User Reviews
Rating: really liked it
HOLLOW KINGDOM is simply sublime!
S.T. is a domesticated crow living with his mofo, Big Jim. (S.T. calls all humans mofos, because that's what Jim calls them.) He spends his days learning tricks, caching objects and avoiding Dennis, Big Jim's bloodhound. Then, Jim's eyeball falls out. What happens next? You'll have to read this to find out!
I read the reviews of a few of my friends and decided to give this one a go. I'm so glad I did. There is really no way to describe this book, or to even shelve it at Goodreads because it doesn't fit into any neat category, genre or sub-genre. This is mostly because HOLLOW KINGDOM is from the crow's point of view. And a cat's. And a whale's. It's beautifully written, with prose so carefully crafted-it's both inspiring and heartfelt. For example, (keep in mind this is from the crow's point of view):
“I cannot recommend this to you enough: find something that you believe in, right down deep in the depths of your silvery plumage, and then throw your heart at it, blood and valves and veins and all. Because I did this, the world, though brambled and frothing at the mouth, looked more vibrant; blues were bluer, and even the fetid puddles that collected under rusting cars tasted as sweet as summer wine.” The other reason I liked this book so much is the humor; it's hilarious! I won't tell you what S.T. is short for, or his pet names for certain mofo items. I found myself laughing aloud on the second page and that continued throughout. S.T.'s hopefulness and his love of humanity kept me going through this past week or so, despite the seemingly endless violence we hear about all the time.
“Watching the sunrise.....what an act of beauty, of unwavering faith, something to look forward to each and every day.” I am very much simplifying for this review, but be aware, this is a bit more than your average zombie apocalypse. The cause of it was sobering when I thought more deeply about it. Also, I don't see how anyone could not take away a love for our environment, our animals, and our very earth. We need to care for her, because she takes care of us.
HOLLOW KINGDOM is a unique, hilarious, thought-provoking, and beautifully written novel and I'm giving it my highest recommendation.
ALL THE STARS!
Get your copy here: https://amzn.to/2Z6B7Fv
*Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the e-ARC of this book in exchange for my honest feedback. This is it!*
**Also, if you could hook me up with every book by this author in the future, that'd be great.**
Rating: really liked it
Looking for something out of the ordinary? ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️
I am pretty certain I’ve not read another book remotely like this one. A personality-filled crow who is attempting to save the world from the apocalypse, along with his trusty steed, Dennis, the dog. I LOVED these memorable characters. I adored the Seattle setting. The creativity and originality are absolutely astounding, not to mention, it’s a smooth read from start to finish. Reading it was a delightful experience. I highly recommend it.
I received a complimentary copy from the publisher. All opinions are my own.
Many of my reviews can also be found on my instagram: www.instagram.com/tarheelreader
Rating: really liked it
Many thanks to Grand Central Publishing for sending me a copy in exchange for an honest review Everything talks. You just have to be willing to listen
After much deliberation, my final rating is 2.5 stars.
This book wasn’t bad. Not at all. There was just quite a lot that fell short for me. Emphasis on
me. I’m sure this book will work for a lot of people. It just did not work for me. Here’s why:
➵
The science fiction flunked - I was really looking forward to a good apocalypse. Unfortunately, this book focused more on the animals than the zombies (MoFos) which, I assume, was the idea. That said, I felt cheated and let down. We never get any details on what’s going on or why. Things are hinted at but were never brought into the light. I felt like every time I got closer to a revelation, it was pulled just out of reach. And goddamn that is frustrating. It feels like a sneeze that never comes
➵
I kind of lost track of the plot - Now, this one’s my fault. Kind of. I was really invested in the plot in the beginning because I was really, really hoping for a satisfying ah ha! moment! And as I mentioned above, that never came. Aside from that, I felt as though we weren’t getting anywhere. Chapter after chapter and we haven't accomplished anything. It was like running on a treadmill, which, in case you don’t know, is f**king pointless.
