Book Review Request: Rarity from the Hollow

Title: Rarity from the Hollow

Author: Robert Eggleton

Genre: Science Fiction, Reality
Date read: July 7-14, 2015
Dawn Rates: ★★★ (3/5)

Summary (cr: goodreads)

Lacy Dawn is a little girl who lives in a magical forest where all the trees love her and she has a space alien friend who adores her and wants to make her queen of the universe. What’s more, all the boys admire her for her beauty and brains. Mommy is very beautiful and Daddy is very smart, and Daddy’s boss loves them all.

Except.

Lacy Dawn, the eleven year old protagonist, perches precariously between the psychosis of childhood and the multiple neuroses of adolescence, buffeted by powerful gusts of budding sexuality and infused with a yearning to escape the grim and brutal life of a rural Appalachian existence. In this world, Daddy is a drunk with severe PTSD, and Mommy is an insecure wraith. The boss is a dodgy lecher, not above leering at the flat chest of an eleven-year-old girl.

Yes, all in one book.

Rarity From The Hollow is written in a simple declarative style that’s well- suited to the imaginary diary of a desperate but intelligent eleven-year-old – the story bumping joyfully between the extraordinary and the banal.

The central planet of the universe is a vast shopping mall, and Lacy Dawn must save her world from a menace that arrives in the form of a cockroach infestation. Look again and the space alien has made Daddy smart and happy – or at least an eleven year old girl’s notion of what a smart and happy man should be. He has also made Mommy beautiful, giving her false teeth and getting the food stamp lady off her back. (excerpt)

My Review: (also in goodreads)

It's always an honor to receive a book from the author asking you to give an honest review about it. It means they value your review and your ability to review without any pretense. Therefore, I'm going to give this an honest review:

Instead of chapters, this was portrayed as mini-adventures in the life of Lacy Dawn. During the first half of the book, I was interested. It tackled the hard life in the hollow, how Lacy Dawn lost her best friend due to being killed by her best friend's father and how she came to meet DotCom (a robot from another planet who teaches her). This book tackled a lot about domestic abuse and living in a dysfunctional family. The mother has low self-esteem and gets often beaten by an abusive father who has PTSD. Choices made the life the way it was and because Lacy Dawn's mother got pregnant early it ended her father's bright future resulting to his violent streak. Going through the second half of the book that is where I got a bit confused. After getting 'treatment' from DotCom to cure her parents she know has to save the world from cockroach infestation. In which they become rich by being a shopper at the center of the universe (Shptiludrp which I would guess would be a shortened 'shop till you drop'). There were times in which I was confused and hooked at the same time. The ending was a bit abrupt but I guess that it is a satisfactory one. In conclusion, I had a myriad of different emotions while reading this at the same time it was quite a struggle in the end. But despite that, there are still parts I liked here and there especially the first half.

Till the next read...