The Hollow Gods by A.J. Vrana || Review

I received an ARC from Netgalley, that doesn’t affect my opinion of the book, all my thoughts are my own and honest.

Black Hollow is a town with a dark secret.

For centuries, it has been foretold the return of the Dreamwalker, the folklore says she lures young women into the forest, possesses them, and they almost always end up dead.

The Hollow Gods follow three perspectives. Miya is a struggling uni student that might be the next Dreamwalker’s victim. Kia who wakes up next to the lifeless body of the latest girl found dead, his memory blank. Mason who runs away from the city filled with guilt of losing his patient, to find that his sanity might be tested.

This book was creepy, atmospheric, mystery-filled, and kept you on your seat. If you scare easily don’t read with the lights off.

What made this book stand out for me and made it memorable was the folklore of the Dreamwalker. The amount of detail Vrana put into creating this fable was remarkable and it paid off. I feel like I could look up with lore right now and find it. It went into so much depth and everything that was mentioned came back around in the end.

The characters were really fleshed out people. They all had their demons like real people do. I liked all three of their perspectives but found Kia’s to be more interesting to start with. I felt like I related to Miya the most out of all the characters, she was struggling with normal day to day issues, while wanting to get away, I do that with my reading. She was not a person to reckon with as she will not shy away. Mason’s self-journey was great to read about. He went running away from his guilt only to find it is hard to run away from something that follows you. Kia had to deal with a literal demon haunting him making his life hell. Kia was a badass guy and he also doesn’t know how to deal with people.

There was rep for grief and guilt that I can’t say was good or not. But there was rep of anxiety in here, and I felt like Vrana did a good job with it from personal experience. The way she described the panic attacks, or how your anxiety makes you feel, I was reading it and it was like she has just described what I feel like. Of course, everyone’s anxiety presents in different ways so that might not be the case for everyone who reads this book.

Overall it was a great read, and definitely a very strong debut novel. I gave this 5 Stars. I really can’t wait till the sequel to come out and Hollow Gods haven’t even been released yet.

Thank you to NetGalley, A.J Vrana and the publishers for approving me a copy.

Comes out on the 28th of July 2020