The Hollow (The Hollow, #1) in And So It Begins Reading Challenge

Mar 26, 2010 Nicole rated it liked it

3.5-4 stars...

I'm really not sure how to go about this review. It was a very interesting and virtually untapped premise, but it never really got into that premise until the very end. I understand that there are going to be 2 sequels to this book so I can't really give this one a complete review until I have a general idea of what's going to happen... But I'll do my best to generalize. There was a lot of "fluff" in this book with slow parts that could have been cut out. The romance was strange, b 3.5-4 stars...

I'm really not sure how to go about this review. It was a very interesting and virtually untapped premise, but it never really got into that premise until the very end. I understand that there are going to be 2 sequels to this book so I can't really give this one a complete review until I have a general idea of what's going to happen... But I'll do my best to generalize. There was a lot of "fluff" in this book with slow parts that could have been cut out. The romance was strange, but made a tad bit more sense at the end. Abbey's hobby and supposed future of making perfumes was interesting and truthfully a little random, but it had some significance and maybe it'll make more sense in the next book. Truthfully, I just hope to be a little enlightened by the next installment in the trilogy and not more questions unasnwered...

**SPOILERS!!**

What do you do when you find out the guy you're head-over-heels in love with is actually a ghost of someone that died 2 years ago in a car crash and is for some reason drawn to the sleepy hollow bridge and graveyard you oddly frequent, and the two people you considered to be like grandparents are actually ghosts from "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow", one being the Headless Horsemen himself? Well apparently you plan to run away to your great aunt's and convice yourself you're insane... such a brave road to take (not). Abbey is so in love with her... umm... ghost boyfriend Caspian that she talks about him every 5 seconds, yet the moment she finds out he's a ghost that she can somehow see while no one else can and runs away pleading insanity! And she loved him too quickly for my liking. Total obsession and really liking him? yes. Love? no.

The author pushed the dead-best-friend thing a little too much, but when she could have used it to explain Abbey's said insanity she didn't. First of all, what kind of teenagers go to a graveyard to have plain innocent fun? Apparently Kristen and Abbey. Second, Abbey made it overly clear that no one really knew who Kristen really was and was getting mad at people for grieving for someone they didn't even know, and then she finds out that Kristen was keeping secrets from her, meaning that she didn't know her "best friend" either. It's funny because I just made that connection, meaning it wasn't really adressed in the book. I'm hoping the sequel will shed more light on who this D. is and other witheld secrets about Kristen and how she died.

This novel had a pretty good mystery/suspense element to it and the romance was, well, a little lacking. It was more love angst than an actual romance. Ben is an interesting character and probably my favorite. It's so obvious that he really likes Abbey, and yet she's wrapped up in her own boyfriend issues (namely Caspian [and what kind of name is that, for God's sake?!?!:] refuses to touch her... because he's a ghost) that she kind of gives Ben the cold shoulder until she's partnered with him for a science project. And lo and behold they actually have a fun time together (gasp)! It doesn't even matter that he has a girlfriend because even he says that it's not serious. Here's my prediction: by the end of this series they will be together. I may be wrong, but that seems to be where this is heading. Caspian will be self-sacrificing or whatever and then Abbey will get him and the other two to cross over and then her and Ben will be together. I swear if I'm right I will laugh myself silly. But I guess we'll just have to find out! ...more

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