Reviews with content warning for Grief - Hollow Kingdom

3.5/5 There's so much to like in this book--S.T. is a delightful narrator, Dennis is such a great depiction of a hound dog, the depictions of grief and nature and connecting outside of the human world were beautiful, and it was very funny for the most part.

My main issue is that I hate the idea behind the Not Zombies in this book that the reason that humanity as a whole was doomed was because we just couldn't look up from technology to respect nature. I loved the idea of connecting with deep, natural times (and I love the idea of the the Aura), but I just felt like...this just sort of conflates the ecological problems with big tech/environmentally destructive industries/etc. with individuals. Like...it felt like Buxton should have either made the zombies a metaphor for humanity's over-reliance on social media/phones (a la Warm Bodies) or it should have focused on environmental problems caused by by big corporations. Pushing the two together was just sort of messy.

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rachaelwho's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Good, earnest, interesting, sweet. "Mofo" started out grating and contrived and went right on through being super, super annoying. Major plot elements were very obvious but do you really need a book like this to be unpredictable? I didn't. I would've taken it, but I was fine without it. I'll read her next, too.

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virtualdragonkitty's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny hopeful fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

I really loved this story, even if at times the pacing felt weird. It was fun reading a book about a zombi apocalypse from the eyes of the animals

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annaplatypus's review against another edition

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Not my sense of humor. I felt like the pacing of the book was way thrown off by inappropriately timed jokes and asides, plus a generally repetitive writing style. The whiplash between dumb potty jokes and overwrought emotional ponderings was sometimes jarring or genuinely upsetting.

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ermagerd_berks's review

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adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

Even though it drags a bit in the second half, this book easily makes my Top 3 Most Favorite Books Ever list

Aside from what I think is one unnecessary "Where the Red Fern Grows/Old Yeller" moment, this is a fantastic book.

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beccapedia_'s review against another edition

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dark funny hopeful medium-paced

Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No

2.5

I really wanted to like this book.

When this book was recommended to me, the premise immediately had me hooked. A post-apocalyptic sci-fi featuring a crow named Shit Turd and his loyal dumb dog? Are you kidding? Sign me up. But, I feel like the idea was better than the execution.

Hollow Kingdom brings a unique perspective and much-needed twist to the zombie genre, but it holds itself back with unnecessarily excessive descriptive prose, characters that are hard to connect to, and critical plot points that just don't make sense.

I'm typically all for flowery prose-- it's my favorite. Most of my 5 star reads are written with some degree of flowery prose, but it usually fits the genre and is enough that it contributes some emotion to the story, but short enough that it doesn't pull away from the narrative. Hollow Kingdom took purple prose to the next level, and it felt additionally out of place because of it's genre. I found myself skipping whole paragraphs of the book regularly because it was just a wall of description with no substance to the plot, using the biggest words it could possibly find to describe a simple object. I nearly DNF'd 30% into the book because I found it such a slog to get through. Thankfully, the plot picked up enough that I was able to tolerate it, but this was an issue throughout the whole book.

The main character, S.T., was hard to connect to or care about. In his defense, I can't really relate to a crow in a zombie apocalypse, but I should be able to relate to his feelings of grief, loss of identity, and desire for a purpose. But, those feelings were often surface level or moved past quickly, and so I felt it difficult to care. We don't really get to know the other characters well enough to attach to them, either. There was minor character development, but it didn't make a huge impact. Honestly, I felt myself looking forward to the few short chapters we got from other characters because I found them far more interesting and compelling than S.T.'s perspective.

Finally, there were some plot points that regularly had me going "... Huh?". I feel like I'm usually pretty willing to make crazy leaps in logic for sci-fi and fantasy-- it's fiction, it doesn't have to be realistic. But it does have to make sense within the narrative. Most of the confusion came from the virus itself: where it came from, how it worked, and why it was there.

It's supposed to be a biological virus, like most zombie novels, and in this case sent as a punishment from Mother Nature, but it comes from... Phone screens? I get it, it's a social commentary on technology addiction. But having a naturally created virus that's caused and triggered by technology feels... Disjointed. The book also emphasizes that the virus was a consequence of humanity "missing their chance to evolve" and be better, Nature's way of restoring balance by forcing humans into extinction. But, by the time we get to the end, some of the infected have evolved into not one, but two different "species" of humans as a way to survive the virus? One evolving into a type of man bird, and the other into a man spider? In what I assume is, at the very least, less than 5 years time (since time is not clear)? If the point is that humans missed the opportunity to evolve, that Nature isn't fair, and that evolution takes GENERATIONS, how did they evolve into two new advanced species in such a short period of time? The book tries to explain that this advanced evolution is a last ditch effort at survival and is caused by cancer. Again... What?

I understand the characters are all animals and can't possibly really know what's going on at a molecular level and explain it reasonably to the audience. If the author had just left it at "We're animals, we don't know", I would have been okay with that. But, they went out of their way to deliver that information through a talking parrot and it just... It didn't make sense, and it still doesn't, to me at least.

