The Mystery of Hollow Places by Rebecca Podos

3.50/5.00

Published: January 2016

Genres: Contemporary, Mystery, YA

It started with a magical story that tangled me into itself, but as the book progressed, some of that magic faded and its roots loosened their grip.

The Mystery of Hollow Places is not an overly dramatic book, where you can feel the author pulling at strings and manipulating more than telling the story to drag emotion out of you. It is a book about a girl named Imogene searching for her missing, medical-mystery-writing father and piecing together her past in the process.

I like Podos’s writing style. It’s pretty but not over the top and pretentious.

Despite what some other reviews have said, I liked Imogene’s friendship with Jessa. Some people have said she just falls into the stereotypically shallow, vapid, sexed-up friend category, but I didn’t get that vibe.

Did I just use the word 'vibe' unironically? 

Yes, it was mentioned several times that Jessa is beautiful, but she wasn’t just used as a stage prop to make Imogene look better.

I was impressed with how Podos handled Imogene’s crush on Jessa’s brother. In another writer’s hands, it could have dominated the story and twisted it into a mawkish romance, which would have degraded it at least a star. The Mystery of Hollow Places explores more than just the romance angle, including good female relationships and a (somewhat) more realistic portrayal of teenagers solving a mystery.

It isn’t an earth-shattering piece of literature that an English professor years from now will discuss for a few classes, but it was entertaining and I see nothing wrong in that.

Rebecca Podos is currently working on Like Water, a contemporary, LGBTQ book about a girl named Savannah who leaves home and the fear of inheriting a genetic illness. It’s set to be published in fall 2017.