The Corruption of Hollis Brown: Flint–Drown

by K. Ancrum
In this novel, Hollis Brown becomes possessed by a ghost from his run-down town's past — but even as he struggles to be free, he finds himself falling in love.

Here are links to our lists for the book: Hollis–Delicate, Flint–Drown, Weep–Groan, Kiss–Rake, Radiant–Wallis Brown
15 words 22 learners

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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. vertigo
    a reeling sensation; a feeling that you are about to fall
    The vertigo was there, the overwhelming and immediate awareness that he’d made a terrible mistake was there.
  2. surmise
    imagine to be the case or true or probable
    He could surmise what had happened and guess at what sort of creature “Walt” was.
  3. perfunctory
    hasty and without attention to detail; not thorough
    Walt answered, short and perfunctory as he stretched out a length of thread to start sewing again.
  4. vacillate
    move or sway in a rising and falling or wavelike pattern
    It vacillated wildly between horrifying and interesting watching Walt pilot his body.
  5. disorienting
    causing loss of physical or intellectual bearings
    If Hollis pushed aside his genuine concern about Walt’s long-term intentions, his fear of becoming a Sam-husk, and the disorienting experience of watching Walt do things he couldn’t, it was starting to feel more educational than anything.
  6. concoction
    any foodstuff made by combining different ingredients
    Focused on Hollis’s apparently “insufficient protein intake,” he made some rice-and-beans concoction with dried peppers and onions.
  7. diatribe
    thunderous verbal attack
    He knew Walt would be waiting for some diatribe about Yulia.
  8. hackles
    a feeling of anger and animosity
    Hollis could feel Walt’s hackles rising and it was . . .
    Hollis realized that he hadn’t felt Walt feeling anything bad before.
  9. amends
    something done or paid to make up for a wrong
    So, I have to do the best I can, try to make amends, give you the best of me while I’m still around.
  10. conniving
    good at tricking people to get something
    He was younger than Walt and absolutely less conniving, but he wasn’t so stupid he would forget the way it felt when Walt gave him access to his fingers.
  11. agrarian
    relating to rural matters
    Hollis had heard music from the early 1900s, and Walt’s accent wasn’t that old. Unless it was somehow older and he’d been referring to agrarian life, not postindustrial hardiness.
  12. faze
    disturb the composure of
    Even pointing out that he’d been given back control for a bit didn’t faze Walt.
  13. ennui
    the feeling of being bored by something tedious
    Every instance of Walt’s amusement felt like being taunted, his irritation like a threat, his ennui an insult.
  14. archaic
    so extremely old as seeming to belong to an earlier period
    Walt made his family eat chipped beef on toast, something so archaic his ma stared at it for a minute, then stared at Hollis too, before mumbling something about eating this once when she was a little girl.
  15. retribution
    a justly deserved penalty
    Immediately Hollis used his new freedom for retribution.
Created on Mon Sep 22 06:59:03 EDT 2025 (updated Fri Nov 14 18:40:28 EST 2025)

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