The Hollows Insider: New Fiction, Facts, Maps, Murders, and More in the World of Rachel Morgan Paperback – Illustrated, August 13, 2013

I had no idea of what to expect when it came to a world book. I'd surely never read one before, so I was anticipating something fairly close to a textbook, which generally = boring. This was certainly information rich, but boring is was not. In fact, it's fantastic.The theme is genius. It kicks off with the Hollows humor we all know and love, instantly drawing you in. It's basically told from the POV of an innocent bystander of one of Rachel's spells gone hilariously wrong in her early days as an I.S. Intern. He takes his grudge to the next level and spends time spying and collecting information on our favorite itchy witch and the supporting Hollows characters. He works for the local Inderlander paper and his goal is to expose Rachel. He's not having an easy time of it which makes things all the more entertaining, so in turn this is how we learn about everything from species facts, character profiles, maps, magic spells, demon curses, recipes, music lyrics and more.Normally when I crack open a Hollows book I want a new story, but reading about the Hollows world is quite fascinating and surprisingly enough while I already knew some of the facts, I did learn a couple of new things when it came to character insights and spells. It repeats some lines a couple of times depending on the sections, but I didn't find it annoying. You can tell Harrison really did her homework. She references the smallest things from the previous novels, even Rachel and Ivy's mistakenly suggestive Yellow Page ad from Book 3. I also liked the clarification of the different magic types between ley line, earth, and demon magic. I wish there was a little more explanation about "wild" magic that the elves typically use, but that didn't stop my enjoyment one bit.You can skim or skip sections if you want, or you can take your time and truly absorb the information. It's definitely an adjustment to have that option for The Hollows.You pick it up and you really don't want to put it down. The layout and graphics are very nice to look at which helps a lot. Reluctantly, I couldn't read it in one sitting being the busy bee that I am, but it was on my mind until I could get back to finishing it. Heck, I want to read it TWICE and you will NEVER hear me say that about a text book!If you're an ebook reader, don't despair. It's not available in ebook format due to numerous graphics and font variations. I cannot imagine this looking remotely appealing on my kindle, or even on a color e-reader. It's a reference text and I always find reading those on an ereader to be an awful experience because I often flip back and forth between pages; ebooks just don't hold up to that for me.So yes, I found this to be a satisfying read and it no doubt sets the bar extremely high for any other world books I come across. This is highly recommended if you're a fan of The Hollows, though you will want to be caught up through Pale Demon because there are major spoilers.

This was a really interesting compilation of different things that creates a background and a frame for the books in the Rachel Morgan series. It is written as if a reporter from the paper is looking into Rachel after a spell on a bus accidentally leaves him bald. Parts of it are his journal entries, others are pages from the newspaper, files from both the FIB and I.S., recipe books, spell books, notes, memos between different characters and more. The parts I enjoyed the most were Devon Crossman's journal entries and how his need to get to the bottom of things and past the cover-ups he perceived were a part of both the government and the law enforcement agencies was frustrating him. The reader is able to watch his articles as they are censored and his hard drive wiped out. It also reveals some behind the scenes actions by different characters that I either have already forgotten about or that were not revealed before now. It is a very heavy book weight wise. My complaint is that it was hard to hold as bedtime reading, it feels like a textbook. Some of the sections were a bit dry too as they were written to be like pages from a manual or textbook, so they were this way on purpose, but some of the pages lost my interest and I skipped them like the recipes and some of the spells. If you have read the series and want more on Rachel I would recommend this. It starts at the beginning of the series and goes through the last book I read, so it covers a good deal of time and investigative work by the imaginary reporter. Also some of the photos were sent in by readers, I recall Kim Harrison doing contests on her web site for readers to send in photos that would fit into different categories and some of those were selected to be a part of the book. This was one of my birthday books in October; it just took me a while to get around to reading all of it.

