The Hollow

The Hollow
By Jessica Verday
Simon Pulse, 2009. 515 pgs. Young Adult

Abbey cannot believe her friend Kristen is dead. The two friends were always so careful on the Washington Irving Bridge in their town of Sleepy Hollow and Abbey doesn’t know how Kristen could have slipped. Abbey tries to contain her emotions of guilt, anger, and sadness, alone, immersing herself in her perfume-making and in her daily visits to the cemetery. At Kristen’s funeral, Abbey meets a handsome young man, Caspian, she doesn’t recognize and falls in love with him. She also meets an older couple who were once caretakers at the graveyard that she becomes friends with. Abbey then discovers a secret about Kristen that makes her question her relationship with the dead friend.

I appreciate the details needed to establish a new story and series; however, I don’t appreciate reading four hundred pages worth of set-up and descriptions. I expected more to happen in this five hundred plus page book. The climax and the set-up for the rest of the series happens at the very end, leaving the first several hundred pages to describe how Abbey copes with Kristen’s death and her burgeoning relationship with Caspian. Although the story has promise, I ended up skimming it from page 250 onwards instead of reading and don’t think I will be reading the next in the series.

MN