Hollow Pike [Paperback]

Lis has moved to live with her sister Sarah to get away from the bullies who were making her life a misery. All she wants is a fresh start somewhere that she will be accepted for who she is and where she won't be tormented daily. When she is befriended by the popular crowd on her first day it looks like she has found what she always dreamt of but the more she gets to know Laura and her crowd of groupies the less she likes what she sees. Is is really worth being part of Laura's gang if it is at the expense of others? Getting to know the school outcasts Kitty, Delilah and Jack she starts to question everything. Then after a prank goes wrong and Laura's body is discovered in the woods Lis finds herself in more danger than she could ever have imagined.

I have been waiting to get my hands on Hollow Pike since the cover was revealed at the Orion Indigo event last year - it was one of my most anticipated novels of 2012! I fell in love with the cover but it was James Dawson's atmospheric writing that really pulled me into the story and kept me turning the pages.

The story is actually less about the supernatural than I expected it to be but that isn't a negative - it just surprised me. The focus is more on the effects of bullying which is such an important subject and made for a really interesting story. As someone who suffered from constant teasing throughout school this is the kind of book I wish I'd had access to as a teen. Even as an adult I connected with Lis, I was reminded of just how I felt at school and I had the satisfaction of seeing Lis stand up for herself in a way I only wish I could have done myself! If you know a teen who is suffering from bullying you should buy them this book immediately. In fact I think you should buy it for any teen as it will hopefully make them think about their actions before they become a bully themselves. I really enjoyed watching Lis trying to find a place for herself in her new school, she slowly starts to realise that in order to be happy you have to be true to yourself no matter what anyone else thinks of you.

Alongside the themes of bullying you also have a creepy and chilling murder mystery to solve. The descriptions of the woods, the mysterious birds that seem to be following Lis and the nightmares that are haunting her all created a spooky feel to the story that had me on the edge of my seat. Hollow Pike is a great debut and I'm looking forward to seeing what James Dawson comes up with next.

I'm not a 15-year-old girl. While reading Hollow Pike, however, I tried to get into the mindset of a female adolescent, as that was the only way I could give the book a fair review. This was more than a little scary, as I had witnessed Sonny Crockett going deep undercover in the original TV series of Miami Vice, then being unable to return to his true self. What if the same thing happened to me? How would a teen girl's personality trapped in the body of a big, hairy Scotsman manifest itself? Well, if Hollow Pike is accurate, I'd accompany every verb with an adverb, I'd describe possible things as impossible (impossible eyes, impossibly long legs, and so on), I'd consider people my best friends two days after meeting them, and I'd be forever doomed to exclaim, "OMG!" when encountering anything at all. I took the risk, though. Embracing my inner teenage girl, I dived headlong into the OMG-fest.

Aimed primarily at teenage girls, Hollow Pike is a coming-of-age story. The main character, fifteen-year-old Lis London, moves from Wales to northern England in order to escape a campaign of bullying at school. The proverbial fish out of water in her new surroundings, Lis becomes plagued by recurring nightmares in which her face is held beneath the surface of a forest stream. OMG! Nightmares! She meets three new friends - Kitty, Delilah and Jack - who are part of the so-uncool-they-must-be-cool crowd. OMG! BFF! Lis discovers that Delilah and Kitty are lesbian lovers. OMG! Teenage lesbos! The ultimate outsiders! And if you're thinking things couldn't get any more nonconformist, you'd be wrong...Jack's sexuality is ambiguous. OMG! A homosexual, bisexual or possibly asexual boy! What is this Hollow Pike place? A modern-day Sodom in rural England? Being more traditional in her sexual predilections, Lis falls for former-fat-kid-turned-rugby-player Danny. OMG! Romance! Lis's flirtations with Danny don't go unnoticed by the beautiful and popular Laura, who has her own designs on him. Laura's bitchiness towards Lis drives the new girl further into the comfortable solace of her new friends. For a joke one afternoon, they plot Laura's murder. OMFG! Pretend ritualistic killing! Lis hears rumours that witches were once killed in Hollow Pike's woods. In a local charity shop, she finds an old book that confirms the town's dark past. OMG! Witchery and sacrifice! Right here in Hollow Pike! Lis lures Laura into Hollow Pike copse, where Kitty, Delilah and Jack are hiding, dressed in hooded-monk robes. Their plan to scare the bejeesus out of Laura works well. She flees screaming into the depths of the woods, where she is killed for real. OMFG! Actual murder! Wracked by guilt over leading Laura into the woods, Lis soon realises that she has more to worry about: she may be next on the killer's list. To give away too much more of the plot would spoil any surprises. The events that follow Laura's death involve schoolteachers with shadowy secrets, ancient sects driven by religious dogma, eccentric old budgie-keeping witches and...of course...teenage lesbians! OMG! PMPWE! (Peeing My Pants with Excitement.)

