The Readventurer
  • Home
  • YA Reviews
  • Adult Reviews
  • Contests and Giveaways
  • Policies
  • About Us
    • Flannery's Challenges
    • Catie's Challenges
  • Contact Us

YA Review: The Hollow Kingdom by Clare B. Dunkle

2/19/2012

1 Comment

 
The Hollow Kingdom cover
The Hollow Kingdom (The Hollow Kingdom Trilogy #1)
Author: Clare B. Dunkle
Publication Date: 9/19/06
Publisher: Henry Holt and Company

Blurb(GR):
"She had never screamed before, not when she overturned the rowboat and almost drowned, not even when Lightfoot bucked her off and she felt her leg break underneath her with an agonizing crunch. But now she screamed long and loud, with all her breath."

Hallow Hill has a strange and tragic history. For thousands of years, young women have been vanishing from the estate, never to be seen again. Now Kate and Emily have come to live at Hallow Hill. Brought up in a civilized age, they have no idea of the land's dreadful heritage-until, that is, Marak decides to tell them himself.

Intelligent, pleasant, and completely pitiless, Marak is a powerful magician who claims to be a king-and he has very specific plans for the two new girls who have trespassed into his kingdom. The Hollow Kingdom is a 2004 Bank Street - Best Children's Book of the Year.


Review:

This book is exactly the type of fairy tale that I love the most.  Now, I know that I have been outspoken in the past about my dislike of fantasies featuring caveman, bad-boy type hero characters.  However, I think that I know and respect dozens of women who melt in the presence of these guys.  Do I look down on my friends for their fantasy preferences?  Absolutely not, because guess what?  We all have a fantasy weakness.  We all have that certain fairy tale that bypasses every logical part of our brains and just makes us feel giddy and excited.  So, you can safely assume that mine is decidedly not the perfect specimen, territorial, alpha male.  This book keys into the fairy tale that’s always turned me into a puddle of goo:

Beauty and the Beast picture
He’s ugly (but only on the outside, of course), a bit ruthless, desperate, smart, and he has one hell of a library.  Except that in this book, he’s comfortable in his own skin, and he doesn’t turn into a foppish, effeminate prince in the end (which is what I always wished would happen).

This book is not going to go down in history as one of the greatest works of all time, but I can feasibly see myself re-reading it whenever I need a bit of comfort.  It’s like the literary equivalent of a grilled cheese sandwich.  I was completely drawn in by
the prologue, and by the time the intelligent, practical, and resourceful heroine Kate and her plucky little sister Emily run into the Goblin King Marak I knew that this would become a favorite of mine. 

Marak is the ruler of a colorful, dangerous race of goblins, dwarves, and elves who live within Hollow Hill.  It is a long and traditional practice for the Goblin King to steal a human or elf bride and imprison her underground until the next King is born and his people are secure.  When Kate inherits Hollow Hill after her father’s death, she and her sister become the wards of two elderly great aunts and a shady, pretentious cousin.  Kate and her sister soon catch the eye of the Goblin King, but Kate is revolted and determined to escape his grasp at all costs.

As Kate and Marak engage in a battle of wills and wits, this book actually began to remind me of Pride and Prejudice.  These two characters have a lot of preconceived notions and ideas about each other, and their verbal sparring is charged and exhilarating.  Here is one of my favorite scenes:

”’Indeed it is, Kate,’ Marak agreed.  ‘It’s time to plan your revenge.  Goblins just adore revenge.’  He grinned.  ‘Do you have anything in mind?’

Kate was taken aback.  ‘Revenge is wrong,’ she told him solemnly.  ‘Vengeance belongs to God.’

The goblin put his head to one side and watched her through narrowed eyes.  ‘You won’t even give God a little help?’ he asked softly.”


Kate is independent and powerful, but not unrealistically so.  She’s a proper Englishwoman who reacts in realistic ways to her surroundings and the hideous goblin court.  And by the end of this book, she fits the specs for all of my favorite female heroines:  she’s determined, powerful, a bit merciless and bloodthirsty, and she has a sword (plus the most entertaining magical charm around).

My only “thirty year old woman” type gripe is that this book, despite being what I would class as a romance novel, is
clean enough to give to a ten year old.  Which is actually great for when my daughters get a bit older, but the lack of anything even mildly suggestive felt like a big gaping omission to me.

Perfect Musical Pairing
Joshua Radin – The Fear You Won’t Fall

This sugary sweet song is not something that I like to listen to all the time, but it’s a definite comfort food song for me.  This is a song about falling harder than you thought you could for someone, who may or may not love you back.

