Hollow by Celina Myers Summary: Vampires, Secrets & Souls
Introduction
Mia Adair spent her childhood as “Case 37” in her mother’s famous parapsychology book, a girl who could see the dead.
By twenty-five, that ability has faded, and she works quietly at a chain bookstore in the coastal town of Cedar Hollow.
Then a rainstorm, a swerving car, and a maple tree change everything.
In Hollow by Celina Myers, Mia wakes inside a casket and learns that two ancient vampire Families have been watching her for years — and that her survival was never an accident.
Part gothic romance, part supernatural mystery, the novel follows Mia’s first days as a vampire while a rogue killer stalks her hometown and a centuries-old matriarch nears the end of her power.
TL;DR
The quick version: A dying bookstore clerk is turned into a vampire by a secret society, then pulled into a power struggle between two immortal Families.
- Who she is: Mia Adair, a former child medium who lost her Gift and her sense of purpose.
- The twist: Her birthday marks the moment the reigning matriarch began losing her powers. Mia is the successor.
- The romance: Margo, a Bellamy vampire turned in 1829, recognizes Mia as a soulmate she has loved before.
- The threat: Unsanctioned vampires are being created and drained for profit, and the trail leads to a matriarch.
- The core idea: Immortality as a kind of hollowness — and the choice of what to fill it with.
Characters In This Book
| Character | Role |
|---|---|
| Mia Adair | Twenty-five-year-old bookstore worker who is turned into a vampire and revealed as the next matriarch. |
| Elenora Sutton | Matriarch of the Sutton Family, turned in 1725, who turns humans without sanction and sells their blood. |
| Eli Bellamy | Matriarch of the Bellamy Family, turned alongside Elenora in 1725, and estranged from her since 1801. |
| Thea | The original matriarch and former witch who created the vampiric potion in 1725. |
| Alexander | Thea’s son and the first male vampire, who conceals his role behind a drunken-sailor persona. |
| Margo | Bellamy vampire turned in 1829 who becomes Mia’s primary romantic partner. |
| Cordelia (“Cord”) | Sutton vampire turned in 1990 who injects Mia with the turning serum. |
| Kristina “Kris” Bellamy | Bellamy vampire turned in 2008 at age twelve, skilled at casting mental Veils. |
| Luca | Sutton vampire turned in 1901 who acts as Elenora’s accomplice. |
| Gianna | Bellamy vampire turned in 1922, in love with a human man in Cedar Hollow. |
| Toby | Bellamy vampire turned in 1974 who styles Mia for her first night out. |
| Oscar | Bellamy vampire turned in 1997 after a swimming accident. |
| Alyssa Sutton | Sutton vampire turned in 1992, a former fashion model. |
| Isla | Sutton vampire turned in 1899 who turned Cordelia. |
| Miles | Sutton vampire turned in the 1930s, saved by Elenora from circus abuse. |
| Annie | Sutton vampire turned in 1830 after Eli saved her from scarlet fever. |
| Tallulah (“Talli”) | Sutton psychic vampire who sees auras and foresees Mia’s matriarchal destiny. |
| Izzy | Bellamy vampire turned in 1792 and Alexander’s former lover. |
| Dr. Elizabeth Adair | Mia’s mother, a psychiatrist and parapsychology author. |
| Sasha Adair | Mia’s twenty-year-old sister, a law student. |
| Ben Adair | Mia’s father, who died in a car crash when she was seven. |
| Mr. Horvath | Owner of Slow Burn bookstore who acted as a surrogate father to Mia. |
| Gary | Cedar Hollow cab driver killed by Elenora. |
| Cooper | The Adair family’s golden retriever. |
Read Also: Immortal Dark Summary: Vengeance, Vampires & Dark Truths
Hollow Summary: The Full Story
Spoilers ahead.
The novel opens in the winter of 1725 in Black Creek, a village already broken by drought, freeze, and fever. Eli Bellamy and Elenora Sutton marry quickly, then lose their families to the same illness.
When Eli falls terminally ill, Elenora walks to a cliff to jump. An elderly former witch named Thea stops her and offers a dark metallic potion.
Elenora and Eli drink. Alexander, Thea’s son, immediately stabs them both, and the first modern vampires are born.
Centuries later, twenty-five-year-old Mia Adair lives in Cedar Hollow, Massachusetts. As a child she saw and spoke with ghosts, and her mother, Dr. Elizabeth Adair, made her the subject “Case 37” in a bestselling parapsychology book.
