Name: The Hollow Ones
ISBN: 9781538761748

Guillermo del Toro

Chuck Hogan

A horrific crime that defies ordinary explanation. A rookie FBI agent in dangerous, uncharted territory. An extraordinary hero for the ages. Odessa Hardwicke's life is derailed when she's forced to turn her gun on her partner, Walt Leppo, a decorated FBI agent who turns suddenly, inexplicably violent while apprehending a rampaging murderer. The shooting, justified by self-defense, shakes the young FBI agent to her core. Devasted, Odessa is placed on desk leave pending a full investigation. But what most troubles Odessa isn't the tragedy itself-it's the shadowy presence she thought she saw fleeing the deceased agent's body after his death. Questioning her future with the FBI and her sanity, Hardwicke accepts a low-level assignment to clear out the belongings of a retired agent in the New York office. What she finds there will put her on the trail of a mysterious figure named John Silence, a man of enormous means who claims to have been alive for centuries, and who is either an unhinged lunatic, or humanity's best and only defense against unspeakable evil.

The Hollow Ones

 starts out strong, with a delightfully dark mood and a cast of main characters drawn into a lightly supernatural conflict that, unfortunately, falls somewhat by the wayside as the book progresses. The story alternates between two main characters, which works well—until the authors attempt to tie their narratives together in the final act.

Once Hugo Blackwood, the stuffy immortal paranormal investigator, is introduced, the story slowly begins to fall apart. His early investigations are intriguing, but by the end, the explanations for the occult events feel like overly convenient, poorly-explained plot devices that fail to be truly engaging. The climax is the worst part of the book. It felt very rushed and quite disappointing.

The mood and tone are strong for most of the book. The prose is intelligent yet accessible, and the read is quick and mostly enjoyable—just ultimately a bit of a letdown. This book definitely has similar vibes to many of Guillermo Del Toro's movies, and feels as though it would have worked better on the big screen than as a novel.

Charlie Queen

The Hollow Ones starts out strong, with a delightfully dark mood and a cast of main characters drawn into a lightly supernatural conflict that, unfortunately, falls somewhat by the wayside as the book progresses. The story alternates between two main characters, which works well—until the authors attempt to tie their narratives together in the final act.

Once Hugo Blackwood, the stuffy immortal paranormal investigator, is introduced, the story slowly begins to fall apart. His early investigations are intriguing, but by the end, the explanations for the occult events feel like overly convenient, poorly-explained plot devices that fail to be truly engaging. The climax is the worst part of the book. It felt very rushed and quite disappointing.

The mood and tone are strong for most of the book. The prose is intelligent yet accessible, and the read is quick and mostly enjoyable—just ultimately a bit of a letdown. This book definitely has similar vibes to many of Guillermo Del Toro's movies, and feels as though it would have worked better on the big screen than as a novel.

Jayme Bosio

I picked this title because I had enjoyed Del Toro’s movies and television show, “The Strain.” But this book…eh. It kept my attention, but didn’t seem very original. Reminded me of the 80’s sci-fi movie, “The Hidden.”

A horrific crime that defies explanation, a rookie FBI agent in uncharted territory, and an extraordinary hero for the ages: an investigation spirals out of control in this heart-pounding thriller. Odessa Hardwicke's life is derailed when she's forced to turn her gun on her partner, Walt Leppo, a decorated FBI agent who turns suddenly, inexplicably violent while apprehending a rampaging murderer. The shooting, justified by self-defense, shakes the young FBI agent to her core. Devastated, Odessa is placed on desk leave pending a full investigation. But what most troubles Odessa isn't the tragedy itself -- it's the shadowy presence she thought she saw fleeing the deceased agent's body after his death. Questioning her future with the FBI and her sanity, Hardwicke accepts a low-level assignment to clear out the belongings of a retired agent in the New York office. What she finds there will put her on the trail of a mysterious figure named Hugo Blackwood, a man of enormous means who claims to have been alive for centuries, and who is either an unhinged lunatic, or humanity's best and only defense against unspeakable evil. From the authors who brought you The Strain Trilogy comes a strange, terrifying, and darkly wondrous world of suspense, mystery, and literary horror. The Hollow Ones is a chilling, spell-binding tale, a hauntingly original new fable from Academy Award-winning director Guillermo del Toro and bestselling author Chuck Hogan featuring their most fascinating character yet.

