Hollow Pike: The Soundtrack

I am beyond THRILLED that I am taking part in the blog tour for Hollow Pike by James Dawson. I simply LOVE this book so when Nina from Indigo asked, there was no hesitation!

As part of the tour, James takes over the blog today and chats about the music he listened while he wrote this. All the music will be at the bottom of the post so you guys can listen to it. So, I hand it over to James...

Music is so important to the writing process. As a writer, I use music to evoke a character or create an atmosphere. While writing new teen thriller, Hollow Pike, I used a mix. For the nightmare scenes, I downloaded soundtracks to films like The Shining or Scream. If it was a scene with Lis London and her friends, I plundered Paramore albums or Suede (which I listened to when I was fifteen!).

Once the book was finished, I would hear songs and think ‘that is SO Hollow Pike’. I started to build up a playlist, which you can access here! Here’s a track by track breakdown of how each song is perfect for the story.

1. Bird Engine – ‘Phantom Limb’: If there was a Hollow Pike TV series, this would be the theme tune. ‘I don’t like the look of this at all…’
2. Oh Land – ‘Wolf and I’: This haunting ballad really evokes that state somewhere between sleep and waking, and I think captures Lis’s dreams perfectly.
3. Florrie – ‘She Always Gets What She Wants’: This is the Laura Rigg song. Read the book and you’ll see why!
4. Stuart Warwick – ‘Misplaced Hearts’: More dream territory, but this one also sums up how lonely Lis is when she first arrives in Hollow Pike.
5. Nicola Roberts – ‘Sticks + Stones’: Lis has a hard time at school, but tries to keep her head up. This song really captures the private anguish of bullying.
6. Dragonette – ‘Animale’: Chapter 5 sees a big party for the characters, and this is perfect ‘entrance’ music to strut to!
7. Sleigh Bells – ‘Kids’: Another perfect strutting song. You hear this and you need to slow-motion catwalk. Perfect for Kitty, Delilah and Jack and their ‘battle march’!
8. Cocknbullkid – ‘Adulthood’: ‘Is this it?’ the singer asks of growing up. Lis and her friends have some big problems to tackle. No one ever said it was going to be easy, Lis.
9. Metronomy – ‘She Wants’: This one is about Lis and Danny. There’s a lot of intimacy and desire in this song. I suppose this is Danny’s love song to Lis.
10. Zola Jesus – ‘Night’: And this is Lis’s love song to Danny!
11. Foster The People – ‘Houdini’: A perfect song for the ‘sleepover scene’ with Lis and her friends and a lot of ice-cream!
12. Us Baby Bear Bones – ‘Ghosts’: Lis is haunted by Hollow Pike, and this song really describes her feelings about the town.
13. Teeth of the Sea – ‘Cemetery Magus’: At the end, Lis is in great danger as she finally faces her real life nightmare. This song is the chase song.
14. Suede – ‘Beautiful Ones’. If I had one wish, it’s that Girls Aloud would cover this for the end credits. It’s never going to happen, but there I SAID IT.

A lot of the artists aren’t so well-known, but I hope you enjoy! Stick it on in the background and open Hollow Pike at page 1…













Cemetery MagusCemetery Magus by Teeth of the Sea

GoodRead - Hollow Pike

I have no idea how I became aware of James Dawson and his debut novel, Hollow Pike. I think we met via Twitter where we randomly chatted about the casting of Peeta and Gale in the upcoming Hunger Games movie. I think we both agree that, while the two male actors were good choices, they really should have the others role. Random trivia (which I am surprised that I actually remember) but after random tweets, I discovered he had a novel in the works and I got excited. Then, at Indigo's launch party, I discovered the cover and, also, that I wasn't the only person excited about this book. Several book bloggers were quite excited about this book. YEAH! And then, in late November, James threw a contest. Nominate a cool book blogger and they will win an ARC of the book. I nominated Emma from Book Angel Booktopia (here's her review of this book). And my nomination won. And then, James turned round and said "Oh, by the way. As an Xmas present, both nominator and nominatee will win a copy!"

So, I got my copy SUPER EARLY! (I feel I have to explain the whole, slightly weird saga as... well... you guys should know that, in my life ATM, this is exciting!)

So, the story of Hollow Pike. Lis London is moving from her home in Wales to Hollow Pike. But that doesn't seem to help her. She keeps having a nightmare that she's going to murder. And when she sees the copse, she realise that this is the place in her nightmares.

But she doesn't believe in nightmares nor the local tales of witchcraft. Until a terrible thing happens that forces herself to think again...

Now... what can I say? I EFFING LOVE THIS BOOK! Not going to swear, but this book is so great! And it's a debut novel and the fact that this has such a strong reaction from me is amazing!

I want to talk about the subject that this book raises: bullying. This book very much shows the effects of bullying. Lis left her home in Wales because of terrible bullying she faced. Only to walk again into bullying, and it's nasty bullying. There were scenes that some people might find shocking (the use of fake emails, for example) but it doesn't surprise me and just reflects the levels some people will go to. But I think James tackled this issue with a good amount of care but was unflinching over it. I found this brave.

And then, James turns the book on its head and throws us a murder mystery. And not just a typical murder mystery, but the idea of witchcraft being involved. And he seems to blend the genres of this book together with the greatest of ease, and it was always interesting to see where he took me next as the twists were always there, lurking in the darkness of Hollow Pike's copse...

I had very high standards for this book. And Hollow Pike met each and every one of them. And excelled them all. Keep an eye on James Dawson. He is going to be huge! I demand his next book AT ONCE!

Cover Reveal - Hollow Pike

On Tuesday, I went to the Indigo Launch Party and, before it has its OFFICIAL release the following day (revealed on the author's website) for James Dawson's debut novel, HOLLOW PIKE. Now, am quite excited about this book and am hoping to get my hands on this early next year when the book is released in February 2012. And here it is:



Do you like? I like it! A lot! It's very fairy tale but there's something creepy about it. And from the little info that has been released, I'm really excited about it. And here's the info from Amazon.co.uk

When Lis London moves to Hollow Pike, she's looking forward to starting afresh in a new town, but when she sees the local forest she realizes that not everything here is new to her. She's seen the wood before - in a recurring nightmare where someone is trying to kill her! Lis tells herself there's nothing to her bad dreams, or to the legends of witchcraft and sinister rituals linked with Hollow Pike. She's settling in, making friends, and even falling in love - but then a girl is found murdered in the forest. Suddenly, Lis doesn't know who to trust anymore...