Mia raised her younger sister Sasha while Elizabeth traveled to process the death of Mia’s father, Ben. Her mediumship faded over time, and she settled into a routine at a chain bookstore.
Two women begin visiting: Cordelia, a blue-haired customer who buys odd titles, and Kris, a blonde in a black sports car.
Driving home in heavy rain in her father’s old Honda, Mia swerves to avoid her golden retriever, Cooper, and crashes into a maple tree. Paralyzed and bleeding, she watches Cordelia, Kris, and a red-haired woman approach.
Cordelia injects a syringe of dark fluid into Mia’s chest. Kris Veils the responding officer and the coroner into believing Mia died instantly, while Cordelia uses healing energy to numb Elizabeth’s grief.
A funeral is held at Riddley Funeral Home, attended by vampires posing as bookstore regulars. That night, Bellamy Cremation Services retrieves the casket before cremation.
Mia wakes in pitch darkness past midnight and is freed by Cordelia. She meets two factions: the Sutton Family under Elenora and the Bellamy Family under Eli.
The vampires explain that they have beating hearts, heightened senses, and no aging, and that they feed on human blood. Cordelia’s syringe held the combined blood of every Family member, turning Mia without a bite.
Mia must spend a trial period with each Family before choosing one. She begins with the Bellamys at Noir House, an estate outside Cedar Hollow.
With Margo, Toby, Kris, and Gianna, she drinks warmed hospital blood bags and learns that blood turns her irises jet-black and brings out her fangs. She and Margo form an immediate, intense bond.
Missing her family, Mia climbs down a fire escape and takes a cab back to Cedar Hollow. Through the window she sees Elizabeth and Sasha laughing together, and decides not to intrude.
Cooper bites her arm, and the wound heals into a soft pink line. On the return trip, cab driver Gary stops for a figure in the road.
Elenora appears, slams Gary into the windshield, and forces Mia to drink his dying blood. When Margo and Kris retrieve her, they assume she is confused.
They reveal that an unsanctioned rogue vampire has been turning young locals who then vanish or turn up drained. They also note that Thea began losing her powers on February 22, 2001 — Mia’s birthday.
At the Neon Viper nightclub, Mia drinks blood laced with ecstasy from a Veiled woman named Carly. She follows Elenora into the basement and watches her feed two women from a man’s arm before slitting their throats.
Margo and Kris are skeptical, but Kris finds Carly’s heart charm in the basement drain. Later that night, Mia and Margo share an intimate encounter, and Margo says Mia feels like her true soulmate, recalling her human lover Emma.
The next day, Thea notices Mia’s father’s wedding band and identifies a black interior line as obsidian crystal, historically used by mediums to suppress supernatural Gifts.
As Mia transfers to the Suttons at the Bruce Hotel, Thea reveals that Mia is the preordained next matriarch, destined to inherit power over both Families and stop the rogue killer.
Thea also tells the story of 1801, when Elenora murdered Eli’s pregnant human lover out of jealousy, ending their marriage.
At the Bruce Hotel, Luca has replicated Mia’s childhood bedroom to comfort her. On a walk with Cordelia, Mia removes the obsidian ring and sees the ghost of Alison, a murdered Bellamy vampire — confirming her Gift has returned.
Luca arranges a private drive-in screening, but when he kisses Mia in a sea cave, she realizes he is trying to Veil her into choosing the Suttons.
Alexander privately warns Mia that Elenora has dark intentions. Kris sneaks into her bathroom to give her a metal emergency token.
A driver takes Mia to “The Closet,” an abandoned theater, for the official transfer of power. In front of Thea, Eli, and Elenora, Mia refuses the Sutton Family.
She accuses Elenora of turning unsanctioned vampires, harvesting their blood, and selling it to the wealthy Darwrite family to stall human aging. Elenora laughs and confesses.
She has consumed the blood of young vampires for decades and mutates into a giant, multi-fanged black monster. She reveals the unconscious Sutton Family on stage, kills Alyssa and Annie with quartz stakes, decapitates Thea, and mortally wounds Eli. Luca is her accomplice.
Kris passes Mia her father’s obsidian ring, which Alexander had retrieved. When Mia puts it on, Thea’s full matriarchal power surges into her in a blinding white light.
Mia stomps her foot, projects silver energy, absorbs Elenora’s stolen memories, and kills both Elenora and Luca — accidentally setting the dry theater ablaze.
