Book Review Lockwood & Co. Book Three: The Hollow Boy

"The Hollow Boy" is the third book in Jonathan Stroud's series Lockwood & Co. and was Published by Disney Hyperion in 2015.

"In this series, supernatural phenomenon, mainly ghosts, have become a serious problem. Ghosts have the ability to “ghost touch” a person which results in a swift death. The main problem with these visitor's is that most people cannot see or sense them. The only people who can see or hear ghosts are gifted children. To deal with this ghost problem, many agencies appeared enlisting children to help locate and fight ghosts. However, the job is hugely risky and many children who are enlisted die. Anthony Lockwood, an adolescent boy, decides to start his own agency, the only agency to be run by a child without an adult supervisor. The other members of his agency include Lucy Carlyle, who experienced first hand a neglectful adult supervisor, and George Cubbins, who was fired from the elite agency he used to work for. Together they try to make a name for themselves as a respectable agency, all the while struggling to pay bills, deal with the irritable police officers at Scotland Yard and defend their honor against rival agents from other agencies."

"The Hollow Boy" is a supernatural horror novel that revolves around the three adolescent agents of Lockwood & Co., one of many groups in London that eliminate ghosts. By the third book in the series, we have watched the three team member grow closer and develop as characters, also we learn more about the mysterious ghost plague. The underlying questions remains, why have ghost suddenly appeared and how is the shadowy elite group known as the Orpheus Society is involved.

In "The Hollow Boy", we get less insight than in the last book. Lucy continues to struggle with her complicated relationship with Lockwood, the addition of a new female team member complicates it even more. George has become a more serious character, as opposed to the first book where he did little other than offer some comic relief. He is now developing his own relationship with another character named Flo Bones, and I look forwards to that in upcoming books. Lockwood's tragic past is explored some more, and the book ends with a dramatic cliffhanger. That aside, little else is revealed. The main focus of the book centers around "The Chelsea Outbreak", an intense out break of ghosts in the Chelsea area. We follow as the team investigates and against all odds solves the mystery and ends the outbreak.

I would say that this installment is less interesting than the last. After everything that happened in "The Whispering Skull" I though the book would continue at that pace. However this books feels a bit like filler. In "The Hollow Boy" it felt like we were simply tying up loose ends from the previous book. Lucy and Lockwood's relationship is still on tenuous grounds, Lucy's ability to talk to ghosts in still increasing etc etc. And ultimately at the end of the book they are resolved with a cliff hanger.

Overall, I feel like the next installment will move the series along more now that things are in motion. I would say, however, that while I enjoyed reading "The Hollow Boy" its almost felt like the events could have been shortened and added to the end of "The Whispering Skull" and we would be in the same place without having lost anything important.