Synopses & Reviews
The small island of Hopeless, off the coast of Maine, is a breeding ground for demons, freaks, vampires, and other creatures of the night. Our story follows Salamandra, a young girl with one foot in our world and one foot in the otherworld, as she navigates a life on the edge of reality.
Synopsis
Trapped on an island off the coast of Maine, the people of Hopeless find life a little darker and more dangerous with every day that passes. The number of orphans rises continually, but who can say what happens to their parents? Plenty of the bodies are never found. This is not the stuff of happy, careless childhoods, it is instead fertile ground for personal demons. In Hopeless, the demons are not always abstract concepts. Some of them have very real teeth, and very real horns.
The island has been isolated for a very long time. Partly because of being small and forgotten, partly because the rocks and currents do not encourage visitors, Hopeless is surrounded by fog and overrun with nightmarish creatures, from small things with tentacles to demons and vampires. Its a peculiar place. Here, almost anything can happen, from the weird and unsettling to the darkly funny. With a cast of freaks, nutters and the odd power crazed psychopath, life in Hopeless is seldom dull.
Hopeless is also about who you choose to be. The tale is a protest against apathy, and against the small evils that everyone takes for granted. The worst monsters frequently arent the ones with the obvious teeth—who are merely dangerous by nature—but the apparently ordinary people who choose to do hideous things.
About the Author
Thomas Brown has a love of gothic decay, poetry, wild landscapes and strange creatures. He has created book covers for Joe Pulver and others at Hippocampus. In 2009, he and his wife Nimue launched the webcomic
Hopeless, Maine. He's influenced by Robert Holdstock and Neil Gaiman, among others.
Nimue Brown has a love of gothic decay, poetry, wild landscapes and strange creatures. She writes poetry and other fiction under a pen name. In 2009, she and her husband Tom launched the webcomic Hopeless, Maine. She's influenced by the pre-Raphelites, folklore and the modern druid tradition.