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Oak Hollow
The town of Oak Hollow is very eager to welcome Tracey…and her baby.
Soon after seventeen year old Tracey Parks found out she was pregnant, she was sent off to live with her grandmother in Oak Hollow. It was a painful transition, but she learned to love the quaint town and the people who live there. But now, as the birth of her son gets nearer, the once-friendly town seems much more ominous. Could it be that the residents of Oak Hollow have been waiting for her—and her unborn baby—all along? And what role will her baby play in this macabre nightmare?
Soon after seventeen year old Tracey Parks found out she was pregnant, she was sent off to live with her grandmother in Oak Hollow. It was a painful transition, but she learned to love the quaint town and the people who live there. But now, as the birth of her son gets nearer, the once-friendly town seems much more ominous. Could it be that the residents of Oak Hollow have been waiting for her—and her unborn baby—all along? And what role will her baby play in this macabre nightmare?
- GenresHorror
289 pages, Paperback
First published August 6, 2013
9 people are currently reading
93 people want to read
About the author
Kristopher Rufty
69 books240 followersKristopher Rufty lives in North Carolina with his three children and pets. He’s written over twenty novels, including ALL WILL DIE, THE DEVOURED AND THE DEAD, DESOLATION, THE LURKERS and PILLOWFACE. When he’s not spending time with his family or writing, he’s obsessing over gardening and growing food.
His short story DARLA'S PROBLEM was included in the Splatterpunk Publications anthology FIGHTING BACK, which won the Splatterpunk award for best anthology. THE DEVOURED AND THE DEAD was nominated for a Splatterpunk award.
He can be found on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. For more about Kristopher Rufty, please visit: www.kristopherrufty.com
His short story DARLA'S PROBLEM was included in the Splatterpunk Publications anthology FIGHTING BACK, which won the Splatterpunk award for best anthology. THE DEVOURED AND THE DEAD was nominated for a Splatterpunk award.
He can be found on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. For more about Kristopher Rufty, please visit: www.kristopherrufty.com
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
February 7, 2024
Vote: ☆☆☆ 1/2
"Rosemary's baby" meets small town horror with Rufty's signature doses of Laymonesque sex & gore.
Not bad at all, but as author admitted in the afterword, it seemed he was not knowing where storyline direction was going, and creative roadblock and rushed rewriting under pneumonia and high fever because of strict publication schedule not helped.
Luckly final result is more than good, loved the southern gothic atmosphere and the backwater town succumbing to demon worshipping reminded me an old 1976 flick called "Land of the Minotaur", a not aged well one but if you are a fan of Peter Cushing and Donald Pleasance just watch it.
Not best Rufty's work, but I still enjoyed my stay in creepy dark town of Oak Hollow.
Read
July 4, 2015I got to 30% on my Kindle, hoping for some creepy Rosemary's Baby type shenanigans, but instead crinkling my nose at the horrible and incessant sex scenes and sex talk - there are some cringing descriptions of everybody's hotness, and it's apparently totally normal for a seventeen-year-old to notice the 'unnatural largeness' of her mother's breasts, and breasts "dangle" out of dressing-gowns in this universe. Then Rufty described a woman's vagina as her "pubic mound" and I could go no further. Sorry.
June 24, 2025
A cult story set in a small town? Oak Hollow delivers with its solid atmosphere and underlying horrors. Rufty carefully develops raw, real characters, portraying their mundane lives and struggles. The sleepy town has hidden evils, and characters like Nick and Tracey evolve significantly. Nick and Tracey had some of my favorite scenes. Rufty can write a spicy scene 🥵. But I digress 😆. I loved seeing these two characters grow with the story. The author had a few unexpected surprises up his sleeve with Nick and Tracey. The story sent me on an emotional roller coaster.
Rufty surprises with unexpected twists and skillful storytelling. The plot is layered, introducing the demon worship element subtly through dreams and past experiences. Rufty was able to transition the story from a memory to the present seamlessly.
