Kira Jane Buxton, Hollow Kingdom

Dirty, rambunctious, disruptive, funny, intense, committed: it sounds like an excellent rugby teammate, but actually that's how I'd describe Kira Jane Buxton's novel Hollow Kingdom.

Clearly, it's not for everyone. I've got lots of readers in my life who I wouldn't direct toward a zombie apocalypse novel, and more I wouldn't direct toward a novel where the main character has much to say about farts, testicles, and masturbation. This novel is both of those, and it's a treat. As Effin' Birds might say, Hollow Kingdom is a goddamned delight, and their t-shirt for that slogan features precisely the correct bird.

Because in fact Hollow Kingdom is about the journey, after the humans dissolve into a zombie apocalypse, of a domesticated crow named S.T., along with his fellow denizen of the lamented Big Jim's house, Dennis the bloodhound, and a cast of thousands.

It's a very birdy sort book, Hollow Kingdom, so much so that it's blurbed by Helen MacDonald, late of the wildly celebrated bird-centric book H Is for Hawk. It's not an educational book, even though I felt like I did learn things about birds, but I will say that Buxton is remarkably committed to the bit. Among novels with animal narrators, this one deserves a very high ranking.

Maybe that's because S.T., whose full name is (get the smelling salts ready) Shit Turd, is domesticated, to the point that he can use human language, is utterly addicted to Cheetos, and uses his human Big Jim's terms for everything. (People are "MoFos," for example; that's the only term S.T. uses for them.) Buxton has to imagine the interior life now of a wild bird, but a domesticated one, and that's a really helpful bridge for readers of this novel who--as the story develops--need to connect with urban animals as well, and eventually maybe even some wilder ones.

The plot goes some very surprising places, so I'm not going to say much more about it. I was gripped by the narrative, and I really appreciated the attentiveness to setting (through what Buxton imagines to be the sensory apparatus of various creatures, not just humans), but for me the character of S.T. is what I'll carry for a while. Although Hollow kingdom isn't for everyone, and usually I'm not big on apocalyptic fiction, this novel was just what I wanted to read at this point.

On the other hand, I was interested to see how negative some readers have been about this novel. I'm not linking to any of those, but I disagreed with most of those, and I think Buxton's doing something very right to provoke as much of a response as she has. Not every book has its own Wikipedia page, and fewer still have one that's both brief AND full with spoilers, and that mentions not just its awards and nominations but also snide remarks from isolated reviewers. (It feels like a hater just might be a Wikipedia editor, except that the rough edges have been sanded off by other editors.) A novel that's easy to dismiss gets dismissed; Buxton has done something with Hollow Kingdom that's less easy to get over, and I'm glad she's found the success with it that she has.

And yeah, I'm excited about the sequel, Feral Creatures!