Hollowed

A Sleepy Hollow Reimagining

De: Jessica S. Taylor

Narrado por: Zura Johnson

Sleepy Hollow is crumbling. To protect the supernatural town from the mundane world, each year a resident is sacrificed to the Dullahan, the Headless Horseman that protects the veil around the Hollow.

Nineteen-year-old Katrina van Tassel knows she’s a disappointment to her parents, for more reasons than one. But as the only daughter of the most prominent family in Sleepy Hollow, she never imagined that she would be chosen as the next sacrifice. Or that in her attempt to escape, she would instead come face to face with the Horseman himself.

But the harbinger of death isn’t who they said he was, and Katrina begins to question everything she has ever been told. Evil forces far more dangerous than the mysterious Horseman are at work in the Hollow, and the Horseman is determined to protect Sleepy Hollow.

Katrina is tempted to take the Horseman’s offer of assistance in fleeing Sleepy Hollow, rather than staying to fight by his side to save the town. Until he reveals she’s the only one with the power to stop the evil being summoned…

A standalone gothic fantasy, Hollowed will pull you into the reimagined world of Sleepy Hollow and thrust you into a mysterious town filled with deadly magic, cunning betrayals, and secrets you never saw coming. Cross the bridge into the Hollow and pick up your next dark fantasy.

©2023 Jessica S. Taylor (P)2024 Dreamscape Media

What can I say?

This book is very hard to come to terms with. To be fair, the story was good and everything up to about the final fourth? of the book was an interesting twist on the Legend of Sleepy Hallow, at least what little I know of the actual tale. As I don't know the actual story written by Irving, I can't say how far and away this story was and it did feel more like a "what if" kind of scenario, but that seems to be what's popular and as long as it's well written I find nothing wrong with that.
I did have to listen to the audio book at either 1.2x or 1.5x though because the narrator was a little slow at normal speed, but that could easily be because it wasn't paced right during the publication, or I just have taken a liking for slightly faster narrations. Either way, that was also good.
The only real thing I can say I didn't like about this book (and why I can't give the story that final star) is because it was just slightly repetitive with character's inner monologues (kind of like both were written and the author forgot to go back and choose one though it didn't really break with the flow so it wasn't horrible) and the fact that the final "baddie", to keep from spoiling everything, was an all encompassing primordial being that really shouldn't have been a "bad guy" to begin with. I feel a different being could have been invoked in that position and it would have made more sense and made me less incensed.
But, all's well that ends well and all that so take a listen to this and make up your own opinion.

Fresh spin on an original

Nice spooky season read with some original content and a steamy new twist. Katrina is the character you love to hate but she is more frustrating in this retelling and the horseman is a twist. The story is fresh with some steam, HEA, and a little gore. Overall really good.

Decent reimagining

Don't really expect anything Sleepy Hollow or Headless Horseman out of this other than the labels/names.

Listen at 1.2 and it’s not so bad

Overall the story itself was fine. However, the narrator spoke so slow it was annoying. If you sped up to 1.2 it was better. Parts dragged on with endless descriptive passages by the main character that became tedious. The ending felt rushed. This could have been a great reimagining of the story but fell flat for me.

entertaining and simple

the narrator is great. the story is an interesting take on the classic. overall it's pretty simple and straightforward and the "mystery" is resolved without applied effort. the abuse the main character experienced/es is front and center and is almost it's own character. the romance is slight and somewhat predictable. overall a good stand alone fantasy.