First of all Iraxi you're having nightmares not dreams. Although, they're so lucid and stuffed with memory I'm not even sure nightmare is even the right word.

Curses abound in this book and this has been an utterly depressing-horror. We get no reprieve, not a moment of tenderness even in softer memories hidden in violent ones. The effect is claustrophobic like the deck Iraxi is relegated to staying in when there's a bloody wide open space above where fresh air and the ocean can be seen.

Plot/Storyline/Themes:
Whooweee that ship is beyond bleak! Just to be clear there is filth, laziness, starvation and death all over - even pieces of skin in cups of water.

"We all smell, but mine is aggressive in its pungency, cloying and sweet as it settles in the back of your throat" - oh no Iraxi. No no no.

Oh yeah and a pod of something hunts the crew every once on a while. Okay I'll say it - Sirens hunt them but they're not the real threat. Out in the seas on this cursed ship, there is something far worse than sirens.

Two Sentences, A Scene or less - Characters:

I can't even begin to describe the inner turmoil of this character, Iraxi, the mind through which we experience this story. I was repulsed by her, sad for her and hopeful she'd find power and peace.

Favorite/Curious/Ludicrous/Unique Scene:

✔️The first "birth": it is almost a Lovecraftian scene. Big black bird, tentacles in the vomit, baby ripping open the stomach to try and grab Hirat. What a premonition.
✔️The second birth. What a horror show. "The child finishes its own birth"
✔️hhhm, is that postpartum depression or a supernatural response to the birth of a destroyer?

Favorite/Curious/Ludicrous/Unique Quotes:
🖤 “This child has already been born. Into the sky and into the sea, this child is among this world.
And it will swallow it whole.” (Hallucination or real? Jury's still out.)

Favorite/Curious/Ludicrous/Unique Concepts:
■ The Stone
■Razorfangs
■ Naeim

StoryGraph Challenge: 1800 Books by 2025
Challenge Prompt: 150 Horror Books by 2025