly...more

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Feb 06, 2012 Ankhesen Mié rated it 5 of 5 stars

I had the honor of being asked to do a review of Dennis R. Upkins's debut novel Hollowstone. This is my first ever official book review, and I was very glad it was this book, particularly because I am a huge, huge fan of this man.

Upkins tells us the story of a young nerdy black man named Noah Scott who plays the violin and goes to church (earning him the nickname "Altar Boy"). Noah is also a brilliant student whose grades land him in a prestigious, exclusive, elitist school of spoiled, selfish r...more

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Sep 12, 2011 Brandy Alexander rated it 1 of 5 stars

Such a shame.

I had this book recommended to me as a good example of a non-white protagonist, so I had high hopes. I don't know what went wrong, but I am shocked to see that a book of this quality was put out by an e-pub, and not self-published. There were numerous grammar errors within the first fifty pages (all I could stomach). There are entire sections -- nearly four pages at one point -- which is pure back and forth conversation: no dialogue tags, no actions from either character to break i...more Such a shame.

I had this book recommended to me as a good example of a non-white protagonist, so I had high hopes. I don't know what went wrong, but I am shocked to see that a book of this quality was put out by an e-pub, and not self-published. There were numerous grammar errors within the first fifty pages (all I could stomach). There are entire sections -- nearly four pages at one point -- which is pure back and forth conversation: no dialogue tags, no actions from either character to break it up, just straight talk. And this was to introduce one of the main characters!

Although this book was written in first person POV, the reader is rarely allowed access to the protagonist's inner thoughts. This is accomplished by way of long, long, (agonizingly long) dialogue blocks. There is little room for character reactions, leaving everything implied by speech. This does not make for a riveting read. For example in the prologue the protag sees his friend's ghost at his funeral. This treated with such blasé non-reaction that I wondered if the character commonly saw ghosts. Maybe he does, but it wasn't mentioned again in the first 50 pages so I doubt it.

Where the writing wasn't flat, it was ugly. There was one point where the protagonist's friend casually refers to two girls he had in a hot tub recently as "skanks". Literally the next line, the protagonist laughs and then mentions he hates being profiled (for the color of his skin). So racism = bad, but profiling women for daring to have sex = a'okay? This was presented without a hint of irony, by the way. I can tell the difference between an unreliable narrator, and, frankly troubling writing.

Again, I was only able manage to slog through part of the book. The bad guys (basically everyone but the protag, one bullied boy, his roommate and his girlfriend) are... almost cartoonishly evil. It's as if they all universally rolled out of bed thinking, "How can I be the most despicable, evil incarnation of a human being that I can today?" This is done, presumably, while twirling their Snidely Whiplash mustaches.

There ARE glimmers of brilliance in here. They are few and far between, and usually weighed down by clunky writing, but they are there! The music teacher is amusing in a good Snape-ish way (although I've never been to a music theory class where you actually preformed and not, y'know, studied music theory). The California valley girl made me cringe with the awful dialogue and 'like' every sentence, but she was at least burst of a colorful personality in an school full of blahs. The supernatural elements and the non-white protagonist got me excited for the book, and should have made for a refreshing change.

This book is in dire need of a tough editor and industrial-grade polish. Again, it's such a shame. It's a novel full of 'should have been'.

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Jul 29, 2011 Gement rated it 4 of 5 stars

I picked it up for the protagonist and I finished it for the murder mystery.

I enjoyed spending 200 pages with the main character, even when I wanted to smack him a few times. I enjoyed watching all the dirty pool of a private school explode in slow motion. There was some very satisfying wish fulfillment of actually getting to tell the jerks what they've done to you and have some of them *listen.* It also captured how people get bone-tired and angry after hearing the same bigoted garbage a millio...more

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Jul 15, 2011 Mari Stroud rated it 1 of 5 stars

I was aware of this author's reputation for particularly virulent misogyny in the blogosphere and was very nervous in reading this book. Was that nervousness justified? Well...yes and no. Yep, every single woman or girl in this book is a stereotype. However, *none* of the characterizations are particularly deep, even those of the author-insert narrator. (You want to make an author insert interesting and able to fly under the radar as such, at least be self-aware enough to include your flaws.) It...more

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Dec 06, 2011 Sean Mcguire rated it 4 of 5 stars

Hollowstone is Upkins' first novel, I've been a fan of his net.writing for some time now, so I was very eager to read this. I even bought it in Kindle edition because it wasn't available in Google Books (my preferred e-reader). But that's not his fault.

