Oblivion Black by Christa Wojciechowski

After over dosing on heroine, Ona leaves New York City to live with her aunt in the appropriately named quiet town of New Hope. Early into her recovery she lands a job as an assistant to a talented sculptor with a troubled past. As Ona grows closer to her boss, has she substituted one addiction for another?

A dark gothic romance from dark fiction author, Christa Wojciechowski.

There is something about sculptors. Perhaps it’s the sensual act of molding with clay, or my love of the myth of Pygmalion, but I love stories about sculptors.

The scenes concerning Anton’s art are my favorite parts of the book, and brought to mind Catherine McCarthy’s beautiful descriptions of sculpture in Immortelle. There is something about incredible artwork described in books that imbues the pieces with magic, even though there are no speculative elements to Oblivion Black.

The first half of this book is a stunning character study of two suffering souls who seek escape from the pain of life and find it in art.

Ona is a well drawn character, and it’s easy to empathize with her yearning for greatness and fear of mediocrity. You feel like you are with her each stumbling step as she attends the methadone clinic, goes to Narcotics Anonymous meetings, and tries to make a life without heroin.

Anton is a sympathetic character with a tragic past, and both the alluring and grotesque parts of his personality are well shown. There are certain aspects to his backstory that I found concerning once they came to fruition in the second half of the book, as unfortunately the more realistic physiological studies of the first half were sacrificed for the melodramatic necessities of gothic fiction.

The second half of the book introduces a third point of view character to provide conflict for Ona and Anton, and I was not a fan of her chapters appearing so late in the novel. I also found them very heavy in exposition.

If you love noir and gothic fiction, the second half of the novel is where it really kicks in with high angst and melodrama. It’s not really my thing, but Wojciechowski writes it well and it was hard to put the book down.

This is a compelling novel, filled with emotion, tortured characters and beautiful descriptions of art. It holds your attention from the first page until the last, and you really want the best for the characters, even though they are circling the abyss.

I also want to praise the fantastic cover art. Not only is it captivating and beautiful, but it has lots of details that reference the novel. I really like that.

Oblivion Black will be released on August 8th.

I award Oblivion Black…

Thank you to the author for providing me with an ARC. I’m voluntarily leaving an honest review.