I love a book with a strong aesthetic. Give me something that really commits to the dark academia, totally dives into a witchy fantasy vibe or fully immerses me in a narrative steeped in its historical setting. But what I don’t like is when a book’s aesthetic promises take the reins over the story quality, and that is, unfortunately, exactly what happens in Juneau Black’s “Shady Hollow.”
“Shady Hollow” takes place in the fictional animal-only town of — you guessed it — Shady Hollow and follows reporter Vera Vixen, a new-to-town fox who is always looking for the latest, juiciest scoop for a story. At the start of the novel, the town curmudgeon, a toad named Otto Sumpf, is found dead, and when Vera discovers that his death was potentially a murder, she gets right on the case.
Vera is a fine protagonist. She is your stereotypical plucky, young woman with a knack for sarcasm who just so happens to be a fox. She’s really smart and manages to make pretty sound decisions throughout the book. Vera is one of the highlights of the story for me.
Some of the side characters are also quite compelling. Joe, the moose who owns the local coffee shop, is one of my favorites. He is quiet, adorable and a joy to read about. The objectively best character, though, is Lenore Lee, Vera’s raven best friend who runs Shady Hollow’s bookstore. Listen, I love any Edgar Allen Poe reference, and Lenore brings a genuinely grounded perspective to the story that I enjoyed when reading.
Despite the decent character work going on in the novel, the actual plot is thin at best. I predicted every, and I mean every, twist in this entire book 50 pages before it happened. Every plot point in this book is your typical thoughtless, run-of-the-mill mystery trope that plagues the episodes of “Murder, She Wrote” and the like. The plot is truly where “Shady Hollow” is, well, hollow.
Also, one of my larger issues with this novel — though published a year earlier — is that it’s literally Disney’s “Zootopia” (2016) in book form. Without spoiling anything, a good deal of the character archetypes and even plot points in this novel are eerily similar to “Zootopia.”
I really don’t like how much I don’t like this book. It isn’t terrible or anything, but it is, unfortunately, generic. There are so many fun and creative ways to write an animal, cottage-core cozy mystery, but forsaking plot for silly gimmicks is definitely not the way to go.
If you’re just looking for a book that’s a mindless and easy read, are a fan of books about anthropomorphic animals or loved “Little Bear” so much as a kid that you’ve been craving nothing but its slightly grown-up murder mystery equivalent, then “Shady Hollow” is the book for you. But if you’re more like me, and like even the most aesthetically pleasing books to have plots that really keep you thinking, then maybe go and read something else.