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Hollowstone Dennis R Upkins Jr 9781463504373 Books

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Hollowstone Dennis R Upkins Jr 9781463504373 Books

There was a lot of hype about this book in certain circles pre-publication, and I was one of those who were really looking forward to getting their hands on it. The characters sounded fantastic and it was great to see a main character who was a POC. Doesn't happen often enough.

And the characters are great. They're well-rounded and likable and almost enough to keep you reading past the terrible writing. Almost. I'll freely concede that I'm a nitpicker who twitched with every grammatical error and misuse of punctuation, but I kept reading until I was past the halfway mark in the hopes that the plot would carry me through. It didn't. The Satanic-esque evil of the bad guys is ridiculously predictable - place it in the midst of a high school and you have the recipe for a B-grade horror movie - and the writing style is jerky, stopping and starting every few pages. Most of the dialogue is terrible, with run on sentences that would require a breath or two given no punctuation at all detracting from what the characters are actually saying.

In short, while the issues of racism and prejudice are handled in a very eye-opening and realistic way, they're the only things that are. Hollowstone reads like a bad nano novel, and no matter how much you may want to enjoy it, the writing just won't let you.


Tags : Hollowstone [Dennis R. Upkins Jr.] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers.  Life for Noah Scott changes drastically when he is accepted to Hollowstone Academy, one of the most prestigious boarding schools in the country set in the mountains of Eastern Tennessee. Within the hallowed halls of the illustrious school,Dennis R. Upkins Jr.,Hollowstone,CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform,1463504373,Children's BooksAll Ages,Children: Young Adult (Gr. 10-12),Horror,Horror & ghost stories, chillers (Children's Teenage),JUVENILE FICTION Horror,YOUNG ADULT FICTION,Young Adult Fiction Horror,JUVENILE FICTION Horror & Ghost Stories

Hollowstone Dennis R Upkins Jr 9781463504373 Books Reviews

Engaging story, interesting characters, spooky plot elements, and LGBTQ characters treated like real people - this is exactly the sort of story I would have loved to see when I was a young adult growing up in a queer-unfriendly part of the world. The story does get a bit rushed toward the middle of the book, as though the author had more ideas than space to develop them. I would have liked to see a few more of the plot points explored a little further, but I can understand not wanting to increase page count. (Not much parallelism in the words "teenager" and "attention span".)

I don't get some of the other reviews, though. Absolute realism is for history books, not YA Southern Gothic ghost stories.
Although I was originally excited to see a YA novel with a POC as a protagonist, Hollowstone ultimately left me with a bad taste in my mouth. Misogynistic themes aside (because I feel other reviewers have hit on that point thoroughly), this is a poorly paced book that tries to fit in too many genres (mobsters! angels! demons! murder mystery! etc.), is packed with unlikable characters, and is dire need of some kind of editing. I find it hard to believe the author even reread and thoroughly edited this book; it's full of typos, misused words, and research failures. This is a good example of new writers needing to stick to what they know or can easily study - don't write about a musical prodigy if you are unfamiliar with basic musical terms (i.e. musical theory), and don't make your self-insert gifted poets if your own poetry is without rhythm and completely lacking in grace. This book was not ready for publication, and this is why vanity publishing isn't a good idea.
I put this book in my shopping cart because of TEH DRAMA on the internet, then forgot about it for, like, six months. By the time I paid for this book, I had already forgotten what the drama was about, which is good because then I was able to be completely objective reading it. I had a lot of fun reading it. The characters were likable; the writing style, down to earth. The only criticisms I have are 1.) There are a few editing errors in the book -and- 2.) It has a bit of the leftist ideology to it, especially with the victimhood, but not enough to be obnoxious. I did roll my eyes a bit at the character Cherry, who showed Noah around the school and advertised the fact she had a trust fund. It didn't seem like something a real person would say. The book was good after that, and got really fast paced and interesting during the second half, when some people get murdered and some mysteries come up. Would recommend.
I liked this story, a lot actually. It had me hooked with the first scene when you get a glimpse of a ghost, and then continues to deliver with drama, action, suspense, character complexity all flawlessly integrated with supernatural elements that build up to burning pillar of a climax. This is a very solid debut for the author, and he is officially on my radar.

Addressing some of the drama happening here in the reviews I didn't know what to make of it at first, but since Hollowstone had come highly recommended to me from two authors that I greatly respect I decided to disregard the ratings and dive in. I'll admit it, the drama did pique my curiosity and it added to my expectations of this story, but hear this It passed. I was quite surprised. Congrats to this new author, you have certainly set the bar.
There was a lot of hype about this book in certain circles pre-publication, and I was one of those who were really looking forward to getting their hands on it. The characters sounded fantastic and it was great to see a main character who was a POC. Doesn't happen often enough.

And the characters are great. They're well-rounded and likable and almost enough to keep you reading past the terrible writing. Almost. I'll freely concede that I'm a nitpicker who twitched with every grammatical error and misuse of punctuation, but I kept reading until I was past the halfway mark in the hopes that the plot would carry me through. It didn't. The Satanic-esque evil of the bad guys is ridiculously predictable - place it in the midst of a high school and you have the recipe for a B-grade horror movie - and the writing style is jerky, stopping and starting every few pages. Most of the dialogue is terrible, with run on sentences that would require a breath or two given no punctuation at all detracting from what the characters are actually saying.

In short, while the issues of racism and prejudice are handled in a very eye-opening and realistic way, they're the only things that are. Hollowstone reads like a bad nano novel, and no matter how much you may want to enjoy it, the writing just won't let you.