House of Hollow

As a modern gothic fairy tale, the novel includes several tropes of classic fairy tales and supernatural stories that are meant to interrogate the characters’—and the reader’s—relationship to the natural world. These supernatural elements and recognizable story structures also foreshadow plot points to both develop suspense and help readers solve the story’s mysteries. From the start, Sutherland incorporates elements of dark fairy tales, such as the “weird sisters” trope (Iris, Vivi, and Grey’s seemingly inexplicable bond), the sisters’ supernatural powers (intoxication through touch), and the sudden appearance of a stranger in young Iris’s room (in the Prologue). Sutherland invites this comparison explicitly with her frequent use of terms like “fairy tale” and “dark fairy tale,” beginning with Grey kissing the intruder: “It was a soft kiss right out of a fairy tale, made gruesome by the fact that the woman’s chin was slick with our mother’s blood” (2). This dark tone is further established through the sisters’ otherworldly beauty (black eyes and white hair), and constant mentions of skin, which alludes to the sisters’ identities as changelings. The novel’s use of both the secret and subtle (the sisters’ inexplicable bond and powers) and the more overt (the sisters’ unusual looks) mirrors fairy tales that explore morality through easily legible signifiers like physical appearance: the “beautiful,” virtuous princess, or the “grotesque” monster. In incorporating the fantastical fairy tales challenge assumptions about reality to teach lessons about human nature—with characters’ physical appearances not always being what they seem.

Sutherland also hints at the sisters’ past through historical details related to the supernatural. When Iris asks Vivi why they’re so strange, the latter says, “There have always been people like us, Iris. Look in any history book, any folklore: witches, mediums, Wiccans. [...] We’re connected to the world and to each other in a different way” (62). Vivi’s mentions of folklore and witches attempts to legitimize the sisters’ traumatic past by claiming that the supernatural is, in fact, a persistent aspect of existence and human history. Furthermore, previous individuals associated with magic, especially women, have shared Iris’s fears and insecurities about being considered an outsider or appearing strange. This equation of history and the supernatural also reinforces the elusive nature of the Halfway, a place partially occupied by those who left their mark on the living world even after death. Some fairy tales do include literal historical truths, especially those inspired by real people, events, or societal dangers, but Sutherland also suggests that the boundary between fact and fiction in fairytales may be as undefined as the boundary between life and death in the novel. Sutherland suggests that fairytales may carry emotional truths that are most successfully expressed through symbolism and metaphor, rather than literal.

Iris responds to Vivi’s reflection by saying she feels there’s “something wrong” with her, that there is “something rotten on the inside,” which again hints at the sisters’ stolen skin (62). Imagery related to decay (carrion flowers, dead leaves, insects, etc.), as well as Grey describing the bull-man as a “fairy tale creature” and the Halfway’s animals being “creatures from a terrible fairy tale” (256), detail both the natural and unnatural deterioration of living things. This further hints at the sisters’ past and allows Iris and Vivi to move on with their lives despite learning of Grey’s murders: Like the outsiders of history, the younger sisters learn to accept and live by the natural (their personal beliefs and personalities) and “unnatural” parts of themselves (their circumstances).