Book Review: The Mystery of Hollow Places by Rebecca Podos

Book: The Mystery of Hollow Places

Author: Rebecca Podos

Pages: 304

Read on: Kindle

Read in: 2 hours

Plot Summary: All Imogene Scott knows of her mother is the bedtime story her father told her as a child. It’s the story of how her parents met: he, a forensic pathologist, she, a mysterious woman who came to identify a body. A woman who left Imogene and her father when Imogene was a baby, a woman who was always possessed by a powerful loneliness, a woman who many referred to as “troubled waters.”

Now Imogene is seventeen, and her father, a famous author of medical mysteries, has struck out in the middle of the night and hasn’t come back. Neither Imogene’s stepmother nor the police know where he could’ve gone, but Imogene is convinced he’s looking for her mother. And she decides it’s up to her to put to use the skills she’s gleaned from a lifetime of reading her father’s books to track down a woman she’s only known in stories in order to find him and, perhaps, the answer to the question she’s carried with her for her entire life.

Things I Liked: Quick list:

1. The book’s premise seemed really interesting. A missing father, a mother whose identity is shrouded in mystery and a daughter who is trying to find her dad by learning more about her past. What’s not to like, right? Exactly. That’s what drew us to this book on Amazon and we picked it up thinking it would be a good mix of family secrets, mystery and some investigative action. There were bits of these elements, to be fair.. but, well that’s for the ‘Things I Didn’t Like’ section of this review.

2. Imogene’s journey to find her father is fairly interesting. She puts together clues, seeks people out and goes about following leads in a very realistic what-you-and-I-would-do manner. There were no over-the-top cutesy shenanigans or some major detecting, which would seem totally unrealistic for an seventeen-year-old to pull off on her own.

Things I Didn’t Like: Quick List:

1. This book lacked a soul. That’s the best way I can put it. For a book with such an inherently emotional premise, the writing and lack of depth leaves the reader very disconnected and unmoved with the narrative. The characters are hollow (hah! Now the book’s name makes sense!), the relationships lack any true warmth.. basically, you don’t connect with anything in this book. It’s a superficial rush job of a book and it leaves you unmoved. Sad.

2. This may sound repetitive, but none of the characters had any depth and were not people you could relate to or care about as a reader. Even Imogene, our protagonist, seems very superficial. We don’t really get to know her. She seems like this paper character and the only thing we know about her is that she is super-awkward and does not like people. Also, she seems like a bit of a bitch, given the way she treats the only person who wants to help her- her childhood friend, whose name, I can’t for the life of me, remember!

3. The big mystery- her mom’s story, where her dad is- is so super-duper lame!!!! It’s not worth reading the 304 pages!

Rating: 2/5

Avoid!