The Hollow Kingdom

Title: The Hollow Kingdom

Author: Clare B. Dunkle

Publisher: Henry Holt and Company (2003)

Genre(s): Young Adult Fiction, Fantasy

Length: 230 pages

Synopsis:  Kate and Emily Winslow arrive at Hallow Hill estate newly orphaned and left to the care of their distant, old-fashioned uncle and their properly fussy great-aunts.  The estate belongs to Kate, and will be hers upon coming of age, but her uncle has other ideas.  When strange happenings begin to make Kate question her own sanity, her uncle takes the opportunity to push her further, hoping to have her committed to an asylum.  Trapped between her devious uncle and a power even more wild and strange, Kate is forced to make a choice: relinquish her sister to  her uncle’s power and herself to an asylum, or ally herself with a creature she can scarcely fathom- the Goblin King of Hallow Hill.

My Rating: 3 Stars

My Opinion: 

While the concept behind this book is appealingly classic, the style leaves a bit to be desired.  Every writer has heard the old adage “Show, don’t tell.”  This story doesn’t so much tell as grab the reader by the wrist and frog-march him through the first 50 pages or so.  Dunkle wants to start in the middle of the action, another excellent writers’ trick, but there’s just too much back-story required to let her plunge right in.  The prologue, set 70 years before the book takes place, is an unfortunate hint that the rest of the book will lurch past in odd fits and starts.  Little time is spent developing characters as they’re pushed onward through an admittedly intriguing plot.  By the last third of the book, the balance has resolved a bit, but I still feel no need to read the rest of the trilogy.