Line #33 Literature/HollowKingdom2019


1	!![[SimilarlyNamedWorks You may be looking]] for the ''Literature/HollowKingdomTrilogy''.
2	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/hollow_kingdom_2019.png]]
3	[[caption-width-right:350:''The One Who Hollows as well must return.'']]
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5	''Hollow Kingdom'' is a 2019 novel by Kira Jane Buxton.
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7	S.T. (short for Shit Turd) is a tamed crow who lives a comfortable life in a UsefulNotes/{{Seattle}} neighborhood with a bloodhound named Dennis and their owner Big Jim. All is well until one day, one of Big Jim's eyes falls out and he starts acting... [[NotHimself weird]]. While S.T. tries to pick up the slack around the house and tend to his owner, a venture outside to get some medicine reveals that [[ZombieApocalypse the issue is much more widespread]] than the crow thought.
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9	With Dennis in tow, S.T. sets out into the city to figure out what happened to all the people and if there are any healthy humans left. In the process, he finds that he may have a greater purpose within the abandoned city (regardless of whether he knows how to accomplish it) and must reckon with his identity as a crow raised by humanity.
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11	A sequel, ''Literature/FeralCreatures'', was released in 2021.
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13	----
14	!!''Hollow Kingdom'' contains examples of:
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16	* AfterTheEnd: The bulk of the story takes place in the months after a ZombieApocalypse sweeps Seattle [[spoiler:and the rest of the world]], leaving various animals to try surviving in the ruins of the Emerald City.
17	* AnimalTalk: In addition to the majority of the animals being able to converse amongst themselves, various groups of wildlife can tap into different varieties of an information network. Birds and insects have ''Aura'', aquatic life has ''Echo'', and plants have ''Web''.
18	* BearsAreBadNews: Early in the story, S.T. and Dennis run into a grizzly bear with three cubs that have taken up residence in a library. The mother bear injures Dennis and is only driven off by the actions of the neighborhood murder of crows.
19	* BlackComedy: A zombified old woman devouring her own dog is rendered funny because the situation is initially presented as the lady eating Triscuits (a type of cracker) before mentioning that Triscuits is the name of her dog.
20	* CapitalLettersAreMagic:
21	** Various noteworthy things are referred to as "The One Who..." by animals. These things can either be specific individuals (The One Who Opens Doors, The One Who Keeps) or an entire group (The One Who Hollows, The One Who Spits).
22	** The names of the various natural information networks are always written with a capital letter and in italics (eg. ''Aura'', ''Echo'', ''Web'').
23	* CleverCrows: S.T. is a tamed crow who utilizes his familiarity with human culture and vocal mimicry skills to help him and his owner's dog survive in post-apocalyptic Seattle.
24	* DeadGuyJunior: S.T. names [[spoiler:the little girl in the abandoned village]] Dee in honor of [[spoiler:Dennis the bloodhound]], who died an indeterminate amount of time prior to her discovery.
25	* DogsAreDumb: Dennis the bloodhound is one of the few animals in the story who never speaks, and S.T. is easily able to get him to do what he wants him to by imitating the voice of his owner.
26	* DoubleMeaningTitle: "Hollow Kingdom" refers both to the world that the Hollows (humans) built and how hollow said world feels in the wake of their inhabitants getting zombified.
27	* EarlyBirdCameo: [[spoiler: The One Who Opens Doors]] appears for the first time in the fourth chapter, albeit unidentified as such. He isn't properly introduced for another twenty chapters.
28	* ExplainExplainOhCrap: After he witnesses his neighbor eating her dog, S.T. comes to the conclusion that she has the same sickness his owner Big Jim does. The crow then remembers that he left Dennis the dog alone with Big Jim and promptly rushes home.
29	* FirstPersonSmartass: S.T. the crow's internal monologue is bursting with crass language and his opinions on everything he comes across, aided by his general disdain for any form of life that isn't human. The snark gets dialed back a few notches after he finds himself in charge of rescuing domestic animals [[spoiler:and his broken wing necessitates him working with others to travel swiftly]].
30	* ForebodingFleeingFlock: One chapter shows birds, insects, and ground mammals all fleeing away from a nuclear power plant after sensing it will soon go into meltdown.
31	* {{Foreshadowing}}:
32	** In the fourth chapter, Genghis Cat mentions that he caught a Humboldt penguin. This is some time before it's confirmed that the Woodland Park Zoo animals breached containment.
