Saturday, July 20, 2019

ARC Review of Hollow Kingdom

I received an ARC of Hollow Kingdom by Kira Jane Buxton.

Unfortunately I did not like this book. Had it not been an ARC, I would've DNF'd it.

The premise is a zombie apocalypse has wiped out humanity and we see the events through the eyes of several animals, most living in Seattle. Our main protagonist is a crow named Shit Turd. While I do not mind some vulgarity, this book reads as if an immature boy wrote it. There were many fart and poop jokes, lots of profanity, and a general a juvenile sense of humor. I'll give you some examples:

"as awkward as an elevator fart."
"Thanks, dick-wad"
calling humans "Mofos"
"douche canoe"
"yarfed"
"F*** off, you douche flute!"
"You could have heard a dust mite queef in there."

The crow would often describe other birds in extremely negative and immature ways. Some things he said included:
"turd waffle"
"...a bunch of poop terrorists"
"a giant troupe of swamp donkeys...elitist toot cabbages"
"...their faces, those dildo-nosed potatoes."
"And I definitely wouldn't tell those a** trumpets."
"F***ing newspaper-colored, ice-balled dick goblins, yeah, that's who you want as your brand ambassador."
"I hated these inky fools, these lentil-brained a** noodles."

I felt like maybe the author was trying to go for a South Park type humor; but unfortunately it was just vulgar with very little humor. I will admit a few entries did make me laugh.

Sometimes the tone of the book changed and the author used several big words, some I had to look up the definition. But with two, she repetitively used the same phrases "glaucous-winged gulls" and "nictitating membranes." The inconsistency between vulgar language and more sophisticated wording was distracting.


While my largest problem with the book was the writing, I also had problems with the lack of an  overarching plot. Most of the time, I didn't know what the characters were supposed to be doing. It seemed more a series of random adventures. The concept was inventive, but the author had too many ideas and was not able to pull them together. Overall, I found the book to be disorganized, crude, and ultimately, a big waste of time. I gave it 1 star.

The book will be released August 6, 2019.
Hollow Kingdom

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