Project and content management for Contemporary Authors volumes
WORK TITLE: The Hollow
WORK NOTES:
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WEBSITE: https://www.nicolebarrell.com/
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NATIONALITY: American
RESEARCHER NOTES:
PERSONAL
Married.
EDUCATION:University of Massachusetts Amherst Commonwealth Honors College, B.A.; Emerson College, M.A., 2015.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Writer, copywriter, and novelist. Works as a freelance writer.
WRITINGS
SIDELIGHTS
Nicole Barrell grew up in the small village of Harwich, Cape Cod, Massachusetts. She is a freelance writer who studied journalism as an undergraduate and received her master’s degree in publishing and writing. She primarily has works in the areas of web redesign, maintenance, eCommerce, copywriting, and editing. According to her website, Barrell enjoys the intersection of writing and technology in her work. Barrell began writing a novel during a time of extreme upheaval in her life. Her husband found a lump in her breast, and it was discovered that Barrell had breast cancer. She was subsequently successfully treated for the disease.
Farrell’s debut novel, The Hollow, tells the story of Elli Frites, a single, twenty-four-year old who leads a staid an unfulfilling life. She lives in Boston and works in a cubicle as a customer service representative for a tech company. Ellie spends her evenings in bars and clubs with a few friends and is on her way to becoming an alcoholic. In addition, her relationships with men do not last, but she is dating a man named Tim. On one of her rare trips to her hometown of Marshside on Cape Cod in April 2009, Ellie has a disturbing hallucination in which she sees her old middle-school classmate, Maxine Lang, standing beaten and bloodied in the nearby woods called the Hollow. The visions persist and become more intricate and detailed as they go on. As a result, Ellie begins to recover memories about an incident in 1996 when she was only eleven years old that occurred following her father’s death from cancer. The incident seemed to have involved Maxine and another friend named Lauren Vine.
In real life, Ellie has never gotten over her father’s death and is still mourning him more than a decade after he died. As Ellie’s visions and memories become more intricate and detailed, she finds herself remembering more and more about her life in the sixth grade and something terrible that happened in the Hollow. Ellie long ago lost touch with Maxine and Lauren and has no idea what happened to them. When she asks her estranged mother and her old friend Sarah, who is one of the reasons Ellie lost touch with Ellie and Maxine, whether the two girls moved to another school or out of town, neither provide her with answers.
Once she returns to Boston, Ellie begins seeing psychologist Elizabeth Rollins who uses hypnotherapy to help Ellie determine what aspects of her visions and dreams are based on real incidents. Barrell depicts Ellie’s various sessions with her psychotherapist who delves deeper and deeper into Ellie’s psyche and memories. Through psychotherapy and hypnosis, Ellie begins to realize that her feelings of failure and inadequacy come from a traumatic incident in her past that has inhibited her throughout life. Most disturbing are Ellie’s dreams of running through the Hollow chasing someone and having the feeling that something bad has happened to Maxine. As Ellie begins to recover more and more of her memories and starts to try and find out what happened that day in the woods, she learns that somebody is intent on keeping the truth hidden. Furthermore, she soon finds that her life and the life of her boyfriend, Tim, are in danger. The novel’s climax revolves around how Ellie was betrayed by her mother, who has kept an early life tragedy hidden from her daughter.
Barrell “shows the subtle, positive changes in the main character’s life as she slowly discovers what’s been haunting her,” wrote a Kirkus Reviews Online contributor, who went on to note the “believable” characters and to call Barrell’s debut “a promising novel that skillfully uncovers obstacles for its protagonist to overcome.” A Publishers Weekly contributor remarked: “Readers will look forward to seeing more of the plausibly flawed Ellie.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Publishers Weekly, April 30, 2018, review of The Hollow, p. 43.
ONLINE
Kirkus Reviews Online, https://www.kirkusreviews.com/ (January 3, 2018), review of The Hollow.
Nicole Barrell website, https://www.nicolebarrell.com (August 28, 2018).
