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A review by azaelherondale
The Hollow Gods by A.J. Vrana
3.0
3,5 ⭐️
I saw this book on @amodelwhoread Youtube channel and I was really intrigued: sleep paralysis demon, dark fairy tales and fables ? That seemed great ! The story follow Kai, a wolf who is (for whatever reason) in a man form, Miya, a young woman and Mason, a surgeon who is in a quest to debunk the town's superstitions. I enjoyed reading this book but I had to admit it was a bit underwhelming sometimes and I was not really attached to the characters.
I think the writing was maybe the thing I liked the less in the book. It was not bad per se, far from it ! But I had a lot of trouble getting immersed in the story… I which there were more descriptions of the town, the woods etc. It was maybe a bit too focused on the characters and the fantastic part of the story to be really grounded in reality.
Okay, so the story follow three main protagonist: Miya, Kai and Mason. I had to admit that I had a hard time getting attached to them for some reasons.
First, Miya: I loved how strong headed she was and how she was not having any of Kai’s bullshit. However, I think she was not developed enough. It is said that she is a struggling student but we have absolutely no scene of her working on homework or things like that… for me she was reduced to the “a bit strange and completely fearless girl”, which is a shame because she had a lot of potential.
Then, Kai… I loved than even if he is in a human body you can see the wolf talking all along. However, I’m really not a fan of his character… he is quite creepy towards Miya (even if she puts him in his place quite quickly) and overall a bit of an asshole. I did not hated him but for me he was just “meh”.
Thirdly, Mason. Overall I liked his story and the whole “I want to be pragmatic, there must be a scientific explanation to all of this”. However, he is a bit naive and I felt like he was there mostly to explain the legend of the dreamwalker to the reader.
Finally, I would like to talk about the romance between Kai and Miya… it was really too fast
I saw this book on @amodelwhoread Youtube channel and I was really intrigued: sleep paralysis demon, dark fairy tales and fables ? That seemed great ! The story follow Kai, a wolf who is (for whatever reason) in a man form, Miya, a young woman and Mason, a surgeon who is in a quest to debunk the town's superstitions. I enjoyed reading this book but I had to admit it was a bit underwhelming sometimes and I was not really attached to the characters.
I think the writing was maybe the thing I liked the less in the book. It was not bad per se, far from it ! But I had a lot of trouble getting immersed in the story… I which there were more descriptions of the town, the woods etc. It was maybe a bit too focused on the characters and the fantastic part of the story to be really grounded in reality.
Okay, so the story follow three main protagonist: Miya, Kai and Mason. I had to admit that I had a hard time getting attached to them for some reasons.
First, Miya: I loved how strong headed she was and how she was not having any of Kai’s bullshit. However, I think she was not developed enough. It is said that she is a struggling student but we have absolutely no scene of her working on homework or things like that… for me she was reduced to the “a bit strange and completely fearless girl”, which is a shame because she had a lot of potential.
Then, Kai… I loved than even if he is in a human body you can see the wolf talking all along. However, I’m really not a fan of his character… he is quite creepy towards Miya (even if she puts him in his place quite quickly) and overall a bit of an asshole. I did not hated him but for me he was just “meh”.
Thirdly, Mason. Overall I liked his story and the whole “I want to be pragmatic, there must be a scientific explanation to all of this”. However, he is a bit naive and I felt like he was there mostly to explain the legend of the dreamwalker to the reader.
Finally, I would like to talk about the romance between Kai and Miya… it was really too fast