The Hollow City [Hardcover]

Dan Wells (Author)

Book Description

Release date: July 3, 2012

Dan Wells won instant acclaim for his three-novel debut about the adventures of John Wayne Cleaver, a heroic young man who is a potential serial killer. All who read the trilogy were struck by the distinctive and believable voice Wells created for John.

Now he returns with another innovative thriller told in a very different, equally unique voice. A voice that comes to us from the  realm of madness.

Michael Shipman is paranoid schizophrenic; he suffers from hallucinations, delusions, and complex fantasies of persecution and horror. That’s bad enough. But what can he do if some of the monsters he sees turn out to be real?

Who can you trust if you can't even trust yourself? The Hollow City is a mesmerizing journey into madness, where the greatest enemy of all is your own mind.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Praise for I Am Not a Serial Killer:

“The beauty of the prose, mixed with the depth of characterization, gave the haunting, first person narrative a human touch…."
—Brandon Sanderson, New York Times bestselling author

“This dazzling, unput-downable debut novel proves beyond a doubt that Dan Wells has the gift."
—F. Paul Wilson on I Am Not a Serial Killer

“Brilliant! Full of unforgettable characters, creepy thrills, and dangerous twists you won’t see coming.”
—Jonathan Maberry, New York Times bestselling author on I Don’t Want to Kill You

“Fans of Jeff Lindsay’s Dexter series will welcome Wells’s gripping debut.”
—Publishers Weekly on I Am Not a Serial Killer

About the Author

DAN WELLS lives in Orem, Utah, with his wife, Dawn, and four young children.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 336 pages
• Publisher: Tor Books; First Edition edition (July 3, 2012)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0765331705
• ISBN-13: 978-0765331700
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.4 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (22 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #402,407 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Dan Wells is the author of several novels for adults, including I AM NOT A SERIAL KILLER, MR. MONSTER, and I DON'T WANT TO KILL YOU. PARTIALS is his first book for young adults. He lives in Utah with his wife and children. You can visit him online at www.fearfulsymmetry.net

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A showcase of what Wells does best - torturing awesome characters psychologically. July 29, 2012

By Ryan

Format:Kindle Edition

I'm a big fan of Dan Wells. I loved the John Cleaver series for all its psychological terrorising, and while I enjoyed Partials, I actually missed having Wells play with my mind. So when I heard that Wells was returning to supernatural psychological thrillers with The Hollow City I became very excited and set aside a bunch of time to make this book a priority. And I'm glad that I did - The Hollow City lived up to my expectations, bending my perception of reality to the point where I could never be sure of what was real and what was a hallucination.

The story follows Michael Shipman, a man with a history of mental health issues who was found huddling under a bridge. His delusions have progressed past what is manageable and his psychiatrist has not choice but to upgrade his condition from anxiety to schizophrenia and put him in the care of the local mental hospital. To top it all off, there is a serial killer on the loose and all the victims are connected to Michael in some way, shape or form. Not a good day for Michael. The problem for Michael is that while many of the monsters he sees are just a symptom of his condition, some of the monsters he sees are real, and they have a plan.

This is a pretty cool story, a reasonably simple story, but one that relies on the unreliability of the main character to add in the layers of complexity. The plot is not the driver in this story, sitting itself firmly in backseat while the focus is put on Michael and his struggle to determine what is real and what isn't. There is a really cool supernatural conspiracy going on in the background, but the problem is that Michael's struggles are so interesting for so much of the book that I found myself not really caring about the supernatural conspiracy.... Sure it was an important component, it provided an electric beginning to the story and there were some important linkages between this conspiracy and Michael's mental health, but I felt that it lost its presence during the middle of the story and its resolution just felt like a really solid bookend rather than the mind explosion I was expecting. Don't get me wrong, the ending is fantastic and works on many different levels, but I think that the nature of this story where so many weird realities could have been the true reality meant that I couldn't reliably figure out any of the big revelations - my initial reaction on the big reveal ended up being "oh cool, now I have a point of reference to start figuring it all out" rather than "What the crap just happened?!" or "I knew it!".