33	** Zombified [=MoFos=] are frequently described to be jabbing and dragging their fingers on the wall or in thin air. [[spoiler: The virus that transformed them is transmitted via electronic technology]].
34	** The presence of broken glass is repeatedly mentioned. As it turns out, the [=MoFos=] keep smashing into glass because [[spoiler:they're under the delusion that they’re screens]].
35	* GenreBlindness: S.T. appears to be completely unaware of zombie fiction, as his initial reaction to Big Jim's eye falling out and his subsequent deterioration is to try keeping the household running as normally as possible while under the impression that Big Jim is merely sick. While S.T. is a crow, he's aware of many forms of media due to being raised by a human ''and'' has mentioned that Big Jim watches horror films.
36	* GratuitousForeignLanguage:
37	** The chapter narrated by a camel in Dubai has various Arabic exclamations in what is otherwise an English monologue.
38	** One chapter is from the perspective of a Bangkok elephant herd. The novel's ArcWords are the only part of the chapter written in Thai: "The One Who Hollows as well must return".
39	* HeroOfAnotherStory:
40	** Many animals with their own focus chapters, such as a polar bear searching for her lost cub, only have small parts of their large stories shown.
41	** S.T. occasionally finds notes or graffiti left by people who avoided being infected and were trying to find loved ones, warn other people to [[spoiler:avoid technology]], or get to safer areas. A parrot acquaintance of S.T. also recalls people with farms in the countryside riding around on horseback in the final days of the outbreak, shouting offers of sanctuary. It doesn't appear that any of their efforts succeeded, as [[spoiler:the only confirmed human survivor is a baby several states away.]]
42	* HumansAreSpecial: S.T. and his friend Ghubari have a discussion at one point about what sets humans apart from all other animals. S.T. believes their ability to create is their greatest gift, while Ghubari counters that creativity is omnipresent and that making mistakes is what defines humanity.
43	* HumansByAnyOtherName: Most of the wildlife refers to humanity as "The One Who Hollows", with humans being called "Hollows"; this references the species' collective tendency to hollow away nature for their own ends. S.T. the crow calls humans "[=MoFos=]" instead, due to being raised by a man with a rather colorful vocabulary.
44	* ICallItVera: Big Jim is mentioned to own a riffle named after Creator/SigourneyWeaver. According to him, the gun got its name due to its "sexy streamlined appearance and no-nonsense attitude".
45	* {{Irony}}: In a world where zombies have been breaking all the glass in sight for months, S.T. the crow crashes into two separate windows in the span of a day.
46	* LastOfHisKind: In the wake of a ZombieApocalypse that didn't infect animals, only one healthy human is confirmed to be alive: [[spoiler:a baby girl in a Yup'ik village]].
47	* MailmanVsDog: At one point, Dennis makes a beeline towards a UPS truck and ignores S.T. calling him to come back; S.T. even calls the mail truck "the sworn enemy of every domesticated dog." [[spoiler: This leads to Dennis' death, as the truck is swarming with zombies that quickly notice the dog's arrival.]]
48	* MeaningfulName:
49	** S.T. is short for Shit Turd, a name befitting of a crow with a fondness for profanity and speaking frankly.
50	** Genghis Khan is well-known for a sizable portion of Europe and Asia’s population being able to claim ancestry from him. Genghis ''Cat'' has fathered at least 130 kittens by the time his first focus chapter takes place.
51	* NoodleIncident: S.T. makes numerous references to a time when Big Jim met someone on Tinder named Tiffany and it ended up going poorly. It's implied that Big Jim tried proposing and was shut down, though the specifics of what happened are left unsaid.
52	* NotUsingTheZWord: The rotting people that are wandering around and lunging for anything alive or made of glass are only ever referred to as being "sick [[CallARabbitASmeerp (insert term for humans here)]]". It's {{justified}} due to all of the characters being animals and the vast majority of them having no exposure to pop culture, so they'd have no realistic way of knowing the word "zombie".
53	* OurZombiesAreDifferent: For the most part, the "sick" humans are typical shambling, rotting, flesh-eating zombies. However, they also display a desire to break glass, often swipe their fingers in the air as if using a touchscreen, and almost immediately whip into a frenzy if they detect anything reminiscent of a smartphone. [[spoiler:Some of them have also [[EliteZombie mutated into much more intimidating forms]] in what's perceived to be a last-ditch effort to survive.]]