That said,
this book was absolutely hilarious. Like, belly laughing, tears spilling from your eyeballs (or eyeball), funny. ST. (or sh*t turd, whose name is funny on it’s own) was one of the funniest characters of 2019. So funny that he made me despise crows a little bit less. And that’s saying something.
I honestly loved the fact that this book was both horror/science fiction yet humor at the same time. And yes, the sci-fi wasn’t my favorite but the humor was gold. This author has great talent and I think she will definitely write some bestsellers.
Overall, the sci-fi was a let down but this book will still make you laugh. Even though I overall didn’t enjoy this book that much, I still recommend it.
Bottom Line:
2.5 Stars
Age Rating: [ R ]
Content Screening (Spoilers) - Educational Value: [Climate Change and overall care for our planet] ~ Possitive Messages: [None] ~ Violence: [Body Horror, Peril, and Violence towards animals] ~ Sex: [Dicussion of male genetals] ~ Langauge: [F*ck, sh*t, d*mn, asshole] ~ Drinking/Drugs: [None]
TW: Body Horror, Loss of loved ones
Reps: [None]
Cover: 4/5 ~ Characters: 3/5 ~ Plot: 3/5 ~ Audio: 3/5
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Publication Date: August 6th, 2019
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Rating: really liked it
As hilarious on the second read as it was on the first. Love this book!
2019 Best Books of the Year [#04 of 11]💚 Really hoping to see this genre bending debut nominated for all the prizes. 💚
Buxton catapults readers through the apocolpyse in a horrific yet hilarious tale narrated by an unapologically crass crow. Anyone would be hard-pressed to list a comperable title for this book. An off-the-wall gem.
Rating: really liked it
This is cleverly funny with a good message, but I couldn’t wait to be done with it. I loved the first 50 pages but it dragged from that point on. The message and the plot were repetitive with a somewhat simplistic view of nature. I often zone out when reading battle preparations and scenes and there were numerous fights and conflicts going on here.
The main character is a precocious crow that uses his human training to unite with nature and animals to save the human race. If you have a romanticized notion about nature, especially birds, this book is for you.
I’m already an outlier regarding stars, and I think many people will enjoy this immensely humorous book.
Rating: really liked it
When I was first offered the opportunity to read Hollow Kingdom, I hesitated. Books from the point of view of an animal just aren’t my thing. But, the book sounded interesting and I kept thinking about it. I finally ended up giving the book a try.
I am so glad I did.
I loved this book so much. It has everything! Characters I loved, heroism, heartbreak (such heartbreak!), epic battles, romance, and even hope. From the moment I met our foul-mouthed crow (and he really is foul-mouthed), I was in.
The book manages to be readable, funny, sad and incredibly epic.
Happy I read this and now I want a crow!
Rating: really liked it
This book is definitely outside of my normal wheelhouse. Told from the perspective of S. T., a domesticated crow, the world is in the midst of an apocalyptic pandemic. Think Shaun of the Dead zombie pandemic. And with just as much humor. I listened to this and it’s one of those books destined to have you getting strange looks as you laugh out loud in public places. S. T. Is the perfect main character. He’s foul mouthed, opinionated, partial to Cheetos and other junk food and with an overwhelming love of all things MoFo (human). S.T. realizes something’s wrong when Big Jim’s eyeball falls out. He heads out into the world, accompanied by Dennis, the bloodhound, hoping to find a cure for a Big Jim.
In alternating chapters, we hear from S.T. and other animals trying to adjust to the “new normal”. For those that don’t like gruesome, this book is not for you.
Surprisingly, it’s also beautifully written. The descriptions of the natural world are told with a detailed eye.
It’s not evenly strong. There are parts that drag. But it elicits all the emotions, and reminds us of the importance of family, whatever form it takes. And I did find it inconsistent that Dennis seems to be the only animal unable to communicate with S.T.
I did get a kick out of the cause of the pandemic. All too real...
Robert Petkoff is a great narrator. Does it sound weird to say he sounds how I would expect a pet crow to sound?
This is the perfect book for our pandemic. It shows things aren’t as bad as they could be!
Rating: really liked it
*4.5* Stars.
