Review – Tidepool by Nicole Willson (4/5 stars)
Reading Level: Adult
Genre: Fantasy/Horror
Length: 232 pages
Publisher: The Parliament House
Release Date: August 3, 2021
ASIN : B08L6YNSN6
Stand Alone or Series: Stand Alone
Source: eGalley from NetGalley
Rating: 4/5 stars
“In 1913, Henry Hamilton disappears while on a business trip, and his sister, Sorrow, won’t rest until she finds him. Defying her father’s orders to remain at home, she travels to Tidepool, the last place Henry visited.
Residents of the small, shabby oceanside town can’t quite meet Sorrow’s eyes when she questions them about Henry. When corpses wash up on shore looking as if they’ve been torn apart by something not quite human, Sorrow is ready to return to Baltimore and let her father send in the professional detectives.
Then, she meets Mrs. Ada Oliver, a widow whose black silk dresses and elegant manners set her apart from other Tidepool residents. After a terrifying encounter involving Mrs. Oliver, Sorrow discovers Tidepool’s dark, deadly secret, and the town’s denizens—human and otherwise—are hell bent on making sure she never leaves.”
Series Info/Source: This is a stand alone book that I got through NetGalley to review.
Thoughts: This was a well done historical thriller/mystery with heavy Lovecraft influence. It was an easy enough read and kept me engaged the whole time. I did think that it went on just a bit too long at the end, but it did tie all the loose ends up well.
The story focuses on Sorrow Hamilton who goes to the town of Tidepool searching for her missing brother. What she finds there stretches the bounds of sanity and what she knows of the world.
The story itself ends up being fairly predictable if you have read Lovecraft types of horror before. It’s all about what dwells in the deep and the effect on sanity it has on the humans around it. I did enjoy the idea of a priesthood that protects humanity and loved that this priesthood had to constantly commit evil deeds for a greater good (it made for an ironic moral balance).
This was well written and easy to read. I never had any issue with staying engaged in the story. I do feel like it could have taken things a bit deeper and further and that would have made it more intriguing and less predictable.
My Summary (4/5): Overall I enjoyed this and would recommend it if you enjoy these dark types of “eldritch horrors of the deep” types of stories. This was well written and engaging. I do think it was a bit predictable and that the ending went on for too long. However, I really enjoyed some of the ideas presented in this story as well. I definitely plan on checking out Willison’s future books.
