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stuffandwhatnot's review
3.0
Very atmospheric and creepy. A little heavy on the Lovecraftian descriptions. Some really effective disturbing moments, particularly the terrible tale of Lydia Stoddard as told in her diary, and the ultimate fate of poor
Spoiler
Fabrini.erijica's review
adventurous
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.75
paperbackstash's review
5.0
"He stood there, watching that awful fog billow and surge. It was bad. By God, it was real bad. But Gosling was almost glad it was there, hiding things, masking others. For if it cleared, he was almost afraid of what they might see out there.
And what might see them."
This is my first book by Tim Curran - after this terrifying voyage on the sea, I'll definitely give more of his stuff a try and hope those books are as potent. He writes beautifully, drawing out the pacing when the tension is thick by shortening his lines and dishing out almost poetic prose while his dialogue is convincing and genuine.
Besides the storyline holding genuine thrills and chills, it's amped up with intelligence. Not only horror, but the confusing melds of physics and wormholes and other dimensions. The ending especially injects healthy doses of science fiction to sail it though.
What caught me in for a bigger hook was the exploration of sea lore. There's so many stories about voyages on the water gone bad - from sea monsters and sea legends, to disappearing vessels and ghost ships. You have sirens and weeds and mutinies, monsters and squids and all the hidden horrors of the sea exposed. Plenty of frightening source material to draw upon, and Curran went all out on delivering here, to the point to where it was almost overload.
It's rare for me to feel a chill reading a book or watching a movie - but in this case, I definitely felt it. My list of genuinely creepy novels is short, and usually those only make the list because of one or two short scenes. Not the case here. The book is rich in tension, that fog is outright creepy because - like playing on the effect of something creepy happening in the dark - it's creepy because the fog keeps the mystery high. You can't see what's more than a few feet in front of you, you can only hear it, imagine it, and fight it when it's suddenly there.
The monsters are mean and the monsters are many. They're well-conceived, nasty creations; brutal and merciless and gory. There's even a weird scene with an extraterrestrial and at first I thought it would be an ironic commentary that this creature is encountering man as another new, hostile monster to overcome in the sickening sea world...but the author turned it instead to where it is another hostile force our group of men must reckon with if they want to survive.
A worthy grouping of characters who complement and contrast. When they're not battling the sea and all the monsters within, they're battling each other. The survivors are divided into two groups for most of the book, and each of those groups must survive sanity over the odds....it's not helped that some of them don't get along. Testosterone taints the air as thickly as the fog at times. This brings a realistic twist we all would recognize in people in a world we wouldn't.
Dead Sea is an epic horror novel, although it's not 100% perfect because sometimes it's a little drawn out and redundant. Despite the length being a little too drawn out, pacing is kept up well for the slowly dawning horror that affects the group.
It's delightfully claustrophobic and reminiscent of Lovecraftian lore, a lengthy voyage into a genuinely chilly, fog-drenched horror novel that all fans should experience.
And what might see them."
This is my first book by Tim Curran - after this terrifying voyage on the sea, I'll definitely give more of his stuff a try and hope those books are as potent. He writes beautifully, drawing out the pacing when the tension is thick by shortening his lines and dishing out almost poetic prose while his dialogue is convincing and genuine.
Besides the storyline holding genuine thrills and chills, it's amped up with intelligence. Not only horror, but the confusing melds of physics and wormholes and other dimensions. The ending especially injects healthy doses of science fiction to sail it though.
What caught me in for a bigger hook was the exploration of sea lore. There's so many stories about voyages on the water gone bad - from sea monsters and sea legends, to disappearing vessels and ghost ships. You have sirens and weeds and mutinies, monsters and squids and all the hidden horrors of the sea exposed. Plenty of frightening source material to draw upon, and Curran went all out on delivering here, to the point to where it was almost overload.
It's rare for me to feel a chill reading a book or watching a movie - but in this case, I definitely felt it. My list of genuinely creepy novels is short, and usually those only make the list because of one or two short scenes. Not the case here. The book is rich in tension, that fog is outright creepy because - like playing on the effect of something creepy happening in the dark - it's creepy because the fog keeps the mystery high. You can't see what's more than a few feet in front of you, you can only hear it, imagine it, and fight it when it's suddenly there.
