Hollow

Folk horror meets survival thriller in Grothe’s harrowing debut. After being diagnosed as autistic following a meltdown in her N.Y.C. high school’s cafeteria, Cassie Davis moves with her mother back upstate to Deep Glen. Upon arrival, Cassie’s former friends, Blake, Melody, and Jac, resent her for ghosting them when she left town four years ago—particularly Jac, with whom Cassie shared a kiss. When the trio invites Cassie on their end-of-summer Catskills hiking trip, she accepts, hoping to make amends. But the group argues on night one, and when Cassie wakes, Melody and Jac have left despite an oncoming storm. Cassie sends Blake for help only to injure herself while searching for the missing duo, necessitating rescue by local teenager Kaleb. Kaleb brings Cassie to the Roost, an old forest farmstead home to a small community of woodcrafters and hundreds of crows. At first, Kaleb and company make Cassie feel safe, seen, and accepted, but she soon discovers that nothing at the Roost is as it seems. Visceral third-person narration closely follows Cassie, rendering her complex emotions palpable, while a tender queer romance adds heart. Lush prose conjures vivid imagery that increasingly unsettles as Grothe’s tale tips from tense to terrifying. Main characters cue as white. Ages 14–up. Agent: Victoria Marini, High Line Literary. (Sept.)