Eve Coffin – of the Coffin Hill
Coffins – just got out of hospital after being shot in the line of
duty. She knows that there's darkness in the world, and it's not
always natural. Ten years ago, she performed a magic ritual with two
friends on the night of Halloween. When she woke up, one of her best
friends had vanished and the other had to be committed to a mental
institute. Returning to Coffin Hill, Eve must face the demons of her
past – both figurative and literal. But the darkness has been
waiting for Eve and it's had years to prepare...
Written by Caitlin Kittredge for
Vertigo comics, Coffin Hill
is a new dark fantasy series that reads like FOX's Sleepy Hollow.
Kittredge is the author of a number of fantasy and young adult novels
but this is a little bit different (although to be fair, I haven't
read Kittredge's dark fantasy stuff). Most urban fantasy you find is
pretty dark, like The Dresden Files
and Rachel Caine's Weather Warden
stuff – the less said about Anita Blake the better – but there's
always hints of levity and a hint of eroticism. Coffin Hill
doesn't really have these. This is grim stuff, more about passion
than sex. The evil isn't something from a fairytale or folklore –
it's just Evil. It's the thing that makes people commit bad acts, the
horror that lurks inside us all. It's different and incredibly
creepy.
I have
to say that what kept me reading was the character of Eve. She's not
a good person, never was, never will be. In fact, for most of the
book she's a jerk. It makes sense in story why she's a jerk, but
it's also really fun to read. There are a lot of jerk-y male
characters that it's good to see a well-written female one. Eve has
her reasons for being a jerk – everyone around her doesn't believe
her, or won't do as she says and she's clearly the only one that
knows best. What starts as teenage rebellion becomes a natural state
of mind. It's perfect because Eve never says anything jerk-y to be
funny or cool (unlike other anti-heroes I could mention) but because
she's irritated or can't be bothered taking things seriously or just
doesn't have time for other people.
With
all this to recommend it, the book does have a couple of downsides.
The pacing is a little slow – the first volume is seven issues and
the plot didn't go far beyond getting Eve to town and revealing some
of her past. There's some epic magic sequences that look fantastic,
as well as a great suspenseful atmosphere, but it takes a while to
get to those. The flashbacks don't precisely pad out the book –
they're more akin to the one's on CW's Arrow but seeing the same
events from different angles to understand more about the characters.
If
you're into good horror stories, or creepy dark fantasy, Coffin
Hill is definitely one to pick
up.
Coffin Hill vol. 1: Forest of the
Night – 9781401248871 –
Caitlin Kittredge - $16.99 – 168 pages
**EDIT - it turns out that Coffin Hill isn’t actually going to be released as a bind up until June. My bad! However, you can still buy the individual issues or place an order for the book at your comic bookstore or bookshop.**
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