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Hollow Kingdom
352 pages
A foul-mouthed, Cheeto-loving crow navigates the zombie apocalypse in a hilarious and surprisingly moving love letter to humanity's beautiful mess.
What it feels like
Reading this book feels like riding a shopping cart down a steep hill during the end of the world: chaotic, terrifying, and wildly exhilarating. The narrative is driven by a brilliantly profane and fiercely loyal crow whose observations of the zombie apocalypse are equal parts hilarious and heartbreaking. The prose crackles with crass humor and pop-culture riffs, yet it frequently catches you off guard with moments of stunning, lyrical beauty about the natural world reclaiming its space. It is a brisk, bizarrely uplifting journey through the ruins of Seattle that balances gross-out body horror with profound emotional warmth. This is a perfect read for anyone who loves dark comedy, animal perspectives, and stories that find hope and heart in the weirdest corners of the apocalypse.
- Mood
- chaotic
- absurd
- gritty
- bizarrely uplifting
- Tone
- irreverent
- foul-mouthed
- satirical
- poignant
- earnest
- Pace
- brisk
- Themes
- animal consciousness · environmental reclamation · found family · the beauty of human flaws · loyalty and survival
- The writing
- Energetic and highly observant, blending crass, pop-culture-laden humor with sudden bursts of lyrical nature writing.
- The arc
- Moves from hilarious, confused denial through chaotic survival to a surprisingly profound and bittersweet acceptance of a wild new world.
- Who it's for
- Readers who love dark comedy, unique animal perspectives, and apocalyptic fiction that leans into absurdity and heart rather than pure bleakness.
Content notes
- gore and body horror
- animal death
- profanity
- apocalyptic themes
- zombie violence
About the book
S.T., a domesticated crow, is a bird of simple pleasures: hanging out with his owner Big Jim, trading insults with Seattle's wild crows (those idiots), and enjoying the finest food humankind has to offer: Cheetos ℗ʼ.Then Big Jim's eyeball falls out of his head, and S.T. starts to feel like something isn't quite right. His most tried-and-true remedies--from beak-delivered beer to the slobbering affection of Big Jim's loyal but dim-witted dog, Dennis--fail to cure Big Jim's debilitating malady. S.T. is left with no choice but to abandon his old life and venture out into a wild and frightening new world with his trusty steed Dennis, where he discovers that the neighbors are devouring each other and the local wildlife is abuzz with rumors of dangerous new predators roaming Seattle. Humanity's extinction has seemingly arrived, and the only one determined to save it is a foul-mouthed crow whose knowledge of the world around him comes from his TV-watching education.
Description from Open Library.
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