Poetry has come to the McHughniverse.
“I am a vessel of dauntless courage and severe evil.
My joy will endeavor, my rage possess.”
Inspired by Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, Jessica McHugh’s debut poetry collection, A Complex Accident of Life, combines visual art and text to create 52 pieces of Gothic blackout poetry exploring the intense passion, enigmatic nature, and transformative pleasure of life, viewed through the kaleidoscopic lens of a female horror artist.
Cover by Lynne Hansen! ( LynneHansenArt.com )
Out now on ebook here in our store and Kindle and PRINT
Advanced Praise for A Complex Accident of Life
Full of color and stunning imagery, Jessica McHugh takes Mary Shelley’s classic and finds new depth and meaning within. A Complex Accident of Life is indeed a vessel of dauntless courage, inspiring and hopeful.”
—doungjai gam, author of glass slipper dreams, shattered
In A Complex Accident of Life, Jessica McHugh strikingly combines different modes of art to create a truly unique collection. This remix of a beloved work through blackout poetry shows a lot of care in every selected word and the arrangement within each piece. I enjoyed the visuals just as much as the poems themselves. True spirit, passion, and creativity live within every piece; the book is not only an exquisite tribute to Mary Shelley, but also cleverly showcases McHugh’s own beautiful poetic talent. Highly recommended!
—Sara Tantlinger, Bram Stoker Award-winning author of The Devil’s Dreamland
Renegade alchemist Jessica McHugh revives Mary Shelley even while vivisecting her mind and reassembling the anatomy of her ideas, remaking her as a hauntingly beautiful structure of undead words and lively art. Unlike others working in the medium of blackout poetry McHugh deploys a wide array of both visual strategies and approaches to composition, rendering “A Complex Accident of Life” compelling and compulsively re-readable.
—John Edward Lawson, author of Bibliophobia
Jessica McHugh
Jessica McHugh is a novelist, poet, and internationally-produced playwright running amok in the fields of horror, sci-fi, young adult, and wherever else her peculiar mind leads. She’s had twenty-four books published in twelve years, including her bizarro romp, “The Green Kangaroos,” her YA series, “The Darla Decker Diaries,” and her blackout poetry collection, “A Complex Accident of Life.”
Please visit JessicaMcHughBooks.com for more samples of the McHughniverse.