Hollowstone is told from the point of view of a young African-American boy who gets a music scholarship to attend the prestigious boarding school after which the book is named. The protagonist's roommate is the resident bad-boy. The school is rife...more

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Mar 16, 2012 B.J. Baye rated it 3 of 5 stars

This book is an entertaining read with the types of characters whose points of view you don't often see in the published world.

However, it's not perfect and it does have some problems. First, it's in desperate need of an editor. Not just for spelling and grammar but for errors an editor should notice, like one section where information about a character is revealed in narration and pages later that same information, sometimes word for word, is revealed in dialog.

My other main complaint is that...more

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Jul 29, 2011 Squidgy rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: ebooks

Oh my. How to describe Hollowstone?

Upkins' achieves something incredible with his first novel. There may not be a single piece of dialogue in this book that wasn't stolen from an excitable movie poster tag line, yet Upkins' craft makes Hollowstone the perfect monotonous stand-in for when your wave machine has broken. Armed with sage advice not to overdo it on the dialogue tags, Upkins' is still keenly aware his readers will forget what quotation marks are for and sticks in ten or twelve "He said...more

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Aug 07, 2011 Leisa rated it 3 of 5 stars

Quite possibly the most intriguing book I have read in a very long time. I have read a lot of YA books that are set at Boarding Schools, and I thought "ho hum, here's another one", but it wasn't at all what it seemed on the surface. Noah is not a completely reliable narrator, and he sees the world with too much compassion and grace, even as bad things happen and his world falls apart. Even when the story seems to be just about a young kid who survived Hurricane Katrina and lucked into a scholars...more

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Oct 09, 2011 Amaya Radjani rated it 4 of 5 stars

Hollowstone, a story about a young man’s experiences at a prestigious Tennessee prep school, is Dennis Upkins’ debut novel. Before I deliver my thoughts on this book, I need to provide a bit of context.

I love books. Love them, love them, and love them. Stories have weight and texture and scent and flavor, and nothing illustrates that better than a novel. I’ll always buy books. But in these times, books have gone digital and eBooks are extremely popular. As co-owner of a small “tree-friendly” pub...more Hollowstone, a story about a young man’s experiences at a prestigious Tennessee prep school, is Dennis Upkins’ debut novel. Before I deliver my thoughts on this book, I need to provide a bit of context.

I love books. Love them, love them, and love them. Stories have weight and texture and scent and flavor, and nothing illustrates that better than a novel. I’ll always buy books. But in these times, books have gone digital and eBooks are extremely popular. As co-owner of a small “tree-friendly” publishing house, eBooks are all Middle Child Press does. So to embrace this trend, I bought a Kindle. Part of my soul died, as I felt like I was betraying the decades-long love affair I have with books.

Drawback of the Kindle: You can’t easily flip back and forth through earlier pages to clarify what you’ve read. This annoyed the hell out of me.

Hollowstone is the very first novel I downloaded to my Kindle. I read it over the course of two nights. I was looking forward to reading a book Mr. Upkins gave birth to during last year’s NaNoWriMo. I went into it, thinking I was going to read a simple tale about a young black man named Noah and his sudden thrust into the elitist world of privileged white kids. He has the benefit of being roommates with the most popular boy on campus, a rebel named Cal. Cal parties hard and lives life to the fullest. He doesn’t fit the mold of the typical Hollowstone student, and Noah is able to adapt because of Cal’s influence. Cal is also thusly affected by Noah’s presence.

The first half of the book depicts the common harsh treachery of high school students. There’s nothing exceptional or special about it. Mr. Upkins drops what I thought were random, disconnected blurbs disguised as Noah’s dreams. But the story was compelling. I was concerned about the pacing, as it felt like so much was happening during Noah’s first semester at Hollowstone that could have been stretched out over a year.

