Hollow - Review

Author: Shannon Watters

Genre: Graphic Novel / Retelling

Format: ebook

Page: 178

A huge thank you to NetGalley and Boom!Box for an early chance at reading this!

I'm a huge fan of Lumberjanes, so I jumped at the chance to read something new by Shannon Watters. What made it impossible to pass up is that Watters was putting a more modern twist on one of my favorite Spooky Season reads. So really, there was no way that I could have been disappointed. Too many of my favorite things were converging on top of each other.

I was in fact not disappointed, and I'm so glad I started more Spooky Season reads off with Hollow. 

My favorite part of Hollow is the characters. Of course, we have the staple characters of any Sleepy Hollow retelling, the Van Tassel's and the Crane's are present. Even Washington Irving gets a small mention at some point in the story. I liked that Vicky was the descendant of the original Van Tassel family like Iriving just used an existing family to set his story around. But, like the story, Izzy Crane was new to town. I felt it was a fun play on canon. Hands down though my favorite character was Croc. He's had such golden retriever energy. He honestly was the sweetest guy and I'm so glad he got himself a lady at the end of the story.

Of course no Sleepy Hallow retelling without the Horseman, and say this is my favorite version of the Horseman. I love the way that Watters changed his story, it's a nice twist and I thought it added a lot of comedy to the story. Gordo's responses to things Croc would say were my favorite moments. 

The storyline is also really good from start to finish. It's a lot of fun, it's heartwarming and full of a bit of teenage angst! The kind of story where everyone, except for the villain, gets a happy ending. Where one character finds their voice, another finally finds real friends, and Croc gets to have an adventure. Plus, the cutest sapphic romance of the Spooky Season.

Hollow is perfect for anyone looking for a non-spooky read this Spooky Season. This is definitely it, but it still gives off those Fall vibes.

I also can't close out this review without mentioning the artwork in Hollow. It was really good. This is one of those stories where the artwork helped tell Watters' story. From the amazing facial expressions from Gordo to Croc's master prank that almost worked. Every panel was amazing and the color palette worked perfectly not just for the spooky season vibe but kept the story from getting too dark as well. The story definitely has Scooby-Doo vibes and the artwork helps sell that.

I don't have a single issue with the Scooby-Doo thing, it did my 90s kid heart good! Hollow is for fans of the Lumberjanes series, Sleepy Hollow, or just cute Spooky Season reads, this is the book for you!

 

Hollow comes out on October 4, 2022!

HAPPY READING!!