The dice roll. Darkness answers.

House of Leaves meets Jumanji in this brilliantly original and twisted novel composed entirely of found documents, following an unwitting couple ensnared by a sinister tabletop role-playing game

Cole and Lorraine playtest board games for some extra cash as they save up to buy a home. But after a series of bizarre coincidences, and signing a strange NDA, the couple finds on their porch a mysterious indie developer’s tabletop role-playing game called The Ship of Death. The game relies heavily on the players’ imaginations, and takes up an ever-growing amount of space: in their kitchen, and in their minds. As its true sinister nature becomes clearer, and its forces capture more in its web, the boundary between the game and reality begins to dissolve. . . and the pair are instructed to possess a stranger’s soul.

Told entirely through game reports, emails, game forum posts, personal journals, and police reports, reading The Ship of Death feels like a dangerous dice roll. It’s a sleep-stealing, possession-inducing work of intense, intelligent found cosmic horror that announces Kyle Winkler as a spectacular voice in the genre.

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Mixed media is always a buzzword for me and when I heard that this book was not only mixed media but also cosmic horror meets Jumanji, I was on board.

It was a pretty quick read, but I found myself wanting more little inserts of media from the game to break things up and maybe give even more foundation to how weird it was. Overall I liked the characters and their individual identities, but sometimes their decisions didn’t really align with those personalities. There was also some overly descriptive sections (particularly towards the psychic section) that seemed unneeded, almost like the author felt they had to insert some kind of sexual thoughts – but they didn’t really contribute to or make sense in the story so I wasn’t sure why Winkler felt the need to add that.

I did enjoy the story overall and would in general recommend it, it definitely hit that creepy cosmic horror vibe, but with a few small tweaks I would have probably enjoyed it far more.

Happy reading!

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