Review: “Found You,” Mary SanGiovanni

Pros: Freaky!
Cons: Ends a little suddenly
Rating: 4.5 out of 5

Mary SanGiovanni’s Found You (The Hollower Trilogy Book 2) is an excellent sequel to the creepy book The Hollower. In that book, a handful of people were being stalked by a faceless figure who preyed on their insecurities. They were finally able to bring it into wholly physical existence and kill the twisted, horrifying monster it was. Unfortunately, the body was reclaimed by several other faceless figures, one of whom seemed quite angry about the turn of events. Now the Primary has returned to take vengeance upon our heroes, and goes straight after Sally, journalist Dave’s mentally ill sister. It’s also hunting some new people: recovering heroin addict Jake Dylan, gay police detective sergeant Steven Corimar, and weight-obsessed Dorrie Weatherin. Sean’s mother has moved him out of state, and detective Anita DeMarco is on maternity leave. That doesn’t make the young man and the mother-to-be safe, but being away from the others and harder to reach makes them no longer the immediate target that the others are.

In The Hollower, there was one passage that was from the point of view of the faceless creature. This is hard to do well, as it can undermine the creepiness of a monster. SanGiovanni makes it work, however, and includes more of this in this volume. The new creature is a Primary, more powerful than the Secondary that our heroes fought before. It can affect the physical world in ways the Secondary couldn’t. This makes it seem unbeatable, but its weakness seems to be its need to feed on people’s insecurities and despair. That causes it to keep its prey alive beyond the point where its own hatred and rage cause it to want to kill them outright, giving our heroes time to find ways to fight.

The Hollower is sustained by impressions and perceptions and points of view.

The ending is a little quick and sudden, but somehow it works. Especially since I know there’s a book three in the series, which I’m looking forward to, although it’s hard to imagine how our heroes could possibly succeed against something even more dangerous! Dorrie is a little one-note in her weight obsession, but most of the characters have depth and a decent amount of background. This is an enjoyable creepy tale!