In April 2004 Kim Harrison launched The Hollows series with the award winning Dead Witch Walking. There are currently nine novels in print with the 10th novel arriving in February 2012. The New York Times bestselling author will end The Hollows series with a 12th or possibly 13th novel.From the first page to the last, it is clear that Kim Harrison put the same tender loving care into this Hollows guide as she does her web site. Clearly, Harrison is still having fun with The Hollows series.The Hollows Insider is a gorgeous glossy compendium. There are lots of colorful documents from the Hollows Gazette, Inderland Security and Kalamack Industries - everything from birth certificates to expense reports to wedding invitations. There are also glossy black and white illustrations and photos throughout the book. (Fun Fact: The pictures in the Hollows Gazette articles were submitted by readers to the author for inclusion.)Each chapter starts with a Kalamack Interoffice memo, followed by an entry from Devin Crossman's Journal. After these two mainstays, the chapters vary in content, showing supporting documents from Crossman explaining why Rachel Morgan is a menace to society. At the end of each chapter is an issue of the Hollows Gazette and another Kalamack Interoffice memo:Chapter 1 - Inderland Security Internal profiles on everything from Banshees to Witches and Warlocks; Hollows Gazette April 5, 2006Chapter 2 - Church Maps, Bairn's Article and Death Certificate, Rachel's Treaties, Internal Fact Sheets on Inderland Security, Federal Inderland Bureau; Character Descriptions of Rachel Morgan, Ivy Tamwood, Jenks, Keasley, Kisten Felps; Hollows Gazette Internal Fact Sheets on Trenton Kalamack, Captain Edden and Piscary; Hollows Gazette October 4, 2006Chapter 3 - Vampire Charms Yellow Pages Ad, Earth Magic, Ley Line Magic, JOLLS - The Journal of Ley Line Studies, Hollows Gazette October December 16, 2006Chapter 4 - Betty Bob's Recipes, Character Descriptions of Ceridwen Dulciate, Dorothy Claymore Simmer and Nick Sparagmos; Hollows Gazette May 31, 2007Chapter 5 - Kisten Phelp's Death, Trenton A. Kalamack's Arrest, Kalamack/Withon Wedding Announcement, United Were Registry, Hollows Gazette July 30, 2007Chapter 6 - Spells, Summoning a Demon, 101 Earth Charms for Home and Office, Incantation to Bind a Familiar, Pentagrams and their associated uses, Takata's Lyrics, Hollows Gazette November 6, 2007Chapter 7 -Hand Drawn Maps - Cincinnati/The Hollows/Cincinnati Outskirts; Timeline, Character Descriptions - Bis, Marshal, Godian Nathaniel Pierce; full color Witch Weekly Solstice Issue December 2008, Hollows Gazette January 2, 2008Chapter 8 - Demons - What they can and cannot do, Demon Curses, Hollows Gazette April 16, 2008Chapter 9 - Winnie Gradenko's Letter, The Hollows Gazette June 20, 2008While I love every word, illustration and photo, my favorite part of the Hollows Insider is the Witch Weekly Happy Solstice Issue - December 2008. It is hard not to crack a wicked smile reading these articles:- 3 Wicked and Wonderful Brews for the New Year- 10 Signs that you are in The Hollows- 10 Signs your Room Mate is practicing the Dark Arts- Interview with the Vampire Dating Guide Author Rynn Cormel- Tunes to get your toes tapping- `Twas the Night before SolsticeI cannot thank the author enough for taking time to create this beautifully illustrated guide to The Hollows universe - including the glow in the dark cover!Diehard Rachel Morgan fans will love it.

I miss the Hollows, but this helped. It was fun and full of interesting tales.

I love the look inside the Hollows through the eyes of a human reporter and the way the story line develops parallel to the first few books is excellent. All it needed to be perfect were a few more drawings of the main characters as described in various books.

A must have for any kim harrison hollows fans, just so good. a whole new story and an indepth description of the different species present. Of course the highlight would have to be the list of Jenks curses that have been recorded lol!

I have read all the series starting by borrowing them as library books and then buying them for my kindle, this just helps when I want to re read the series.

I like all the hollows books, is why i bought it. but, it is really superficial, boring, waste of money and time spent reading it.