Tension builds to a violent end, making Oak Hollow less gory than other stories but still filled with horror. Several parts are truly spine-chilling.
Rufty surprises with unexpected twists and skillful storytelling. The plot is layered, introducing the demon worship element subtly through dreams and past experiences. Rufty was able to transition the story from a memory to the present seamlessly.
Tension builds to a violent end, making Oak Hollow less gory than other stories but still filled with horror. Several parts are truly spine-chilling.
August 21, 2013
Kristopher Rufty is my new favourite writer. I am slowly but surely making my way through his entire catalogue and each book has blown me away. I think this has been my favourite so far. I enjoyed it and was really disappointed when it came to an end. It's been a while since I've read a book which has held my attention so much.
I loved the way the characters developed as the story progressed and the relationships between people were constantly changing which affected the way the reader sees each character. The story started off as quite normal and evolved into a modern day Rosemary's Child.
There were lots of tense moments. Not a great deal of overt gore until the finale but the real horror is a nail-biting build up which makes the final scene all the more horrific.
The best thing about Rufty's writing, for me, is that he doesn't lose steam as the novel nears the ending. With a lot of books I have read, the last chapter always seems like it's been cobbled together and the author is a little bored with this book and just wants to tie everything up. I felt Rufty put effort into keeping the reader's attention throughout the entire story and this made it a satifying experience.
I can't praise this book enough.
I loved the way the characters developed as the story progressed and the relationships between people were constantly changing which affected the way the reader sees each character. The story started off as quite normal and evolved into a modern day Rosemary's Child.
There were lots of tense moments. Not a great deal of overt gore until the finale but the real horror is a nail-biting build up which makes the final scene all the more horrific.
The best thing about Rufty's writing, for me, is that he doesn't lose steam as the novel nears the ending. With a lot of books I have read, the last chapter always seems like it's been cobbled together and the author is a little bored with this book and just wants to tie everything up. I felt Rufty put effort into keeping the reader's attention throughout the entire story and this made it a satifying experience.
I can't praise this book enough.
March 10, 2023
Overall a solid story but nothing new or surprising. The characters all seemed a little too stereotypical and there were sooooo many of them. Perhaps fewer, more developed characters would have been better? Also, every female character description ( and I do mean everyone) made sure to include a description of her breasts .....most of them being large and barely contained. Not something that I usually pick up on so I am hazarding a guess to say it was done more often than I am comfortable with.
November 29, 2021
The beauty in a mind that can write prose like this is to be admired and put upon a pedestal not to be be hidden away in that dusky basement we all have as steady readers of horror. Where our Tbr list is hidden away o no it’s time to be proud of your ability to read more as you get older. Do yourself a favor if you have you should.
February 19, 2018
Another Rufty masterpiece...
Absolutely divine storytelling and sense of place here. You are in oak hollow and can feel each and every eerie sticky disgusting thing. And it all works so well!
Absolutely divine storytelling and sense of place here. You are in oak hollow and can feel each and every eerie sticky disgusting thing. And it all works so well!
February 23, 2019
It's very bloody with plenty of human sacrifices for gore fans.
August 4, 2013
Did you like Ira Levin’s 1967 book Rosemary’s Baby, which is now a vintage horror tale known for its satanical and cult ritual plot? If so, you’ll want to consider the modern tale of Oak Hollow, by Kristopher Rufty, that takes a similar theme to the back road swamps of small town southern America. It’s out for purchase on Tuesday, August 6, 2013!
With so many books in the horror genre, both from the past as well as the influx of current titles, it’s always hard to tell just what “type” of horror book you might be getting into when you chose one. Having read two other recent novellas of Kristopher Rufty’s that were violent, highly carnal, and the last a downright bloodbath, just months before digging into Oak Hollow, I didn’t know what to expect. Just as I was starting to think that as an author he was only raw, blunt, and splatter, I had a feeling he might switch it up for me with the full-length novel Oak Hollow. He didn’t disappoint.
