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eggcatsreads 's review for:
Heavy Oceans
by Tyler Jones
A huge thank you to the author, NetGalley, and DarkLit Press for providing this e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Unfortunately, I seem to be in the minority for this book in the fact that I didn’t really enjoy it the way I felt I should. It was listed as an aquatic cosmic horror story (very little is MORE my jam than that), and while that’s not a lie, it is barely one and only towards the end. A good portion of this book focuses on both of the brothers Eric and Jamie, and their estranged relationship to both each other and their father.
I will be honest, my review is a bit meaner than I intended it to be, but with both aquatic and cosmic horror being one of my favorite genres, I really expected to like this more than I did. However, I think you should read this novel for yourself as it’s not bad, it’s just not what I wanted nor expected out of a horror novel with this premise. I think a reader without the same expectations that I had would love this story.
The first about 30-50% of this book is Jamie’s reflections on growing up with his brother, and his strange actions while sleepwalking as a child - and how it, in turn, changed his personality to become more aggressive and violent. The story kicks off with them reuniting at a bar in Hawaii, and Eric seeming to be involved in some shady business and involved with drug deals. Things escalate quickly, and soon he, his brother, their friend and their father need to escape onto the father’s boat into the ocean.
(I was expecting a much more natural progression for them to be on the boat, and for the horror to then start slowly as isolation and resentment between the brothers set in. This is my own fault, but when I see “aquatic horror on a boat in the middle of the ocean” I kind of assume the inherent horror of the ocean to be involved. As it is, there really isn’t any reason for this novel to take place on the ocean.)
Finally, once the cosmic horror aspect arrives, it is almost very quickly explained away and then the novel ends. In fact, even the horror aspect itself is still revolving around Eric, like we (as Jamie) have been doing the ENTIRE novel. I understand themes and how this could be a thematic throughline of Jamie’s life revolving around his brother to the point that even when the world ends it’s because of Eric, but I kind of felt like this reading was me trying to grasp at straws to justify the “twist” ending.
At the end we have a brief epilogue of a letter from a scientist studying the strange phenomena occurring, which implies the story continues on past this point, but to be honest I was more frustrated I couldn’t experience THAT novel. It’s definitely me, but I think I’d have preferred an aquatic horror novel focused MORE on the aquatic horror aspect, with them slowly studying and experiencing the phenomena as it slowly starts to unravel space and time around them.
However, clearly I’m in the minority for this novel and so if you like any kind of cosmic horror I absolutely encourage you to check this out. I think maybe if I had been more aware of the type of aquatic cosmic horror this novel was, I might have enjoyed it more. As it stands, I wasn’t expecting such a long runtime to be focused on the relationship of the brothers, or Eric ruining the lives of everyone around him for no reason, which definitely dampened my enjoyment reading this.
Unfortunately, I seem to be in the minority for this book in the fact that I didn’t really enjoy it the way I felt I should. It was listed as an aquatic cosmic horror story (very little is MORE my jam than that), and while that’s not a lie, it is barely one and only towards the end. A good portion of this book focuses on both of the brothers Eric and Jamie, and their estranged relationship to both each other and their father.
I will be honest, my review is a bit meaner than I intended it to be, but with both aquatic and cosmic horror being one of my favorite genres, I really expected to like this more than I did. However, I think you should read this novel for yourself as it’s not bad, it’s just not what I wanted nor expected out of a horror novel with this premise. I think a reader without the same expectations that I had would love this story.
The first about 30-50% of this book is Jamie’s reflections on growing up with his brother, and his strange actions while sleepwalking as a child - and how it, in turn, changed his personality to become more aggressive and violent. The story kicks off with them reuniting at a bar in Hawaii, and Eric seeming to be involved in some shady business and involved with drug deals. Things escalate quickly, and soon he, his brother, their friend and their father need to escape onto the father’s boat into the ocean.
(I was expecting a much more natural progression for them to be on the boat, and for the horror to then start slowly as isolation and resentment between the brothers set in. This is my own fault, but when I see “aquatic horror on a boat in the middle of the ocean” I kind of assume the inherent horror of the ocean to be involved. As it is, there really isn’t any reason for this novel to take place on the ocean.)
Finally, once the cosmic horror aspect arrives, it is almost very quickly explained away and then the novel ends. In fact, even the horror aspect itself is still revolving around Eric, like we (as Jamie) have been doing the ENTIRE novel. I understand themes and how this could be a thematic throughline of Jamie’s life revolving around his brother to the point that even when the world ends it’s because of Eric, but I kind of felt like this reading was me trying to grasp at straws to justify the “twist” ending.
At the end we have a brief epilogue of a letter from a scientist studying the strange phenomena occurring, which implies the story continues on past this point, but to be honest I was more frustrated I couldn’t experience THAT novel. It’s definitely me, but I think I’d have preferred an aquatic horror novel focused MORE on the aquatic horror aspect, with them slowly studying and experiencing the phenomena as it slowly starts to unravel space and time around them.
However, clearly I’m in the minority for this novel and so if you like any kind of cosmic horror I absolutely encourage you to check this out. I think maybe if I had been more aware of the type of aquatic cosmic horror this novel was, I might have enjoyed it more. As it stands, I wasn’t expecting such a long runtime to be focused on the relationship of the brothers, or Eric ruining the lives of everyone around him for no reason, which definitely dampened my enjoyment reading this.