54	* PosthumousCharacter: Big Jim, the owner of Dennis and main character S.T., is only alive for the first two pages. However, S.T. not properly understanding [[ZombieInfectee what's become of him]] leads to the first major conflict of the narrative, and the crow's perspective of humanity being shaped by him factors into many of his decisions. Big Jim's character is also explored by means of anecdotes from S.T.
55	* RaisedInCaptivity: S.T. is a crow who's been raised by a man called Big Jim since he was a hatchling, to the point of considering himself an honorary human. This causes problems for him when he has to interact with wild crows in the wake of the ZombieApocalypse, as neither group really approves of the other's views on humanity.
56	* RunningGag: Whenever penguins are brought up, it's usually accompanied by a comment about their lack of intelligence.
57	* RunningGagged: After a Humboldt penguin coughs up some fish as a sign of respect for S.T., the recurring insults about penguins stop.
58	* SirSwearsALot:
59	** S.T. the crow's narration is full of cuss words due to being raised by a man with a rather colorful vocabulary. Thanks to initialisms and abbreviations, the swearing even extends to any time he refers to humans (his term for them is "[=MoFos=]") and ''his own name'' (S.T. being short for "Shit Turd").
60	** Big Jim has quite the foul mouth, as he's the person who raised S.T. and consequently taught the crow to curse. Most references to things Big Jim would do involve some sort of profanity, and the last thing he utters is "What the fuck?"
61	* SomethingWeForgot: While waiting for animals with information about The One Who Opens Doors to arrive, S.T. watches a flock of starlings entertain a baby elephant and muses on the topic of elephants for a while. Once his train of thought arrives at elephants supposedly never forgetting anything, he remembers that he left Dennis at [=CenturyLink=] Field.
62	* SummonBiggerFish: When S.T. receives word that [[spoiler:The Weavers]] are approaching the University of Washington campus that's being used as a safe zone, he realizes that a bunch of birds and house pets stand no chance against [[spoiler:spider-like zombies]]. His solution is to lure the zoo's three Malaysian tiger brothers to them so they'll fight.
63	* TakeThat: When S.T. is describing various aspects of human culture to other animals, the plot of ''Film/{{Inception}}'' is denounced as something that's impossible to explain.
64	* ThirdPersonPerson: A couple of chapters are told from the perspective of a poodle named Winnie, who only refers to herself "in the third poodle".
65	* TookALevelInKindness:
66	** S.T. starts off with little respect towards non-humans, refusing any help not directly related to his goals, and [[FirstPersonSmartass his narration is chock-full of profanity and snarking]]. He mellows out over the course of the story; he grows to appreciate other animals, builds up a community dedicated to saving domestic creatures, and his fiery inner monologue is dialed back a few notches.
67	** The two chapters told from the perspective of Genghis Cat see the feline go from openly pissed off about [[spoiler:The One Who Opens Doors]] entering his territory to developing a protective instinct towards him, with him and his kittens often lounging alongside [[spoiler:the orangutans]].
68	* TrademarkFavoriteFood: S.T. loves Cheetos, as Big Jim used them as a reward while training him. Whenever the wonderful things humans make are brought up, expect Cheetos to be mentioned.
69	* VirusVictimSymptoms: The story opens with Big Jim not eating, missing events he was looking forward to, pacing in circles, and drooling excessively. S.T. initially believes his caretaker is merely sick, but these things are all signs that the man has succumbed to the same undead state as the rest of Seattle's population.
70	* WorseWithContext: At one point, S.T. observes his neighbor Nargatha eating Triscuits. The next line clarifies that "Triscuits" is the name of Nargatha's dog.
71	* ZergRush: [[OurZombiesAreDifferent Sick [=MoFo=]s]] will rush towards any electronic device they can detect. This behavior is exploited to break open the windows of homes with trapped pets inside.
72	* ZombieApocalypseHero: S.T. is a twist on the trope. He works hard to rescue trapped innocents from the zombie hordes and isn't above luring zombies into deadly traps, but S.T., those assisting him, and those he rescues are all animals. There don't appear to be any adult humans left to fill the role of the more traditional zombie apocalypse hero.

Context Literature / HollowKingdom2019