The Hollow One by Corinne Westbrook

Corinne Westbrook is a writer and journalist whose work explores the darker edges of art, music, and storytelling. She has written for outlets including Metal Injection and Knotfest, covering album reviews, features, annual Top Albums lists, and cultural commentary rooted in the strange and unconventional.

Raised in rural Oregon, Corinne discovered her love of writing early. Her first poem was published when she was ten years old. A lifelong horror devotee, she grew up staying up late with friends to watch Tales from the Crypt, drawn to stories that blur the line between the real and the unreal.

She believes the most haunting stories often have roots in reality. While The Hollow One is a work of fiction, it is shaped by emotional truths and experiences pulled from real life. This novel is her debut in long-form fiction.

In the quiet of a rundown house at the edge of town, a young girl named Ellie carries more than any child should. With a mother who is barely present and a baby brother who depends on her for everything, Ellie survives by staying small, silent, and unseen.

But something has started to knock at the window.

The figure lurking outside looks like her father, talks like him, remembers the lullabies he used to sing, but Ellie knows better than to trust too easily. Still, something in her aches to let him in—and once she does, he keeps coming back.

Told through the eyes of a child trying to make sense of a world that’s forgotten her, The Hollow One is a literary horror story about longing, memory, and the quiet danger of being unseen. Atmospheric, intimate, and deeply unsettling, this is a ghost story where the scariest things are not what lurk in the dark, but what’s already inside the house.