LIKES :
Dogs
Lasagna
A League of their Own
low tide on the bayside
ORGANIZATIONS THAT SAVED MY LIFE AND ALLOW ME TO ENJOY THE ABOVE :
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
Brigham & Women's Hospital
Bodhi Mind and Yoga, non-profit
Livestrong
Read Full Story in Duxbury Clipper
WRITER | DIGITAL MARKETING | CONTENT MANAGEMENT
In 2015, I graduated from Emerson College with a MA in Publishing & Writing. My BA is in Journalism from UMass Amherst's Commonwealth College. I've been working with websites and writing copy in some capacity for the last 11 years.
I love writing and technology and learning how the two constantly and increasingly intersect. Oh, and I also wrote a book! It's a thriller called THE HOLLOW. I coded the ebook myself. (Ultimately though, I had to scrap it, capitulating to the almighty 'Zon and their proprietary ways.)
I'm currently at work (slow as molasses) on the sequel. I'm not sure what "slow as molasses" actually means but I will look that up now now. See? I am a journalist at heart.
Available for freelance projects in web redesign, maintenance, eCommerce, copywriting, and editing.
The Hollow
Publishers Weekly. 265.18 (Apr. 30, 2018): p43.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2018 PWxyz, LLC
http://www.publishersweekly.com/
Full Text:
The Hollow
Nicole Barrell. CreateSpace, $11.95 trade paper (270p) ISBN 978-1-543248-58-6
In April 2009, Ellie Frites, the forlorn 24-year-old narrator of Barrell's suspenseful thriller, makes one of her rare trips from Boston, where she has an unsatisfying customer service job for a tech company and drinks too much, to her hometown of Marshside on Cape Cod. There she has a vision of her former middle school classmate Maxine Lang covered in blood and standing in the "creepy woods in the center of town" known as the Hollow. Following that vision comes a "boatload of other weird stuff' as Ellie begins to remember more about what happened when she was 11 years old in 1996, shortly after her father's death from cancer. Back in Boston, with the aid of a therapist and hypnosis, Ellie struggles to separate out what, if anything, from her dreams is based on reality. These dreams, which include images of Ellie herself chasing someone through the Hollow, focus on something bad happening to Maxine. Barrell delays the truth about the events of 1996 effectively. Readers will look forward to seeing more of the plausibly flawed Ellie. (BookLife)
Source Citation (MLA 8th Edition)
"The Hollow." Publishers Weekly, 30 Apr. 2018, p. 43. General OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A537852255/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=ITOF&xid=1713f01c. Accessed 13 Aug. 2018.
Gale Document Number: GALE|A537852255
THE HOLLOW
by Nicole Barrell
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KIRKUS REVIEW
In this debut thriller, a repressed incident mars a young woman’s life for years.
In 2009, Ellie Frites is a 20-something in a dead-end customer-service job at a tech company who spends her downtime drinking with a handful of friends. She can’t seem to sustain a relationship with a man, although she does have a new boyfriend named Tim. She’s also still grieving her beloved father’s death, due to cancer, which happened more than a decade ago. Ellie’s humdrum existence is shaken up when she begins having upsetting visions of her middle-school days, set in a rundown part of Marshside, Massachusetts, known as The Hollow. The visions specifically involve Lauren Vine and Maxine Lang, two of her former school friends, with whom Ellie lost touch when her best friend, Sarah, arrived from private school. Now, she can’t remember anything about what happened to them: “Did they move? Switch schools?” When Ellie fails to get any more information from either Sarah or her own estranged mother, she decides to go see psychologist Elizabeth Rollins. The doctor’s hypnotherapy helps Ellie to unlock repressed memories, which may put her and those she loves, including Tim, in danger. In this well-paced narrative, Barrell explores the relationship between Ellie’s newfound recollections and her present-day existence. For example, the character considers herself to be a pathetic loser when, in actuality, it’s clear that her past trauma has inhibited her. Once Barrell reveals the monstrous crime at the center of Ellie’s story, readers will understand why Ellie’s mind blocked it out—and in this novel, what you can’t see can hurt you. The author also shows the subtle, positive changes in the main character’s life as she slowly discovers what’s been haunting her. The supporting cast members, both at Ellie’s work and in her private life, are equally believable. All told, Barrell’s admirable debut is an engaging journey into a troubled mind.
A promising novel that skillfully uncovers obstacles for its protagonist to overcome.
Pub Date: Feb. 21st, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-5432-4858-6
Page count: 274pp
Publisher: CreateSpace
Program: Kirkus Indie
Review Posted Online: Jan. 3rd, 2018