The Hollow Places (T. Kingfisher)

The Hollow Places
T. Kingfisher
Saga Press
Fiction, Fantasy/Horror
**** (Good)

DESCRIPTION: Kara used to think her life was on track, but one divorce later she finds herself back in the small town of Hog Chapel, living in a spare room of her eccentric Uncle Earl's tourist trap museum. She grew up among the taxidermy beasts, strange artifacts of questionable authenticity, and other odds and end that clutter the two-story place, plus it's rent-free and she gets all the coffee she wants from the shop next door, so she can't really complain; all she has to do is help her aging uncle run the museum, and maybe do something about cataloging the out-of-control inventory, until she gets her feet back under her.
Then she finds the hole in the wall, beyond which lies an impossible concrete corridor... and a doorway into a world of mist and willows and a broad, island-specked river, with innumerable other doorways and corridors and mysteries.
With Simon, the barista from the coffee shop, Kara decides to explore a little - only to discover that the seemingly empty world of the willows isn't so empty, or as benign, as it first appeared. Malevolent entities stalk the land, slipping in and out of reality and doing unspeakable things to whatever they catch, and even thoughts aren't safe from them. Worse, the hole that let Kara into the willow world may also let the monsters into Hog Chapel.

REVIEW: The Hollow Places is a nicely creepy tale of other worlds and unseen horrors, featuring a reasonably competent heroine and sidekick and terrifyingly inscrutable monsters literally operating on an unknowable plane of existence. The southern town of Hog Chapel and the little museum of wonders make a nicely quaint throwback setting for the horrific events that unfold, as Kara and Simon poke at something that should best be left alone. The willow world has a surreal and menacing quality from the start, even before they encounter anyone or anything undeniably amiss. Kara quickly realizes she's in way over her head, but cannot seem to walk away, not knowing the dangers lurking just beyond a hole in reality itself. The story takes a little time setting itself up, and there are one or two instances of Kara dropping the mental ball to prolong the plot, but overall it delivers the tale it promises.

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