This is a book of towering imagination which displays the author’s deep love of nature. Humans have turned into ravenous, mindless zombies, perhaps by increasingly ignoring our natural world. The cause is rumoured to be due to a virus in their smart devices. This has led to a severance from nature. Even in their altered state, they show an attachment and obsession with the shiny screens of iPhones and tablets.
The story is narrated by a foul-mouthed crow named S.T. (Shit turd). He was once the tamed pet of Big Jim and learned his profane language from his owner. S.T also watched a lot of documentaries, especially on the Discovery Channel, and has a wide knowledge of the history and cultures of mankind. He tends to deny belonging to the crow species and identifies with humans. S.T. refers to humanity as MoFos, it in the wider world they are called Hollow, due to their detachment from nature. S.T. has an affection for another household pet, a drooling, lazy bloodhound named Dennis.
One day Big Jim’s eyeball falls out, and he becomes a dim-witted slobbering mess. What S.T. has observed is the beginning of the Zombie Apocalypse. What will happen in a world devoid of people? What will be the fate of household pets, farm animals, and those in zoos and in the wild? I was captivated by the great laugh-out-loud humour, the vivid descriptions of nature, as well as of the suspense, danger and horror.
S.T. learns about Aura which works like an Internet in nature, combining the singing of birds, the sounds of insects and the rustling of trees to pass information on to to the animal world. He believes it is his destiny to rescue pets locked in homes. He starts out with the dog, Dennis, and is soon joined by other birds and mammals with the wider goal to save all animals and to find any humans who may have survived.
The Hollow Kingdom has been optioned by AMC to be made into an animated TV series for adults. I hope this happens, as I found S.T.to be braver, more heroic, much funnier, and with a more compelling personality than the characters on AMC’s Walking Dead series. Recommended for the immersive writing style, and unique, widely imaginative plot.
Rating: really liked it
(I managed the first 36 pages on this attempt.) Do you have a friend who’s intimidatingly sharp, whose every spoken or written line leaps from wordplay to a joke to an allusion to a pun? That’s how I felt about
Hollow Kingdom. It’s so clever it’s exhausting. There’s hardly a sentence without a metaphor or a quip that will give you a chance to catch your breath. I wanted to read this because I’d heard it was narrated by a crow. S.T. (Shit Turd) is an American Crow who lives with Big Jim, an electrician, in Seattle along with Dennis the dumb bloodhound. One day Jim’s eyeball pops out and he starts spending all his time in the basement and acting crazy. On his reconnaissance flights through the neighborhood S.T. realizes that all the humans (aka “MoFos” or “Hollows”) are similarly deranged. He runs into a gang of zombies when he goes to the Walgreens pharmacy to loot medications. Some are even starting to eat their pets. (Uh oh.) We get brief introductions to other animal narrators, including Winnie the Poodle and Genghis Cat. An Internet-like “Aura” allows animals of various species to communicate with each other about the crisis. I struggle with dystopian and zombie stuff, but I think I could make an exception for this. Although I do think it’s pretty overwritten (one adverb and four adjectives in one sentence: “We left slowly to the gentle song of lugubrious paw pads and the viscous beat of crestfallen wings”), I’ll try it again someday.
Rating: really liked it
4.5 stars. I laughed and I cried.
Rating: really liked it
Everything talks, you just have to be willing to listen. This one was a real roller coaster ride through a tunnel of love & hate.
I LOVED the beginning. We meet a domesticated crow named Shit Turd (S.T. for short), who loves hanging out with his owner, Big Jim, and Dennis, a dumb, but lovable bloodhound. When Jim becomes a mindless zombie, the two critters decide to strike out on their own rather than risk being consumed by their formerly human pal. They begin a quest to find and release "domestics" - pets trapped in domiciles after their owners became infected. This bit grew tiresome, and, at times, pretty nasty. But, S.T.'s personality, and his delightful quips, like -
. . . who doesn't find a sparrow to be a delicious hors d'oeuvre? They're like airborne pizza rolls. - won me back again.
Then the book devolved into graphic scenes of warring animals, with fur and severed paws flying everywhere, and I was back to hating it.
