- Author: A.J. Vrana
- Genre: Dark Fantasy/Horror
- Page Count: 409
- Date Started: July 19th
- Date Finished: July 26th
A Brief Description
Black Hollow is a town with a dark secret. For centuries, residents have foretold the return of the Dreamwalker—an ominous figure from local folklore said to lure young women into the woods and possess them. Yet the boundary between fact and fable is blurred by a troubling statistic: occasionally, women do go missing. And after they return, they almost always end up dead.
When Kai wakes up next to the lifeless body of a recently missing girl, his memory blank, he struggles to clear his already threadbare conscience.
Miya, a floundering university student, experiences signs that she may be the Dreamwalker’s next victim. Can she trust Kai as their paths collide, or does he herald her demise?
And after losing a young patient, crestfallen oncologist, Mason, embarks on a quest to debunk the town’s superstitions, only to find his sanity tested.
A maelstrom of ancient grudges, forgotten traumas, and deadly secrets loom in the foggy forests of Black Hollow. Can three unlikely heroes put aside their fears and unite to confront a centuries-old evil? Will they uncover the truth behind the fable, or will the cycle repeat?
Note: I received this book from the author through Storytellers on Tour. I wanted to thank them for this opportunity! If you click the link below, you can see the full schedule.
Storytellers on Tour: Tour Schedule
MY REVIEW
Hollow Gods by A.J. Vrana takes place in a small town in Canada called Black Hollow. The town is surrounded by woods and shrouded in secrets and folklore. This town is plagued by the Dreamwalker, a mythical figure that takes women into the forest. When they women finally emerge, they are always changed, and they always end up dead.
Miya, a struggling college student is… well struggling. She is struggling with college while also dealing with her own mental health issues, depression and anxiety. When she begins to experience signs that she might be the Dreamwalker’s next victim, she embarks on a journey to try to find exactly what is taking the girls of Black Hollow, and how to stop it.
Kai, is a lone wolf. He lives away from the confines of Black Hollow and tries to scrape his living together in the woods of Black Hollow. He is hunted by the towns people as a messenger of the Dreamwalker and he is haunted by a dark entity. He was… an interesting character to read a perspective from. I am not usually a fan of the “alpha” male kind of personality, and Kai definitely has one. You can see a very distinct change come over him as he gets to know Miya and as he allows himself to get close to others.
Mason, a resident doctor, who is escaping his everyday life due to the loss of a patient. He is learning that his arrogance is a hindrance in his career. He escapes to Black Hollow on a vacation to get away from the trauma and pain that he is feeling. When he learns about the myths and folklore that is so embedded in the everyday lives of the townsfolk of Black Hollow he seeks to find the logical explanation for these occurrences.
These three characters come together in a snarky, arrogant and different mix. There is an underlying romantic aspect here that slowly builds up as the novel goes on. I’ll be honest here, like I said before, I’m not a huge fan of the “alpha male” personality, so I didn’t really care for the romance all that much, but as it went on I found myself enjoying it more.
Something I really liked about this is the folklore and myth surrounding the town and the Dreamwalker. I really liked the story behind it and finding out what exactly was going on in this town.
I would recommend this book for anyone who loves urban fantasy, thriller and spooky books!
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
A.J. Vrana is a Serbian-Canadian academic and writer from Toronto, Canada. She lives with her two rescue cats, Moonstone and Peanut Butter, who nests in her window-side bookshelf and casts judgmental stares at nearby pigeons. Her doctoral research examines the supernatural in modern Japanese and former- Yugoslavian literature and its relationship to violence. When not toiling away at caffeine fueled, scholarly pursuits, she enjoys jewelry making, cupcakes, and concocting dark tales to unleash upon the world.
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Giveaway!
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This has been my stop on the Hollow Gods Book Tour! Check out the schedule posted at the beginning of this post to check out more posts by other content creators on this tour!
~Cam
Cosmic Lattes and Books 
I, too, don’t like the alpha male romance, but by the end of the book, I enjoyed it quite well. Great review. It really was a fantastic urban fantasy.
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This got me curious to read the representation of mental illness in the book. Great review 🙂
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This sounds very interesting! I’ve added it to my want to read shelf, thanks!
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