Michelle Herbert reviews The Hollow Tree by James Brogden…
The Hollow Tree begins in 1945 with a discovery of a woman’s body in the bottom of a hollow oak. Although the police at the time were never able to find out who the woman was, she became Oak Mary and legends about who this woman could have been started to spread. In the modern world, we meet Rachel, who is looking forward to a holiday, on the canals around Birmingham, with her husband Tom. Unfortunately, there is an accident which leaves Rachel without her left hand and that’s when the story begins to get strange.
There are many stories about phantom limbs, but in The Hollow Tree, the question is: What if the limb you lost connected you to something other? This is what happens to Rachel, she knows that her hand is gone, but she can still feel it as if it was there, and sometimes through that hand, she can feel things that can’t possibly be there. Rachel is a pragmatic person, who deals with the loss of her hand, better than Tom does. Tom feels guilty over the accident, but will he accept Rachel, when she tells him about the strange events that are happening to her, or will she keep them a secret as they grow apart?
There is a good split between the domestic lives of Rachel and Tom and how they work as a couple and the more supernatural aspects that Rachel gets dragged into. I really loved that Rachel and Tom are so normal, and how they both have to deal with each other’s in-laws and still working out where you draw the line between grateful and put upon when it comes to family.
Then there is the character of Oak Mary, whose legend has grown since the body of the woman was found in the hollow tree, could she be of the Romani, a Nazi spy or even a prostitute. The chapters that give you these women’s stories are really strong and compelling, especially when you realise she could be any of these, because if Oak Mary doesn’t know who she is, how will Rachel be able to help her find the truth and protect her when Oak Mary becomes a very real person in Rachel’s life? I liked how well defined each aspect of Mary is, and that they read like people who lived during the war rather than cyphers for particular types of women.
There are a lot of different agendas running through the story, Rachel is not only trying to work out how she has this power and the consequences that come with it, but also how she is connected to Oak Mary. The Hollow Tree’s ideas on the afterlife are great and each of Oak Mary’s Death’s are peculiar and menacing and I love how they interact with each other and with Rachel and how we find out more about their reality.
The Hollow Tree is a really addictive book, that draws you into a surreal world with its own set of rules that Rachel accidentally breaks. I liked the relationships between the characters, living and dead, and how realistic their interactions felt. I will happily check out what else James Brogden has written as I really enjoyed reading this book and couldn’t put it down.
Michelle Herbert
