Book Review: Hollow Earth

Some of you may remember my blog post about the John Barrowman book signing. In it I said I would soon be giving my review of Hollow Earth. You may have thought that I'd forgotten all about it (or you may have forgotten yourself) but don't worry, I remember and though this is a little later than 'soon', I'm giving this post over to my review.


I had quite high expectations of this book. Mainly because it was written by Barrowman and because the blurb on the back had me intrigued. It was with much excitement that I opened it to the first page...

The first chapter certainly reeled me in. The animated demons from the Book of Beasts sounded rather cool, and there was a bit of a war of wills going on between the monk and his apprentice which boded well. It's going to be like Angels and Demons with actual demons, I thought. The next chapter then took us to the present day and introduced us to the main protagonists, Matt and Em. It was eventful, the twins animating one of their drawings in the middle of the art gallery. It took me a second to realise that they had gone into the picture and, generally, this was something that didn't work as well as I'd imagined it would. I love the idea of them bringing the pictures to life and going into the paintings, but sometimes I felt the description of these events was a bit muddled.

Cover image of Hollow Earth

 From the blurb on the back of the book I imagined Hollow Earth would be opened up and the demons would escape, forcing the twins to have to confront them. This isn't what happened. Instead some very sinister people who were supposed to be on the 'good' side started chasing after them wanting to 'bind' their powers. This is one thing that I did enjoy about the book: that none of the characters were black and white. It was hard at times to distinguish who exactly was good and who was bad. In fact, I'd go as far as to say that the two are not distinct in Hollow Earth. All the characters have grey shades and some could easily fall into both the role of hero and villain. This is refreshing and something I think a lot of other books aimed at kids don't have.

I have to confess to not liking Matt very much, though. Never having had a brother, I have limited experience with pre-pubescent boys, but his moodiness sometimes bordered on the downright rude and obnoxious. I liked Em, however. She was not a damsel in distress. She had guts and fighting spirit and I think she makes a great role model for young girls.

I enjoyed the descriptions of the imaginary Scottish island of Auchinmurn. I could picture the abbey clearly in my head and I loved the Gothic edge it introduced to the story. There were a few points where I felt the story was dragging, such as the twins' excursion to the caves where they animated for the American tourists. That said, the caves did play an important part later in the book, so it was a good way to set-the-scene. On a whole, Hollow Earth was enjoyable. It definitely has lots of action, gadgetry and mystery. My favourite parts were probably the flashbacks (I just love anything historical) and the whole concept of the Hollow Earth Society made me want to find out more about it. The idea is different to anything I've read before and I am interested to see what happens in the sequel, Bone Quill.  If you like action mixed in with bouts of comedy and family drama, then I'd recommend that you give this book a read.

Stay tuned for further book reviews!
Annette xx