In the aftermath, the surviving members of both Families flee Cedar Hollow as one group, the Adair Family, with Mia as matriarch.
As Margo rests her head on Mia’s shoulder, Mia notices the black line in her father’s ring has become a vein of purple amethyst. A police officer signals their car to pull over, and the officer addresses Mia by name.
It is her deceased father, Ben Adair, looking exactly as he did the day he died.
Read Also: Twilight by Stephenie Meyer Summary: A Gripping Vampire Romance
Summary by Chapter
Spoilers below. Hollow contains 23 sections: an Author’s Note, a Prologue, twenty chapters, and an Epilogue.
Prologue
In 1725, Black Creek suffers drought, freeze, and a fatal fever. Eli Bellamy and Elenora Sutton lose their families, and when Eli falls ill, Thea and Alexander offer a metallic potion. Elenora and Eli drink it, and Alexander stabs them both, creating the first modern vampires.
Chapter 1
Mia Adair, twenty-five, lives in Cedar Hollow and was once famous as “Case 37” in her mother’s parapsychology book. She raised her sister Sasha while Elizabeth traveled after Ben’s death. Her mediumship has faded, leaving her aimless at a chain bookstore.
Chapter 2
At work, Mia watches Cordelia arrive with a blonde woman named Kris. Cordelia buys The Virgin Suicides and asks Mia cryptically whether she would be okay if everything ended today. Mia recalls foreseeing the ghost of bookstore owner Mr. Horvath six years earlier.
Chapter 3
Driving home in heavy rain, Mia notices several cars trailing her. Cooper dashes into the road, and Mia crashes into a maple tree. Paralyzed and bleeding, she feels oddly peaceful as Cordelia injects a metallic syringe of dark fluid into her chest.
Chapter 4
Kris Veils the police officer into believing Mia died on impact. Cordelia holds Elizabeth and uses healing energy to ease her grief, while Kris Veils her and the coroner. No autopsy is performed.
Chapter 5
Cordelia and Izzy follow the coroner’s van to the morgue, where Mia’s body is stored without embalming fluid. A funeral is arranged, and vampires attend posing as bookstore customers while Sasha delivers a eulogy. Afterward, Bellamy Cremation Services takes the casket.
Chapter 6
Past midnight, both Families gather as Mia wakes inside the casket. Kris tells her bluntly that she is a vampire, which Mia rejects at first. Elenora and Eli explain that Cordelia used a syringe of combined Family blood to turn her without a bite.
Chapter 7
Members of both Families introduce themselves and share their human origins. Elenora explains that Mia will spend a trial period with each Family before choosing. When the vampires display their fangs as proof, Mia faints.
Chapter 8
Mia wakes in a sports car driven by Margo, heading to Noir House with Kris and Toby. At breakfast, Eli serves warmed hospital blood and explains that vampires use blood banks. Mia’s eyes turn black and her fangs emerge, and she sees the change in the bathroom mirror.
Chapter 9
Margo explains vampire biology: they have reflections, beating hearts, and can digest food. She notes that quartz crystals or the matriarch can kill them, and that Thea’s powers have weakened. Margo shows Mia her new bedroom and a wardrobe curated by Alyssa.
Chapter 10
Mia finds a family photo and $10,000 from Eli, then climbs down the fire escape and runs to Cedar Hollow. She visits her crash site and peers through her family’s window, seeing Elizabeth and Sasha laughing. She chooses not to enter, and Cooper’s bite heals into a pink line.
Chapter 11
On the return ride, Gary stops for a figure in the road, and Elenora appears and forces Mia to drink his dying blood. The Bellamys explain that a rogue vampire has been turning locals who vanish or turn up drained. Margo reveals Thea began losing power on Mia’s birthday.
Chapter 12
The Bellamys style Mia for a night out, and the group goes to the Neon Viper. Mia drinks from a Veiled woman named Carly before Margo stops her and heals Carly. Mia follows Elenora to the basement and watches her slit two women’s throats; later only Carly’s necklace remains.
Chapter 13
After the club closes, Mia and Margo share an intimate encounter at Noir House. Margo says kissing Mia feels like a soulmate connection she has not felt in centuries. She recounts how her human lover Emma was executed before Eli turned her in 1829.
Chapter 14
Mia wakes refreshed and joins Eli and Gianna for an outdoor barbecue. Thea arrives in a wheelchair, notices Mia’s father’s wedding band, and identifies the black line as obsidian crystal used to dampen Gifts. Margo gives Mia a gold necklace reading “Yours.”
