They're all liars, but we're not.
Blurb:
A forbidden, timeless, and haunting love story.
Once upon a time, there lived a girl named Fallon who was taken far away from home shortly after she was born.
A home that held more than strange traditions and bizarre superstitions.
Twenty-four years later, she returned to Weeping Hollow, a town she’d only heard about in stories during restless nights under a marble moon, in the middle of the night to take care of her last living relative.
They called the nosy mortician a freakshow–a ghastly thing.
They said I couldn’t go near her.
Still, there was this aching pull to Fallon Grimaldi that I couldn’t escape.
A nostalgic pull as if we’d been here before.
Once upon a time, there lived a mysterious boy named Julian with a curse as old as centuries wrapped around his soul.
He was one of the four Hollow Heathens, the very dark creatures who caused the town’s people to live in fear.
And the Blackwell name was stained with darkness and death.
They called him a monster. Cold and hollow.
They said I shouldn’t go near him.
Still, there was this aching pull to Julian Blackwell that I couldn’t escape.
A nostalgic pull as if we’d been here before.
REVIEW
It took me months to finish this book...months!
Why? Because I didn’t want it to end.
That’s the only reason.
I wanted to live in Weeping Hollow forever… or at least until the next book in the series is out.
So, I put off finishing it, only reading two or three chapters at a time, wanting to savor every sentence…every scene. That only worked until I got to about 48% of the book.
Then, the magic of Weeping Hollow swept over me and Nicole Fiorina’s beautifully poetic writing style made me finish the second half of the book in one sitting, reading through the night. I became consumed with Julian and Fallon’s story, a hauntingly beautiful tale of love, betrayal, mysterious curses and witches.
Hollow Heathens is unlike any other book I’ve read before. It has a mysterious, almost creepy vibe of forests in the dark under a star-filled sky with a full moon hanging above. I loved how everything in this town came alive at night, even the people living there.
The story played like a movie in my head, transporting me to a superstitious, off-the-grid town called Weeping Hollow, where a 24-year-old girl named Fallon returns home for the first time since being whisked away as an infant by her father. She comes back to help her ailing grandfather, her last living relative. What she doesn’t expect is the magnetic pull she feels towards Julian Blackwell, one of the cursed Hollow Heathens. Even though everyone is telling her to stay away from the four Heathens, she’s the only one who sees Julian for what he really is… she sees the man behind the mask he has to wear. She sees the gentle soul of a man living inside the darkness his entire life, feared by the town and defined by a curse as ancient as Weeping Hollow itself.
I don't want to go too much into the plot here becaue I think that you should go in blind and experience the magic of this story without knowing anything else. The blurb gives enough information as to what to expect before diving headfirst into the book.
Hollow Heathens is the first book I've read by this author and it won't be my last, I can tell you that! Her writing is so beautiful and poetic that I became enchanted by her words and the picures she's painted of Weeping Hollow with those words. It made me want to pack my bags and move there instantly. For me it doesnt get much better than that... sea-side town, full of mystery, witches, dark forests and rainy, cold weather. I'd move there tomorrow if such a place existed.
I don't think I have ever underlined so many passages in a book before and I had a really hard time deciding which quotes from the book to include in this review. There were just so many.
This story was a slow burn, the relationships between characters building gradually, over time, which is probably why it's such a long book. If I had to pick one tiny detail that frustrated me, it would be the fact that Fallon didn't really stand up for herself, especially in the beginning of the book. But I got over that pretty quickly, once I found out the reason why she was so insecure about herself. And I understood, because I could relate to her.
Every word... Every sentence painted such a vivid picture inside my head of the characters and places they visited, making this one of the most enjoyable reads I have had in a while.
There are not enough stars for me to rate this book, it goes well beyond a 5-star-rating. Though, in hindsight I'm glad I didn't read this all at once but savored it for a couple of months, at least the first half of it. Because I'm starting this new year with a fantastic novel. I would definitely encourage you to read this!
Now the real question is:
How the hell am I supposed to wait until fall/winter of 2021 to read the next book in the series?! HOW?
I'll leave this review with one last quote, even though I don't normally do this but I just couldn't resist this one.
„They are of formidable beauty, both of them, love and death. Within them lies their immortality.“
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