The monsters are mean and the monsters are many. They're well-conceived, nasty creations; brutal and merciless and gory. There's even a weird scene with an extraterrestrial and at first I thought it would be an ironic commentary that this creature is encountering man as another new, hostile monster to overcome in the sickening sea world...but the author turned it instead to where it is another hostile force our group of men must reckon with if they want to survive.
A worthy grouping of characters who complement and contrast. When they're not battling the sea and all the monsters within, they're battling each other. The survivors are divided into two groups for most of the book, and each of those groups must survive sanity over the odds....it's not helped that some of them don't get along. Testosterone taints the air as thickly as the fog at times. This brings a realistic twist we all would recognize in people in a world we wouldn't.
Dead Sea is an epic horror novel, although it's not 100% perfect because sometimes it's a little drawn out and redundant. Despite the length being a little too drawn out, pacing is kept up well for the slowly dawning horror that affects the group.
It's delightfully claustrophobic and reminiscent of Lovecraftian lore, a lengthy voyage into a genuinely chilly, fog-drenched horror novel that all fans should experience.
amy14's review against another edition
4.0
At first it was a bit slow to begin with and I didn't care for many of the characters.
However, when it gets good, it gets good!
I loved all the twists and turns in the story and the atmosphere was amazing.
I would 100% recommend!
However, when it gets good, it gets good!
I loved all the twists and turns in the story and the atmosphere was amazing.
I would 100% recommend!
barnsey's review against another edition
5.0
Wow, this one blew me away! It was soooooooooooo good. I was totally there feeling the rising panic and helplessness. It was creepy, dark, mysterious, atmospheric..... it was EVERYTHING I love!
nikkibee's review against another edition
4.0
Extremely creepy which works for this book. Originally I didn't like many of the characters but there were some that grew on me. I'm not really a horror book reader so this was something different to read for me so I enjoyed it a lot.
charshorrorcorner's review
5.0
4.5* rounded up to 5.
This was another hit from Tim Curran!
A ship and her crew encounters a dense, endless fog. From there it's all downhill for them.
There is no way for me to impart to you the descriptive skills of Mr. Curran. They are simply outstanding. He made me see creatures that I could never have dreamed up in a million years. After reading this book for a while, it took me a moment to adjust myself to real life when I looked up. He made me feel as I were in the fog myself.
The atmosphere and tension in this story are both excellent. It has been a long time since I've soaked in a truly creepy read like this. I wholeheartedly enjoyed it!
The only thing that bothered me (resulting in the subtraction of half a star), was a few repetitious chapters around the 25% mark. I felt like the point had been made about where each character was and what they were facing and I wanted to get on with the story.
Other than that this book was pretty awesome. Imaginative, descriptive, atmospheric, creepy and crawly. This story had it all. Highly recommended!
*A note regarding the Kindle edition of this book. On Goodreads the description says it has 300 some odd pages, but the Kindle version was over 500 pages. It's a relatively long book.*
This was another hit from Tim Curran!
A ship and her crew encounters a dense, endless fog. From there it's all downhill for them.
There is no way for me to impart to you the descriptive skills of Mr. Curran. They are simply outstanding. He made me see creatures that I could never have dreamed up in a million years. After reading this book for a while, it took me a moment to adjust myself to real life when I looked up. He made me feel as I were in the fog myself.
The atmosphere and tension in this story are both excellent. It has been a long time since I've soaked in a truly creepy read like this. I wholeheartedly enjoyed it!
The only thing that bothered me (resulting in the subtraction of half a star), was a few repetitious chapters around the 25% mark. I felt like the point had been made about where each character was and what they were facing and I wanted to get on with the story.
Other than that this book was pretty awesome. Imaginative, descriptive, atmospheric, creepy and crawly. This story had it all. Highly recommended!
