A dark story which puts you in the middle and makes for an uncomfortable but incredible read, it might not be for everyone, but it’s my type of book written by my favourite author (yes, topping George Orwell, who has held that spot for 9 years); it’s impossible not to obsess over Hinton Hollow Death Trip by Will Carver.

The plot:

Hinton Hollow. Population 5,120.

Little Henry Wallace was eight years old and one hundred miles from home before anyone talked to him. His mother placed him on a train with a label around his neck, asking for him to be kept safe for a week, kept away from Hinton Hollow.

Because something was coming.

Narrated by Evil itself, Hinton Hollow Death Trip recounts five days in the history of this small rural town, when darkness paid a visit and infected its residents.

Detective Sergeant Pace had returned to his childhood home. To escape the things he had done in the city. To go back to something simple. But he was not alone. Evil had a plan.

Find Carver’s books next to ‘mind-blowing’ in the dictionary

Holy crap this book. I have so much to praise, and if you’re looking for some negatives, you’ve come to the wrong place – Hinton Hollow Death Trip is faultless, and I’ll fight people over this (Evil itself as my witness).

Before getting into Hinton Hollow, I’d like to note that I was NERVOUS to read this book. Listen, I loved Good Samaritans (Carver’s first book published by Orenda books), claiming it as a Bookmark That favourite, a psychological thriller at its finest, and that I had never been so on edge about a book before. Then came along Nothing Important Happened Today, which was my favourite book of 2019 (out of 165 books) – I have thought about that book every day for 11 MONTHS – nothing can beat it and nothing’s come remotely close except my first time reading 1984 by George Orwell in my teens. Nothing Important was so fantastic that I have a blog post in my drafts which I physically cannot bring myself to publish because it’s naff, and even though I’ve copy and pasted all the synonyms of ‘brilliant’ and ‘incredible’ and ‘masterpiece’, it still doesn’t do it justice. So you can see, the pressure was on for Hinton Hollow, and I didn’t tell a single person I was reading it because I was that worried.

That worry immediately went away within 2 pages, and I’m not going to lie, I had GOOSEBUMPS. In the same sense when you go to a concert and everyone demands an encore and you have to wait a few minutes and then they come out in all their glory – not embarrassed to say that after said goosebumps, I literally exclaimed “FUCKING WILL CARVER”. The plot is totally unfathomable, and also Carver’s fantastic writing style where he pulls you in and doesn’t let you go until 1000 months after (I can’t predict the future but Nothing Important still has a special place in my heart).

So, 2 pages in, and you know you’re in for a real fucking treat. I would say that this book isn’t for everyone because it is dark. Hella dark. The cover is all pretty pink flowers, but the book literally starts off with “Don’t Read This” and gives you a fair warning to stop (don’t listen to it, carry on reading). It’s narrated by Evil who does its thang and pulls you into the story making you question yourself and everyone around you and wreaks havoc. It’s not nice, but it’s amazing.

In a very addictive fashion, sentences are short and punchy. It’s an incredibly quick read despite its length for a psychological thriller (I read it in one-sitting) and is split into the days Evil is in town. The narrative is impeccable, and whilst you do get paragraphs which are around the crimes, you are predominantly made to question everything that is going on and told of Evil’s involvement. You’re forewarned about things, but more often than not, the pure brutalness just comes out in true force.

You can read this as a stand-alone – although it is part of the Detective Sergeant Pace series – but I fear you may not get the full affect. Hinton Hollow is an instant triumph in my eyes due to bringing back characters from the previous two books in an easter-egg way (not providing huge spoilers, although I’d highly recommend reading the first two books because a) they’re amazing and b) it does link back).

I’m going to re-read Good Samaritans and Nothing Important again to see if anything relates, and that really hasn’t taken much persuasion.

I don’t want to give away too much of the plot, but basically look at what people have been imprisoned for, but make it 10x worse and unprecedented, and then put that in a small town over a short period of time.

There are a lot of characters to follow which takes a different type of genius to write this – each are well depicted and are horrifically normal, which is why this book is so dark.

I’m not sure what Carver’s intention was with injecting some funny comments into the book (I see you, Carver, with your hummus), but it doesn’t really take away from how evil this book is, in so many senses – I still enjoyed the comments, though.

Hinton Hollow made me uncomfortable, I was not ok reading it, I sweared quite a lot about the things that were going on and I’d read it 100 times over.

The ending is jaw-dropping and I had to read it a few times over. A masterpiece.

It’s the sort of book you want to win all the awards, but also question whether the author is ok and perhaps needs some professional help.

I’m breaking my 5-star rule here and giving a trillion stars for all three books mentioned above. Find Carver’s books next to ‘mind-blowing’ in the dictionary. They all rank the same in my eyes, but Nothing Important does have cults, so it’s slightly ahead (and I mean 1mm in the lead).

You don’t just beat George Orwell for nothing, and this book has it all.

Hinton Hollow Death Trip, Will Carver, RRP £8.99 (paperback); Book Depository 

Pages: 409

Publisher: Orenda Books

Genre: Psychological thriller