So the final part of Jessica Verday’s Hollow trilogy really moves into supernatural explanations of life after death. At least for those destined to become shades. Since we’re at the end here, I won’t worry about spoilers. Also, the series has been out for over a decade now, so we’re fairly safe, I think. (Young adults aren’t my demographic, I don’t imagine.) To recap, Abbey is in love with Caspian, who is a shade. Caspian isn’t seen by many people, but he does appear to Abbey. Throughout the story she mourns the death of her best friend Kristen. As the action builds, Revenants begin to appear in Sleepy Hollow. Revenants are beings that assist people who are to become shades as they die. This indicates to Abbey that she won’t live to graduate from high school. She will, however, get to be with Caspian—“complete him”—in a form of life where few will see them but they will live on in a limited sense.
The universe here isn’t particularly Christian in background. Revenants operate in pairs, one tending toward good, the other evil. They are sent to do a specific job and when it’s over they move on. As in the movie Dogma, however, one Revenant doesn’t want to move on. He figures that if he fails to do his assigned task he’ll continue on as an immortal on earth. At the end he reveals that he killed Kristen in Abbey’s place so a difficult decision’s in order. To straighten out the mess that’s been made on some cosmic scale, Abbey can die, history will be altered, and Kristen will be the one who survived. This will involve self-sacrifice, which kinda does bring us back into Christian territory.
This trilogy emerged following the obvious success of Stephanie Meyer’s Twilight saga. Teen paranormal romances were in, and publishers hearkened to the demand. It does reflect our times that writing for young readers has taken on an impressive quality. This trilogy is a great example of how someone who recollects well what it was like to be a teen is able to transport many of us back to that stage of life. The awkwardness. The constantly making wrong decisions. The bewilderment of falling in love. And of course, if you throw in some ghosts and some light violence, you’ve got a winning combination. I enjoyed getting to know these characters. I knew, once I put volume one down that I would have to see how the rest of this story unfolded. I’m glad I did. I have a sense of closure, for this series at least.