The characterisation, as it was in the John Cleaver series, is the strongest part of this book. Wells has obviously done a lot of research and he goes to a lot of effort early on to define schizophrenia so he can make the best use of it as part of Michael's character profile. Michael is angry at being locked up, he is frustrated that noone will believe that he sees faceless men, he is in denial for a long time that he has schizophrenia, and once he accepts that he has schizophrenia he is scared that he will not be able to tell the difference between what monsters are made up and what monsters are real. I really felt for Michael during this book, the way he was treated like a baby despite not having any degredation in his thinking and reasoning, the way he would lash out at visions only to hurt the people trying to help him, and the way that by the end he had no idea whether any of the people he had known throughout his life were real or just figments of his imagination. There are plenty of other characters in this story too, characters that Wells spends a lot of time building up to be very reliable at the start of the book so that later he could start introducing inconsistencies and make Michael question his sanity even further.

The Hollow City is an excellent addition from Wells, a story that is not trying to exploit mental illness as a plot device, but rather tries to educate readers about what schizophrenia really is and how scary it is for people who have to live with it. If you haven't read anything by Wells before, or if you aren't a fan of his Young Adult works, then you should definitely give this book a try as I believe it showcases what he does best - coming up with awesome characters and torturing them psychologically. Read more ›

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A fabulous read! August 8, 2012

By Callie

Format:Hardcover

You will not be able to put this book down! Michael is a man diagnosed with scizophrenia because he is seeing and hearing monsters and faceless men that others cannot...but is it possible these things are real? And if they are real, what does that mean for our world?

I loved this book from beginning to end. It is a facinating, white-knucked journey as you follow the viewpoint of an unreliable , yet likeable, narrator who cannot trust his own mind, nor his own senses.

And the best part of this book? The ending.

Buy this book today. You will not regret it!

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Plays with our mind and Michael's July 29, 2012

By Marce

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

From my blog

Dan Wells is a master at characters, you are totally on their side when you truly should be scared of them. John from I am not a Serial Killer trilogy an all time favourite character of mine was trying not to become a serial killer and Michael Shipman, wow, a brilliant mind with a twist of crazy, trying to convince everyone including himself he wasn't crazy.

Michael was an unreliable character, this was what made the book, he was delusional with paranoia tendencies, scared off all electronics. You didn't know what was reality, is it just in his mind or is he trying to manipulate everyone. You also start to believe in the science fiction futuristic possibilities he discusses. I also enjoyed that there were numerous characters, all playing a huge part. We have the police detectives following the Red Line Killer story, Michael's Doctors, the reporter, his father and girlfriend. Different parts of everyone's story was totally unexpected, great twists thrown in.

I was enjoying The Hollow City almost as much as I am not a Serial Killer trilogy but once we got to the last 25%, the meaning of The Hollow City, I was hit with science fiction/dystopian style and it killed the story for me. I was MAD, why ooh why, sigh. I was deflated by the ending.

I am still a fan and will always recommend the trilogy but this one just didn't do it for me at the end. And I love psychological thrillers, which this is, Dan Wells totally messes with our mind. I recommend you still try it.

The question if Michael is truly insane or has been setup is a brilliant suspense journey.

I love Dan Wells mind, the way he thinks and puts those creative thoughts on paper, an author I will always try.... I didn't read Partials, but it has been labeled Dystopian which I have tried a few times, it is just not for me. Read more ›

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Who Do You Trust...When You Can't Even Trust Yourself? July 23, 2012

By Nickolas X. P. Sharps VINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover

SYNOPSIS: How do you convince everyone that Faceless Men are trying to get you when you have been diagnosed with schizophrenia? Who can you trust? Can you even trust yourself?

MY RATING: 4.5 Stars

MY REVIEW

PROS: A real mind bending thriller that may or may not be the mental construction of an unstable man.

CONS: The ending is weak in comparison to the rest of the story.

BOTTOM LINE: This thriller will keep you guessing until the very end. Wells will tap into a fear you probably didn't even realize that you harbored.

