Watch videos featuring renowned thriller and horror storytellers — including the creators of The Blair Witch Project, Friday the 13th and Final Destination — and their praise for Personal Effects: Dark Art. Click here.
J.C. Hutchins’ supernatural thriller, Personal Effects: Dark Art is now available in bookstores and for purchase online. Publisher’s Weekly called the novel a “stellar first.” Library Journal said Personal Effects “may herald the future of modern fiction.”
Personal Effects: Dark Art follows the extensive notes of art therapist Zach Taylor’s investigation into the life and madness of Martin Grace, an accused serial killer who claims to have foreseen, but not caused, his victims’ deaths.
Zach’s investigations start with interviews and art sessions, but then take him far from the hospital grounds — and often very far from the reality that we know. The items among Grace’s personal effects are the keys to understanding his haunted past, and finding the terrifying truth Grace hoped to keep buried.
Dark Art combines the experience of a traditional thriller novel with a multimedia-fueled “out of book” narrative. Clues in the novel — and items that come with the novel, such as ID cards and photos — propel readers into an online experience where they become protagonists themselves….
- Call the phone numbers: You’ll get a character’s voicemail.
- Google the characters and institutions in the text: You’ll find real websites.
- Examine the art and other printed artifacts included inside the cover: If you pay attention, you’ll find more information than the characters themselves discover.
Personal Effects: Dark Art is the ultimate in voyeuristic storytelling, representing a revolutionary step forward in changing the way people interact with novels.
Praise for Personal Effects: Dark Art
“This is the future of storytelling, and it’s a thrilling ride.”
–Anthony E. Zuiker, Creator/Executive Producer of the CSI: franchise
“[Personal Effects: Dark Art] will linger in your thoughts, challenge your sense of self, and transform every benign shadow into something to fear.”
–Daniel Myrick, co-writer/director of The Blair Witch Project
“[A] rocking genre-mash that mixes mystery with psychodrama and serves it up in a high-bandwidth torrent of terror.”
–Scott Sigler, author of Infected and Contagious
“So compelling is the journey, … readers may scarcely recognize their own transformation from passive to active, as they pick up where the text subsides and become the protagonist.”
–Gore Verbinski, director of Pirates of the Caribbean and The Ring
“(I)mpossible to put down … Terrifying, steeped in dread and populated with vibrant and complex characters, Personal Effects: Dark Art plunges you in to a hidden world of supernatural intrigue. It’s a journey you won’t soon forget.”
–Jeffrey Reddick, writer of Final Destination
“In The Handbook of Fiction Writing, under ‘Page Turner,’ you’ll find Personal Effects: Dark Art … If you’re any kind of reader at all, you won’t quit until you get to the end.”
–Victor Miller, writer of Friday the 13th
“Don’t worry about the lap bar. It won’t save you from screaming on this ride.”
–Patrick Lussier, director of My Bloody Valentine 3D, White Noise 2, and editor of the Scream trilogy
“[A] journey of discovery and fear that readers simply must experience for themselves.”
–David Wellington, author of Monster Island, 13 Bullets and Vampire Zero
“This book is alive with energy, and it’s creepy as hell.”
–Jeremy Robinson, author of Antarktos Rising and Kronos
“A bloody puzzle. A bloodier mindtrip. … Steel yourself before stepping on its maniacal path.”
–Matt Wallace, Parsec Award-winning author of The Next Fix
Meet the creator of Personal Effects: Dark Art
Personal Effects is the creation of Jordan Weisman, one of the fathers of the Alternate Reality Game storytelling genre. In 2001, Jordan worked with Steven Spielberg to promote his film A.I. using this viral storytelling technique, and has since created many ARGs such as “I Love Bees” for the release of Halo 2, and more recently contributed to 42 Entertainment’s (the company that he founded in 2003) ARGs for Nine Inch Nails’ Year Zero and The Dark Knight film. Weisman is a living legend in the gaming community.
Find the fan-created Personal Effects: Dark Art Facebook group here.
Personal Effects: Dark Art is now available in bookstores, and can be ordered online.
