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3.54 AVERAGE
3.54 AVERAGE
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
It was alright. I think if you'd like to read a story about a headstrong heroine looking for a missing relative in a strange town with the help of a sensitive but eccentric young man, you'd be better off with Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia. If, instead its the thalassic depths of Lovecraft you crave, you might enjoy Winter Tide by Ruthanna Emrys. If you've read and enjoyed both of those, however, and are searching for more, you could do worse than Tidepool.
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
adventurous
dark
sad
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I don’t know if having read HP Lovecraft’s work would change my view of this book at all, but it was a decent read that I think could have been shorter, as there were parts that dragged.
To be courteous of others, I’m going to wrap my issues in spoiler tags:
- For making Sorrow the strong, independent woman type, why give her the weak love story with Charles? Which was weak.
- I’m not sure how I feel about Ada’s whole sexual awakening and what it added to the story. Do we love a wlw moment? Well, I do. But I just don’t see why THAT moment was her turnaround point for sex. I think there could have been something better to convey her sexual “redemption.” I was also fully expecting Lucy to be her actual daughter she gave birth to after that last tryst with her husband, especially with the previous stillbirths.
- I mean, gold star for feeding transphobes to the Lords Below, but having a sudden trans character just for that plot point felt disjointed. I feel somewhat similarly about Bart and Naomi being an interracial couple. Though given HP Lovecraft’s racism, I see why those are important elements.
I don’t generally read a lot of horror/mystery novels so this was a good departure from the norm for me.
To be courteous of others, I’m going to wrap my issues in spoiler tags:
- For making Sorrow the strong, independent woman type, why give her the weak love story with Charles? Which was weak.
- I’m not sure how I feel about Ada’s whole sexual awakening and what it added to the story. Do we love a wlw moment? Well, I do. But I just don’t see why THAT moment was her turnaround point for sex. I think there could have been something better to convey her sexual “redemption.” I was also fully expecting Lucy to be her actual daughter she gave birth to after that last tryst with her husband, especially with the previous stillbirths.
- I mean, gold star for feeding transphobes to the Lords Below, but having a sudden trans character just for that plot point felt disjointed. I feel somewhat similarly about Bart and Naomi being an interracial couple. Though given HP Lovecraft’s racism, I see why those are important elements.
I don’t generally read a lot of horror/mystery novels so this was a good departure from the norm for me.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual assault, Sexual content, Suicide, Murder
3.5 stars, rounded to 4 for the quick flow of the story.
**Thanks to NetGalley and The Parliament House for the free copy of this title in exchange for an honest review**
Tidepool follows a girl named Sorrow in her quest to find her brother Hal. Hal has disappeared in a town called Tidepool, and when Sorrow arrives the residents are almost comically unwilling to help her out. I found the characters to be very much caricatures of certain stereotypes to an extreme which made them hard to relate to.
I definitely enjoyed this as a quick Scifi/fantasy read and appreciated the Lovecraftian elements. I don’t want to spoil the main reveals of this story, but I will say that after a certain point it became a little predictable. The story describes everything in such detail, leaving little to the imagination.
While I liked the writing style and felt that the story flowed very well, I just couldn’t fully get behind the plot or the characters at any point. I would recommend this book for fans of scifi, sea monsters, and Lovecraft, or for a quick read to get out of a reading slump.
**Thanks to NetGalley and The Parliament House for the free copy of this title in exchange for an honest review**
Tidepool follows a girl named Sorrow in her quest to find her brother Hal. Hal has disappeared in a town called Tidepool, and when Sorrow arrives the residents are almost comically unwilling to help her out. I found the characters to be very much caricatures of certain stereotypes to an extreme which made them hard to relate to.
I definitely enjoyed this as a quick Scifi/fantasy read and appreciated the Lovecraftian elements. I don’t want to spoil the main reveals of this story, but I will say that after a certain point it became a little predictable. The story describes everything in such detail, leaving little to the imagination.
While I liked the writing style and felt that the story flowed very well, I just couldn’t fully get behind the plot or the characters at any point. I would recommend this book for fans of scifi, sea monsters, and Lovecraft, or for a quick read to get out of a reading slump.
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
adventurous
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Kinda Lovecraftian, kinda folky, but good. I really enjoyed the story, although I thought the last couple of chapters weren't needed.
I think I should start by saying that I'm not a horror reader, I think I never read an horror book before even though I want to try it and when I the publisher was me to read it I thought that this was my change.
That being said I did like the books, even stopping for a few days (I do life in an island and I'm already afraid of the water)... at some point I think I had nightmares about this book, I did like this book and I enjoy reading it.
It is really dark and since the first page you can already feel the oddness about Tidepool, and throughout the book you can feel something bad is coming! Was it scary? I don't think scary would be the word to describe this book, probably creepy and off. Did it make me think about creatures underwater? Definitely!!!
The writing is just fantastic it really "sucks" you in the story and you really get in Tidepool, it's really a fluid writing.
At some point I got annoyed about how many people stopped Sorrow from going home!
In general would definitely recommend it if you want to try horror for the first time and want something quick!
That being said I did like the books, even stopping for a few days (I do life in an island and I'm already afraid of the water)... at some point I think I had nightmares about this book, I did like this book and I enjoy reading it.
It is really dark and since the first page you can already feel the oddness about Tidepool, and throughout the book you can feel something bad is coming! Was it scary? I don't think scary would be the word to describe this book, probably creepy and off. Did it make me think about creatures underwater? Definitely!!!
The writing is just fantastic it really "sucks" you in the story and you really get in Tidepool, it's really a fluid writing.
At some point I got annoyed about how many people stopped Sorrow from going home!
In general would definitely recommend it if you want to try horror for the first time and want something quick!