So let's ask the important questions to determine the book's literary worth. Do we first meet the heroine in her ordinary world, then travel with her on a journey into new places and experiences? Yes, and the author does an excellent job of this. Does the story communicate that there's more to life than having a boyfriend (or girlfriend, if you happen to be a teenage lesbian)? Yes, but not convincingly. Does the author describe the subject matter (witchcraft, secret sects, ritual killing) with an adeptness that shows knowledge of those topics? No, not even close. Does the main character learn the importance of facing her fears (rather than running away from them, as she did at the beginning of the book)? Yes, and this seems to be the central theme of the novel; an admirable theme it is too. Is there an overriding moral to the tale? From what I can gather, it's either 'lesbians have more fun' or 'trust your inner voice and have courage in the face of adversity'.

Hollow Pike is a decent story with a wee bit of originality. If the author had edited out 95% of the book's adverbs, I might have awarded it four stars. Being bombarded by adverb after adverb is not only irritating, but also a sure sign of lazy writing. Constructive criticism from a stickler: choosing a strong verb removes the need for an adverb. Peppering a story with adverbs reduces its readability. All things considered, I'd give Hollow Pike 3.5 stars if Amazon allowed half points.

Lis London has moved to the historic, and rather eerie village of Hollow Pike. She's determined to make a new start, and that means leading a normal school life and actually making friends. As Lis comes to terms with Fulton High's social pecking order, things seem to go well, she's even get's in with the popular crowd.

But this happiness isn't set to last. Lis is plagued with night terrors and horrific visions of death naturally preventing her from sleep but combining with managing to invoke the wrath of Queen Bee, Laura, leads to life in Hollow Pike taking a downward spiral. Lis' only solace comes from the school's so called Freaks `n' Geeks. Yet, Lis and her friends can only take so much; they come up with a plan which will see Laura get a taste of her own medicine. But sometimes pranks can go too far...they can even be fatal.

On the surface Hollow Pike is a High School `whodunnit' with a healthy dose of the supernatural. This certainly isn't a new concept; Pretty Little Liars, Mean Girls and The Craft all come to mind with this book. The novel could be in danger of being the fawning British sibling - trying too hard to be American cool. However, Dawson soon finds his stride, writing a novel with it's own identity and a story which succeeds in thoroughly creeping out the reader and sucking them into an unnerving mystery.

I think the story's ultimate strength comes from Dawson's ability to intuitively recapture the anxieties of being a teenager. We're not talking bad skin, or knickers tucked into pants. He drags up the harsh realities of having all those hormones packed into one small space. Bullying - and perhaps crucially the more sinister and psychological effects of girl cruelty, is not shied from here. In Lis we find a character with whom it's impossible not to empathise or at least sympathise.

The supernatural mystery which pads the story, of course, makes this a more enjoyable read. Dawson has to be congratulated, however, on creating a novel which isn't one of just superficial scares and twists, but goes some way into exposing, and actually reminding us older readers, that sometimes life's horrors come from the places that are considered most safe.
OH, and it's a ruddy fantastic cover!