BKMT READING GUIDES
Hemlock Hollow
by Culley Holderfield
Paperback : 287 pages
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Introduction
“This book has ghosts, mystery, a journal from the 1800s, history, and a spot of romance – what more could I want from a book, right? How about top notch writing, unforgettable characters, and superb storytelling? Yep, Hemlock Hollow has it all and then some. This book is a definite MUST-READ!!”--A Bookish Way of Life
Caroline McAlister, college professor and life-long skeptic, is reeling from the loss of her father and her marriage. Her once promising career has come to a standstill. She didn’t realize her father held onto the family cabin until he bequeathed it to her, and with it, the ghost who haunted her childhood. When she discovers a century-old journal in the attic, she awakens the voice of Carson Quinn. The journal reveals Carson’s love for the same hollow that enthralled Caroline growing up. A little sleuthing uncovers rumors that the kind, curious boy in the journal grew up to murder his brother. Caroline plunges into the project of exonerating Carson, only to find herself in the throes of a personal past she’s spent her life trying to avoid. Hemlock Hollow is about how we forever haunt the places we love and how they haunt us in return.
Editorial Review
No Editorial Review Currently AvailableExcerpt
**Excerpted from Hemlock Hollow, forthcoming from Regal House publishing on December 6th, 2022, available now: https://regalhousepublishing.com/product/hemlock-hollow/In the process of renovating the cabin her late father has bequeathed her, archaeologist Caroline McAlister unearths a century old journal, an unsolved murder, and the ghosts of a past she has run from her entire adult life. Hemlock Hollow is about how the places we love haunt us, and how we haunt them in return. ... view entire excerpt...
Discussion Questions
1. Both Caroline and Carson become enthralled by the same hollow a century apart. Explore how the place that they both come to love is also the source and/or setting of their greatest suffering. Do you have a similar place? If so, describe it.2. On multiple occasions, Caroline encounters a ghost, yet she remains uncertain of whether she believes in the paranormal. Do you think that to be haunted by something requires you to believe in it?
3. At the end of the 19th Century, when the journal is set, economic forces and technological advances were transforming Appalachia. We don’t see the direct impact in the book. In your opinion, how will those changes impact families such as the Quinns versus families such as the Fallons and Morgans?
4. In many ways, Caroline benefits from being born a century after Carson was born. After all, Marinda could not have gone to UNC-Chapel Hill like Caroline did. How would Marinda’s life have been different were she born in the same place a century later? What would have been different for Marinda in the late Twentieth Century?
5. This novel isn’t a traditional romance, but it is about love and loss. In what ways do different characters express their love for one another and/or for the hollow?
From the author
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