The Hollow Gods - The Chaos Cycle 1
Formats: E-Book, Audio, Paperback, Hardback
Ages: 18+
Black Hollow is a town with a dark secret.
For centuries, residents have foretold the return of the Dreamwalker--an ominous figure from local folklore said to lure young women into the woods and possess them. Yet the boundary between fact and fable is blurred by a troubling statistic: occasionally, women do go missing. And after they return, they almost always end up dead.
When Kai wakes up next to the lifeless body of a recently missing girl, his memory blank, he struggles to clear his already threadbare conscience.
Miya, a floundering university student, experiences signs that she may be the Dreamwalker's next victim. Can she trust Kai as their paths collide, or does he herald her demise?
And after losing a young patient, crestfallen oncologist, Mason, embarks on a quest to debunk the town's superstitions, only to find his sanity tested.
A maelstrom of ancient grudges, forgotten traumas, and deadly secrets loom in the foggy forests of Black Hollow. Can three unlikely heroes put aside their fears and unite to confront a centuries-old evil? Will they uncover the truth behind the fable, or will the cycle repeat?
Reviews
Vrana’s dark, folklore-infused debut, the first of a duology, introduces readers to the residents of Black Hollow, who hold their daughters close and their twisted secrets closer. The town’s girls frequently go missing in the surrounding forest on the outskirts of British Columbia, only to return with no memory and die shortly thereafter, feeding local folklore about “dreamwalkers” in the trees. Floundering Black Hollow college student Emiliya “Miya” Delathorne once rescued one of the missing girls, and is haunted by the memory. When she meets Kai Donovan, he seems eerily familiar. Kai tells Miya about his disturbing tendency to wake up next to the dead girls with no recollection of how he got there. Despite this chilling disclosure, Miya is drawn to Kai and intrinsically trusts that he won’t hurt her. Meanwhile, oncology resident Mason Evans seeks refuge in Black Hollow on the recommendation of his hospital’s psych department following a patient’s traumatic death, and becomes fascinated by the town’s dreamwalker rumors. These three hapless players in Black Hollow’s cycle of malice slowly uncover the extent of the town’s evil. Vrana crafts a unique local mythology and draws from existing werewolf lore to create a sense of creeping dread.