As a disclaimer, I am not a die-hard horror genre cult participant that has read a library of back titles I might compare Rufty to (as some do). I am a more stream-lined horror gal. However, I will say with this new book, Oak Hollow, he had tones of the accomplished horror author Edward Lee, who also writes various types of the horror genre. Both Rufty and Lee like to put explicit sex bluntly on the page, just trying to push the inhibitions of your mind and showcasing the rawness of the people they have created. I enjoyed Rufty’s character development as he brought that rawness to the page, with the meandering pace and painstaking details he added…you know, almost intrusive, much like we get with some Stephen King novels……those extra rambling details you don’t really need, but seem to pull you in any way and make you wonder why you feel so absorbed?
I was leery at the very beginning of the book about where he was going with the novel from a supernatural context, but then he slightly started to intertwine the weirdness that was the too tiny town of Oak Hollow. While reading, we get to see his characters real-life dilemmas, their small town mindedness and dealings, their bored lives, and their messed up circumstances. The characters were real and emotional. So much so, that when the oddness came in, you almost felt like it crept up on you.
Rufty delivered circumstances in a natural way that seemed rather almost ordinary on the outside, but were really hiding what true evil was manifesting on the inside. The supernatural forces in Oak Hollow have a hold over the town’s residents so that they are living in hell on earth, and hell inside themselves.
Rufty’s protagonist, pregnant teen Tracey, has the key to their escape, but does she also have the key to their salvation? I don’t want to give away any spoilers. I will say, however, that after the amazing amount of carnal lust and expenditure (a way to spread the curse maybe?) in this novel, I also have never seen this amount of spiritual allegory and guidance in a horror novel. This would be a book for anyone who is going through what they feel is like hell, or at their rock bottom, to read and see for themselves why selfish and immoral behavior just creates more hell. But if you aren’t religious, that shouldn’t scare you away either by any means, it’s a classic tale of an evil entity and its cult followers in a fight to consume everything that is good only for themselves.
Beyond the well-thought out plot and meaning that he made an effort to put into this novel, Rufty embeds us in the tale of a supernatural back woods location whose residents are not what they seem. It’s like a mixture of a zombie plague, the profanation of the succubi, the damning of a hellacious cult, the bane of being vain, and the proverbial fight between good and evil. It’s an ever-increasing thrill ride that is authentic, suspenseful, and substantive. You’ll be pulling so hard for Tracey and her baby to overcome the evil that ensues that you won’t want to put this book down.
I highly recommend this for any follower of Kristopher Rufty as one of his top books, but also to any horror readers. I’d recommended this one to mainstream readers as well that like supernatural books and can handle an R-rating for sexual content, as this is more character and supernatural driven rather than blood and gore. For me, that was a win as I liked the supernatural suspense and the climactic and amazing ending! The creepy cover is perfectly fitting for the diabolical prose that lurks inside its pages.
With so many books in the horror genre, both from the past as well as the influx of current titles, it’s always hard to tell just what “type” of horror book you might be getting into when you chose one. Having read two other recent novellas of Kristopher Rufty’s that were violent, highly carnal, and the last a downright bloodbath, just months before digging into Oak Hollow, I didn’t know what to expect. Just as I was starting to think that as an author he was only raw, blunt, and splatter, I had a feeling he might switch it up for me with the full-length novel Oak Hollow. He didn’t disappoint.
As a disclaimer, I am not a die-hard horror genre cult participant that has read a library of back titles I might compare Rufty to (as some do). I am a more stream-lined horror gal. However, I will say with this new book, Oak Hollow, he had tones of the accomplished horror author Edward Lee, who also writes various types of the horror genre. Both Rufty and Lee like to put explicit sex bluntly on the page, just trying to push the inhibitions of your mind and showcasing the rawness of the people they have created. I enjoyed Rufty’s character development as he brought that rawness to the page, with the meandering pace and painstaking details he added…you know, almost intrusive, much like we get with some Stephen King novels……those extra rambling details you don’t really need, but seem to pull you in any way and make you wonder why you feel so absorbed?
