Rarity
from the Hollow
By Robert Eggleton
Author's Web site: www.lacydawnadventures.com
By Robert Eggleton
411 Pages
Science Fiction/Fantasy
ISBN: 1907133062 / ISBN-13: 9781907133060
Dog Horn Publishing,
To purchase:
http://www.amazon.com/Rarity-from-the-Hollow-ebook/dp/B007JDI508
http://www.lulu.com/shop/robert-eggleton/rarity-from-the-hollow/paperback/product-20203207.html
To preorder hardback: http://www.doghornpublishing.com/books/rarity_from_the_hollow.html
Author proceeds are donated to prevent child abuse in
Review
by Adicus Ryan Garton for Atomjack Science Fiction Magazine
“Imagine
Wizard of Oz and Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy smashed together and taking
place in a hollow in the hills of West
Virginia
…unabashed,
unashamed exploration of the life of young Lacy Dawn, as she learns that she is
the savior of the universe. The naked, genderless android, Dot-com… Add her
abusive father, her weak-willed mother, a sexually-abused ghost for a best
friend…trees that talk to her, a dog that can communicate telepathically with
cockroaches and so much more.
There
is so much to this story, and its writing is so unblinkingly honest…spares us
nothing…her father beating her and her mother, the emotions…the dark creeping
insanity that eats away at her Iraq-veteran father, and the life in general of
people too poor, too uneducated to escape.
In
part, it is a grueling exposition of what children endure when …abused. …the
only way…to escape is to learn that she is the savior… strong, tough, smart—all
those attributes that any child should have—and she reminds us that children are
survivors, adaptive and optimistic.
But
don't think you're going to be reading something harsh and brutal and tragic.
This book is laugh-out-loud funny at times, satiric of almost everything it
touches upon…The characters from the hollow and from the planet Shptiludrp (the
Mall of the Universe) are funny almost to the point of
tears.
...It's
absolutely fantastic…."
~ Reviewer Adicus Ryan Garton is the editor of the online science fiction magazine Atomjack. He is currently teaching English in South
Korea
Excerpt from First
Chapter:
Cozy
in Cardboard
Inside
her first clubhouse, Lacy Dawn glanced over fifth grade spelling words for
tomorrow’s quiz at school. She already knew all the words in the textbook and
most others in any human language.
Nothing’s
more important than an education.
The
clubhouse was a cardboard box in the front yard that her grandmother's new
refrigerator had occupied until an hour before. Her father brought it home for
her to play in.
The
nicest thing he's ever done.
Faith
lay beside her with a hand over the words and split fingers to cheat as they
were called off. She lived in the next house up the hollow. Every other
Wednesday for the last two months, the supervised child psychologist came to
their school, pulled her out of class, and evaluated suspected learning
disabilities. Lacy Dawn underlined a word with a
fingernail.
All
she needs is a little motivation.
Before
they had crawled in, Lacy Dawn tapped the upper corner of the box with a
flashlight and proclaimed, "The place of all things possible -- especially you
passing the fifth grade so we'll be together in the
sixth."
Please
concentrate, Faith. Try this one.
"Armadillo."
"A,
R, M, … A … D, I, L, D, O," Faith demonstrated her
intellect.
"That's
weak. This is a bonus word so you’ll get extra points. Come
on."
Lacy
Dawn nodded and looked for a new word.
I’ll
trick her by going out of order – a word she can't turn into another punch
line.
“Don’t
talk about it and the image will go away. Let’s get back to studying,” Lacy Dawn
said.
My
mommy don't like sex. It's just her job and she told me
so.
Faith
turned her open spelling book over, which saved its page, and rolled onto her
side. Lacy Dawn did the same and snuggled her back against the paper wall. Face
to face -- a foot of smoothness between -- they took a break. The outside was
outside.
At
their parents’ insistence, each wore play clothing -- unisex hand-me-downs that
didn’t fit as well as school clothing. They’d been careful not to get muddy
before crawling into the box. They’d not played in the creek and both were
cleaner than the usual evening. The clubhouse floor remained an open invitation
to anybody who had the opportunity to consider relief from daily
stressors.
"How'd
you get so smart, Lacy Dawn? Your parents are dumb asses just like
mine."
"You
ain't no dumb ass and you're going to pass the fifth
grade."
"Big
deal -- I'm still fat and ugly," Faith said.
"I'm
doing the best I can. I figure by the time I turn eleven I can fix that too. For
now, just concentrate on passing and don't become special education. I need you.
You're my best friend."
-----
The New Book Review is blogged by Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of the multi award-winning HowToDoItFrugally series of books for writers. It is a free service offered to those who want to encourage the reading of books they love. That includes authors who want to share their favorite reviews, reviewers who'd like to see their reviews get more exposure, and readers who want to shout out praise of books they've read. Please see submission guidelines on the left of this page. Reviews and essays are indexed by genre, reviewer names, and review sites. Writers will find the search engine handy for gleaning the names of small publishers. Find other writer-related blogs at Sharing with Writers and The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor. As a courtesy to the author, please tweet and retweet this post using this little green retweet widget :