*A note regarding the Kindle edition of this book. On Goodreads the description says it has 300 some odd pages, but the Kindle version was over 500 pages. It's a relatively long book.*
teamredmon's review
3.0
Alright here's the deal with this book, I would totally have rated this 5 stars but it's unbearably long. Everything is drug out to the point where I almost put it down several times. This was such a big issue for me that it very much took away from my enjoyment of the story. Which is a shame because I really loved this story and concept. The narrative of sailors trapped in a weird alternate Bermuda Triangle-ish shipwreck dimension with wriggly monsters is *chef's kiss*. The monsters in this tale were creative and quite unlike anything else I've read. The characters and dialogue were good. My only problem with this book, and yes I think it's such a big problem to knock off 2 whole ass stars, is that is just stupid long. As a 200-300 page book, this might be one of my new favorites but as an almost 600-page monstrosity it's just ok.
loram's review
5.0
This was wonderfully atmospheric.
From the Prologue:
"Shut your mind down, shut it right down or they will hear you thinking and if they hear you thinking they will find you."
How many children have hidden under their blankets in the dark thinking just this? Invoking our childhood fears from the start, the story goes on to trigger other fears, including fog, darkness and most notably, the vast open sea.
Several members of a construction crew have never been out of sight of land before, but they needed this job. What awaits them goes far beyond fear of a sinking ship or natural disasters when the ship enters an eerie fog in the vicinity of the Bermuda Triangle. Everything seems wrong. Watches and radios don't work properly and sea creatures unlike anything even the seasoned sailors have ever seen before add to the otherworldly feeling of being somewhere unknown, where all the rules have changed.
This book could do with a technical edit as there are periodic words missing or shoved together, but the writing is exquisite and the characters develop into very distinctive personalities, some of them sensible and others so irritating you want to just shoot them for the good of the group. The eerie atmosphere is very well done and keeps the pages turning to the point of losing sleep over 'just one more chapter'.
I loved the way the author got inside the minds of men who are trying to hang on to sanity in circumstances that test their limits more and more as time goes on. Sometimes I've had to stop reading just to get out of that world for a little while myself! I wanted a book with monsters. Well, I definitely got it with this one. It took me unequivocally into another world where nothing is as it should be and the rules become clear only when it's too late.
As if that weren't enough, we get some theoretical Physics! One of my great interests and the reason I love time travel books. It was sensibly done, going just far enough. My only complaint besides the typo errors is that an aspect of the ending was a little too convenient for something untried, but by then reality was fully suspended so I didn't care too much. Despite my little criticisms, this one gets a full 5 stars for the amount of enjoyment it gave me.
From the Prologue:
"Shut your mind down, shut it right down or they will hear you thinking and if they hear you thinking they will find you."
How many children have hidden under their blankets in the dark thinking just this? Invoking our childhood fears from the start, the story goes on to trigger other fears, including fog, darkness and most notably, the vast open sea.
Several members of a construction crew have never been out of sight of land before, but they needed this job. What awaits them goes far beyond fear of a sinking ship or natural disasters when the ship enters an eerie fog in the vicinity of the Bermuda Triangle. Everything seems wrong. Watches and radios don't work properly and sea creatures unlike anything even the seasoned sailors have ever seen before add to the otherworldly feeling of being somewhere unknown, where all the rules have changed.
This book could do with a technical edit as there are periodic words missing or shoved together, but the writing is exquisite and the characters develop into very distinctive personalities, some of them sensible and others so irritating you want to just shoot them for the good of the group. The eerie atmosphere is very well done and keeps the pages turning to the point of losing sleep over 'just one more chapter'.
I loved the way the author got inside the minds of men who are trying to hang on to sanity in circumstances that test their limits more and more as time goes on. Sometimes I've had to stop reading just to get out of that world for a little while myself! I wanted a book with monsters. Well, I definitely got it with this one. It took me unequivocally into another world where nothing is as it should be and the rules become clear only when it's too late.
As if that weren't enough, we get some theoretical Physics! One of my great interests and the reason I love time travel books. It was sensibly done, going just far enough. My only complaint besides the typo errors is that an aspect of the ending was a little too convenient for something untried, but by then reality was fully suspended so I didn't care too much. Despite my little criticisms, this one gets a full 5 stars for the amount of enjoyment it gave me.
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