Book Review: Hollowland by Amanda Hocking

Hollowland (The Hollows, #1)

by Amanda Hocking 

Genre: Horror/Zombie Apocalypse

Reading Grade: New Adult

Publication Date: October 5, 2010

Source: Kindle store (freebie)

Age Rating: 17+

| Amazon | | Barnes &Noble |

"This is the way the world ends - not with a bang or a whimper, but with zombies breaking down the back door."

Nineteen-year-old Remy King is on a mission to get across the wasteland left of America, and nothing will stand in her way - not violent marauders, a spoiled rock star, or an army of flesh-eating zombies. 

 

My Review

• Plot: Remy is evacuating a high school being used as a make-shift quarantine for uninfected humans when it gets attacked by an army of zombies. She discovers that her eight-year-old brother is getting transferred to a different quarantine in another state. Along the way, several characters see how strong a survivor she is and how capable she is of killing zombies, and she ends up dragging a few of them with her in tow across an apocalyptic desert wasteland on a mission to reunite with her little brother.
• Characters: Remy is a pretty cool character who has learned before the story begins how to defend herself against the flesh-eating zombies. This makes her stand out because everybody else is scared and many get bitten and infected by the zombies. She even rescues a lioness which she names Ripley and forms a nice bond with her, albeit a bit unrealistic of one. Lazlo is the love interest and he's funny, but not much use in killing zombies, since he's quite weak in that area. I like Blue because he is stoic under all the high tension and even had been a medical student when the zombie virus broke out. The characters are very likable, although many of them do end up dying, but that's to be expected.
• Story: This one surprised me because I didn't think I'd like it very much, but it ended up being quite an exciting journey through the Nevada and Idaho deserts. Sure, many things are improbable like walking out in the Nevada desert during late summer in the sun for several hours and not getting dehydrated or sunburned. Nobody would realistically survive without shade of some kind, which they did not have. A lioness would probably maul and kill someone in the traveling party, but she never acts like she would harm a soul. Still, I thought it was fun to read. It isn't all that gory, which is good because I would have dropped it otherwise. I'm not a zombie fiction reader, but I felt how hard it was to deal with a world in which, at any moment, the person you've been learning to trust and rely on could get attacked by a zombie and suddenly turn into one themselves.
• Writing: The quality of the writing does leave much to be desired. As interesting as the story and characters are, the technical writing is sub par. There are several proof errors, as well. Still, I was able to overlook them and just enjoy the exciting pace of the story.
• Overall Quality: Pretty decent, although poor writing brings it down a little, but it still ends up being an enjoyable read. This book gets classified as Young Adult fiction, but it technically is not. It's an adult novel with a nineteen-year-old protagonist and there is a sex scene with a little graphic description, although it's not as detailed as it could be. I'd say use caution and reserve this read for older teens at the youngest.
• Favorite Scene/Moment: It's a bit spoilery, but I like the scene when Remy escapes from the cult leader, Korech (not very a very original name, I'm afraid) and how that whole thing goes down. A shotgun is involved and it's pretty intense. The guy doesn't end up being an important character, but Remy's time at his compound is odd and interesting.
• My Score: 4/5 stars.