A geologist, John Reed, is sent out for an investigation to a small island with a lighthouse when the keeper, Sally "Sal" Yandle, reports that a seemingly bottomless sinkhole appeared in the middle of the island overnight. Haunted by memories of a traumatic childhood incident, John examines the hole and discovers something truly shocking.
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Tropes
- Disturbed Doves: When John is pushed into the hole, he is beset upon by a flock of birds that fly past him.
- Downer Ending: With Sal and Doug both dead, John crawls off a cliff and falls into the sea, seeing his mother before he dies. The last panels of the story are of the hole, reminding us that what lies beneath it is still real.
- Eldritch Location: The hole itself - it appeared out of nowhere, it's seemingly deeper than the island itself, and there's no indication of where it came from or why it's there. And that's not even getting into whatever's going on with that shrine at the bottom of the hole.
- Evil All Along: In the book's third act, Sal and Doug suddenly turn on John and attempt to sacrifice him to the hole. It's unclear if the hole corrupted them into doing this somehow, or if they were always planning to kill John.
- Eye Scream: A recurring theme surrounding the death of John's mother is that, when he found her, her eyes were missing. It's never answered how this happened - John thinks the most likely theory is that they were eaten by seagulls, but Doug claims that John himself had something to do with it.
- Fan Disservice: In the temple, John comes across his a seemingly undead version of his mother, who's completely nude.
- Human Sacrifice: It's implied that Sal and Doug meant to sacrifice John to the hole and whatever evil resides in the temple.
- Lighthouse Point: The story takes place entirely on a lighthouse island; the lighthouse in question is apparently broken.
- Major Injury Underreaction: When Doug accidentally mortally wounds Sal with an axe, her response is to just call him out for it:Sal: Dougie, you moron... You missed... Hit me, you stupid asshole.
- Minimalist Cast: The only characters in the graphic novel are John, Sally, Doug, and John's mother, who is only seen in a few flashbacks (and as a possible ghost and a zombie-like monster).
- Nothing Is Scarier: We never learn what, exactly, the hole is, or where it came from, which only adds to the omnipresent atmosphere of creeping dread throughout the story. Similarly, the cause of John's mother's death is left open-ended as well - John claims she died of epilepsy, while Doug implies that John himself killed her, but ultimately, neither of these claims are confirmed.
- Real After All: We see that John is actually holding a boat just like the one he had when his mother died, indicating that his experience in the temple was at least in part real.
- Recovered Addict: Sal mentions not having had a drink in 25 years, suggesting that she is a recovering alcoholic.
- Surreal Horror: The entire book is chock-full of this. The basic premise revolves around John being hired to investigate a mysterious and seemingly bottomless hole that appeared out of nowhere near a remote lighthouse, and things only get weirder and more disturbing from there.
- Temple of Doom: John discovers one in a giant cavern at the bottom of the hole, lined with pillars with human- and animal-like figures on top and overseen by a colossal Grim Reaper-like one that starts weeping blood.
- Together in Death: Possibly; before dying of drowning, his injuries or both, John sees his mother just like she had been in life in the water; it's left ambiguous whether or not she was just a hallucination or an actual spirit.
- Wham Shot:
- When John flies a drone down the hole, the drone's cameras spots a terrifying red face.
- The two-page spread of the aforementioned temple.
- Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: John really doesn't like bodies of water, which gives him quite a bit of trouble when he travels to the island. It's implied to be because of his mother's death on a beach.
