"Use the gifts you have been given," she said to me. "No one should be able to lay a finger on you. You can bring them to their knees, if that's what you want. You can make them pay."
It has been a rainy day, full of thunder storms and lightning, so it seemed like the perfect opportunity to spend a day reading. House of Hollow has held me in it's grip all day and I have enjoyed every single page. It tells the story of three sisters who go missing from an Edinburgh street when they are children, only to be found a month later, with no memory of where they have been or what they have been doing, and with hair that has turned pure white from the shock of the trauma.
Years later, the sisters are all getting on with their own lives, trying to put the past behind them. The eldest, Grey, has become a super model and fashion designer - her clothes are described in the book in great detail and it made me wish her clothes were real, because they sound simply gorgeous and I would love to wear one of her creations!
Meanwhile, Vivi, the second sister has become a member of a rock band and the youngest, Iris, is finishing school. All three sisters have been changed by their childhood trauma, becoming extremely beautiful and having the gift of compulsion, which is the ability to makes others do what you want via the power of suggestion.
Bad things happen to people who cross these sisters - unhappy incidents and accidents plague their enemies, accidents that can always be passed off as rotten luck or misfortune. But is it vengeful magic, or a curse that follows in the sister's footsteps?
The Hollow sisters are certainly different, and there is lots of mystery attached to them, which only increases their glamour. Are they sirens, witches, Fae? Whatever their gifts, they always seem to get what they want, but when a stranger begins to stalk them, their three worlds collide in a fight for survival.
This is an eerie novel of secret doors and darker realms; of pretty flowers that smell like death; of glitzy Paris fashion shows and crumbling haunted houses. There is a rift in the family that Iris is trying hard to understand, Vivi's free-spirit verges on rebellion, while Grey is the beauty and the brains of the trio, the one who always calls the shots. So when the stalker eventually catches up with Grey, it is left to Iris and Vivi to rescue her.
Part mystery thriller, part dark fairytale The House of Hollow is definitely one of the best books I have read so far this year. It is an otherworldly book that tempts the reader deep into its heart of darkness, then swallows you whole. I'm hoping that there might be a sequel. Enjoy! BB Marie x
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