Review- The Hollow by Jessica Verday

Title: The Hollow


Author:  Jessica Verday


Page Length: 513


Publication Date: 2009


Summary (from Goodreads):  When Abbey's best friend, Kristen, vanishes at the bridge near Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, everyone else is all too quick to accept that Kristen is dead and rumors fly that her death was no accident. Abbey goes through the motions of mourning her best friend, but privately, she refuses to believe that Kristen is really gone. Then she meets Caspian, the gorgeous and mysterious boy who shows up out of nowhere at Kristen's funeral, and keeps reappearing in Abbey's life. Caspian clearly has secrets of his own, but he's the only person who makes Abbey feel normal again...but also special.

Just when Abbey starts to feel that she might survive all this, she learns a secret that makes her question everything she thought she knew about her best friend. How could Kristen have kept silent about so much? And could this secret have led to her death? As Abbey struggles to understand Kristen's betrayal, she uncovers a frightening truth that nearly unravels her—one that will challenge her emerging love for Caspian, as well as her own sanity.

My Thoughts:
I was very excited to read this book since my friend told me about it.  The cover was haunting and just screamed "BOOK THAT HAS SUPERNATURAL SCHTUFF".  Yeah, what I expected and what I got didn't really match up.  This book was beautifully written, had very original and Gothic elements in it, and yet I couldn't completely love it.  If you noticed the number of pages (or you just skipped it) this book has 513 pages.  Of course this isn't a bad thing, I for one love reading long books when I have the time.  However, this book was long and very, very, very slow.  And outside of the Legend of Sleepy Hollow that is mentioned, the traditional YA supernatural elements are not really noted until the last 50-ish pages of the book.

The story begins when we learn of Kristen's, Abby's best friend, death.  So for the majority of this book, Abby is mourning Kristen, which is of course normal for any teenage girl.  However, this book could have definitely been cut in half and we would have still got the main parts of it.  Because really, no one cares how her holidays were, or what she does at school, when it really isn't important to plot or forwarding the story.  When Abby meets Caspian, things start to get a little mysterious, but that too gets dull after 400 something pages.  However, I think the last 100 pages are so are enough for me to want to read the next book, Haunted.

The most interesting part of Abby was her hobby of making perfume.  Outside of that, I wouldn't really call her an interesting character.

Overall: Apparently, the second book Haunted is really good, so when I read it, I'll let you guys know if Hollow is worth it.  But I would give it 3/5 stars.  I probably wouldn't recommend it for those who like fast, action paced books.