Hollowend is a novel set in the small town of, surprise, Hollowend. This is a place where the supernatural is ordinary. The story is told by two narrators: Hettie, a crime scene cleaner whose eye has gone missing; and Harlan, a \"private investigator\" who isn't actually a private investigator. He's a serial killer—the Widowmaker, according to the local press. He's been terrorizing Hollowend for the past three years, only getting away with it because of his influence magic, which allows him to convince anyone of anything. It even allows him to scrub Hettie's memory after his many failed attempts to convince her to just be cool with this whole murdering thing so they can stay friends. Hettie, on the other hand, is busy solving everyone's problems but her own. Really, though, this story is about what happens when a serial killer makes a friend, and that friend has to reconcile the person she cares most for in this world with the murderer she's been cleaning up after for three years.
","abstract_html":"<p><em>Hollowend</em> is a novel set in the small town of, surprise, Hollowend. This is a place where the supernatural is ordinary. The story is told by two narrators: Hettie, a crime scene cleaner whose eye has gone missing; and Harlan, a "private investigator" who isn't actually a private investigator. He's a serial killer—the Widowmaker, according to the local press. He's been terrorizing Hollowend for the past three years, only getting away with it because of his influence magic, which allows him to convince anyone of anything. It even allows him to scrub Hettie's memory after his many failed attempts to convince her to just be cool with this whole murdering thing so they can stay friends. Hettie, on the other hand, is busy solving everyone's problems but her own. Really, though, this story is about what happens when a serial killer makes a friend, and that friend has to reconcile the person she cares most for in this world with the murderer she's been cleaning up after for three years.</p>","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Fitz, Hayley M"],"institution":null,"degree_name":"Master of Fine Arts","degree_level":"Thesis","degree_discipline":"English","degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":["Jon Billman"],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2017,"date_issued":"2017-08-01T07:00:00Z","date_published":"2017-08-01T07:00:00Z","updated_at":"2026-07-24T03:23:47Z","subjects":["hollowend","fiction","novel"],"languages":[],"rights":[],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"https://commons.nmu.edu/theses/149","outbound_label":"Repository record","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor","label":"Contributor","values":["Jon Billman"]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Fitz, Hayley M"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date.available","label":"Dc Date Available","values":["2019-07-11T07:00:00Z"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_discipline","label":"Discipline","values":["English"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_level","label":"Degree Level","values":["Thesis"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_name","label":"Degree Name","values":["Master of Fine Arts"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["hollowend","fiction","novel"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["https://commons.nmu.edu/theses/149"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description.abstract","label":"Abstract","values":["Hollowend is a novel set in the small town of, surprise, Hollowend. This is a place where the supernatural is ordinary. The story is told by two narrators: Hettie, a crime scene cleaner whose eye has gone missing; and Harlan, a \"private investigator\" who isn't actually a private investigator. He's a serial killer—the Widowmaker, according to the local press. He's been terrorizing Hollowend for the past three years, only getting away with it because of his influence magic, which allows him to convince anyone of anything. It even allows him to scrub Hettie's memory after his many failed attempts to convince her to just be cool with this whole murdering thing so they can stay friends. Hettie, on the other hand, is busy solving everyone's problems but her own. Really, though, this story is about what happens when a serial killer makes a friend, and that friend has to reconcile the person she cares most for in this world with the murderer she's been cleaning up after for three years.
"]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["Hollowend"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor":["Jon Billman"],"dc:creator":["Fitz, Hayley M"],"dc:date.available":["2019-07-11T07:00:00Z"],"dc:description.abstract":["Hollowend is a novel set in the small town of, surprise, Hollowend. This is a place where the supernatural is ordinary. The story is told by two narrators: Hettie, a crime scene cleaner whose eye has gone missing; and Harlan, a \"private investigator\" who isn't actually a private investigator. He's a serial killer—the Widowmaker, according to the local press. He's been terrorizing Hollowend for the past three years, only getting away with it because of his influence magic, which allows him to convince anyone of anything. It even allows him to scrub Hettie's memory after his many failed attempts to convince her to just be cool with this whole murdering thing so they can stay friends. Hettie, on the other hand, is busy solving everyone's problems but her own. Really, though, this story is about what happens when a serial killer makes a friend, and that friend has to reconcile the person she cares most for in this world with the murderer she's been cleaning up after for three years.
"],"dc:identifier":["https://commons.nmu.edu/theses/149"],"dc:subject":["hollowend","fiction","novel"],"dc:title":["Hollowend"],"thesis:degree_discipline":["English"],"thesis:degree_level":["Thesis"],"thesis:degree_name":["Master of Fine Arts"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-24T03:23:47Z"}