Genre: Young Adult, Paranormal
Pub Date: September 2009, Simon Pulse (HC)
Format: Paperback
Source: Purchased from Amazon.com
Rating: 4 stars
Synopsis (from BN.com)
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.
Genre: Young Adult, Paranormal
Pub Date: August 2010, Simon Pulse
Format: Hardcover
Source: Purchased from Amazon.com
Rating: 4 stars
Synopsis (from BN.com)
An impossible truth. An impossible love.
After a summer spent reclaiming her sanity and trying to forget the boy she fell in love with—the boy who must not exist, cannot exist, because she knows that he is dead—Abbey returns to Sleepy Hollow, ready to leave the ghosts of her past behind. She throws herself into her schoolwork, her perfume-making, and her friendship with Ben, her cute and funny lab partner, who just might be her ticket to getting over Caspian once and for all.
But Abbey can never get over Caspian, and Caspian has no choice but to return to her side, for Caspian is a Shade, and Abbey is his destiny. They are tied not only to each other, but also to the town of Sleepy Hollow, and to the famous legend that binds their fates—a legend whose dark truths they are only beginning to guess....
Genre: Young Adult, Paranormal
Pub Date: August 2011, Simon Pulse
Format: Hardcover
Source: Purchased from BN.com
Rating: 2 stars
Synopsis (from BN.com)
Abbey knows that Caspian is her destiny. Theirs is a bond that transcends even death. But as Abbey finally learns the full truth about the dark fate that links her to Caspian and ties them both to the town of Sleepy Hollow, she suddenly has some very hard choices to make. Caspian may be the love of her life, but is that love worth dying for?
My Thoughts
I opted to lump my reviews for Jessica Verday's The Hollow series into one review, since I decided to re-read the first two books before finally finishing the series while on vacation last week. And, quite honestly, I'm not sure I could bring myself to write three individual reviews for these books. I think I might be in the minority when I say that for me, the series started out much stronger than it concluded.
While it seems to rate lower among other readers, I actually really enjoyed Verday's debut, The Hollow. In my opinion, basing the story off of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow was a refreshing premise in the vast offering of YA Paranormal books. Verday opens each chapter with quotations from Irving's book, which really made me want to pick it up again. While I admit that Abbey and Caspian might be a little annoying, I did find myself completely wrapped up in their story. Something else that I found interesting and different: Abbey's hobby as a perfumer. I thought that added to her overall character, not to mention showing how smells really become a part of our lives and memories -- I could certainly identify with that. The side plot pertaining to Kristen's secret was a little contrived, but none of these flaws curbed my enjoyment of The Hollow.
The fast-paced ride continues in the second book in the series, The Haunted. Just when Abbey has nearly convinced herself that she imagined her ghosts and shades, when she returns home it is almost as if her summer away never even happened. It was nice to have some more focus on Ben this time and a little less Caspian, even though we all know how it's ultimately going to end. We also see more of Katy and Nikolas (minor spoiler - they're from the original story of Sleep Hollow) this time and start to get a glimmer of just what is going on with Abbey, why she can see these people no one else can, and just what part she is supposed to play in it all. With that, the story gets a little darker this time, as well.
And then we get to the third book, The Hidden. Sadly, this book diminished my overall opinion of the series, though again it seems I'm in the minority as the ratings are generally higher for this book. In a way, it was almost too short -- tying up the various loose ends actually deserved at least another couple of chapters. I was very disappointed with how suddenly Verday wrapped up the story, but it is difficult to explain what was wrong without completely giving it all away. Suffice it to say that while perhaps the resolution wasn't totally out of left field, it was introduced so suddenly and put to bed so quickly that it left me wondering what the heck happened. I almost felt cheated, if that makes sense. And frankly, it was all too neat and tidy to fit in with the rest of the story. I'm a sucker for happily ever after, but this time happily ever after seemed like the easy way out somehow, it's difficult to explain.
Based on individual ratings of 4 stars for both of the first two books and 2 stars for The Hidden, my ultimate rating is:
Posts
Bummer to hear the third brought the score down. Sounds like a good series though. Thank you!
ReplyDeleteThat's too bad the third book brought your rating down. It sounded like a good trilogy!
ReplyDelete