4/5 Stars

Readventurer C Signature
1 Comment
Tricia link
2/9/2015 02:11:54 am

I just read The Hollow Kingdom, and I felt exactly the same way. It was as though Dunkle reached into my deepest fictional desires and wrote my favorite love story. You're exactly right in describing this book as comfort food--it's not challenging or anything, but it feels SO GOOD. Thanks for your review! I've linked to it in mine (which will be published in a week).

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    Archives

    May 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012
    November 2011
    September 2011
    August 2011
    July 2011
    June 2011

    Categories

    All
    Abuse
    Addiction
    Angels
    Anthologies
    Audiobooks
    Aussie Ya
    Boarding School
    Bullying
    Cancer
    Catie's Y.a. Reviews
    Catie's Y.A. Reviews
    Christmas
    Contemporary Ya
    Cowboys
    Crime Solving
    Cross-dressing
    Deafness
    Death And Dying
    Depression
    Divorce
    Drugs And Alcohol
    Dystopia
    Dystopian
    Fairy Tales
    Family Issues
    Fantasy
    Favorites
    Friendship
    Frustrating
    Funny
    Geniuses
    Ghosts
    Graphic Novel
    Graph/Pic Review
    High School
    Historical Fiction
    Illness
    Illustrated
    Lgbtq
    Magic
    Middle Grade Fiction
    Music
    Mystery
    Necromancer
    Newbery Medal
    Paranormal
    Parent Issues
    Problems
    Psychiatric Issues
    Published: 1963
    Published: 1978
    Published: 1991
    Published: 1992
    Published: 1994
    Published: 1998
    Published: 1999
    Published: 2000
    Published: 2002
    Published: 2003
    Published: 2004
    Published: 2005
    Published: 2006
    Published: 2007
    Published: 2008
    Published: 2009
    Published: 2010
    Published: 2011
    Published: 2012
    Publisher: Aladdin
    Publisher: Allen & Unwin
    Publisher: Black Dog Books
    Publisher: Blackstone Audio
    Publisher: Bloomsbury USA
    Publisher: Brilliance Audio
    Publisher: Candlewick Press
    Publisher: Candlewick Press
    Publisher: Carolrhoda Lab
    Publisher: David Fickling Books
    Publisher: Delacorte
    Publisher: Delacorte
    Publisher: Del Rey
    Publisher: Dial
    Publisher: Dutton
    Publisher: Farrar Straus And Giroux
    Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
    Publisher: Feiwel & Friends
    Publisher: Feral Dream
    Publisher: First Second
    Publisher: Harlequin
    Publisher: Harper Children's Audio
    Publisher: HarperCollins
    Publisher: HarperTeen
    Publisher: Henry Holt
    Publisher: Hyperion
    Publisher: Katherine Tegan
    Publisher: Knopf
    Publisher: Lee & Low Books
    Publisher: Little Brown
    Publisher: Lothian Books
    Publisher: Margaret K. McElderry
    Publisher: Penguin Australia
    Publisher: Point
    Publisher: Puffin
    Publisher: Roaring Brook Press
    Publisher: Scholastic
    Publisher: Simon Pulse
    Publisher: Simon Spotlight
    Publisher: St. Martin
    Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
    Publisher: Subterranean Press
    Publisher: Tor
    Publisher: Viking Australia
    Publisher: Viking Juvenile
    Publisher: Young Picador
    Pusblisher: Arthur A. Levine
    Relationships
    Religion
    Reviewed: 2010
    Reviewed: 2011
    Reviewed: 2012
    Road Trip
    Romance
    Science Fiction
    Setting: Boston
    Setting: California
    Setting: Canada
    Setting: China
    Setting: England
    Setting: Germany
    Setting: Minnesota
    Setting: New Jersey
    Setting: New York
    Setting: Ohio
    Setting: Oregon
    Setting: Paris
    Setting: Pennsylvania
    Setting: Prague
    Setting: Seattle
    Setting: Seattle
    Setting: Turkey
    Setting: Virginia
    Setting: Washington
    Setting: Wyoming
    Sex
    Sexual Abuse
    Short Stories
    Space
    Surfing
    Time Travel
    Unicorns
    Urban Fantasy
    Vampires
    Verse
    War
    Werewolves
    World Building
    Young Adult
    Young Adults
    Zombies

    RSS Feed


Creative Commons LicenseThis work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 United States License.