The Hollow City (edition 2012)

You can see this review and more like it on my blog - Written Permission

Dan Wells is one of my favorite writers. Though, the more I read, the more I feel compelled to say that he has written one of my favorite books, because nothing but that book seems to stick out as excellent to me. Unfortunately, The Hollow City also falls into that category.

I will give Wells his due. The voice he has created for The Hollow City is fantastic. The story as told by a man spiraling into madness makes it all that much more interesting. He is unreliable, and it leaves you questioning what is real and what isn't, not only in the book but in your own life. However, that was about the only fantastic thing about the book for me.

I longed for The Hollow City to be more of a crime thriller and less of a supernatural thriller. Wells certainly had the chops to make it happen, it just needed more police scenes and less of the weird ending that made me cringe and want to write the author a letter begging him to stop putting a science fiction twist on everything. For those of you who have read his debut series (John Cleaver), you will understand what I mean.

I was engaged in the story right until the last few chapters. I really didn't like the ending, and if it weren't for that, I would probably have enjoyed the book more overall. Though, the epilogue gave me chills, because it was so open-ended.

I don't seem to have much to say about this book, because my excitement for it died with the ending.

Bottom Line: Fantastic narrative voice, but I found everything else to be a little flat. ( )

I loved the first two hundred pages of this book. Loved it. Unfortunately I didn't love the rest of it quite so much. It's still a solid read, though I was not terribly happy with the answer to the mystery and how he decides to solve the problem. Perhaps this is because I'm more of an SF reader than a horror reader. ( )

Really enjoyed this book. Wells did a great job obscuring what was real and what was a hallucination. And I did not see the ending coming, which is always refreshing. ( )

From my blog

Dan Wells is a master at characters, you are totally on their side when you truly should be scared of them. John from I am not a Serial Killer trilogy an all time favourite character of mine was trying not to become a serial killer and Michael Shipman, wow, a brilliant mind with a twist of crazy, trying to convince everyone including himself he wasn't crazy.

Michael was an unreliable character, this was what made the book, he was delusional with paranoia tendencies, scared off all electronics. You didn't know what was reality, is it just in his mind or is he trying to manipulate everyone. You also start to believe in the science fiction futuristic possibilities he discusses. I also enjoyed that there were numerous characters, all playing a huge part. We have the police detectives following the Red Line Killer story, Michael's Doctors, the reporter, his father and girlfriend. Different parts of everyone's story was totally unexpected, great twists thrown in.

I was enjoying The Hollow City almost as much as I am not a Serial Killer trilogy but once we got to the last 25%, the meaning of The Hollow City, I was hit with science fiction/dystopian style and it killed the story for me. I was MAD, why ooh why, sigh. I was deflated by the ending.

I am still a fan and will always recommend the trilogy but this one just didn't do it for me at the end. And I love psychological thrillers, which this is, Dan Wells totally messes with our mind. I recommend you still try it.

The question if Michael is truly insane or has been setup is a brilliant suspense journey.

I love Dan Wells mind, the way he thinks and puts those creative thoughts on paper, an author I will always try. I didn't read Partials, but it has been labeled Dystopian which I have tried a few times, it is just not for me. ( )