Synopsis (via Goodreads): All Imogene Scott knows of her mother is the bedtime story her father told her as a child. It's the story of how her parents met: he, a forensic pathologist, she, a mysterious woman who came to identify a body. A woman who left Imogene and her father when she was a baby, a woman who was always possessed by a powerful loneliness, a woman who many referred to as troubled waters.When Imogene is seventeen, her father, now a famous author of medical mysteries, strikes out in the middle of the night and doesn't come back. Neither Imogene's stepmother nor the police know where he could've gone, but Imogene is convinced he's looking for her mother. She decides to put to use the skills she's gleaned from a lifetime of her father's books to track down a woman she's never known, in order to find him and, perhaps, the answer to the question she's carried with her for her entire life.
Rebecca Podos' debut is a powerful, affecting story of the pieces of ourselves that remain mysteries even to us - the desperate search through empty spaces for something to hold on to.
Author: Rebecca Podos
Publisher: Balzer and Bray
Release Date: January 26th, 2016
Genre: Young Adult, Mystery, Contemporary
This is another book that tackles important topics well. It gives us a glimpse of mental illness and shows us the impact of a broken family to an impressionable child. Being someone who has never experienced any of these things, I thought I would find it hard to empathize with this character, but it was surprisingly easier than I thought. I don't think I will ever be able to completely get everything that Imogene is feeling, but I feel as if I understand at least a little bit more now that I've read this. A large contributor to my being able to empathize with Imogene was that the story portrayed her not only as a girl in search for her mother but also as a troubled high school student who had a lot on her plate.
It took me quite some time to get into this book since I always seem to have troubles getting into a story and for some reason, I had even more trouble getting myself invested in this book. Even so, I had a feeling that this would be a good book, and I'm glad I continued to read it. As I read more of the book, I realized that I really appreciated the way Rebecca Podos wrote. Her writing is beautiful and has depth to it. It truly seems like you have a work of art in your hands. It's clear and doesn't have something extremely different about it, but at the same time, it has this complexity to it that really hits you. I can say with full conviction that the author really does know how to use her words to create the effect and tone she wants to achieve.
The Mystery of Hollow Places gives a great portrayal of relationships, not just within the family, but also between contrasting yet complementing friends. I found it fascinating how she could write about these relationships so well, letting the readers feel everything deeply and getting all the points across. She writes about good people who have their flaws and are growing in many ways.
If I have one thing I would say against this book, it's that I felt like it needed a little more. The build-up was excellent, but the ending seemed a little lackluster. It was not a bad ending, far from it, but with the writing skill shown in the entire book, I believe she could have made it more impactful than it was. Even so, it was an excellent novel that was beautifully written, and I would highly recommend it. :)
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