She's so dramatic. [Audiobook Listen // The Hollow Ones by Guillermo del Toro; Chuck Hogan]
Oscar-winning director and bestselling author Guillermo Del Toro, with Chuck Hogan, creates his most fascinating, mysterious character yet.
After many months of advanced notice, a few weeks ago NetGalley finally launched the audiobook section. The first few pickings were slim. Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan's The Hollow Ones stood out because of one, Guillermo Del Toro, two, the ominous sounding title, and three, the sparse synopsis that had been provided on NetGalley. I think I actually went to *GoodReads to find out more:
Odessa Hardwicke's life is derailed when she's forced to turn her gun on her partner, Walt Leppo, a decorated FBI agent who turns suddenly, inexplicably violent while apprehending a rampaging murderer. The shooting, justified by self-defense, shakes the young FBI agent to her core. Devastated, Odessa is placed on desk leave pending a full investigation. But what most troubles Odessa isn't the tragedy itself-it's the shadowy presence she thought she saw fleeing the deceased agent's body after his death.
Questioning her future with the FBI and her sanity, Hardwicke accepts a low-level assignment to clear out the belongings of a retired agent in the New York office. What she finds there will put her on the trail of a mysterious figure named John Blackwood, a man of enormous means who claims to have been alive for centuries, and who is either an unhinged lunatic, or humanity's best and only defense against unspeakable evil.
From the authors who brought you The Strain Trilogy comes a strange, terrifying, and darkly wondrous world of suspense, mystery, and literary horror. THE HOLLOW ONES is a chilling, spell-binding tale, a hauntingly original new fable from Academy Award-winning director Guillermo del Toro and bestselling author Chuck Hogan featuring their most fascinating character yet.
Our dramatic protagonist is a female FBI agent wanting to salvage her career after she shoots her partner. The fact that, especially in the context of the times, the entire plot focuses on the professional turmoil that follows one cop stopping another cop from harming a third party - WOW. Moving on. That the story took place in the NY/NJ metro area, in townships, cities, and neighborhoods I'm intimately acquainted with was weird. Primarily the New Jersey parts because New York City as a backdrop is a pop culture mainstay. If felt like I was being watched.
The story was interesting enough, more so before it fell back on some egregious tropes - the British/White savior savant; the White expert who's so in tune with the intricacies of world religions, perhaps the one exception on earth; the plucky, but stubborn female law enforcement officer who's a stickler for rules but will routinely flaunt them and break the law to do her job so it's okay. Let me not even touch the POC representation here. The whole slave thing was very random to the story on the whole.
Let me give the narrator, Brittany Pressley, my props. She was real seamless at transitioning between voices, inhabiting the characters, and the overall narration of the book. The audiobook rendition of The Hollow Ones is read entirely like watching a TV episode through the ears. That is to say it was was very corny. I don't know if it was the writing, the narration, or a combination or both, but at times some characters felt like caricatures. I've read through audiobook before. Among them, American Gods, Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, some of the A Series of Unfortunate Events books. With a variety of regional and global accents, and as the sole narrator, The Hollow Ones was a challenge Pressley met head on. But the voicing of individual characters was inconsistent at times and the dialogue a bit over the top, to the point where it read like your average police procedural.
I enjoyed the story. It was entertaining. I mostly listened to this in one sitting. It essentially took less than two days. But there were a lot of plot holes. This seems to be leading into a series, and if that's the case I would like to continue on the adventures with the introduced cast of characters. Down the road this might make for a solid TV adapted series as well. But I've got to be honest and give my rating. I don't know that I would have enjoyed this as much if I were reading it. But I also imagine I might give the same rating. 3 stars from me.
After many months of advanced notice, a few weeks ago NetGalley finally launched the audiobook section. The first few pickings were slim. Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan's The Hollow Ones stood out because of one, Guillermo Del Toro, two, the ominous sounding title, and three, the sparse synopsis that had been provided on NetGalley. I think I actually went to *GoodReads to find out more:
Odessa Hardwicke's life is derailed when she's forced to turn her gun on her partner, Walt Leppo, a decorated FBI agent who turns suddenly, inexplicably violent while apprehending a rampaging murderer. The shooting, justified by self-defense, shakes the young FBI agent to her core. Devastated, Odessa is placed on desk leave pending a full investigation. But what most troubles Odessa isn't the tragedy itself-it's the shadowy presence she thought she saw fleeing the deceased agent's body after his death.Questioning her future with the FBI and her sanity, Hardwicke accepts a low-level assignment to clear out the belongings of a retired agent in the New York office. What she finds there will put her on the trail of a mysterious figure named John Blackwood, a man of enormous means who claims to have been alive for centuries, and who is either an unhinged lunatic, or humanity's best and only defense against unspeakable evil.
From the authors who brought you The Strain Trilogy comes a strange, terrifying, and darkly wondrous world of suspense, mystery, and literary horror. THE HOLLOW ONES is a chilling, spell-binding tale, a hauntingly original new fable from Academy Award-winning director Guillermo del Toro and bestselling author Chuck Hogan featuring their most fascinating character yet.
Our dramatic protagonist is a female FBI agent wanting to salvage her career after she shoots her partner. The fact that, especially in the context of the times, the entire plot focuses on the professional turmoil that follows one cop stopping another cop from harming a third party - WOW. Moving on. That the story took place in the NY/NJ metro area, in townships, cities, and neighborhoods I'm intimately acquainted with was weird. Primarily the New Jersey parts because New York City as a backdrop is a pop culture mainstay. If felt like I was being watched.
The story was interesting enough, more so before it fell back on some egregious tropes - the British/White savior savant; the White expert who's so in tune with the intricacies of world religions, perhaps the one exception on earth; the plucky, but stubborn female law enforcement officer who's a stickler for rules but will routinely flaunt them and break the law to do her job so it's okay. Let me not even touch the POC representation here. The whole slave thing was very random to the story on the whole.
Let me give the narrator, Brittany Pressley, my props. She was real seamless at transitioning between voices, inhabiting the characters, and the overall narration of the book. The audiobook rendition of The Hollow Ones is read entirely like watching a TV episode through the ears. That is to say it was was very corny. I don't know if it was the writing, the narration, or a combination or both, but at times some characters felt like caricatures. I've read through audiobook before. Among them, American Gods, Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, some of the A Series of Unfortunate Events books. With a variety of regional and global accents, and as the sole narrator, The Hollow Ones was a challenge Pressley met head on. But the voicing of individual characters was inconsistent at times and the dialogue a bit over the top, to the point where it read like your average police procedural.
I enjoyed the story. It was entertaining. I mostly listened to this in one sitting. It essentially took less than two days. But there were a lot of plot holes. This seems to be leading into a series, and if that's the case I would like to continue on the adventures with the introduced cast of characters. Down the road this might make for a solid TV adapted series as well. But I've got to be honest and give my rating. I don't know that I would have enjoyed this as much if I were reading it. But I also imagine I might give the same rating. 3 stars from me.
The Hollow Ones audiobook is to be published August 04, 2020.
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