The Hollows by Mark Edwards

 

"Now that I was alone, what David had said about being able to feel the energy of what had happened here came back to me. I could sense it. An imprint in the air, the memory of an evil act stamped upon this place".

"All three of us turned our heads towards the woods, and a sensation of dread trickled down my spine. A shadow moved in the trees. Shifting light. Wind stirring branches. But it was easy to imagine something else at work. Something alive and ancient that had lived among these trees since they were saplings.

Everett's territory?

Or the territory of something he worshipped?"

The Hollows by Mark Edwards is a dark psychological thriller, with Gothic undertones.

Tom Anderson and his daughter Frankie arrive to a cabin resort amidst the woods during the grand opening week. Their cabin is on the far side of the resort. "Nestled in the trees, the cabin - like all the cabins here - was brand new. Its windows gleamed in the sunshine. This was our home for the next ten nights".

Frankie is upset because there is no Wi-Fi here. The father is adamant, "that was the whole point of coming here. To get away from everything. No social media. No YouTube. No news. A whole week and a half without staring at a screen. Just you and me". Of course, both of them get the Wi-Fi withdrawal symptoms almost immediately.

The father plans to spend "quaity time" with his daughter, doing archery, boating on the lake, horse riding and many other outdoorsy activities. 

Tom is a Brit, who's being married to an American. Now that they are divorced, he sees his daughter once a year when he visits the States. He lives frugally, saves all year to be able to afford these holidays with Frankie. Tom is a music journalist, with a dwindling career. "I was wounded. The slow death of my career. The breakdown of my marriage. The loss of my daughter".

Their next cabin neighbours, David and Connie are super excited about the opening of the resort. Their podcast on true crime and serial killers is gaining popularity, and this trip is meant to boost the numbers of their audience.

Apparently, the Hollows has being widely advertised on The Snugg Guide, a dark tourism website, for the 20th anniversray of the Hollows Horror.

"As Connie and David took it in turns to tell me the story of what had happened here almost exactly twenty years before, the hairs stood up on the back of my neck, as of someone were standing behind me, blowing cool air on to me".

Long before the resort was established, this area was popular with schools and campers.

Twenty years earlier, in July 1999, two teachers were killed. They were left naked on the flat rock, with pagan symbols painted in blood around them. The theory was that the murder was some kind of an offering, a sacrifice. A local teenager, Everett Miller, a loner with interest in crazy-ass bands, was the main suspect. He has never been caught, having disappeared without any trace, most likely gone across the border to Canada.

Murder-obsessed, ghoulish tourists flock to the resort to mark the chilling anniversary.

Despite his misgivings about the dark topics, Tom is intrigued and even motivated. "I didn't want to get ahead of myself, but if a great story had just landed in my lap - or rather, I'd landed in its lap - maybe this was my chance to start again. I had often thought about relaunching myself as a different kind of journalist. Could this be my chance to do just that?"

The first step would be to dig more information about the case, read the old files, chat to some locals, and if the story proves worthy, pitch it to some editors. "I tried to keep my excitement in check, but it was hard. Because when you've been starved of hope for so long, it's hard not to snatch it when you see it dangled before you".

David and Connie stay at the Hollows with their teen son, Ryan. 

When Ryan and Frankie venture to the nearest small town, called Penance, to access the Wi-Fi, they are not impressed with the creepy junkyards, crumbling houses and broken windows, and the air of shabbiness about the place. The locals are hostile and threatening. Frustrated, Ryan does a selfie with a homeless man asleep in the shadows by the memorial, with an offensive message, "Come to the asshole of the world! Penance, ME..." The hashtags are as offensive: #shithole #vacationfromhell

This Instagram post will come back to bite them. It appears that some of the locals don't take kindly to the disrespectful, derogatory social media posts. Ryan and Frankie get trolled with vengeance.

The strange, disturbing things start to happen in the resort. 

Tom and Frankie's dream trip is rapidly turning into a horror story. Will the time run out before they are able to uncover the truth? 

The story alternates between Tom (in first person narrative) and Frankie (third person), with some other voices contributing to the plotline.

The atmosperic creepy setting is done skilfully to build up tension and suspence. The dark ancient woods, the sound of distant, unseen chimes, a sinister town of Penance. You get references to the classic horror films, as well as Edwards' previous books (in the Acknowledgments he mentions that he has left several Easter eggs for his readers).

There are the creepy twins that would make you think of The Shining. "They were behind her, walking at the same pace as her, side by side. She caught the girl's eye and the girl's lips curled into a smile. Except it wasn't a real smile. It was the kind of expression an alien who was trying to imitate human emotion might make. The boy did the same, and now Frankie was certain they were twins. They looked like two dolls who had rolled off the same production line".

It touches upon such a crucial issue as chidren and social media. "We give kids access to these new online tools, like Instagram, but they don't always have the emotional maturity to use them". It might not be a cautionary tale for our times as such, and not does it try to be one, but it does make you think of the dangers and pressure of social media.

If you enjoy thrillers and horror stories with the nightmare holiday camp settings, The Hollows is a proper page-turner. I read it in one day. Dark, creep-inducing, suspensful horror.

The Hollows is currently available for £1 on Amazon, or free for Prime Reading/Prime Amazon subscribers.