Fourteen-year-old Eric Ross is struggling. His father is in prison for murder. His mother has slipped into addiction. Even if he can survive the bullying and the sudden run of disappearances, he has little hope for a future outside of the sleepy Massachusetts fishing town he calls home.
But there is something far more important on his mind.
He found her down beneath the local entertainment pier, and she seems just about perfect. Except for the teeth. But she doesn’t want to simply be a part of his world. She wants more…
From the author of These Things Linger and The Eater of Gods, Down Into the Sea is a vicious twist on coming-of-age horror, on the unyielding, transformative power of desire, and the dangers of standing in its path.
The sins of the father are visited upon Fourteen-year-old Eric Ross. He has had his life upended by events beyond his control. There was a time that he had a happy home life. There was a time when he had friends, and hopes, and dreams. Now he knows only hunger and neglect, with his father in prison and his mother unable to cope, drowning her depression in pills and alcohol.
He spends most of his energy avoiding bullies, missing his father, and hanging out at the pier. That is where he sees her, a strange looking woman that at first appears to be a corpse in the water. This unusual pair become ill-fated friends.
In between the missing people and occasional carnage, I forgot this was a horror story because fear is only one of many emotions this powerful novella evokes. I could feel Eric's loneliness and his love for his parents. I could feel his mother's shame at being unable to take better care of him. Then there was my own apprehension over his unlikely friendship with this woman under the pier.
If you're looking for a read that will leave you alternately terrified and heartbroken this is it. I have an emotional hangover from my splash Down Into The Sea.
5 out of 5 stars
My thanks to the author and Cemetery Dance Publications.
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