A belated but very happy review for Bittersweet in the Hollow, Kate Pearsall’s debut novel (and potential start of a series..?!). I decided to sit on this review for a few weeks because A. I’m super busy and B. I wanted to sit with it for a while. Aside from Skyla Arndt’s Together We Rot, Bittersweet is my favorite YA read of 2023! Let’s talk about it.
What I Loved:
1. The imagery throughout. There were quite a few fantasy elements here that I felt Pearsall completely nailed. Most notably were the physical landscape imagery and Linden’s unique ability to TASTE feelings. That’s right. The author managed to tackle a multitude of different feelings and pair them with a wild assortment of tastes. Girl. It delivered.
2. The TWISTS. I’m going to be real. I really thought this one was predictable and half the book I was like I KNOW WHO DID WHAT and boy howdy was I wrong. We love a good bait and switch maneuver, I completely fell for it and ate it up. The actual twists were so much cooler than anticipated, even when certain elements were predictable they were the elements I WANTED to be predictable.
3. Potential for a series. I know. I said it. Little Miss Notorious “I’m so sick of YA stand-alone a being dragged out into trilogies” said it. This one was a complete banger and I 100% need a sequel (which we are most likely getting!!!)
I won’t go into too many more specifics on Bittersweet in the Hollow - more like sweet and full (get it?). I will say one of my favorite things about this novel is actually it’s biggest critique. A lot of Southerners have pointed out how inaccurate and stereotypical our characters are be it southern accent, lingo, or feelings towards things like hot weather. I would counter this by saying Pearsall actually wrote this book after being inspired by growing up with her mother’s storytelling. Even though this isn’t a perfect representation of a large generalization of people - which is virtually impossible to achieve - she took something she grew up loving and essentially wrote a love letter to it. I think that’s about the best thing an author can do.
Alright, that’s it. Happy reading! Pick this bad Boi up for the spooky season and let me know what you think.
What I Loved:
1. The imagery throughout. There were quite a few fantasy elements here that I felt Pearsall completely nailed. Most notably were the physical landscape imagery and Linden’s unique ability to TASTE feelings. That’s right. The author managed to tackle a multitude of different feelings and pair them with a wild assortment of tastes. Girl. It delivered.
2. The TWISTS. I’m going to be real. I really thought this one was predictable and half the book I was like I KNOW WHO DID WHAT and boy howdy was I wrong. We love a good bait and switch maneuver, I completely fell for it and ate it up. The actual twists were so much cooler than anticipated, even when certain elements were predictable they were the elements I WANTED to be predictable.
3. Potential for a series. I know. I said it. Little Miss Notorious “I’m so sick of YA stand-alone a being dragged out into trilogies” said it. This one was a complete banger and I 100% need a sequel (which we are most likely getting!!!)
I won’t go into too many more specifics on Bittersweet in the Hollow - more like sweet and full (get it?). I will say one of my favorite things about this novel is actually it’s biggest critique. A lot of Southerners have pointed out how inaccurate and stereotypical our characters are be it southern accent, lingo, or feelings towards things like hot weather. I would counter this by saying Pearsall actually wrote this book after being inspired by growing up with her mother’s storytelling. Even though this isn’t a perfect representation of a large generalization of people - which is virtually impossible to achieve - she took something she grew up loving and essentially wrote a love letter to it. I think that’s about the best thing an author can do.
Alright, that’s it. Happy reading! Pick this bad Boi up for the spooky season and let me know what you think.