My final issue with the plot is this:

Dennis' death was pointless and didn't make sense. I'm not upset that it happened; I knew that it would at some point, it was inevitable. I'm upset at the way it happened. He could've died saving the murder during that lake scene, and it would've been a hero's death. But instead, he smelled a UPS truck from inside the compound where they'd been living for weeks, saw that it was swarming with zombies, and just... Went feral on the truck and got eaten to death? Are you joking? I literally put my Kindle down and said "This is the dumbest thing I've ever read." I get that they were trying to make a commentary on a dog's instincts to attack the mailman, but 1) the truck wasn't running, 2) it had been sitting there for weeks (I presume) in an area they regularly patrol, and 3) was swarming with zombies. But you're telling me he hadn't seen it before, and his "natural" instinct to attack the package truck overrode his instinct to avoid predators?? Absolutely pointless death. Meant nothing and didn't make the commentary the author was hoping it would. Cinnamon's death had more meaning than that.

The book wasn't all bad. It was genuinely funny at times (I particularly enjoyed the running joke about squirrels). The communication systems of Aura, Echo, and Web were creative and thought out. My favorite parts of the book were the short chapters we got from some of the other animals-- specifically Genghis Cat and Angus the Highland Cow. Those chapters were witty, had amazing voice, and gave that really unique perspective I was looking for. I loved them.

Overall, though, it was okay. Unique and funny. I understood the points it was trying to make, I just don't think it was well-executed in getting there. I have the second book, Feral Creatures, but I honestly don't know if I'll read it. I might, just to say I did and to see if it clears any of the issues up from the first book, but seeing as it's longer than the first and I barely made it through... Probably not.

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leweylibrary's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

I had a hard time getting into this book--S.T.'s voice was a bit too abrasive to the point of being unbelievable--but then it somehow morphed into the book I really needed to read right now?

The human world is a mess. We are absolutely a cancer, so it was nice escaping the human world (and seeing them crumble no less) and living among only animals--even if it was in apocalyptic circumstances. I absolutely adore Dennis, that loveable oaf, I kept picturing him as Fang from HP (which is fitting given the multiple HP references in the book). It seemed to me that the book focused on the importance of connecting to nature. That's where humans went wrong and how they triggered the virus. It's what the reader does through S.T.'s narration, and it's how the animals who are left band together to survive in this new reality, regardless of their previous place in the food chain.

What really made this book so great for me right now in particular were the tidbits here and there that made me smile and bolstered me. In times of Roe v. Wade's overturning, the quotes about the strength of females and the need to fight opposition hit me so extra hard.

I'm not sure if I'll read the sequel, but I sincerely appreciate this book and it's timely presence in my life ❤️

Quotes:

"You know so much, Onida." "I have nine brains--which never stopped growing--three hearts, and I can regenerate my arms; but mostly, it's because I'm female." Female. Well, shit. Admittedly, I had limited knowledge of them, that they had always seemed omniscient and formidable to me. (69)
I felt a powerful pang of relief that I wasn't female. It seemed that being female meant to be prey, even among your own species. (79)
Life is not the same once you've learned just how deeply a tree can feel. (117)
"Don't shackle yourself to an ideal. Always go with the tide; listen for guidance. Creativity is not a uniquely human trait. Creativity is everywhere, in the barb of every feather and each audacious sapling. To err is what's human... Humans marked their distinction with their mistakes. A creature can be heartbreakingly powerful and loving while also being a destroyer of worlds. You are mistaken in thinking they are the only rational animals. What you were looking at is just a chapter in their story, one they narrated. Perhaps... There is still a whole book for us, many chapters ahead. You must have all. Float with the tide. Trust that She knows what She is doing. We must listen to Her through Aura, Echo, and Web. Onida has spoken." (206)
I got starstruck in the site of a snowy owl, because, I mean, Harry Potter. (209)
I cannot recommend this to you enough: find something that you believe in, right down deep in the depths of your silvery plumage, and then throw your heart at it, blood and valves and veins and all. Because I did this, the world, though brambled and frothing at the mouth, looked more vibrant; blues were bluer, and even the fetid puddles that collected under rusting cars tasted as sweet as summer wine. (231)
Her name translated as "Survivor," But she told me she didn't like it much. I asked her why and she said because she is a female and all females are survivors so it was massively redundant. (233)
Elephants command attention. But their size is not what makes the heart skip a beat. It's how they walk with the world's weight on their shoulders, sensitive, noble, their hearts pulsing and as wide open as the great gray leaves that are their ears. MoFos used to say that an elephant never forgets and until this very moment, I hadn't understood what that really meant. An elephant's memories don't reside in organ or skin or bone. They live closer to tree time than we do, and their memories reside in the soul of their species, which dwarfs them in size, is untouchable, and lives on forever to honor every story. They carry stories from generations back, as far as when their ancestors wore fur coats. That is why, when you are close to an elephant, you feel so deeply. If they so choose, they have the ability to hold your sadness, so you may safely sit in the lonely seat of loss, still hopeful and full of love. Their great secret is that they know everything is a tide--not a black tide but the natural breath of life--in and out, in and out, and to be with them is to know this too. And here they were, suddenly lifting the weight of our sadness for us, carrying it in the curl of their trunks. We all sat together in our loss, not dwelling, but remembering. For an elephant never forgets. (271-72)
This was the one thing we could control. When you have the power to stand up to oppression, you must. (275)
Time with the elephants had strengthened me and I'd remembered myself. The crow in me had loyalty and passion. The MoFo in me, hope. I was about to unleash a motherfucking hurricane. (275)

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