The Mystery of Hollow Places

The Mystery of Hollow Places is a deft little emotional mystery, featuring a likable teenage protagonist unraveling the mysterious disappearance of both her parents, one in her past and one in her present. It's about love, loss, mental illness, and the slippery illusion of self.

[W]ith enough time and the right conditions, precious stones could grow in hollow places.

Imogene Scott is seventeen and doesn't remember her mother, who left when Imogene was very young. All she really has of her is the fairytale-esque story her father told her every night as a child about how they met and fell in love. The centerpiece of this story is a stone heart, purportedly from the chest of Imogene's maternal grandmother, a representation of the illness show more that closed her off to the world. Imogene and her father are very close, and even the relatively recent addition of Lindy, their former therapist and her father's new wife.

The book starts with Imogene's father disappearing, leaving no note or explanation to his whereabouts except half of her grandmother's stone heart. Both Lindy and Imogene are distraught, but it is Imogene who decides to start with the clue the stone heart provides: she is sure that her father is looking for her mother. With her beautiful best friend Jessa in tow, Imogene starts piecing together parts of her mother's past from vague clues.

Imogene is a likable character. She's an introverted bookworm, content to spend time with her father or alone reading, particularly if the books were written by her father. Her mother's disappearance has left her with insecurity and fear related to abandonment. Imogene thinks her best friend spends time with her perhaps out of misguided childhood loyalty rather than simply because Jessa loves her. Imogene is mature and clever, but self-aware enough to recognize that she is still a child, especially when she allows herself to daydream that she will locate her mother and her father together and they will all be a family again, happy in their new roles.

I could forgive my mother for being cursed, and lonely and troubled waters. All of that made sense. But I don't think I'll be able to forgive her if she's happy.

Imogene is flawed but earnest, and I liked that. She doesn't serve as a symbol of resistance like the heroines of The Hunger Games or Red Queen, she doesn't have the highly sexed dark, pseudo-wit of teen murder mystery protagonists, she's anxious and self-conscious but smart and driven. She draws heavily on her father's books for inspiration in tracking down her mother, I thought that was a really nice character point as it really showed the closeness of Imogene and her father.

The Mystery of Hollow Places uses such strong metaphors for depression, weaving them in carefully in many places like the stories Imogene's father tells and the ways Imogene relates to everyone.

I get closing up your heart because you're afraid to look inside and find out it's hollow. I get choosing to be alone because you're afraid that if the choice is out of your hands, you'll simply be lonely, and alone is okay, it's almost cool, in a way.

show less

The Mystery of Hollow Places by Rebecca Podos really took over my mind for several days. The day I read it I was caught up in what was happening, then the next few days I kept thinking about the elements of the story, the writing and the way Podos deftly gave insight to the full spectrum of human thought and emotion.

The first chapter is one of the best first chapters I have read in a long time. It established the atmosphere as well as an open-ended introduction to the primary metaphor of the book. It was on the strength of that chapter alone that I decided I was going to just finish the book instead of switch between the books I was reading. The prose is poetic to a point but never becomes more important than the plot, which seems like show more something that many wonderful writers tend to do. There were laughable moments, cringe-worthy moments and always a reason to read the next chapter.

I found the protagonist to be enjoyable as a character in a novel. No doubt some of her actions and tendencies would have annoyed me in real life but as a character they fit with who she was and what she was going through. I do not need to love a character to fully appreciate a character.

Readers of both Young Adult and Literary genres will enjoy this book. In addition, those who like to read beautifully rendered prose regardless of genre should also consider adding this to their TBR pile.

Reviewed from a copy made available through Goodreads First Reads. show less

At this story's opening, seventeen-year-old Imogene recounts the bedtime stories her father (a former pathologist and now popular medical mystery writer) had often told her about an autopsy he'd performed years before on a woman, who was Imogene's grandmother. He had found within the body a heart of stone, and upon opening a dark seam in the heart he found crystals within. The woman who afterwards arrived to identify the body later became Imogen's mother. But years later Imogene's mother went missing. Imogene's successful mystery-writer father eventually recovered from this loss and remarried, so Imogene now has a stepmother. Once Imogene's dad suddenly disappears, the stone-heart artifact he kept for so long comes into Imogene's show more possession. But she has read all her father's books and believes she's capable of finding him, and hopes to locate her long-lost mother too. Imogene enlists the aid of her best friend, Jessa, and also Chad, Jessa's handsome college-boy brother. And so the search begins.

