May 2021 debut author. Genius. Suitable for young adults.
Updated: Dec 10, 2021
The Hollow Inside
By Brooke Lauren Davis
Phoenix has been following her mom, Nina, for years through America’s forgotten towns and cities. The mother-daughter duo survives by being so discreet that their epic crime spree of burglary and shoplifting goes unnoticed. The pair get so good at breaking the law that they decide it’s finally time to return to the town where Nina’s life was destroyed so many years ago. Their biggest problem is that Phoenix accidentally falls into the lives of the people they’re trying to ruin only minutes after she’s thrown out of Nina’s car. Discretion is impossible, and failure will not be tolerated in this genius young adult debut.
Davis is a new author, first published in May 2021, and The Hollow Inside is a brilliant foundation for a career. I’ll be grabbing a copy of absolutely anything else Davis writes. The narrative is rapid and captivating, with elements of family drama that are joyous and miserable. The twists that punctuate every chapter are witty and developed even though the novel has been crafted to remove unnecessary fluff. It’s all gold, no filler.
This is a great book for adults and teenagers with some mild violence and romance. My family used to listen to audiobooks in the car while mum drove us to school, and this is exactly the kind of novel that we would all enjoy.
