Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Hollowstone is a poorly-written, poorly-edited piece of garbage. Before you finish the first page, you will understand why it was vanity-published. The grammar is atrocious; further, the structure and plot are reminiscent of a thirteen-year-old fanfic author's Supernatural/Twilight crossover. And all of that is leaving out the egregious misogyny on the author's part. The protagonist's friend, meant to be a good character, nonchalantly characterizes two girls as "the biggest skanks in the school", adding that he would know, as he did them both in the hot tub -- completely unaware of the hypocrisy inherent in that confession. And that's not even the worst of it. In the world of Hollowstone, it's commonplace for Music Theory teachers to make crude oral sex jokes about their female wind instrument players. If that statement was confusing to you, I must clarify: Yes, Upkins seems to be under the impression that Music Theory involves actually playing instruments. Many things in the world of Hollowstone do not work as they do in the real world. For further evidence, one needs only look to the courtroom scene at the end of the novel, in which the judge sees fit to overturn a jury's guilty verdict for no reason other than she felt like it. It's clear that Upkins cast a woman in the role of the judge for this very reason: Women are silly and irrational, after all. They can't see the evidence that's right in front of their noses. In short, if you're looking for a good piece of fiction, you have better options than Hollowstone. And if you're looking for a piece of terrible writing to make fun of, you still have better options than Hollowstone. Pass this one up if you know what's good for you.