REVIEW: Sleepy Hollow by Keith R. A. DeCandido

Hiatus? What hiatus? No need to wait for January for a needed dose of #Ichabbie.

If you’re not familiar with Fox’s version of Sleepy Hollow, here’s a short summary:
As with Washington Irving’s original, Ichabod Crane meets the Headless Horseman in the eponymous town in the Hudson River Valley. Though in this version, Crane is now a soldier and spy for rebel forces in 1776, and Headless is a Hessian mercenary working for the Crown. Oh, and the Horseman of Death. Yes, we’re talking Book of Revelation, apocalyptic Four Horsemen. He also happens to be Ichabod’s former best friend, Abraham, and former fiancé to Ichabod’s wife, Katrina. Still with me? During battle, they “kill” each other, but Katrina, who also happens to be a witch, casts a spell to save Crane, who wakes up two centuries later in 2013 New York. He and Death are linked by blood. Let that sink in a sec… He teams up with Lt. Abbie Mills and together they learn that they are Witnesses who must stop the apocalypse together. Magic and mayhem ensue. It’s the perfect blend of history and batshit crazy. 

The book picks up in the middle of season one, somewhere between episodes two and eleven, with quite a bit of its plot coming from episode two, in which Crane and Abbie try to stop the resurrection of the witch Serilda. They must work together again to stop another plot to raise Serilda from the dead using blood magic and Congressional medals of honor. Museums are being robbed. Bodies are dropping everywhere. Katrina is just as useless. The Awesome Foursome of Crane, Abbie, Jenny, and Cpt. Irving are doing what they do. Everything should work. But…

Something about this book just didn’t click for me. It felt flat. A shade of what the show is. Almost lazy, which is unfortunate, because there’s a huge missed opportunity for real Transmedia story-telling and to expand the SH universe. While we get tons of back story on the witch’s coven and more glimpses into the war and the 18th century, as far as I can remember, nothing that happens in this book is ever mentioned on the show. And nothing of real note happens with our main characters that would enhance our viewing experience.

But, the biggest issue with Children of the Revolution is that it can’t replicate this:

What makes the show so great and addicting is the chemistry between the actors, Tom Mison (Ichabod) and Nicole Beharie (Abbie), specifically. The author does a fairly decent job of conveying their relationship and most of their personalities, more so with Ichabod, but it doesn’t quite work overall. For that, I give it 3 stars. Great action, interesting premise, but no heart.

I received this book from Blogging for Books for this review.