Today I wanted to talk about one favorite Young Adult book series, the Hollow Kingdom Trilogy by Clare B. Dunkle. The Hollow Kingdom trilogy is one of my favorites because it is so well written, that you can easily imagine the magical goblin world, and all of it’s funny, interesting looking inhabitants.
This trilogy is full of magic, adventure, elves, goblins, and romance. It will completely suck you in. I read each of these books in a day or two, they were that good.
The Hollow Kingdom
Kate and Emily have come to live at Hallow Hill, a place with a history of young women vanishing without a trace, never to be seen again. Having recently become orphans, Kate and Emily are too wrapped up in their grief to realize what danger they’ve been put into.
Marak a powerful magician and king of the goblins, has chosen to take Kate, the older of the two sisters, for his bride. Kate has unknowingly been chosen to take part in an ancient tradition among the goblins that requires the goblin king to take a human or an elf for his bride. Kate has to make a decision, will she continue to fight the goblin king, or will she give in?
The whole trilogy is amazing, but this was my favorite book out of the series. I really liked Kate and Emily, and their relationship. They are both close, but have very different personalities. Kate is quiet and reserved, while Emily is more outgoing and loud. I don’t have a sister, but I think that Kate and Emily really show what a good sister bond is like. I also really loved Marak’s character. At first I wasn’t really sure how I felt about him, because he kidnaps Kate and forces her to be his bride, but once you get further into the book he really starts to grow on you, and you learn his motives behind forcing Kate to marry him. Marak is smart, and charming, he is fiercely protective of Kate and her sister and he truly loves Kate, even though kidnapping her is a funny way of showing it.
Close Kin
Emily has been happily living underground with her sister and the goblins for several years now. Now Emily is old enough to marry, so her childhood friend Seylin proposes. Emily doesn’t take Seylin’s proposal seriously and declines leaving Seylin devastated. Seylin decides to leave Emily and the goblins behind to find his people, the Elves. Realizing she has feelings for Seylin, Emily leaves the goblin kingdom and sets out to find him. As she and Seylin go on their own separate journey’s, they discover hatred and prejudice between the goblins and the Elves that have been around for hundreds of years, giving them different perspectives on their people.
This was also a great book, I was really happy that Emily’s story was continued. I was really happy that Emily and Seylin had more of a story together. This book gives you more insight into the issues between the goblins and the elves, and where they stem from. For me, there was a lot of suspense in this book, because I was rooting for Emily and Seylin the whole time, and they didn’t cross paths on their separate journey’s for quite a while. When they finally did, all of the suspense was worth it.
In the Coils of the Snake
Miranda has been waiting her whole life to come to live in the goblin kingdom. While she has been living in the human world, Marak has been preparing her since childhood to come live with him and the goblins. Now that Miranda has finally come to the goblin kingdom, Miranda learns that Marak is dying.Miranda feels like her whole world is falling apart, Marak has been there for her since she was a child, and now he’s leaving her alone in a new and strange place.But Marak has prepared Miranda to be a Queen, and Miranda won’t let her courage fail her now.
As Miranda is trying to become comfortable with her new life, a powerful elf lord is bringing his people back to their homeland, restarting an old battle between the elves and the goblins. Miranda is taken prisoner, and ends up in the middle of a power struggle between two powerful beings who both want Miranda for themselves.
This book is about the child of one of Marak’s adopted human children. In The Hollow Kingdom, Kate rescues two babies from an evil magician who kidnapped them, and they came to live with her and Marak. Marak had a rule that when the boy grew up, he would have to leave the goblin kingdom. The girl asks Marak if she could marry him, and go back to the human world. Marak allows her, but under one condition. She has to give him her first born daughter. That daughter is Miranda, who is mistreated by her parents. I think they mistreat her because they know that one day she will have to leave them, and they are bitter about the fact they weren’t able to leave the goblins without having to give up their daughter.
Marak wanted Miranda so he could raise her to be the perfect queen for his son. Marak spends a lot of time with Miranda, training her to be the best wife and Queen to his son Catspaw. Even though Marak is raising her to fulfill his needs, he does love Miranda, and regrets that her parents mistreat her.
I really liked Miranda, despite everything she has gone through in her life, she is still a good and kind person who does her best to please Marak. In this book, she gets caught up in the middle of a battle between the goblins and elves, but in the end she gets everything that she deserves.
I thought this book really ended the trilogy perfectly. Not everything is perfect in the end, but you do get to learn what happened to all of the characters. It always makes me happy when I get to know where all of the characters ended up.