This tale with the audiobook's narration by Emma Galvin are extremely compelling. Its quick pacing effortlessly moves along as it skillfully weaves in backstory. The heart of stone, for me, was an immediate hook. The well-rounded characters and especially in Imogene's first-person account -- where the narrator's (Emma Galvin) voice and spot-on interpretation adroitly heightens the tension -- had interested me so that I just couldn't pull myself away until the satisfying conclusion. Along with lessons about friendship, the story presents issues about living with mental illness that's handled subtly and not too overdone in this excellent coming of age book. show less

This review can also be found on my blog.
cw: portrayals and discussion of bipolar disorder and severe depression

This was my second Rebecca Podos book (my first being her 2017 release Like Water) and it was just as great as I had hoped it would be. I was honestly shocked when I got to the end and realized that this was her debut novel. This was one of those books that sucked me right in and filled me with emotion. Following Imogene on her journey felt both meaningful and real. It was easy to see where her thoughts, feelings, and coping mechanisms (or lack thereof) came from. The story follows Imogene as she attempts to find her long-lost mother and, in turn, her newly missing father. While she has little in the way of clues, between her show more wits and the assistance of her best friend Jessa she starts out on a path that will impact her life forever.

I thought Imogene was a sympathetic, believable main character and enjoyed being inside her head. While her constant Sherlock references wore on me a bit, I understood the point being made. Her relationship with Jessa was appropriately complicated, I liked the reference to symbiosis as I think we all have friendships that rely on shared exchanges like these. There were some romantic undertones between Imogene and Jessa’s brother, Chad, but I think this was well-balanced and certainly wasn’t anything close to the main focus of the story.

I really enjoyed the portrayal of Imogene’s non-traditional family structure. She spent most of her life living alone with her father, who struggled with bouts of severe depression where his daughter had to fend largely for herself. Her mother left before she could remember and exists only in the peripheries of scattered photographs. Lindy, her stepmother, is a family therapist and recent addition to the family. To be honest, I never grew to like Lindy very much. While I could absolutely see where she was coming from and didn’t actively disliked her, I just didn’t think I was given enough to really develop much in the way of positive feelings toward her -- but that could definitely have just been me.

The only downside was that I didn’t love the end. There was a climax that I enjoyed, but after that I felt like I was just skimming the last bit to finish out the book. It was sort of like in movies where they have the on-screen text to explain what happened to each of the characters in the aftermath of the main plot. I personally didn’t feel that it added much, although I’m not sure what I would have suggested as an alternative.

Overall, though, this was an excellent read that I would highly recommend to lovers of contemporary YA, as well as those who like a bit of mystery in their books. I’m really excited to see what Rebecca Podos comes out with next, as she’s proven herself to be quite a strong writer! I think this is one that I’ll definitely be thinking back to in the future. show less

The Mystery of Hollow Places was one of the best "young adult" books I've read in recent years. It didn't pander or water down seventeen-year-old Imogene's struggles, dealing with the mystery of her mother's disappearance 15 years earlier and the subsequent damage to both herself and her father, her father's recent disappearance on Valentine's Day, her relationship with her stepmother, friendships and crushes. It's more a psychological mystery than a thriller, the resolution of which wasn't shocking or twisty or anything like that, but compelling nonetheless.

3.5 stars (and I look forward to another book by Podos)

We've all been there.
Lonely and depressed.
Pushing our loved ones away. Running from this or that.
Depression doesn't care that you have a family. It doesn't care that you have a job.
It takes over everything.

And some of us come to reason that these things are not okay and seek help.
Others wallow in it for years.

The Mystery of Hollow Places tackles depression in a way that I was not prepared for.
It's raw and honest.

It's not the main focus of this book, but it's hard to read it and not feel it there.

The writing is beautiful and enthralling and made the book fly by.
I never felt bogged down or bored. I was caught up in the mystery of where Imogene's father was and what the deal with her mother was. I was constantly surprised and never really show more figured things out ahead of time.

There was only one problem, and it was the main character.
Imogene treats her friend, Jessa, horribly. She's incredibly judgy and somewhat self centered. She's rude to her stepmother who only wants to help her. I don't care if your mother left you when you were young, that does not give you the right to act like you're above everyone else. Like your problems come first. Like you can just give up and tell the world go to hell when things don't work out your way. (and the same goes for Imogene's mother).

However entitled she was, I have to give the girl props. She is an excellent detective!

I enjoyed the story in The Mystery of Hollow Places just as much as the gorgeous writing.

REVIEW AT YABOOKSCENTRAL.COM show less

THE MYSTERY OF HOLLOW PLACES by Rebecca Podos is a sophisticated and engaging mystery exploring issues of family and identity.

Imogene learned about sleuthing from her father who writes medical mysteries. With her father suddenly missing, Imogene searches to find the mother who abandoned her as a baby in the hopes of finding answers. Along the way, she learns family secrets that help piece together her family’s past.

The author’s realistic approach to the teen’s investigation and interesting twists and turns along the way will drawn readers into the story. It’s rare to find a high-quality psychological mystery that deals with authentic issues such as mental illness and depression.

Librarians will find this young adult mystery show more appeals to youth who enjoy realistic, contemporary fiction and intriguing investigations.

To learn more about the author, go to http://www.rebeccapodos.com/.

Published by Balzer & Bray, an imprint of HarperCollins on January 26, 2016. ARC courtesy of the publisher. show less