Rarity from the Hollow
By: Robert Eggleton
Published By: Dog Horn
Publication Date: December 2016
ebook - 284 pages
Buy it at Amazon (Paperback Edition, eBook Edition) or Dog Horn Publishing
Source: Provided by Author
Science Fiction
Eleven year-old Lacy Dawn lives in rural West Virginia with her abusive, PTSD-suffering father and her under-educated, defeated mother. After the sexual abuse and murder of her best friend, Lacy continues to play with her friend’s ghost. Lacy finds refuge in her friendship with DotCom, the robot who has been sent to cultivate a relationship with her and convince her to embark on a quest to save the universe.
Reading back over what I just wrote, I have to say that Rarity from the Hollow is even stranger than it sounds. Part of that strangeness is in the way the book is written. Eggleton divided the story into three nearly discrete sections which don’t seem to rely on each other very much. In the tragic first third of the book, the reader learns of the conditions in which Lacy Dawn is living. (This is the part with the physical and sexual abuse.) The second part of Rarity from the Hollow is where the reader meets DotCom, Lacy’s robot friend, and he helps “fix” her parents. Finally, Lacy accepts the quest to save the universe from destruction. The three act structure is pretty typical, but in Rarity from the Hollow they almost feel like separate stories. Lacy carries almost no baggage from the events of the first part of the book, and her parents, once cured, still don’t really act like parents. I felt little continuity through the story except for a persistent feeling of surreality.
