The Corruption of Hollis Brown
by K. Ancrum
High School    Harper/HarperCollins    384 pp.
4/25    9780063285835    $19.99
e-book ed.  9780063285842    $10.99

High school senior Hollis Brown, who is violently bullied at school, believes he will be stuck in his “podunk” rural Midwestern town for his whole adult life. His circumstances change drastically when a random encounter leads to a spirit inhabiting his body. Enter Walt, a young man who once lived in Rose Town, the now-abandoned and haunted area adjacent to Hollis’s hometown. While Walt’s initial possession of Hollis’s body is frightening, the two eventually grow to understand each other, and the experience helps Hollis build confidence and better relate to others around him. They eventually work together to tackle some of the unfinished supernatural business haunting Rose Town, conveyed through convincing, vivid descriptions of the intersection of the physical and metaphysical worlds. Ancrum’s narrative style is distinctive, especially in the depiction of the singular situation of Walt and Hollis inhabiting one body. This engaging thriller explores an unusual LGBTQ+ romance, coming of age, and how the present is rooted in the past.

From the ">May/June 2025 issue of The Horn Book Magazine.