THE HOLLOWS by Daniel Church – Review

I received this book for free from the Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

The Hollows by Daniel Church
Published by Angry Robot on November 8 2022
Genres: Adult, Horror
Pages: 460
Format: ARC
Source: Publisher
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The nitty-gritty: An ancient evil threatens a small, rural village in this terrifying story, perfect for fans of folk horror.

“Board your window, keep on your light, when the Tatterskin walks at night.”

The Hollows is a tense, thrilling horror story about a group of people who have to face a terrible threat while stuck in the middle of a blinding snow storm. I loved the cosmic horror vibe and claustrophobic setting, and I’ll admit the story didn’t go where I thought it would, always a bonus. If you love horror and you’re looking for a good seasonal story, then this might be just the book for you.

The story revolves around the remote English village of Barsall. One day, Constable Ellie Cheetham is called to investigate a dead body, a man named Tony Harper who she assumes died of exposure after leaving a bar the night before. But upon closer inspection, Ellie suspects Tony’s death might be more than that, perhaps even murder. In addition to the odd position of the body, Ellie discovers a strange charcoal symbol nearby that could have ritualistic meaning.

Little does Ellie know that Tony’s death is only the beginning. A dark presence is about to awaken, and before three days are up, Ellie and her friends will face their worst nightmares. With townspeople dropping like flies, Ellie must figure out how to protect the survivors and defeat the evil, no small task in the storm of the century.

Daniel Church does a great job of putting his characters in terrible danger, and the scary action scenes were by far my favorites. I don’t want to go into too much detail regarding the creatures who are picking off the townsfolk one by one, but I will tell you they are afraid of light, so they do everything they can to plunge the characters into darkness. There are so many excellent, tense scenes where Ellie and her friends are making their way through the snow at night with only flares to keep the monsters at bay, and trust me, those scenes were extremely stressful! I also loved the gunfight scenes, which gave the story a Wild West feel at times.

If you’re going to set you horror story in a small, rural town, you have to populate that town with interesting, quirky characters, and Church outdoes himself in that respect. Ellie is a tough but very human cop who follows the rules and is dedicated to keeping her town safe. And when it comes to the town’s “problem” family, the Harpers out at Barrowman Farm, Ellie grits her teeth and does her job, even though she knows a simple visit to the family to tell them Tony is dead could mean putting her life in danger.

And speaking of the Harpers, I thought they were a great addition, adding an extra layer of unpredictability and danger to the story. Liz is the tough-as-nails matriarch, ruling her family with a sawed-off shotgun in her hands. Her daughter Jess was one of my favorite characters, a seventeen year old girl who has a baby boy she’s trying to protect. Jess turns out to have a backbone and uses the chaos of the monster attacks to plan her escape from her awful situation, and I wanted her to succeed so badly! Church paints a decrepit image of the Harper house with its awful smells, rotting food and almost unlivable conditions. And the family knows something about the weird symbol but won’t tell Ellie when she comes to talk to them about Tony, so right away there’s a feeling that Liz and her kin might be in league with the darkness that’s building up and threatening to take over Barsall.

Other characters added a lot to the story, like Madeleine, the local vicar, and Milly, one of Ellie’s best friends who is also a doctor. Warning though: Church isn’t afraid to kill off his characters, and he shocked me a couple of times with some unexpected deaths.

The horror aspects of the story are based on folklore and family history. Liz Harper has a “Family Bible” that doesn’t resemble the Christian Bible at all, but hints at a much darker god who may soon wake up from a long sleep. Church doesn’t explain everything about his creatures and their origins, and I didn’t mind the feeling of mystery surrounding them, it just made them creepier. 

The only element that didn’t work for me was the length. The book is just too long, and some repetitive sections and phrases could have been eliminated to create a tighter story. When you boil the story down to it’s main parts, it could easily have been at least a hundred pages shorter and still maintained the same level of excitement. The final showdown alone is a hundred pages long, and by that time I’ll admit I was ready for the story to be over.

But that complaint aside, I had so much fun with this book. The Hollows is wonderfully cinematic and would make a great movie, in my opinion. Readers looking for a snowy survival story with otherworldly creatures are going to love this book.

Big thanks to the publisher for providing a review copy.