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badseedgirl's review
3.0
2022 HA Summer Challenge Aquatic Horror Book 1 of 10
This was most assuredly a creature feature and it is most assuredly aquatic horror. But after reading it, I just honestly can not tell you what kind it was!
This was Rewind or Die book 9 in the series.
This was most assuredly a creature feature and it is most assuredly aquatic horror. But after reading it, I just honestly can not tell you what kind it was!
This was Rewind or Die book 9 in the series.
nelemon's review
3.0
This was okay, but it had potential to be actually really cool! I feel like there were great themes and things (for example the obsession with beauty) but they just didn’t really come together. Some scenes went on for forever (Craig talking to the surfer historian in the library oh my god it went on for AGES), and then other things that were actually interesting, like Penelope’s heritage for example, didn’t not get explored enough or at all. The ending was way too abrupt and made me go, wait what? The horror elements were fun in a B-movie kind of way, but I would have loved a little more body horror honestly. It was an okay short read!
kkehoe's review
3.0
A decent, if somewhat unsurprising, tale of mermaid "horror". Well-written, but lacking in any real suspense.
thomaswjoyce's review
3.0
The Kelping makes for a fairly unique take on the monstrous mermaid story, but maybe doesn't go deep enough with the idea, for my personal liking. The main character does start off very unlikeable, and that doesn't change until the very end of the book (and even then he is only slightly more bearable), but the supporting cast are more interesting, especially the MC's wife. It is a pretty good tale, overall.
inciminci's review
3.0
Confusing is what this book is…
Dr. Craig is a vain, shallow, self-centered plastic surgeon who lives in the equally vain and shallow seaside town of Beachside with his equally vain and shallow wife Penelope. During their leisure time they like to post pictures on the social media platform Yay Me! or ditch their children to have sex. What he does in his leisure time is to ditch her to have sex with other women, even though he assures she is his absolute “Queen”.
When Craig is chosen the Sea King of Beachside in the annual festival, that’s not only an opportunity for him to boost his prestige, it is also the beginning of a really weird transformation period for him and a chance to see the real nature of his gorgeous wife.
There are so many elements in this book that are promising yet failed to come together in a meaningful way. I appreciate the idea of putting the unlikeable, unrelatable Craig in the focus of a horror story but I ended up not being able to figure out what exactly happened to him and why (I have a guess, though). Penelope’s background and what’s going on in the attic of the history museum are much more interesting than Craig.
Dr. Craig is a vain, shallow, self-centered plastic surgeon who lives in the equally vain and shallow seaside town of Beachside with his equally vain and shallow wife Penelope. During their leisure time they like to post pictures on the social media platform Yay Me! or ditch their children to have sex. What he does in his leisure time is to ditch her to have sex with other women, even though he assures she is his absolute “Queen”.
When Craig is chosen the Sea King of Beachside in the annual festival, that’s not only an opportunity for him to boost his prestige, it is also the beginning of a really weird transformation period for him and a chance to see the real nature of his gorgeous wife.
There are so many elements in this book that are promising yet failed to come together in a meaningful way. I appreciate the idea of putting the unlikeable, unrelatable Craig in the focus of a horror story but I ended up not being able to figure out what exactly happened to him and why (I have a guess, though). Penelope’s background and what’s going on in the attic of the history museum are much more interesting than Craig.
lilly_borrell8's review
1.0
Just awful
I’ll break this book down into pros and cons
Cons: absolutely 0 explanation of anything
Conversations were clunky at best
The entire book read like a run on sentence
Pro: it was short enough that I was able to finish it before completely wanting to gouge my eyes out
I’ll break this book down into pros and cons
Cons: absolutely 0 explanation of anything
Conversations were clunky at best
The entire book read like a run on sentence
Pro: it was short enough that I was able to finish it before completely wanting to gouge my eyes out
catsluvcoffee's review against another edition
3.0
The Kelping by Jan Stinchcomb is number nine in Unnerving's Rewind or Die series. Those of you expecting a horror-filled flesh-eating mermaid tale might find it a little tame. What's inside these 67 pages is a more insidious tale of mermaids infiltrating a sleepy little seaside town. It starts out quite strong with out-of-towner Nick meeting a beautiful woman on the beach and ends with Nick caught up in a deadly Beachside tradition. Then we meet Dr. Craig Bo.
Bo is a pretty despicable human. From the outside in, he has the perfect life with a beautiful wife and kids but that's not good enough for Dr. Bo. A big donor, a family man, the town's prominent dermatologist, he sees himself as a god, personally responsible for the beauty of the faces around him. He has a dirty little secret though. He's being blackmailed after an indiscretion at the beach one night. Not that it's the first time. He has a long history but it's okay because he never kissed them and it wasn't with minors or men. It was easy to lie to his wife, Penelope because he loved her so much. Gag.
After the Kelping, a tradition where the year's Sea King is crowned and then layered with sea kelp, something bizarre starts happening. He slowly realizes that there's much more to the women of his town and his wife that he ever knew. The kelp starts overtaking his body as he turns into another being—one that craves the sea. And he's the kind of man who gets what he deserves.
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Bo is a pretty despicable human. From the outside in, he has the perfect life with a beautiful wife and kids but that's not good enough for Dr. Bo. A big donor, a family man, the town's prominent dermatologist, he sees himself as a god, personally responsible for the beauty of the faces around him. He has a dirty little secret though. He's being blackmailed after an indiscretion at the beach one night. Not that it's the first time. He has a long history but it's okay because he never kissed them and it wasn't with minors or men. It was easy to lie to his wife, Penelope because he loved her so much. Gag.
After the Kelping, a tradition where the year's Sea King is crowned and then layered with sea kelp, something bizarre starts happening. He slowly realizes that there's much more to the women of his town and his wife that he ever knew. The kelp starts overtaking his body as he turns into another being—one that craves the sea. And he's the kind of man who gets what he deserves.
Website | Twitter | Pinterest
kkehoe's review against another edition
3.0
A decent, if somewhat unsurprising, tale of mermaid "horror". Well-written, but lacking in any real suspense.