Review : The sea hides its dead
First of all, I'd like to thank Netgalley, Megan Bontrager and Little, Brown Book Group UK for the Arc e-book.
I'm kind of mitigated on this one, hence the 3 stars. The general idea is awesome, a bit of a mix between The Descend, 1899 and the lore around the Leviathan. You can taste the female rage on your tongue and I love it, but unfortunately it is to the detriment of the male characters especially the professor.
Don't get me wrong, I'm never against a bit of male bashing, especially when it is totally earned like the professor in this story. But in this case, it is a bit too much and this man sounds like a parody of a (typical?) toxic male, it's too exaggerated and doesn't feel smooth or credible (cartoonesque I might say). I had difficulty to focus on the story and not just frown at this every time he was on a scene.
The plot is interesting and the whole judgment-day survival experience vibes is excellent. Maybe a bit rush for the sake of the gore and the creepy. I would have like more immersion in the lore and a bit heavier on the psychological and moral experience instead of just being gore to be gore.
The gore is good, though. Some of this scenes are beyond just creepy, I love it! If you are a bit of a lightweight in terms of violence and gore, you might want to take a look at the trigger warnings before starting. or not. Could be fun.
The cover is neat. That's -to be honest- what made me stop on this book on Netgalley when I was hunting for my new horror read to request.
The end is kind of opened (-ish), if you need closure to be satisfied, you'll have to squint a little to see it. But I liked that actually.
I recommend it for those who like a light plotted but gory read with female lead you can, mostly, root for. If you like the weird darkish thriller style of 1899, with the gore and creepy vibes of The descent and bit of lore on top of it, you might like it. Even if it wasn't a wow effect for me, I'll keep an eye opened for this author for what they can write in the future.
Release date : July 28th 2026
