Hollowmarch by C.C. Knight Review: The Horror Book That Converted a Non-Horror Reader

Read time: 5 minutes

📚 Read as a book | 📃 391 pages | Genre: Horror
🏷️ Publisher name: Independently published

Book Blurb:

Rewind Video should’ve died with the rest of Briar Glen’s strip mall. Instead, Eli Mercer’s closing shift runs very long when an unlabeled VHS tape turns up in the returns bin and a man crawls out of the television wearing borrowed footage. The exit stops cooperating too. Eli and his best friend Cal end up somewhere no map admits exists: Hollowmarch, reached only through a black tape that rewrites itself every time it plays. Their guide is Mae, a glitter-streaked survivor with a judgmental pet fox and zero patience for dying dramatically, as they move through cursed woods, a camp that manufactures its own sunrise, and a mining town with a mascot that wants to be friends forever.

Let’s talk about the book:

Let me start with saying this. The book was written WITH THE HELP OF AI, and not entirely by AI. There’s a difference. When an author uses AI to support their work, it’s still original human-written fiction. I will fight this battle to my grave that AI is the future and just because an author has used AI doesn’t classify their work as any less original than the ones who write stories without AI at all. More power to them, but discarding an upcoming technology and shaming authors for using an available technology doesn’t help anyone. There might be multiple reasons why someone uses AI. English might not be their first language, or they have a story to tell but aren’t able to communicate it properly, or they’re on the spectrum, or they just want to make their work better, or any multitude of reasons. I strongly believe in “to each their own,” and just because an author has used AI, I will not stop reading their work.

Ok now that my rant is done, I have to talk about this book because wow, was I surprised! C.C. Knight reached out to me with this book and my first instinct was to say no. I don’t read horror and I didn’t want to be unfair in my assessment. But Knight insisted, and I gave it a conditional approval. Gosh, was I glad I accepted it.

This is not like the usual horror books (here I am assuming, as again, I don’t read horror) with gore or visual descriptions that would make me uncomfortable. The story is about being trapped in an alternate reality and the rush to escape. The horror is more like IT or The Nun. Still not technically my genre, and I did get scared enough that this book was read only during bright daylight, but it really did leave an impact. Scary yes, but vividly imaginative descriptions. It was very easy to visualize what was happening in the story. I would highly recommend it to those who love the horror genre.

Would I recommend it?

Would I recommend Hollowmarch? Absolutely, and I don’t even read horror. C.C. Knight took a genre I actively avoid and made me finish this 391-page book with the lights on and the sun very much up… that’s how you know it worked. Mark your calendar for July 26th, because this one deserves a spot on your TBR the second it releases. The visuals stuck with me for days. Do I regret reading it in broad daylight only? Not even a little.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

5 Book Recommendations

• The Hollow Places by T. Kingfisher — If Hollowmarch’s slide into an alternate reality got under your skin, this one does the same trick through a hole in a museum wall, with the same “vividly imaginative but not gratuitous” scare level.

Indiebookstores.ca | Bookshop.org | Goodreads | StoryGraph | Pagebound | Fable | Hardcover | Booktrovert | OpenLibrary | Litsy

• We Used to Live Here by Marcus Kliewer — Literally name-dropped in Hollowmarch’s own blurb comps, and for good reason. Same creeping dread, same sense that the house (or the tape) is studying you back.

Indiebookstores.ca | Bookshop.org | Goodreads | StoryGraph | Pagebound | Fable | Hardcover | Booktrovert | OpenLibrary | Litsy

• Ring by Koji Suzuki — The original cursed-tape horror. If Hollowmarch’s VHS angle hooked you, this is where the whole “watch this and something comes for you” idea started.

Indiebookstores.ca | Bookshop.org | Goodreads | StoryGraph | Pagebound | Fable | Hardcover | Booktrovert | OpenLibrary | Litsy

• My Best Friend’s Exorcism by Grady Hendrix — Another author comped directly in Hollowmarch’s blurb. Same nostalgia-soaked, found-footage-era horror with real heart underneath the scares.

Indiebookstores.ca | Bookshop.org | Goodreads | StoryGraph | Pagebound | Fable | Hardcover | Booktrovert | OpenLibrary | Litsy

• House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski — For readers who want the “something behind the footage is editing your reality” feeling taken even further. Light on gore, heavy on the kind of dread that gets in your head.

Indiebookstores.ca | Bookshop.org | Goodreads | StoryGraph | Pagebound | Fable | Hardcover | Booktrovert | OpenLibrary | Litsy

What Do You Think Would Happen If You Pressed Play?

That’s the question I couldn’t shake after finishing this one. Have you ever picked up a book outside your usual genre and been completely floored? Drop it in the comments, I want to know what converted you.

Book Links

Want to purchase this or any of your favorite books while supporting a local bookstore? Consider purchasing using the sites below. These sites work with independent local bookstore owners to fulfill your book orders. #SupportLocal

Goodreads | StoryGraph | Pagebound | Hardcover | Booktrovert
Follow C.C. Knight for the latest news and new releases