Coffin Hill Vol. 1

by Caitlin Kittredge

[inlibrisveritas]

I went into Coffin Hill with very few expectations since it’s new to me and I’ve never read anything from this author (did you know she writes YA novels?) however I find that I’m walking away with far less than I’d hoped for.

Coffin Hill has really dynamic art style that stands out and pulls you in and when combined with a story that is dark and strange this should have been a knockout. Honestly I was confused most of the time. I’d find myself getting sucked in and then all of the sudden there would be a random insert of panels that didn’t directly connect to what was happening at that particular moment and some left me wondering if it really happened at all. I did like the story, but the odd placement of ‘flashbacks’ or whatever they were threw me off and I had to re-read a few times to see if I’d missed something.

I never really understood the characters or their motivations either. Eve is a cop…or was until she was shot and now she’s returned to her home town only to find it in a mess. I have SO MANY questions. Why was she’fired/laid off/forcibly retired? She made a full recovery…Why is her eye black (the white of it) and why do only two people seem to notice it? Why does Nate have permanent dark circles under his eyes? I thought it was makeup when he was a teen but it’s still there when he’s an adult. Why is their friendship so crappy and yet somehow worth fighting for? What is the point of arguing if magic exists if literally seconds before something legitimately magical happens? Why would she choose to be a cop after everything in her past?

I really wanted to like this and I think I would have if the story had been a bit more liner and fleshed out. I’m okay with flashbacks, but I’m honestly not even sure if all the cut away scenes were flashbacks. If I had been able to at least ‘get’ the characters that would have made the random inserts tolerable. At this point I’m not sure I’ll be continuing this series.