From Below - Absolutely Terrifying....
“And yet the ship surged forward at an almost reckless speed. It wasn’t being piloted by a man who feared potential rocks in their path. It was being driven as though hell itself were on their heels.”
Two of my favorite sub-genres of horror are aquatic horror and the really specific sub-genre; filming a reality show or documentary and then horror happens. Luckily for me From Below has both of these! Hitting shelves on June 7th, From Below is the newest release from Darcy Coates.
The story follows a small group of documentarians who are the first to explore a mysterious ship that sunk ages ago. Think Mary Celeste meets the Titanic. No one knows why the ship sank or what happened to its passengers and crew, but this team is determined to be the first to break the story. Once they begin to explore the ship it seems to start to wake up and as they discover terrifying messages written on the walls, and dead bodies floating in the dining hall, the group realize they’re in a really bad situation. Like….really bad. With the deadline approaching from the studio, equipment failing, running out of air, and a mysterious dive guide – our intrepid heroes quickly find themselves fighting for their lives hundreds of feet below water.
Mood board for the book (all images found on weheartit.com)
“…the water felt unpleasantly alive. As though something pulsed between them and the shipwreck three hundred feet below. As though it was calling to them.”
Here’s what I loved (no spoilers):
This book is absolutely terrifying. It is so rare for me to actually get scared while reading a book, but this story did it. The imagery that Coates creates was so cleverly described that I felt complete terror crawling down my spine. Her ability to also create the claustrophobic reality of deep-sea diving makes for a breathless and horrifying read. It is REALLY hard to pull this off and Coates does it seamlessly. It gives me major Junji Ito vibes in how she describes some of the horror in the final climax and created a few images that will stick for a long time in my brain.
A lot of times in books like this, the group of main characters can easily melt together as one generic personality. Coates has created completely individual people with their own motivations and personalities, and it makes the read that much more absorbing. I really loved Vanna, our diving specialist/guide. She has a dark backstory that’s teased throughout the story and you find yourself constantly doubting your trust in her and freaking out any time she swims off alone with another character.
The pacing of this book is really well done. We jump back and forth between present day and the sinking of the ship. Each chapter in the past counts down from “eleven days before the sinking” which constantly builds a sense of dread as you get closer and closer to the answer.
Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed this story and will be aggressively recommending it to every horror fan. It’s just a stunning story with a descent into madness, terrifying ghosts, a mysterious ship, and will make you forever afraid of the “the burrowing disease”. What more do you need?! Big thank you to Poisoned Pen Press for sending me a copy of this book in return for an honest review.
Pick up your own copy of From Below on June 7th.
“But the sounds in the walls were growing bolder. Louder. Sometimes, if Harland pressed his ear against the cold steel, he could hear it far too clearly: broken fingernails digging at the metal, seeking a way out.”