I got my first metaphorical punch in the face halfway through the book. Mr. Upkins deviated wildly to the left and it was at this point that I wondered what I was really reading about. It felt disjointed, disconnected, and surreal. But I kept reading because Mr. Upkins has a great flair for dialogue, and in my experience, dialogue can make or break a book. The book was un-put-downable, and if that isn’t a word, it is today.

I don’t want to give anything away, but Mr. Upkins demonstrated his prowess as a storyteller as the book continued. Most stories are clichéd and I thought I was reading a book that was going to follow a standard pattern. I was pleasantly surprised. When the other two stunning developments came, I felt like I’d been sucker-punched. Everything that felt disjointed at the beginning came together like a well-made quilt at the end. What I thought were random blurbs were a prelude to something deeper than the surface story; something much bigger than Hollowstone itself.

If I have a gripe with this story, it’s the pacing. So much was happening so fast that I couldn’t keep up with exactly where Noah was in terms of his education. He was doing so much; he’s a gifted musician and the prize student of the irascible Professor Nolan, one of the best minor characters in the book (the scene with the paintball gun had me in tears). He gets a job in a bookstore, and it seems as if he spends (along with other students) more time out of class than in it. In spite of this issue, Mr. Upkins takes these loose threads and produces an exceptional unconventional story. I had to step away for a while and think about the book before I wrote this review. If I hadn’t known that this was his first effort, and that it was written during NaNoWriMo, I wouldn’t have believed it. I’ve read thousands of books by newbies and vets alike, and Mr. Upkins is a better storyteller than a good third of the authors I’ve read, both neophytes and veterans. And considering where he started, he has nowhere to go but up and get better.

My $.02? Run, don’t walk to your Kindle (or any other eReader you may have) and download this book. It’s a great weekend read; even better if it’s a rainy weekend.

Bravo, Denny! Bravo!
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Dec 09, 2011 Michele Harrod rated it 3 of 5 stars

I actually enjoyed this book. I would say it's target market is teenage boys, as the dialogue is pure "teen boy fantasy" in places, but teen boys amuse me, so I found it quite entertaining. I didn't take any of the chauvanist comments personally, so was not offended as I can see many readers have been. Maybe because I am not an LGBGTY or whatever the code is? It certainly had some good twists, and repulsive rich-kid bad guys to loathe. I particularly liked the wrap-up and closure for all the cha...more

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Aug 02, 2011 Laura rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: read-in-2011

It’s quite thrilling to see a debut book released when you’ve seen from the very beginning how it started, the writing process and the continual stages of shipping out to publishers etc and to finally see the end product makes you feel all gooey and warm inside. I felt like this book had a lot to live up to for me because I’ve known the author for some years and followed his online writing even before Hollowstone was created and had a certain amount of good hopes that this would live up to my se...more

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Jul 21, 2012 Sheila rated it 5 of 5 stars

Well crafted and enjoyable murder mystery.

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May 17, 2013 Xy rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

So, I read this book twice.

The first thing I would like to say that I didn't find this a necessarily awful book. It wasn't the best but I've certainly read worse.

First, the things I liked:

1. Noah. Like having been a token minority in many situations myself, I knew what Noah was going through and have experienced the same looks, comments etc. It's a piece of my reality that I don't often see in fiction which was .... gratifying.

2. The actual plot. It was interesting and I love a good mystery....more

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Aug 29, 2011 Ken Rohms rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: favorites

Very good book. Definitely worth checking out.

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Aug 18, 2011 Rachel rated it 1 of 5 stars

a summary of my feelings on this awful excuse of a novel:

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Mar 05, 2013 Elizabetha rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: books-i-own, first-reads, fiction, signed

**Review Pending***

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May 05, 2013 Bridget marked it as to-read

Apr 28, 2013 Kara Ferguson marked it as to-read

Shelves: ebook, own

Apr 22, 2013 Bonjour_lapin marked it as to-read

Apr 21, 2013 Jen marked it as to-read

Apr 01, 2013 Julie rated it 4 of 5 stars

Apr 05, 2013 Tiger Gray added it

Feb 22, 2013 Sarah marked it as creamed-corn

Feb 15, 2013 Kim DeCina marked it as to-read

Feb 09, 2013 Laura added it

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