Title: House of Hollow
Author: Krystal Sutherland
Publisher: G.P. Putnam's Sons 2021
Genre: YA Fantasy
Pages: 302
Rating: 5/5 stars
Reading Challenges: Unread Shelf; Unread Shelf RC - February: Title I Couldn’t Resist
Iris Hollow and her two older sisters are unquestionably strange. Ever since they disappeared on a suburban street in Scotland as children only to return a month a later with no memory of what happened to them, odd, eerie occurrences seem to follow in their wake. And they're changing. First, their dark hair turned white. Then, their blue eyes slowly turned black. They have insatiable appetites yet never gain weight. People find them disturbingly intoxicating, unbearably beautiful, and inexplicably dangerous.
But now, ten years later, seventeen-year-old Iris Hollow is doing all she can to fit in and graduate high school on time--something her two famously glamourous globe-trotting older sisters, Grey and Vivi, never managed to do. But when Grey goes missing without a trace, leaving behind bizarre clues as to what might have happened, Iris and Vivi are left to trace her last few days. They aren't the only ones looking for her though. As they brush against the supernatural they realize that the story they've been told about their past is unraveling and the world that returned them seemingly unharmed ten years ago, might just be calling them home.
Exactly my brand of creepy for this February. I received this book at our December book club book and bottle exchange. When it was revealed, a friend remarked that “Tobe’s going to steal that one” and she was so right. I was immediately hooked by the dark fairy tale premise and the cover. I was reminded of Rory Power’s Wilder Girls in tone and characters. Once, I dove into this book, I could not stop and ended up reading it in basically one sitting. So good! It’s a very creepy and gory story, but full of adventure and twists and turns that feel appropriate and not cheesy. Iris is a a good character, but Vivi is definitely the star of this book for me. I loved getting to know all three Hollow sisters and eventually learning the truth. I did end up basically guessing the ending, but I was still here for the ride. And I loved the ending, not too sad, not too happy, and definitely not all tied up in a bow. Definitely a keeper and one that I will recommend to other dark fairy tale lovers.
Next up on the TBR pile:
