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Hollow Pike by James Dawson (view source)
Revision as of 12:31, 22 August 2020
, 12:31, 22 August 2020no edit summary
{{infoboxinfobox2
|title=Hollow Pike
|author=James Dawson
|borrow=Yes
|isbn=9781780620039
|pages=320
|publisher=Indigo
|date=February 2012
|amazonukaznuk=1780621280|aznus=<amazonuk>1780620039 </amazonuk>|amazonuscover=<amazonus>1780620039 </amazonus>1780621280
|website=http://www.jamesdawsonbooks.com
|video=SQ_AcL5LJb0
I think I have a problem when it comes to books like this. I read a substantial amount - averaging a book a day recently - of which a relatively small number of books are horror or scary thrillers. For some reason, I always seem to end up reading the most frightening books late on Sunday evening. So at half-past two in the early hours of Monday morning, for about the fourth week out of the last six, I was yet again sat bolt upright in bed petrified of going to sleep after finishing this wonderfully atmospheric, totally enthralling, and completely terrifying debut novel.
Dawson's writing style is nearly unbearably tense. Right from the first few pages, with Lis dreaming of a mystery attacker and then repeatedly seeing a single magpie - one for sorrow indeed - until the incredible climax, he has the reader fearing for the lives of Lis and her friends. It helps that he's created a really likeable heroine in Lis, and a great bunch of friends. I particularly liked Kitty and Delilah; it's really refreshing to have two characters who are in a same-sex relationship without that being the focal point of the book. As a former teacher, it's perhaps no surprise that Dawson does a great job of capturing the malice and bitchiness of teen girls so well, but this definitely makes the novel stand out as particularly realistic in its portrayal of school life. Another really strong point is Hollow Pike itself, which is one of my favourite locations for a while. Like Winter in Ruth Warburton's wonderful [[A Witch in Winter by Ruth Warburton| Witch in Winter]], it's a place which has decidedly more to it that meets the eye - as do some of it's inhabitants!
Overall, this is a really strong recommendation - although please take my advice as the voice of experience and read it in bright sunshine rather than the middle of the night! I look forward to seeing more from James Dawson in the future.
As mentioned above, another brilliant story about witches with a fabulous location is [[A Witch in Winter by Ruth Warburton]]. That's one of the other books which has kept me awake in the early hours of Monday morning, as are [[Poison Heart by S B Hayes]] and [[Choker by Elizabeth Woods]].
{{amazontext|amazon=1780620039 1780621280}} {{waterstonestextamazonUStext|waterstonesamazon=87499601780620039}}
{{commenthead}}
[[Category:Juno Dawson]]
{{comment
|name=Olivia Levez
|verb= said
|comment=I agree.
Hollow Pike is a cauldron of bitchiness, menace and crow-ridden trees, all written in one of the most convincing teen girl voices that I've read for some time. I met James Dawson at YALC recently and he told me it was easy to write like this because "inside I'm a sixteen-year-old teenage girl". (Said whilst rocking the Daenerys Stormborn look, complete with "modesty dragon"!)
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