Hollow Kingdom

Hollow Kingdom (2019), a science fiction fantasy novel by American author Kira Jane Buxton, imagines a post-apocalyptic world in which humans have so polluted the world and their bodies and that they become zombies, leaving pets and wild animals to fend for themselves. It features anthropomorphized versions of animals as its protagonists and antagonists. PEN/Faulkner award-winning author Karen Joy Fowler accurately described the book as "The Secret Lives of Pets meets The Walking Dead." At the end of 2019, Hollow Kingdom was included on a number of Best of the Year lists including ones published by NPR, Book Riot, and Good Housekeeping.

Hollow Kingdom's protagonist is a domesticated pet crow named S.T., which stands for "Shit Turd." S.T.'s affinity for foul language and junk food—especially Cheetos—is inherited from his owner Big Jim, a loutish drunk living in Seattle who spends his days reading pornographic magazines and hooking up with women on Tinder. S.T. also lives with Big Jim's mute, dimwitted, and incredibly sweet bloodhound, Dennis. While Big Jim is by any measure a pretty massive jerk, S.T. loves his oafish owner who, after all, provides the crow with all the Cheetos he can eat.

Then comes the day when Big Jim's eyeballs fall out of his sockets. Something isn't right, S.T. concludes. S.T. picks up a beer with his beak and tries to pour it into Big Jim's mouth, but the owner doesn't respond. Nor does he respond when Dennis approaches him with slobbering love. After conferring with his wild crow rivals through the window, S.T. realizes that humanity has fallen victim to some sort of zombifying agent, likely of its own making. Among the animals, humans come to be known as Hollows: "Milky-eyed machines intent on destruction, empty vessels that have lost their inner intelligence." For S.T.'s part, he refers to humanity as "MoFos," because that is what Big Jim used to call most of his fellow humans.



With his sidekick Dennis, S.T. leaves the comfort of domestication for the wild, where he hopes to find a cure for Big Jim along with the rest of humanity. He also sets about freeing other domestic pets trapped inside with their rotting owners. S.T. and Dennis rescue a group of cats, who describe their owners as "mediocre servants." Freed from their domiciles, the pets encounter all-new dangers, particularly from massive predators that escape the Seattle Zoo. The pets chatter to one another through a complex animal network called the Aura, their version of the Internet.

Throughout S.T.'s attempts to free trapped pets and avoid terrifying super-predators from the zoo, he longs for humanity's return. In addition to Big Jim, S.T. loves the countless humans he used to see on television, which was on in his house almost constantly. Part of S.T.'s spiritual journey involves finding a place in a world without humans. While he has empathy for other pets, S.T. has a number of biases and prejudices toward other animals, particularly wild birds like seagulls and penguins. However, S.T. comes to learn, for example, that the snarky murder of crows who have now taken over the university campus is just as clever as any human television stars. He learns to build his own identity while letting go of his desire to not only be with humans but to become one. Frankly, it is a strikingly poignant character arc for a crow named Shit Turd. While he never accepts his fellow crows' evaluation of humanity as "a plague on the earth, not able to control their consumption of the land, and so Nature did it for them," S.T. eventually adjusts to a world without humans.

As S.T. lets go of his old life to lead the smaller animals against super-predators like lions, his relationship with Dennis evolves as well. While the mute Dennis is largely a holdover from his former life of domestication, the bloodhound is also a source of constant if silent support as S.T. struggles to navigate the big and wild world.



In the end, the book reveals that it is not nature that ends humanity by turning them into zombies, it is cell phones. The reason for humanity's decline, however, is less important to the broader narrative than S.T.'s personal journey, which Buxton renders here with both humor and heart.