Book of the Month: Hollowland

I'm continuing with book of the month to try and highlight some books that don't get the attention they deserve.  This one may not exactly fit the bill since the author is a bestseller, but I feel like this series of hers is a little left out.  Maybe this will convince you to pick it up if you haven't yet.

"This is the way the world ends - not with a bang or a whimper, but with zombies breaking down the back door."

Nineteen-year-old Remy King is on a mission to get across the wasteland left of America, and nothing will stand in her way - not violent marauders, a spoiled rock star, or an army of flesh-eating zombies.

This was a good zombie book. For the most part it reads like one big adventure, but then, for the last few chapters, the pace drops and it becomes a slow. The ending was fine, but leading up to it really had me bored. I liked the fast pace previous to it and the fact that it seemed pretty realistic, timing wise, rather than the journey being over to fast or not taking too long. The group runs into a couple snags, but this doesn’t stop them for long. The hurdles here are inventive and things that aren’t normally the problem. I wish more time could have been spent on them, but all in all, the pace was pretty good.

There wasn’t a large cast of characters, rather a small group made up of unforgettable ones. The main character is Remy, a no-nonsense 19-year old trying to find her brother. She’s a good female character and does everything she can to stay strong, but you also see the weakness in her as well. Joining her are Harlow, a pre-teen who does get pretty annoying but is actually pretty smart when it comes to staying alive; Lazlo (who’s totally crush-worthy) the ex-rock star who follows Remy around like a puppy; Blue, an almost doctor who knows how to survive in their new world; and Ripley, a bad-ass, zombie-killing lion. Ripley’s pretty awesome.

The zombies in this book are pretty standard and the mythology isn’t too deep, but that just brings out the horror in them. They make you go “eww” which is what zombies are supposed to make you do.

Hollowland actually reminded me a little of 5th Wave, but since this came first, I guess it’s the other way around. It doesn’t make either seem like a copy of the other, but they do have similarities that are pretty obvious. Not bad, just similar.

Amanda Hocking really is a good writer (I’ve read other works of hers) and I thoroughly enjoy the freshness of her stories. This book gets ****4 out of 5 stars**** and I would recommend you pick it up.