Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ

� truly a page-turner, i was quickly hooked on the eerie sense of discontent in this gruesome horror novella. an isolated island community, an impending storm, and the arrival of breathtakingly freaky creatures!

� all major spoilers under tags!

� sadly, this book needs some serious editing, and is oddly lacking detail. one of the main characters, fisher, is a kiddo, but it's never established how old he is, and i couldn't figure it out. he writes proficiently, but his dialogue and reasoning are of a younger kid, yet his POV chapters are bizarrely adult. there's also a baby missing - how old is this baby? it's never specified, so (view spoiler)[when the baby becomes one of the vampire zombie creatures, i wasn't sure whether this was a newborn or a pudgy one-year-old sprouting fangs. and i know this is nitpicky, but it does make a difference. i was also hoping to eventually understand his mother's motive for infanticide. shocking and disturbing, but what for? oh, and what was with the mystery of her impregnation, mentioned and never revisited? (hide spoiler)]... we follow a handful of main characters with alternating POVs, and they seem to be the last ones left on the island due to evacuation for the storm. but are they? there's an old lady neighbor early in the book that retreats inside her house early on and is never mentioned again - what happens to her, to anyone else who might still be taking shelter from the storm?

� odd declarations are made about the island but never explained - guns are illegal on the island unless you're a cop, oh, and cats are also illegal on the island? what? where even is this island, geographically? the only wildlife is feral horses?? i tried to roll with all the punches, but these are bizarre things to accept without any background.

� in a similar vein, i was put off by the way the outside world is never mentioned. our cop main characters never consider radioing the mainland or calling for help, even when things seriously escalate. it doesn't make sense, but it does intensify the doom of it all, the fact that they must fend for themselves with no hope of rescue.

� okay, i know this is all nitpicky, i know. i found these details hard to swallow, but they are minor detractions from the thrilling story. the plot escalates quickly, and doesn't let up until the end. it's creepy and mercilessly gory, and the idea of ancient monsters emerging from a stormy sea is downright chilling.

� i howled when we were treated to the arrival of (view spoiler)[VAMPIRE ZOMBIE HORSES! oh my god, so that's why the author took time to mention that the island is ordinarily inhabited by feral horses. and yes, apparently these horses can be infected by the vampire zombie virus that makes them fanged, vicious, and bloodthirsty! i'm so glad the story went here! but the horses are introduced and then leave the story in the space of one short chapter, and the concept feels wasted. the same goes for the network of tunnels beneath the streets of the island. those dark tunnels could have been a delightfully scary setting! i wanted tunnel terror! but instead, they are used only as a pragmatic plot device behind the scenes. i love stockton's ideas, but she could have pushed so much harder! (hide spoiler)]

� multiple reviewers compared this to mike flanagan's midnight mass, and that's what got my attention and made me pick this up. the obvious connections are the isolated island community, creepy church scenes, and frightening supernatural invasion that's impacting their locale only. but (view spoiler)[ultimately the biggest connection is the bleakness, the finality - the fact that literally everyone on this island is doomed, and there is no hope of aid from the mainland. it's humbling to know that every single character must die. (hide spoiler)]

� the story finishes with a chapter showing what happened three years earlier, when these horrifying creatures found their first victims. there are scores of unanswered questions that arise within this short book, so i really appreciated this chapter tying everything together and showing how the nightmare began. ambiguity remains, but the ending is satisfying.