Thursday, January 28, 2016

Review: The Mystery of Hollow Places by Rebecca Podos

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22811780-the-mystery-of-hollow-places
The Mystery of Hollow Places
by Rebecca Podos
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Publication Date: January 26th 2016
Publisher: Balzer & Bray
Pages: 304
ISBN: 9780062373342
Genre: Young Adult | Contemporary | Mystery
Source: Edelweiss

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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 she was a baby, a woman who was always possessed by a powerful loneliness, a woman who many referred to as troubled waters.

When Imogene is seventeen, her father, now a famous author of medical mysteries, strikes out in the middle of the night and doesn'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. She decides to put to use the skills she's gleaned from a lifetime of her father's books to track down a woman she's never known, in order to find him and, perhaps, the answer to the question she's carried with her for her entire life.

Rebecca Podos' debut is a powerful, affecting story of the pieces of ourselves that remain mysteries even to us - the desperate search through empty spaces for something to hold on to. (Goodreads)

My Thoughts...

I was drawn to The Mystery of Hollow Places at first by its awesome cover, then for the fact that it was a mystery novel, which I've really started to enjoy a lot of lately. While I didn't love this book as much as I had hoped to, I did find it to be an interesting read, and the mysterious storyline kept me turning the pages.

Unfortunately I had a hard time connecting with the main character in the story, Imogene. While I sympathized with her for all that she had been through in the past, and everything she was going through in the present with her dad gone and all, I just couldn't form that connection with her. She made a lot of bad decisions throughout the story that had me shaking my head. Of course I would have wanted to know what was going on as well if I were in her position, but she totally should have gone about doing things a different way.

Imogene did, however, have a really great best friend, one that was always trying to help her, and who Imogene considered to be her only true friend. Jessa really made better decisions than Imogene did, and I was glad to have her in the story. There were some more interesting secondary characters in the story as well.

I did enjoy the mysterious storyline in the book, not only about her father just disappearing out of the blue and wondering where he went, but also the back-story Imogene's mom, who left when she was just a baby. Everything she'd ever been told about her mom, what little she actually had been told by her dad, was basically a lie. Finding out the truth about her mom was a little anticlimactic, but still interesting nonetheless.

Overall; While I didn't enjoy The Mystery of Hollow Places as much as I expected to, it was still an interesting story that I'm sure other people will really enjoy. I did enjoy the mystery and the writing style for the book, and I will definitely check out more by this author in the future.


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2 comments:

  1. It definitely sucks so bad when you can't connect to the main character. The plot could be pretty dumb, but if I liked the characters, I'd probably still like the book. Hooray for interesting secondary characters, though. Sorry you didn't enjoy this one as much as you expected. Great review!

    ~ Lefty @ The Left-Handed Book Lover

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  2. Lovely review!

    Though you didn't enjoy this one as you fully intend, glad that you still liked the mystery aspect of it. I remember seeing this one around and also being drawn in by the beautiful cover! I might have to pick it up when I can.

    Magen Corrie @ Corrie the Book Crazed Girl

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