jacey | Booklog 7/2021: T Kingfisher: The Hollow Places

I don't usually read horror, but I've loved all of the T. Kingfisher books I've read so far, so I thought I'd risk it, and I'm glad I did. I'm not sure where the dividing line is between dark fantasy and horror, and would happily place this in the dark fantasy/portal fantasy pigeonhole, though it has Lovecraftian leanings. Newly divorced and living in the little back room of her uncle's Museum of Natural Wonders (more like a museum of the weird with a large helping of taxidermy) Kara (known as Carrot) finds a hole in the wall behind one of the museum exhibits - a hole which leads to a passage that can't possibly fit into the confines of the museum building. Together with her (gay) friend, Simon from the coffeehouse next door, she goes exploring only to find a bunker in a very strange world full of islands and willows that move, more portals, the occasional dead body… and worse. It's dark and weird, Narnia from Hell. It's scary, but it also has lighter moments and the 'voice' is engaging and quirky, even when everything goes south. They can hear you thinking. Pray they are hungry.