Other girls believed there were monsters in the woods. If that were true, they paid Annamarie no attention. Sometimes she felt disappointed by this.

This is going to be an odd review, because I am reviewing something i haven’t finished reading, what I have read is only one part of a whole, and even that is only part of the greater whole. I would never normally do a review for something I haven’t fully read, but every rule has it exceptions and this is one of them. There is a reason, which should be self explanatory, but mainly it comes down to this, I thought I would write this review now, to give everyone who fancies it the opportunity to be flung into a mass grave…

Okay I know how that sounds… But bear with me.

New England Gothic is one of the pair of Illustrated novels currently on offer on a kick-starter form those wonderful people behind the Hopeless Maine graphic novels, Nimue and Tom Brown. The Second of these The Oddatsea is written by Kieth Errington and also illustrated by Tom. Nimue was kind enough to send me a review copy of the text of the first of these. Which I was utter delighted to read, and still am reading.

The reason i am writing this mini review now rather than when I have finished reading it is multi-fold.

Firstly, because my to read pile is as huge as ever, and I find reading word document versions of novels less engaging than I would an ebook or a paperback simple because I have to read it at the desktop. (yes I know I could port it to my kindle, but kindles don’t scroll word documents as well as they might.)

Secondly because there is an on going kick-starter and some of my readers may want to get involved, so better to do this now while they still have a chance… (not to mention the opportunity to get thrown in a mass grave..)

And finally because I am about to die…

Okay don’t panic, melodramatic as that sounds I am not actually about to die, I am however, as an early adopter of this kick-starter going to die in Hopeless Maine and have an obituary written about my ‘probably sad but who knows it maybe joyous’ passing, by Nimue herself… An opportunity that was on offer to one hundred early adopters. These delightful deaths, currently being serialised on the Hopeless Vendetta website, are all taken, but there is still an opportunity to get thrown in a mass grave on Hopeless, who could resist such an opportunity …

As I said this is going to be an odd review, I am currently about a third of the way through New England Gothic and utterly entranced by the style, the writing, the brooding grim beauty of the island itself, the fabulous turn of phase and twisting weaving plot, to say this is well written is an understatement. Not that I expected anything else, but I had not read any long form prose from Nimue before, and so there was a mild trepidation that her wonderful writing in the hopeless graphic novels may not translate into wonderful prose, though frankly I would have been surprised had that been the case.

I need not have worried, not even for a moment. Nimue’s writing is just as engrossing in a prose novel as it is when surrounded by speech bubbles. The sense of place, the vivid descriptions, the turn of phrase, the atmosphere, and indeed the essence of Hopeless Mine itself, is all here in her words. It is just as dark, just as beautiful, just as gorgeous to read and utterly captivating along the way.

So while I am reading it now, I will be reading it again once the kick-start ends and the books arrive on my doorstep, and looking forward to it, because not only will all these wonderful words be there, but there will be illustrations from Tom as well…

So I am not saying you should hop over to the kick-starter, and become a backer and look forward to a dying in some horribly complex way that leads to you being thrown in a mass grave by Nimue’s keyboard… I not saying you should… I am just saying you will regret not doing so if you don’t.

Life is often full of regrets, not being thrown into a mass grave, then getting to read these wonder books, should not be one of them… but don’t take my word for it, I mean I could be dead any day now… But do go have a look for yourself. Juts click on the picture below to get taken to the kick-starter, a large hole in the ground full of fellow corpses awaits you there…

After all, death comes to us all, seldom are we around afterwards to enjoy reading about it…