As a child one of my favorite halloween traditions was to bust out my VHS of disney's 'Legend of Sleepy Hollow' and watch it. Endlessly. Until I could repeat practically the entire dialogue. Johnny Depp's movie, with Christina Ricci and Miranda Richardson, also became a staple (can you imagine a better Headless Horseman than Christopher Walken? I surely can't). Heck I've even watched the very, very cheesy 'The Hollow' movie because it was based on the Legend.

So of course I wanted to read The Hollow. Unfortunately what I was expecting and what I read were a little different. I was expecting a dark, menacing sort of story; the blurb promises as much. What I actually read was certainly dark in places, but by in large it was more melodramatic than menacing.

Abbey's tortured feelings are understandable, but her penchant for letting them override every other thought became a little irritating. We know you are torn up about what happened to Kristen, please do something about it! In contrast I actually liked Caspain and thought he showed a lot of patience and forbearance with Abbey. Despite the mystery surrounding him he came off as a regular guy. Maybe someone you'd find cute, but would wonder about more often than talk to.

My only real problem with the book centered around the lack of Sleepy Hollow-ness. Verday would hint at something, but the follow through is almost non-existent. Partially that may be because this is the first in a trilogy, so she doesn't want to put all her eggs in one basket, but on the other hand she holds back too much. Especially considering Abbey (and Kristen)'s strange fascination with the legend.

In the end while this wasn't the book I thought it would be, it was a book I enjoyed reading and I look forward to the sequel, The Haunted, with anticipation that there will be more about Sleepy Hollow and less about 'its all my faaauuuulllllt' from Abbey. ( )

This book was good, however in the end the reader is told that Caspian is a ghost.... ( )

This entire book felt like a prologue. Boring. ( )

Couldn't finish. Slow moving and filled with pointless page-filling. I counted four pages focused on a dry muffin. Seriously? ( )

Hey y'all.
So, about the HOLLOW. If you like mysteries, this is an excellent book for you.
There aren’t that many YA mysteries out there, at least not that I’ve read, so this one is pretty unique.
Oh, and if you haven’t read this book before, I feel it only fair to inform you: THIS IS A GHOST STORY.
I won’t tell you any more than that, though, so you can puzzle over that as you read.
This book, if it’s the first time you’re reading it, it definitely keeps you guessing, unfortunately, I’ve read it before.
But not for a while, so there were some parts where I was surprised.
The Ultimate Question: what happened to Kristen?
I’m hoping that’s revealed in the HIDDEN, which is book 3. Unfortunately, I have to read the second one, The HAUNTED, to get to it.
Also, the tagline on this book, A love like no other is kind of misleading, if you ask me.
Not that there love isn’t like no other, but I just don’t think of their love as being the main point of the story.
The main point of the story has something more to do with that Ultimate Question I told you about.
What happened to Kristen?
God, just tell me what happened to Kristen!!!

Okay, so there was a point in this book where Abbey talked about turning on the angriest music she could find. For some reason, I took this as a challenge.
So I formulated a special playlist from the music on my iPod.
I call the playlist: My Music is Angrier than Yours.
Here it is:

Sick- Adelita’s Way
I Don’t Care- Apocalyptica
Becoming the Bull- Atreyu
Nightmare; Welcome to the Family- Avenged Sevenfold
I Will Not Bow- Breaking Benjamin
Scream Aim Fire; All These Things I Hate (Revolve Around Me)- Bullet for My Valentine
Hell; The Animal; Ten Thousand Fists; Down With the Sickness; Stupify- Disturbed.
Taking You Down- Egypt Central
Back for More, Never Enough- Five Finger Death Punch
Been to Hell; Hear Me Now; This Love, This Hate- Hollywood Undead
Happy?- Mudvayne
Burn it to the Ground- Nickelback
Make Me Wanna Die- The Pretty Reckless
BEER!!!- Psychostick (This one is just for giggles)
Face to Face- Sevendust
You’re Going Down; Street Fighter (War)- Sick Puppies
Monster- Skillet
Psychosocial- Slipknot
Save Yourself- Stabbing Westward
Animal I Have Become; I Hate Everything About You- Three Days Grace

What do you think? Based on Abbey’s character, do you think my music is angrier than hers?
*Note: DO NOT LISTEN TO THIS PLAYLIST WHILE READING THIS BOOK. Seriously. Don’t. if you want a playlist you CAN listen to while reading this book, than I’ll provide one below, but DON’T LISTEN TO THIS ONE.
This playlist doesn’t not fit the book AT ALL.

This next one does, though:

Broken- Seether (feat. Amy Lee)
I Am Only One; Sleep Well, My Angel- We Are the Fallen
Arise- Flyleaf
All I Need; Shot in the Dark; The Last Dance- Within Temptation
Decode; Let the Flames Begin- Paramore
The Call- Regina Spektor
Hands of Time- Rachel Diggs
Bring Me to Life, Lithium- Evanescence
A New Hope- Broken Iris

Okay, I realize this one is waaay shorted than the last one, but maybe that’s because I have more angry music on my iPod.
Or possibly because I didn’t actually have the HOLLOW in mind when I was creating this last playlist. (This is actually a playlist of new music I got with an iPod giftcard that I got for my birthday a couple days ago.)
If I’d been actively thinking of the HOLLOW when creating this playlist, it might have more music on it.
I’ll do that. While reading the HAUNTED, I’ll think of more music and make another, longer playlist. Okay?
Good.
So. See ya next time.
( )