Fraser Simons

It’s a pretty solid down the rabbit hole of the occult via a police officer that witnesses something horrific and uncanny. I don’t think there’s anything here that’ll blow your mind if you’ve read something like this before, but the plot is fresh enough to combat the overused framework. 

Have you seen Fallen or read The Dresden Files? You’ll even passingly next familiar with the story. It does have a few sidewinders that differentiate it, such as jumping between past and present. In the past, a black FBI officer investigated strange things happening, in the future a woman investigates something, and the two converge. 

The plot clips along nicely, the characters are pretty engaging, though sometimes it feels like the authors can’t decide if they’re going for commercial fiction or not, in terms of structure and prose. I’m not sure if it’s handling of racial issues as a white man in Canada, but it seems to already have led to polarizing reviews. One of the investigations is a white man who has been lynched. The intent is a kind of sick perversion but whether or not it’s serviceable you the aims of the story is debatable. 

That being said. I found it to be fun and satisfying. It won’t blow you away but it’s not meant to. This is a setup for a series as well. So if you haven’t read or watched movies like this before it might be more substantial and you might get more investment, for which you’ll be rewarded in the future, presumably.

Shout out to NetGalley for the advanced copy. Love that they have audiobooks now. And by the way, the narration for the audiobook is fantastic.

Zoe McKenna

I received this ARC through NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review. 

I began this novel with high expectations. Del Toro is a prolific director known for more than one fantastical story. The promise of a horror novel with his name attached to it was exciting. 

The novel was fast-paced, rotating between three connects storylines/timelines. Unfortunately, the primary story was the least interesting of the three. Agent Odessa’s story began with strength and suspense, but quickly fizzled to something too familiar. Despite the supernatural elements and introduction of plenty of varied characters, the story felt tired. Everything that occurred was expected, and nothing was surprising passed the first chapter. 

The alternate storylines, one set in the 1960s and one set in the 1500/1600s felt more original. If the authors had focused one of these storylines instead, I truly feel the novel would have had a far greater impact and more room for originality.

Heather Harrington

**I received a copy of this from the publisher in exchange for an honest review**

Odessa Hardwicke is an FBI rookie who hasn't seen too much action. All that changes in the blink of an eye one night as she's forced to shoot her partner in self-defense after he becomes inexplicably violent at the scene of a crime they're investigating. While she keeps replaying that night over and over, it's not the actual shooting that's bothering her but rather the shadowy figure she saw leaving her partner's body after he died. Completely shaken by the incident, Odessa is more than happy to be stuck on desk duty pending an internal investigation and takes up an assignment of clearing out the office of a retired officer. In doing so, Odessa stumbles upon some evidence that proves the shadow she saw might not have been her imagination at all and leads her to a mysterious man who claims to have been alive for centuries and who just might be her only hope in saving humanity from a terrible evil.

The premise of this sounded very The X-Files-ish and I was intrigued. While all those elements may have been present, it didn't feel fully formed. Was is action-packed? For sure. Was it exciting? Yeah, a bit. Did it keep my attention? Absolutely. I loved the notion of these Hollow Ones being around for centuries wreaking havoc and this shadowy man sort of overseeing that they don't destroy the whole world. The only thing that fell slightly short for me was the characters themselves. Odessa was fine, and I think Blackwood was interesting, but neither one felt very real to me. I think if they were fleshed out a tiny bit more, I could've connected and been more invested in what happens to them. Characters aside, the plot was still interesting and I'd recommend if you're a fan of possession movies like The Thing or the show Supernatural.

Ben Nathan

A highly enjoyable horror detective novel. I'm really hoping that we get more of these, or at least a TV show or movie or something. I could feel how much fun they had writing it and the horror elements were on point. Very interesting characters, well told story, definitely want more.