Hollow Kingdom

The zombie apocalypse from the animal's point of view.

The setting is in Seattle and the main character is Shit Turd aka ST a crow raised by a human.

I enjoyed this book and also how the author weaved the science of animal behavior (and plant intelligence) into this novel. Cleavrly done.

I'll be reading volume 2.

So I had this book as an ARC back in 2019, but I put it aside, unable to push through the darker apocalyptic setting. Thanks to a prompt on my reading challenge AND a prompt on a readathon (to finish a book you DNFed), I picked it back up. It's very well-written, hilarious, but also still a little soul-crushing. The first half of the book was my favorite, while the last half was a little harder to get through. The ending was great, though! I just wish there had been more cats in the story. I'm convinced they could have gotten things done. Ha! And I don't think I'll ever look at a crow the same way.

#popsugarreadingchallenge2023 (advanced prompt #6 - A book with a pet character)


****

Original review - DNF 8/2019

I was provided an advance copy of this novel from the publisher through Netgalley.

I firmly believe this was a case of it's not you, it's me. There's nothing wrong with this novel. It's timely, witty, well-written. But I just couldn't get into it. It sent me straight into a hit-the-brakes, full-on reader's slump. I just didn't want to pick it up. Maybe the concept was too real for me in the current climate?? Everything is too depressing and I'm just not ready to laugh about it yet. I'm hoping I'll want to pick it up again later on down the road. It very much reminded me of [b:Warm Bodies|15842439|Warm Bodies (Warm Bodies, #1)|Isaac Marion|https:i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1394072655l/15842439._SY75_.jpg|10090210] which I loved, but had more of a feeling of hope for human kind. So don't let me dissuade you. If this is your typical genre, pick it up and give it a try!

I loved the stroy premise of this book from just the summary and the story really held up to my expectations! The writing was a bit wordy at times but I fell in love with multiple characters through out. I laughed, I cried. Overall, great book!

Everything about this was amazing.

Redeeming point is the characters, but some of the choices the author made, like the humans becoming zombies because of phones, felt a little patronizing. Good in the beginning, but once you get to the phones, you’ll feel yourself slipping.