2022-08-17
A woman fleeing an abusive relationship carries her 11-year-old son to an even more dangerous place: home.
Greed, trespass, revenge, and obsession provide the emotional palette for this breathless, wide-eyed horror fable that chronicles the unforgivable trespasses that cost multiple generations their souls. The prime narrative finds Nellie Gardner in 1989 nursing wounds both fresh and long calloused as she shepherds her son, Max, to Georgia, well away from her abusive husband, Wade Gardner, an academic with an ill temper. In the same place circa 1917, Nellie’s grandfather August Redfern and his wife, Euphemia, launch a turpentine enterprise in the southern wilds and soon bear twins Charlie and Hank—Hank is Nellie’s father. But Redfern soon learns that the land he’s defiling in the name of profits demands more sacrifice than mere greed can satisfy. Settling into her grandfather’s creepy Gothic mansion, Nellie is soon confronted by local snake oil salesman Lonnie Baxter, who considers her property his birthright. But while a reunion with a newly sober Hank leads to an uneasy détente between father and daughter, Nellie and Max are also menaced by unpredictable phantoms, including the specter of a young girl, a dead bear who won’t seem to stay put, and the resurrected Dr. Gardner. Let’s face it, if you hang out in dusty old estates populated by long-kept secrets, guilt, remorse, and madness, something “squelching wetly,” as Stranger Things would put it, is bound to come slithering out of a hole. This version of the hot, wet South isn’t a far stretch from Daniel Woodrell’s twig-snap rustic dread but is a closer cousin to the wetwork terror of John Hornor Jacobs or Joe Hill. The way Davidson deftly pirouettes his way between bated-breath anticipation and a denouement that owes as much to John Carpenter as H.P. Lovecraft is impressive, especially given a staccato storytelling style that, much like a good horror movie, conceals as much as it reveals.
A folksy novel about bad country people, tentacles and all.
An Esquire Best Horror Book of 2022
A Paste Magazine Best Horror Book of 2022
"Andy Davidson is quickly establishing himself as the newest master of southern gothic horror. The Hollow Kind seeps into your subconscious and waits for you in your nightmares."
—S. A. Cosby, bestselling author of Razorblade Tears
“A deep, dark story of family secrets and inherited horrors, Andy Davidson’s The Hollow Kind is as gripping and twisted as old tree roots—you can practically smell the creosote and longleaf pine. This one kept me up, turning pages long into the night.”
—T. Kingfisher, author of What Moves the Dead
“The Hollow Kind is a gloriously wild, twisted family saga with buckets of body horror and is going to mess you up good.”
—Paul Tremblay, author of The Pallbearers Club, on Twitter
"Mr. Davidson once more proves himself master of the art of horror writing."
—Wall Street Journal Review
"Davidson effectively uses horror to explore intergenerational trauma. The characters are diverse and interesting.... Inventive and rich, The Hollow Kind is an entertaining and frightening family saga."
—Sarah Rachel Egelman, Book Reporter
"Masterful writing... The Hollow Kind is a riveting novel that will satisfy any horror fan (and many soon-to-be fans). Andy Davidson has done a sublime job with this portrait of a family plagued by supernatural terror and very human trauma."
—Mariko Hewer, Washington Independent Review of Books
"Lush, imaginative, and teeming with skin crawling imagery, The Hollow Kind is a stunning blending of genres and eras into one very impactful package"
—Matthew Jackson, Paste Magazine
"The Hollow Kind is a classic piece of Southern Gothic literature: dense, baroque, and rooted in the history of the land. Faulkner and Lovecraft would both approve."
—Neil McRobert, Esquire
"A visceral story that weaves past and present together, The Hollow Kind is a well-crafted tale about secrets that refuse to stay hidden, the weight of past sins, and redemption. With atmospheric imagery, compelling characters, and a gripping premise, Davidson proves why horror is one of the most effective genres for exploring interpersonal conflict and the complicated nature of familial relationships."
—Popmatters
"Andy Davidson’s imagination is deep, dark, and visceral."
—BN Editors, Best Horror Books of 2022
"With his third novel, Davidson plants his roots in horror’s soil as one its most talented voices . . . The Hollow Kind is a Southern Gothic epic that masterfully weaves elements of body, folk, and cosmic horror, knitting it all together into something wholly new, immersive, terrifying, and utterly breathtaking."
–Becky Spratford, Booklist
“Greed, trespass, revenge, and obsession provide the emotional palette for this breathless, wide-eyed horror fable that chronicles the unforgivable trespasses that cost multiple generations their souls.”
—Kirkus Reviews
"Whether you call it historical horror, folk horror, or southern gothic, Andy Davidson's The Hollow Kind is as beautifully written as it is chilling. The combination of dual timelines with a little-explored piece of America's past truly sets this book apart. Every page reverberates with inescapable dread."
—Alma Katsu, author of The Fervor
“Andy Davidson has mapped out a terrifying family tree of Southern Gothic genealogies—think the Hatfields and McCoys as penned by Stephen King.”
—Clay McLeod Chapman, author of Ghost Eaters
“A lovely, lyrical, terrifying epic. One of the best horror novels I’ve read in years.”
—Shaun Hamill, author of A Cosmology of Monsters