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Book Reviewed by:From acclaimed author K. Ancrum comes a queer romantic thriller in which the lives of Hollis, a boy in search of meaning, and Walt, a spirit with unfinished business, collide when Walt takes possession of Hollis's body...and maybe his heart. For fans of Adam Silvera and Aiden Thomas!
Hollis Brown is stuck. Born to a blue-collar American Dream, Hollis lives in a rotting small town where no one can afford to leave. Hollis's only bright spots are his two best friends, cool girls Annie and Yulia, and the thrill of fighting his classmates.
As if his circumstances couldn't get worse, a chance encounter with a mysterious stranger named Walt results in a frightening trap. After unknowingly making a deal at the crossroads, Hollis finds himself losing control of his body and mind, falling victim to possession. Walt, the ghost making a home inside him, has a deep and violent history rooted in the town Hollis grew up in and he has unfinished business to take care of.
As Walt and Hollis begin working together to put Walt's spirit to rest, an unspeakable bond forms between them, and the boys begin falling for one another in unexpected ways. But it's only a matter of time before Hollis's best friends begin to notice that something about Hollis isn't quite…right.
With the threat of a long-overdue exorcism looming before them, will Walt and Hollis be able to protect their love and undo the curse that turned their town from a garden of possibility into a place where dreams go to die?
Hollis
Hollis always grinned when this happened. He couldn't help it.
The aftermath wasn't his favorite, for obvious reasons. But this? The way James's knuckles felt as they slammed into his gut?
It made him clench his teeth.
Hollis was good at dodging—adrenaline always slowed down time, so he had the leisure of watching punches slice through the air. Hollis had taken enough hits in his life that he'd gotten good at making them miss. It wasn't like James was a slouch at this though; he was a haymaker for sure.
James's face twisted with rage, eyes darkening. The corners of Hollis's mouth ticked up.
Most of the time, when people fought Hollis, they were yelling at him too. But James was silent as he slammed his fist, sharp and violent, under Hollis's chin, cutting Hollis's smirk off. His head was still tilted, face warming in the midday sun, when James backhanded Hollis hard enough that his shoulder met pavement.
It felt real good to lie there for a minute.
James didn't even give him a ...
The Corruption of Hollis Brown is not so much a genuinely scary story as one that uses elements of horror and the supernatural to paint an enhanced portrait of life for young rural people abandoned by the contemporary world. The harshness of the setting easily blends with adolescent angst. Despite its relative lack of description, the book leaves the reader with the impression of a delicate series of images. It is romantic in nearly every sense of the word, and buzzes with understated drama. With lessons to impart about queerness, family, masculinity, community, and baked goods, it pulls social commentary and history into the sweet, bold story of a boy and his loved ones...continued
Full Review
(691 words)
(Reviewed by Elisabeth Cook).
In The Corruption of Hollis Brown by K. Ancrum, Walt, a ghost who was born in approximately 1916, shares a body with Hollis, a teenage boy he possesses in order to survive. As the two are still working out how to exist as one person, communicating through their shared mind with tensions and resentments lingering between them, Walt peers into Hollis's family's pantry and becomes emotional. Spotting a jar of pickled asparagus, he asks Hollis, "You're still doing this here…?" Noticing his dismay, Hollis replies, "Don't worry. Along with Little House on the Prairie, I've also read The Jungle. You can close the pantry and walk away if it's too traumatizing for you to look at." "You don't know what it was like," Walt tells him. "If you did,...
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