Set in an English suburb in the early 1990s, The Black Project is the story of Richard's allconsuming passion for creating 'girls' from household objects. But as his hobby begins to flourish, his real life friendships and family relationships deteriorate. Richard is an unreliable narrator, and the reader responds to his loneliness and his dogged attempt to find a companion, while being horrified by his warped creations. The novel's theme is that of adolescence, of the divide between childhood and adulthood; where sex, perversion, and the grotesque feature in their many forms.

Prizes

Winner of Festival d'Angoulême Selection Officielle 2018,Winner of Broken Frontier Awards – Best Original Graphic Novel 2013,Winner of Myriad First Graphic Novel Competition 2013

Brookes plays on that [creeping horror] feeling, adding dark humour and deadpan first person voiceover to create something really unsettling, genuinely creepy. Richard Bruton, Forbidden Planet