Hollowed

A Sleepy Hollow Reimagining

By: Jessica S. Taylor

Narrated by: Zura Johnson

Length: 12 hrs and 40 mins

Publisher's summary

Sleepy Hollow is crumbling. To protect the supernatural town from the mundane world, each year a resident is sacrificed to the Dullahan, the Headless Horseman that protects the veil around the Hollow.

Nineteen-year-old Katrina van Tassel knows she’s a disappointment to her parents, for more reasons than one. But as the only daughter of the most prominent family in Sleepy Hollow, she never imagined that she would be chosen as the next sacrifice. Or that in her attempt to escape, she would instead come face to face with the Horseman himself.

But the harbinger of death isn’t who they said he was, and Katrina begins to question everything she has ever been told. Evil forces far more dangerous than the mysterious Horseman are at work in the Hollow, and the Horseman is determined to protect Sleepy Hollow.

Katrina is tempted to take the Horseman’s offer of assistance in fleeing Sleepy Hollow, rather than staying to fight by his side to save the town. Until he reveals she’s the only one with the power to stop the evil being summoned…

A standalone gothic fantasy, Hollowed will pull you into the reimagined world of Sleepy Hollow and thrust you into a mysterious town filled with deadly magic, cunning betrayals, and secrets you never saw coming. Cross the bridge into the Hollow and pick up your next dark fantasy.

©2023 Jessica S. Taylor (P)2024 Dreamscape Media

What can I say?

This book is very hard to come to terms with. To be fair, the story was good and everything up to about the final fourth? of the book was an interesting twist on the Legend of Sleepy Hallow, at least what little I know of the actual tale. As I don't know the actual story written by Irving, I can't say how far and away this story was and it did feel more like a "what if" kind of scenario, but that seems to be what's popular and as long as it's well written I find nothing wrong with that.
I did have to listen to the audio book at either 1.2x or 1.5x though because the narrator was a little slow at normal speed, but that could easily be because it wasn't paced right during the publication, or I just have taken a liking for slightly faster narrations. Either way, that was also good.
The only real thing I can say I didn't like about this book (and why I can't give the story that final star) is because it was just slightly repetitive with character's inner monologues (kind of like both were written and the author forgot to go back and choose one though it didn't really break with the flow so it wasn't horrible) and the fact that the final "baddie", to keep from spoiling everything, was an all encompassing primordial being that really shouldn't have been a "bad guy" to begin with. I feel a different being could have been invoked in that position and it would have made more sense and made me less incensed.
But, all's well that ends well and all that so take a listen to this and make up your own opinion.

Fresh spin on an original

Nice spooky season read with some original content and a steamy new twist. Katrina is the character you love to hate but she is more frustrating in this retelling and the horseman is a twist. The story is fresh with some steam, HEA, and a little gore. Overall really good.

I liked the idea of a new story of sleepy hollow.

I did not like the main character, I don’t like stories about helpless women needing a man to save her.

great remaining of a classic story

I really enjoyed so much of this story, but the "woe is me I'm useless" attitude of Katrina got really hard to endure after about a third of the book. with the exception of the worthless self view if her though, it was a fantastic story and great concept. I might just be hyper critical, but I'm tired of the "hero has no self worth" trope. it didn't really add to the story, which was fantastic.

a compelling story and performance

I really enjoyed this Sleepy Hollow inspired tale and it's narration. The mystery began early and kept me riveted to the story while more layers were introduced.

What a great remake

I love the way this book is read,
I would kill for a second book ☺️

Got Tired of the Main Character

I liked the idea of a story about Sleep Hollow and the Headless Horseman, but this one ended up being a bit of a letdown. It seemed like the story could have been told is pretty much the exact same way without Sleepy Hollow or the "Headless Horseman." It's almost a gimmick to have those name be a part of this story.

However, the biggest let down is the main character, Katrina. She constantly doubts herself, but not in an interesting way, she just is always thinking that no one likes her and she is not worthy of friendship of love. It started to become more of an annoying trait than something to sympathize. It's hard to admire a heroine who is in constant need of rescue and assurance and can't seem to do anything without the help of a man.

It got tiring how many times she was asked if she was okay and how many times the guy grabbed her face to force her to look up at him.

However, the story itself was intriguing enough to keep me listing to the end, despite my annoyance with Katrina.

Great world building, but rushed ending.

I enjoyed the world building in this story, it was done pretty seamlessly, with few plot holes. The narration was well done, and fit in well with the character and storyline. My only complaint is that the story seemed very rushed towards the end. There is a slight twist to the story that I wished was explored further. I really think this would have been better if it was a two part series instead of everything crammed into one book. but, overall it was good and I don't feel as though I wasted a credit.

unique take on the Headless Horseman

like the headless horseman dislike. dislike the that the story felt rushed. the character that turn bad finding out was so boring and she died so quickly. the love story between Alex the Headless Horseman and main character was rushed and not developed fully. the story was rushed, the story could have added at least 2 to 3 more hours for characters developed and story long written better

Decent reimagining

Don't really expect anything Sleepy Hollow or Headless Horseman out of this other than the labels/names.