Personal Effects

The first book comes with several "personal effects"

Personal Effects is a supernatural thriller series by J.C. Hutchins. At the most basic level it's the first hand account of Art Therapist Zach Taylor as he struggles to help his patients, make sense of the strange happenings around him, and cope with his own mental instability.

However, the series is unusual in that it gives the reader a series of clues to follow in order to learn the full story - calling the phone numbers in the story lead to real voice mails, and all websites mentioned really exist. The first printed book of the series even comes with several "personal effects", like handwritten notes, business cards, and photos.

Overall the story holds together even if the reader doesn't choose to investigate further, though it's limited to what Zach Taylor personally knows.

Books in this series include

Tropes used in Personal Effects include:
  • Abandoned Hospital (While the sanatorium the protagonist works at isn't abandoned, it's not well funded so some parts are in poor repair, leading to scenes that evoke this trope)
  • Action Survivor
  • Alternate Reality Game: The franchies as a whole has a lot of the features of an ARG, with callable phone numbers and supporting websites.
  • The Cassandra (Zach sometimes gets a huge urge to draw, and the resulting pictures can be prophetic. However, he doesn't believe in that sort of thing, passing it off as sudden artistic inspiration, or at best viewing it as a flash of insight.)
  • Chekhov's Armoury (This series is made of this trope)
  • Darkness Equals Death (Most of the truly supernatural occurrences seem happen in near or complete darkness)
  • Evil Feels Good
  • Fatal Flaw (The protagonist has a crippling darkness phobia)
  • Feelies: Provided with the first book.
  • Geeky Turn On ("Geeky Goddess" Rachael)
  • The Law of Conservation of Detail (Both heavily subverted and played straight. In the stories themselves detail is conserved by limiting the viewpoint to Zach's firsthand account. Exploring the clues behind the story causes the number of details to explode. Rachael's PixelVixen707 blog particularly ignores this trope.)
  • Le Parkour (Zach's brother Lucas. Zach too but to a lesser extent.)
  • Missing Mom
  • We Help the Helpless (Zach, while he tends to go above and beyond the call of duty, is in fact paid to do so in the name of helping his patients)
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