Michael Shipman is a paranoid schizophrenic. Or is he? The doctors say that Michael's paranoia is the result of hallucinations and delusions brought on by mental illness. But just because you're paranoid doesn't mean that they're not out to get you...right? After all, the doctors could all be part of the Plan of the Faceless Men. If Michael could regain two weeks of his memory he might be able to stop the Faceless Men and whatever sinister scheme they have cooked up. But there are a few obstacles, including two FBI agents who consider Michael a suspect in a string of serial murders.

Dan Wells is a rising star in the fiction world. First came his highly acclaimed John Wayne Cleaver trilogy, a series of books about a young man that must fight his very own nature to combat dark forces at work in his small town. Next came Partials, the start of a new dystopian Young Adult series that is quickly garnering attention. Now Wells presents us with The Hollow City, a standalone thriller unlike any you have ever read. The Hollow City is to schizophrenia, what the John Wayne Cleaver trilogy is to sociopathy.... That is to say, Wells takes an improbable hero with a very serious mental dysfunction and respectfully and accurately crafts an engaging tale of suspense.

Michael's perspective is immediately arresting and absorbing. This is the ultimate underdog, it is impossible not to root for this poor guy with the entire world set against him. Anyone Michael tries to tell the "truth" is bound to think that he is crazy. Faceless Men and conspiracies are the talk of crazy folk after all. It doesn't help Michael's case that his doctors have diagnosed him with depression, anxiety, and most recently schizophrenia. My knowledge of schizophrenia was minimal before reading The Hollow City. There's a common misconception that schizophrenia is multiple personality syndrome and it turns out that they are entirely separate conditions. Schizophrenia is chilling in its effects. It is a mix of real stimuli and fabricated mental constructions that leave victims unable to separate reality from their own imagination. Essentially it is an official stamp that invalidates everything Michael has to say. And really that is the scariest thing of all about The Hollow City. Wells was able to tap into this greatest fear that I never even knew I had. What if you were labeled as crazy and no one would believe a word you had to say? Nobody will listen to you but everything you experience is still real to you. It's a frightening consideration.

So Michael sees things that no one else can and this lands him in a mental hospital. No one believes that the Faceless Men exist and as the story goes on readers won't be able to help but wonder whether or not Michael is a credible narrator. Eventually Michael loses confidence and begins to doubt himself. It's the vaunted Triple Threat and it makes for a transfixing read. Every action he takes and every conversation he engages in need be closely scrutinized. Readers will likely change their mind fluidly as the plot progresses and things become even more twisted. Imagine M. Night Shyamalan in his prime, directed the 2010 crime drama Shutter Island. It's sort of like that and it will leaving you guessing until the very end.

The other characters aren't quite so developed as Michael but I find it difficult to blame Wells when any member of the supporting cast could really be a figment of Michael's imagination. Doctor Vanek is probably the psychiatrist with the single worst bedside manner of any health care professional ever. And it is hilarious. Michael's father is a hardcore jerk. Doctor Little is irritatingly condescending to an extreme degree and Lucy is sweet and supportive in ways that Michael drastically needs. As little effort as is put into fleshing out the characters, they do come across as real (or not so real) people.

The plot is white knuckle and full of complexity. It can't be a cake-walk to write from the perspective of a man with schizophrenia (maybe) but Wells pulls it off. To delve too deeply into the story would ruin the sneaky surprises you have in store but I will say that there are Faceless Men, giant maggots, cultists, electronic surveillance, and dark conspiracies. The only question is whether or not any of it is real...Wells is able to keep up the startling revelations and addictive insanity all the way till the end. It is the ending though that had me knocking off a half star for what would have otherwise been a solid 5-star rating. After all the build-up the ending felt rushed and contrived. To be fair, it isn't the silly sort of ending you would get from some of M. Night Shyamalans more recent work but it still isn't quite on par with the rest of the novel.

One thing is for certain. The Hollow City will haunt you in a way that ghosts and demons and alien abductions will never be able to. Your own mind may just be your very worst enemy and Michael's journey will leave you feeling a little bit crazy yourself. But in a good way!

Nick Sharps
SF Signal Read more ›