Room with a Review: The Hollow Boy

The Hollow Boy by Jonathan Stroud

Title: The Hollow Boy

Author: Jonathan Stroud

Illustrator: Kate Adams

Month/Year Published:  September 2015

You May Know Him: As the author of the Bartimaeus series, which I've never read, btw!

You May Find Him: On tumblr or on twitter @jonathanastroud

The Delta/Plus: Lockwood & Co. are back in the third installment of creepy ghost hunting: The Hollow Boy. This time, the trio of Lucy, George and Anthony Lockwood are busier than ever thanks to their Agency's moderate successes. So scattered are they, in fact, that Lockwood decides to hire an assistant, Holly Munro, whose uber-efficiency and collectedness is of extreme annoyance to Lucy. When an extreme outbreak occurs in London, necessitating the talents (and rivalries) of multiple agencies, intrapersonal and interpersonal conflicts come to a head adding a rather personal twist to this book in the series.

I first discovered Lockwood & Co. last year when I happened to pick up a copy of the first book in the series, The Screaming Staircase, at our Scholastic book fair. I read it in no time, added it to my school library (K-5) and then snatched up The Whispering Skull (which introduced readers to one of my favorite characters, I should say) immediately. I love the setting of the Lockwood books: a London that is in the past (nah, too much technology), the present or the future? The reader's not quite sure. It's all at once modern and gothic, sleek and bedraggled.

For me The Hollow Boy progressed a bit more slowly the other books, but by the end, I was, as usual, completely creeped out and starting at the tiniest noise in the house. The cliffhanger confirmed my suspicions that The Hollow Boy is not the final book in the series, which leaves me with only one question: how long do we have to wait for book four?

{I purchased this book with my own funds.}