Chapter 15
Alexander drives Thea and Mia to the Bruce Hotel. Thea reveals that a new matriarch was born on Mia’s birthday and that Talli identified Mia as the successor. She also shares that Elenora murdered Eli’s pregnant human lover in 1801 out of jealousy.
Chapter 16
Cordelia and Luca tour Mia through the Suttons’ private wing. Mia is moved to find her childhood bedroom painstakingly replicated. Cordelia distributes a golden potion from Thea that lets vampires withstand sunlight, and Elenora later feeds on a hotel clerk in front of Mia.
Chapter 17
At dinner, Elenora dismisses Mia’s account of Gary’s death and tries to turn her against Kris and the Bellamys. She claims to see auras and says Kris’s fluctuates between green and black. Mia realizes Elenora is attempting a Veil and pretends to accept her words.
Chapter 18
Cordelia walks Mia through the hotel forest and shares memories of being turned in 1990. Mia sees the ghost of a woman in a red dress, later identified from a photo as Alison, a murdered Bellamy vampire. Luca later stages a private drive-in screening, and Kris leaves a warning note that Gary’s body is missing.
Chapter 19
Cordelia and Mia enter Cedar Hollow General Hospital in scrubs and take blood bags and visit the children’s ward, where Cordelia eases a dying boy’s suffering. At a sea cave, Mia realizes Luca is Veiling her and confronts him. Alexander warns her not to choose the Suttons, and Kris gives her an emergency token.
Chapter 20
At “The Closet,” Mia accuses Elenora of creating unsanctioned vampires and selling their blood to the Darwrite family. Elenora confesses, drinks stored vampire blood, and mutates into a multi-fanged monster. She kills Alyssa, Annie, and Thea and wounds Eli. Mia puts on her father’s obsidian ring, receives Thea’s power, and destroys Elenora and Luca as the theater burns.
Epilogue
The surviving vampires flee Cedar Hollow as the unified Adair Family under Mia. Margo rests her head on Mia’s shoulder, and Mia sees the black line in her father’s ring has become purple amethyst. A police officer pulls them over and addresses Mia by name — it is her dead father, Ben.
Continue Reading: On Wings of Blood Summary: Unflinching Dark Paranormal Romance in a Vampire Academy
Book Snapshot
- Genre & Subgenre: Dark Urban Fantasy / Paranormal Vampire Romance
- Core Narrative Tropes: Secret supernatural society, found family, immortality, reincarnation and soulmates, chosen heir
- Tone & Atmosphere: Melancholic, gothic, suspenseful, romantic, atmospheric
- Primary Conflict: Mia’s struggle to accept her death and vampire nature against Elenora’s rogue turning and blood-harvesting operation
- Pacing Style: Fast-paced, blending 1725 flashbacks, supernatural mystery, romantic tension, and a climactic confrontation
- Book Structure: 23 sections — Author’s Note, Prologue, 20 chapters, Epilogue
- Publisher: Hanover Square Press
- Publication Date: January 13, 2026
- Pages: 304
- ISBN-10: 0778387852
- ISBN-13: 978-0778387855
Books Like Hollow
Crave by Tracy Wolff — A gothic paranormal setting with ancient vampire factions, strict rules, and a human protagonist who undergoes a sudden supernatural transformation.
A Dowry of Blood by S.T. Gibson — A dark, lyrical account of centuries-long relationships and power struggles inside an immortal vampire household.
The Coldest Girl in Coldtown by Holly Black — Gritty urban fantasy about vampire outbreaks, blood addiction, and missing young people in a dangerous town.
House of Night series by P.C. Cast and Kristin Cast — A young woman with a rare Gift is pushed toward a matriarchal destiny inside a vampire society split by ideology.
Interview with the Vampire by Anne Rice — Melancholic immortality, moral tension around feeding, and an emotionally charged maker-and-offspring dynamic.
The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampines by Grady Hendrix — A small-town vampire threat, missing locals, and a protagonist who alone suspects the truth.
Dead Until Dark by Charlaine Harris — A Southern supernatural mystery with vampires living openly, a telepathic heroine, and a romantic entanglement.
Is there detailed sexual content, like actual descriptions of genitalia or intercourse? My teenage daughter is asking for this as a gift but I don’t want to get it if it will describe sexual acts.
Thank you.
Don’t worry, the book is for young adult.