Book Review: The Hollowed by Amilea Perez

Official Synopsis: The infected aren’t the only ones who should be feared.

Dr. Lucilla Castillo was never supposed to leave Sanctum Medical. Not after the outbreak turned her research lab into the last line of defense against the virus that hollowed out humanity, but when a vaccine of her creation proves to work, she is thrusted into a world far more dangerous than the flesh eating monsters outside.

Accompanied by Alejandro Ramirez, a soldier with too many scars and Luna, the dog who’s followed him through hell, Luci must journey west to the only facility left that might help mass-produce the cure. But freedom has a price, and trust is a currency no one parts with easily.

Prometheus, the institution that raised and educated her, claims to serve the greater good, but as Luci digs deeper, she begins to realize that not everything is as it seems and sometimes the greatest threats come from the very people who swore to protect you.

After reading their debut novel, Tournament of Heirs, I was excited to see what other stories came from Amilea Perez. Unlike their previous work, this novel takes place in the future, starting in a New Chicago that has been rebranded after having been built even higher and having a lot of artificial intelligence worked into daily life. When we are first introduced to Luci, we see her daily life in this new world, that is until she is at work one day and suddenly everything is on lockdown. Now Luci has been living in the hospital, researching the Hollowed, which are essentially zombies, to hopefully make a vaccine to help protect what remains of humanity. The issue is the process is taking a long time, and the company that runs everything, Prometheus, would rather put Luci in a reproduction program.

When a trial finally works, giving way to something that could change the world, Luci begs for the chance to keep researching, but is instead met with a new challenge. She has to transport her vaccine, which only she knows how to create, to another location in Arizona, where they can work on marketing it to the masses. She will be accompanied by Alex, a solider who has been in her orbit since the lockdown, finding her treats and visiting her daily, and the team he trusts to get the job done.

But the team is sent off with barely any resources and with false promises of what might await them when they get to Arizona. When they are attacked by a group of Hollowed only a day into the trip, Alex and Luci end up taking off by themselves, with Alex determined to keep Luci alive and Luci determined to save the world and hopefully see her brother again.

But when one of their group survives, and makes it back to the hospital, we learn that the mission was meant to fail from the beginning, because keeping everyone locked down and dependent on them keeps Prometheus in charge, and hope for change can be dangerous to them. Now Myra, the surviving solider, must get to Alex and Luci before the enter the lab in Arizona and hopefully convince them to go to a rogue lab in Mexico that is their only real chance of saving everyone else.

Overall, I'm not usually a zombie girl, but I was into this book from the beginning. I really liked how hard Luci was working, even without the false promises and how all she saw was hope for the future, even after being stuck in the hospital for so long. There were definitely Last of Us and even Alien vibes in this story, with the Hollowed and the overarching company that was in charge of everything. Overall, it's been a while since I've read a truly dystopian sci-fi and I found myself really enjoying this one. As I said before, I'm not normally a zombie girl, but I did like how they just sort of existed in this world but there wasn't too much obsessing over how, which I know is weird but by the end we assume is because Prometheus did something, since they seem to be the problem no matter what is happening.

Luci and Alex are both Mexican-American characters and I really enjoy how it feels like Amilea is placing herself in the novel by having Luci be a doctor, even if its paid for by the company and she is sort of placed there. Luci is an intelligent character who has a lot of potential, and you can see that even without Prometheus using her because of it. There is also a dog, Luna, who follows Alex around and makes it through the novel without issue (which is important to me, so now you get to know too).

On a side note, this book does have romance scenes that definitely make it more geared towards adults but also felt like they were placed at times that made sense during the story. Which for me is always important when you have characters in a serious situation who are also attracted to each other.

I really enjoyed this book and am excited that I was able to read and review it early!

I rated this book 4 out of 5 stars!

The Hollowed comes out December 12, 2025!

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