But, S.T., again, pulled me up with thoughts of crows singing
Smells Like Teen Spirit, and paying tribute to a wondrous place once known as
Denny's by chanting "Moon Over My Hammy," and I was in love again.
So . . . if you don't mind reading about animals dying, and if you've got a kind of warped sense of humor, this one may be for you. Recommended, but with many, many reservations.
Mother Nature is not kind, but she is balanced. Every single one of us, from amoeba to blue whale to the tenacious bloom that dares to dream of tomorrow, have their own destiny-fulfilling journey as long as their minds and hearts are open.
Rating: really liked it
Hollow Kingdom by Kira Jane Buxton is a science fiction, post apocalyptic fantasy that has a new twist with the surviving characters. Instead of the story being told from the point of view of the last remaining humans in the world we get a narrative from S.T., a domesticated crow.
S.T.’s owner, Big Jim, had gotten really sick until the point one day Big Jim’s eyeball falls right out. Well, what is one domesticated crow to do without an owner taking care of him? S.T. manages to team up with Big Jim’s dumb dog, Dennis, and take off out on their own to find out what was happening to their world.
Now, I’m sort of a hit or miss type of person when it comes to the entire dystopian or post apocalyptic type of books. Some of these pull me right in and I become completely engrossed in the what if we had this happen to us type of world. Others on the flip side tend to bore me with the lack of characters or engaging plot. Hollow Kingdom starts off s a cute new twist following this wise cracking crow but eventually it all fell flat for me. I’m sure some will love this one, I however just got a bit bored with only the animals.
I received an advance copy from the publisher via NetGalley.
For more reviews please visit https://carriesbookreviews.com/
Rating: really liked it
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.
Rating: really liked it
Such a different and creative book! Funny, irreverent, and filled with emotional highs and lows, this one took me by surprise in the best possible way. I didn't know what to expect from a crow's eye view of the fall of humanity (referred to affectionately as "MoFos" by the protagonist, S.T.) and the great change experienced by beings of the natural world left behind, but whatever it was, Hollow Kingdom fulfilled it. Part of the 5 star rating I've given stems from the pure enjoyment I got from reading this. This is going on my favourites 2019 shelf.
I've included a long, but representative, excerpt below. It pretty much conveys the tone of the book:
I hesitate to go on for fear that you will judge me and not want to hear the rest of my story. However, in the interest of full disclosure, I feel a duty to tell you the truth about everything. You deserve it. My name is Shit Turd and I am an American crow. Are you still with me? Crows aren’t well liked, you see. We’re judged because we are black, because our feathers don’t possess the speckled stateliness of a red-tailed hawk’s or the bewitching cobalt of a blue jay’s, those stupid fuckers. Yeah, yeah, we’re not as dainty and whimsical as hummingbirds, not as wise as owls—a total misnomer by the way—and not as “adorable” as the hambeast-bellied egg timer commonly known as a penguin. Crows are harbingers of death and omens, good and bad, according to Big Jim according to Google. Midnight-winged tricksters associated with mystery, the occult, the unknown. The netherworld, wherever that is—Portland? We make people think of the deceased and super angsty poetry. Admittedly we don’t help the cause when we happily dine on fish guts in a landfill, but hey ho.
So, the truth—my name is Shit Turd (S.T. for short) and I’m a domesticated crow, raised by Big Jim who taught me the ways of your kind whom he called “MoFos.” He gave me my floral vocabulary and my indubitably unique name. He taught me to say some MoFo words. Because of the aforementioned Tinder misadventures, Big Jim and I spent quality, or rather quantity, time together and I have an array of tricks under my plume. I know about MoFo things like windows and secrets and blow-up dolls. And I am the rare bird who loves your kind, the ones who walk on two legs and built the things you dreamt of, including the Cheeto®. I owe my life to you. As an honorary MoFo, I’m here to be utterly honest and tell you what happened to your kind. The thing none of us saw coming.Note - as a direct side effect of reading this book I now think of people generally as MoFos in my head.
Rating: really liked it
Effing brilliant. Obsessed.
Highly recommend the audio
