Review: Hollowland (The Hallows #1) by Amanda Hocking

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Goodreads Description: Nineteen-year-old Remy King is on a mission to get across the wasteland left of America, and nothing will stand in her way - not violent marauders, a spoiled rock star, or an army of flesh-eating zombies.

My Rating: ☆☆☆☆☆

My Review: Let me just say, first, that I currently do not have an e-reader. Also, that I bought the e-book from Amazon-Kindle. This meant a few hours and three-hundred and six (306) pages of staring at my laptop screen, which, if you’ve ever tried to work with the PC-reader, you know that it’s not the most pleasant experience in the world. The internet is close and tempting, and eventually your eyes will loudly complain. This was completely worth it though. I wanted to kick off my reviews with something that fit certain criteria: A) I read it recently, B) it would start the reviews positively, C) it has a significant level of notoriety, and D) I felt strongly enough about it to write about it.  This one definitely fits the frame.

The story is focusing on Remy, one of the strongest teenage heroines that I’ve read since the Strange Angels series – which is paying a high complement! This girl actually fights – fights hard and dirty. Because the story is set in the middle of a zombie apocalypse, the reader instantly identifies that this girl is alive for a reason. What is so nice about her royally (for complete lack of a better term, I apologize for the lack of censorship but frankly Remy is the definition of the term) kickass attitude is that it doesn’t make her unrealistically heartless and unnecessarily masculine. The kickass is beautifully balanced with the (if you ask me, noble and love-driven) cause of finding her little brother and pre-ordering the decision to dedicate herself to his safety and their survival.

The entire book, I was physically incapable of putting the book down – or, in this case, closing the window or walking away from the screen ;) – because I was caught up in the mixed emotions of being enthralled with every word I devoured, anxious to turn the page to see what happens next, but also never wanting to get to that page because it would be another one closer to an end I desperately needed to know but never wanted to come. The entire time, I was overanalyzing every hint at surprisingly distributed chemistry between the heroine, trying to decide which man she would end up with while simultaneously realizing that the romance, while adorable and major-jealousness-inducing, was pleasantly unexpected and entirely a sub-plot. I kept expecting each point made and every upcoming thought to be obsessively dedicated to one of two of the characters, and each time something hilarious, interesting, or even profound discovered me instead. This wasn’t what I anticipated – but that is completely a good thing!
  Attacks of insane, post-apocalyptic war enthusiasts, hoards of annoyingly puss-filled and chomp-y zombies, Vegas (as in Nevada), soldiers, guarded quarantines, rock-stars, Canadian med-students, stereotypical post-pre-teen glam-girl drama queens, large and deadly cats, and even a cult of brain-washed, sexually victimized, religious-extremist young girls are basically squished  under Remy’s boot of awesomeness.
  I loved this book - loved, adored, devoured this book. Passionately. It was well-paced, interesting and funny, funny, funny (I cannot stress enough how amusing this book is – totally and completely my humor). My ONLY complaint is the typos, and that’s something I would never hold against an author.
Get Hollowland on Amazon here, and rate it on Goodreads here.

Comments

Mandy IReadIndie said…
Loved this book...and eagerly waiting for Hollowmen. love your blog....good luck with it
September 21, 2011
Miranda said…
Thank you! I can't wait for Hollowmen, either! I'm really curious as to what they will do with Amanda Hocking's graphics/comic series for The Hallows :)
October 14, 2011
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