I was leery at the very beginning of the book about where he was going with the novel from a supernatural context, but then he slightly started to intertwine the weirdness that was the too tiny town of Oak Hollow. While reading, we get to see his characters real-life dilemmas, their small town mindedness and dealings, their bored lives, and their messed up circumstances. The characters were real and emotional. So much so, that when the oddness came in, you almost felt like it crept up on you.
Rufty delivered circumstances in a natural way that seemed rather almost ordinary on the outside, but were really hiding what true evil was manifesting on the inside. The supernatural forces in Oak Hollow have a hold over the town’s residents so that they are living in hell on earth, and hell inside themselves.
Rufty’s protagonist, pregnant teen Tracey, has the key to their escape, but does she also have the key to their salvation? I don’t want to give away any spoilers. I will say, however, that after the amazing amount of carnal lust and expenditure (a way to spread the curse maybe?) in this novel, I also have never seen this amount of spiritual allegory and guidance in a horror novel. This would be a book for anyone who is going through what they feel is like hell, or at their rock bottom, to read and see for themselves why selfish and immoral behavior just creates more hell. But if you aren’t religious, that shouldn’t scare you away either by any means, it’s a classic tale of an evil entity and its cult followers in a fight to consume everything that is good only for themselves.
Beyond the well-thought out plot and meaning that he made an effort to put into this novel, Rufty embeds us in the tale of a supernatural back woods location whose residents are not what they seem. It’s like a mixture of a zombie plague, the profanation of the succubi, the damning of a hellacious cult, the bane of being vain, and the proverbial fight between good and evil. It’s an ever-increasing thrill ride that is authentic, suspenseful, and substantive. You’ll be pulling so hard for Tracey and her baby to overcome the evil that ensues that you won’t want to put this book down.
I highly recommend this for any follower of Kristopher Rufty as one of his top books, but also to any horror readers. I’d recommended this one to mainstream readers as well that like supernatural books and can handle an R-rating for sexual content, as this is more character and supernatural driven rather than blood and gore. For me, that was a win as I liked the supernatural suspense and the climactic and amazing ending! The creepy cover is perfectly fitting for the diabolical prose that lurks inside its pages.
June 15, 2015
I really wanted to like this book, as I have recently discovered this horror author and his plot lines seem my cup of tea. I did not enjoy Oak Hollow as much as I had hoped, but not because of its plot or characters or major events. It was the meandering details that really got to me and dragged the pace of the book down. As a small example, there's a scene near the start of the novel in which the young protagonist wakes up, puts on a shirt and underwear, goes into bathroom, takes off the shirt and underwear, takes a shower, gets something to eat for breakfast...it lasts for about three, detail-heavy pages. Now, others might really enjoy these details, but I prefer novels that move at a more crisp pace. Still, I'm interested in Kristopher's work and will continue to seek out his books in the future.
August 24, 2016
Rufty has a way of taking what you think is going to be a run-of-the-mill horror story and giving it this extra special something that sets it apart from anything similar you may have read. Whatever you do, don't let the synopsis of any of his stories make you think you've read something like it before because I can assure you it will be far beyond what a simple synopsis can convey. This story just creeped me out (I read horror for a reason so that's a good thing) and made me question taking any trips down unfamiliar back roads for awhile!
June 25, 2013
Kristopher Rufty takes us on a trip to a town of secluded terror. One of my top five reads this year.
October 6, 2014
It was not scary, and there was a lot sex/porn.
I hated this book !!!
I hated this book !!!
July 20, 2015
Great story - kept me interested the whole way. However, it's quite morbid, graphic, and disgusting at many parts. Hard to stomach.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews