You’ve seen this kind of twist before. The events of a classic story turn out to have been (mostly) true, and the town now lives in the shadow of its legend. For Vicky Van Tassel, that shadow suffocates her wish to just be a normal kid. But her family sits at the center of “the Legend of Sleepy Hollow,” and as she has reached ingenue age, she must participate in town pageants, parades, and general pumpkin queen festivities. When Izzy Crane’s family moves into town, it seems like fate she’d like to avoid.
But you shouldn’t. There’s an evil force at work, certainly, but it’s not what either Izzy or Vicky thinks. Nor is Croc Byun (modern stand-in for Brom Bones) quite the lunkhead he appears to be. The three navigate high school, hormones, and horror by banding together against… but that would be telling.
Written by Shannon Watters and Branden Boyer-White, deftly delineated by Berenice Nelle, Hollow unfolds at a pace almost as quick as Ichabod Crane trying to get over that bridge. Despite being in Sleepy Hollow, it’s bright and beautiful without overlooking the occasional pain of being teenagers at the dawn of affection. Nelle brings a comic style that’s rich in emotion. Good thing, because Watters and Boyer-White have created characters whose motivations may be broad, but are still affecting. Their explanation for the Headless Horseman may or may not be a spin on Washington Irving’s original tale — full confession: I only know the Disney version, and I’m sure that Croc Byun can sing like Bing Crosby.
Hollow makes a fun addition to the Halloween bookshelf. But it’s more than that. It’s an adventure for year round, with the promise of more. It also bears mentioning that it’s a queer coming of age tale where the teens are quite comfortable with themselves — and so is everyone else. I might not want to live in the darkness of Sleepy Hollow, but I wish more people could live in its light.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to pull my copy of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow off the shelf and finally read the thing…
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