And it was going pretty decently too. [The Hollow Gods by A.J. Vrana]

Black Hollow is a town with a dark secret.

For centuries, residents have foretold the return of the Dreamwalker—an ominous figure from local folklore said to lure young women into the woods and possess them. Yet the boundary between fact and fable is blurred by a troubling statistic: occasionally, women do go missing. And after they return, they almost always end up dead.

When Kai wakes up next to the lifeless body of a recently missing girl, his memory blank, he struggles to clear his already threadbare conscience.

Miya, a floundering university student, experiences signs that she may be the Dreamwalker’s next victim. Can she trust Kai as their paths collide, or does he herald her demise?

And after losing a young patient, crestfallen oncologist, Mason, embarks on a quest to debunk the town’s superstitions, only to find his sanity tested.

A maelstrom of ancient grudges, forgotten traumas, and deadly secrets loom in the foggy forests of Black Hollow. Can three unlikely heroes put aside their fears and unite to confront a centuries-old evil? Will they uncover the truth behind the fable, or will the cycle repeat?

First off let me say, this is not horror. No scene in this book is enough to constitute a horror genre attribution. But being that it's tagged as such on NetGalley so I'm likewise tagging this review. At most it's shifter fantasy. Set against the backdrop of some random town in the temperate rainforest of British Columbia (who knew Canada had a rainforest?), A.J. Vrana's The Hollow Gods entices with an exploration of small-town folklore, myth, and legend. And we get that exploration, but it really goes nowhere. It builds, suggesting a secret shame, but there's no important moment of acknowledgement or reveal from any of the relevant parties. And so that was a big anti-climactic letdown.

As I read what stood out was how lovely this was of a Red Riding Hood story. Young girl heads into the forest, knowing of potential dangers, seductive wolf romance plot serving as metaphor for the reckoning of female sexuality. That was fun, that was interesting, and so I really enjoyed that aspect of it. But the fantasy aspect left me so confused at the end. And I'm sure those with easier grasps on abstract metaphors and analogies might follow along easier, but I need that concretely laid out for me. I feel like I got it but it's like, did I? Did I really?

Some of the characters were annoying and for me wholly unnecessary. The Hollow Gods is the first in the Chaos Cycle series (duology?) so maybe those I found superfluous will come back and make appearances? I don't know that the series will be a continuing story because this felt pretty concluded. Would I recommend this? Maybe. To the lover of shifter romances; sure, why not? 3 stars from me.

The Hollow Gods was published July 28, 2020.