Hollow by Taylor Grothe

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✦ BLURB ✦

When Cassie Davis returns to her hometown in upstate New York, she's eager to mask her new autism diagnosis from her old friends. The group take a backpacking trip together to Hollow Ridge to celebrate her homecoming, but after the first night, Cassie wakes to an abandoned campsite - her friends all gone.

With severe weather approaching, and nearing sensory overload, Cassie meets a boy named Kaleb, who leads her to safety, to a place he calls The Roost - an off-the-grid compound lived in by a group of artists and outcasts. There, with Kaleb, Cassie begins to feel, for the first time in her life, that she can truly be herself.

But as the days pass, strange things start happening. Crows surround them, there are odd noises... But are the dangers in the eerie forest that surrounds them, or inside the Roost itself?

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A searingly real story of autistic identity and belonging that morphs into a tense folk horror thriller in the woods.

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PRE-READING THOUGHTS

I went into Hollow drawn by its promise of a protagonist with an authentic autistic voice, navigating friendships, belonging, and self-acceptance. Add the whisper of supernatural folk horror, and I was curious to see how those threads would weave together.

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POST-READING

As I thought…
The portrayal of Cassie’s sensory overload and her inner world is sharp, immersive, and full of honesty. Those opening chapters are the strongest — I felt pulled into her perspective so vividly it was almost uncomfortable at times (in the best way).

It surprised me by…
The shift into folk horror. The eerie Roost, the crows, the isolating wilderness: it was atmospheric, but it felt like a hard pivot from the intimacy of the first act. I enjoyed both halves, but they didn’t always mesh — like two different books with the same protagonist.

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🎵 MUSIC PAIRING

• 🎵 Featured Song: “Climbing Up the Walls” by Radiohead — for the claustrophobic, haunted tone of the Roost.

• 🎶 Vibe Album: Hospice by The Antlers — an album that starts tender and spirals into haunting unease.

• 🎧 Artist Recommendation: Chelsea Wolfe — blending folk textures with eerie, doom-tinged atmospheres.

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🌈 VIBE CHECK

• Colour Palette: Silver-grey storm clouds, black feathers, autumn rust.

• Soundtrack: Crows cawing, branches cracking in the woods, and the uneasy quiet of too many people watching.

• Season: Late autumn, on the cusp of winter.

• Mood: Disoriented but searching for connection.

• Scent: Damp moss and campfire smoke clinging to clothes.

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🃏 TAROT PULL

From the Witch’s Cat Tarot, I drew the Apprentice of Paws (Page of Pentacles). A cloaked cat stirs a bubbling cauldron, surrounded by books and scrolls, carefully adding rosemary, basil, and dandelions - plants rich in symbolism of clarity, resilience, and balance. On the surface it looks sweet, but the bubbling pot hints at danger beneath the charm.

This reflects Cassie’s autistic journey: experimenting with how to live authentically, learning new ways of being, and balancing her inner world with the pressures of the outer one. Like the Apprentice, she’s mixing her own path, even if the process is precarious.

(And just as a note for readers: don’t be fooled by the Witch’s Cat’s cute art - the story, like this card, hides something much darker beneath its charm.)

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FOR FANS OF

• Book: Our Wives Under the Sea by Julia Armfield — eerie, slow-burn unease and fractured intimacy.

• TV/Movie: The Ritual (2017) — friends lost in the woods, facing more than just natural dangers.

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HOLLOW publishes on the 30th September, 2025. I received a free copy and am giving an honest review.