“When the spirit of a species leaves us, it doesn’t go easily.” (The story is also speckled with Seattle landmarks, pop culture references, and some really interesting animal biases. Along the way, S.T., Dennis, and a series of pawed, clawed, and tentacled companions come to rediscover a much-changed Seattle, one where the natural order of things has broken free of humanity’s shackles: zoo animals bring the wild to pets who’ve escaped alive the trees speak with renewed voices ( “Life is not the same once you’ve learned just how deeply a tree can feel.”) and we witness firsthand both the glorious and the gory of what happens when Mother Nature is free to flourish without interference. must accept and come to know the part of himself that he has long ignored-the fact that he is a wild-thing himself-and shake free the “clipped wings” of his life as a pet to find his place in a very different new world. and his canine companion-a dosey bloodhound by the name of Dennis-must venture out into the wild unknown when their owner, Big Jim, succumbs to the technology-induced plague that has wiped out humans. In Kira Jane Buxton’s debut novel it is animals who are left to remind us about the beauty of a world without the (often disastrous) impact of mankind. Narrated primary by S.T., a domesticated crow who’s simultaneously naïve about humans and in possession of a brutal sense of humor about them. The Hollow Kingdom tells the story of a zombie apocalypse (think The Walking Dead, or, perhaps more aptly, 28 Days Later) from the perspective of those left behind-this time not of human survivors, but of animals-wild and domesticated alike-who once again have the chance to thrive…if they can survive the wake of what humanity has left behind. When the end of the world is here, turn to a crow.

Hollow kingdom book review