Heart of the House

[h2] Introduction / TLDR [/h2] Heart of the House is an absolutely delightful interactive Gothic novel written by Nissa Campbell. Excellent pacing, a story that has kept me engaged throughout, really evocative and imaginative environments and really well done characters with some of the most delightful (optional) romance I've read in a CoG book. If being trapped in a haunted manor in Victorian England sounds appealing to you, or if you just want a good Gothic horror story that maybe isn't too dark, then this book is for you. (Also check it out if you enjoyed any of the World of Darkness books, lots of overlap with themes and atmosphere what with the Gothic literature inspiration.) [h2] Writing and setting [/h2] Pacing is great throughout Heart of the House. The story is given the room it needs to never feel rushed while still being engaging, and a well planned mystery progression has made it feel like there has been a constant through-line running through the story that still has kept me reevaluating characters and their motivations as new things have been revealed. One of the highlights of this interactive novel has been the environments. Campbell is very good at setting scenes, where a greatly varied set of vivid spaces and moods are used very appropriately. In particular the otherworldly parts of the manor have been a joy to experience; it's a very good haunted house! I've also quite liked the authors / narrators voice. The Main Character is very much their own character in this work, whose experiences and thoughts shape the perception of the story as you experience it. This is used to great effect, and helps contextualize and give emotional weight to the story. Further there's a sort of effortless believability to the writing that makes me swallow with hook, line and sinker the parts I would otherwise have thought felt a little bit cliche or out of place. There is something in that that reminds me of reading Terry Pratchett (but its been years since last time). [h2] Characters and romance [/h2] It's not a very wide group of characters in this novel, but they make for a very engaging and appealing cast. While the setting and literary genre shapes how the characters speak, Campbell has managed to write them with unique voices and incorporate them as driving forces in the story without making them seem out of place. My one complaint is that the missing parental figure Kent that the main character has set out to search for at the start of the work would have needed some more development at the start to make me care for him, which in turn would have made the main characters' motivation a bit easier to share. I really need to highlight the romance in this novel. It's not a massive part, but there is a healthy dose of character interaction, flirting and romance (and even some scandalous sex!) that is on offer here, and I've really loved it. The characters are just darn cute and attractive, and Reaves is an amazingly well realized character that believably takes on the gender preference as stated by the main character. (State you prefer women in the Inn early on in the story and she will be a woman.) It's almost entirely worth a second playthrough with a different sexual preference just to see how well Reaves works written as either a woman or a man. I want to see myself as a pretty avid reader of romance, but lately I tend to gravitate towards fanfiction that has been pretty grounded, unassuming and surprisingly unsentimental. Heart of the House is the direct opposite. A healthy dose of sentimentality and affect in the writing really elevates the romance while still managing to keep it feeling sincere. This novel has made me blush, giggle and felt the need to look away from the screen (in a good way) multiple times throughout the romance parts, and I have absolutely loved it. Also the sex scenes have been surprisingly good (and explicit lol) [h2] Mechanics [/h2] Heart of the House is a relatively linearly laid out interactive novel; you will hit the same chapters in the same order and the main impact your choices have is how to tackle the obstacles along the road or deciding on what to bring along. But it's got enough sections breaking things up that it never feels monotonous or too railroaded, and in particular reactivity works really well where many small details seems to remind you of what has happened as a result of your choices. For game mechanics there are skills and personality / reputation / relationship trackers, where the first chapter has you setting up a character build and then your personality keeps growing while the skills (and to a lesser extent personality etc.) decide the outcome of choices made in the story. If I'm going to be nitpicky it is not always entirely obvious if the result of a given choice is a success, a failure or just a thing that happens without a skill check. This is definitely a flavor thing, but I think a little more clarity in how the mechanics chug along being shown through the text would have benefited the novel. At the same time this is a very minor complaint, and overall I think this has been a very satisfying CoG novel to read through. [h2] Conclusions [/h2] Go read it!