Dead Water

Fletcher’s (A Boy and His Dog at the End of the World) latest is a folk horror tale that never quite hits its stride. The book takes place on a remote island on the edge of the Northern Atlantic. The residents of this island, many of whom have lived and worked here all their lives, slowly succumb to an ancient curse that spreads like a virus. Cut off from the mainland, a band of survivors (including widowed scientist Sig, her niece Evie, and fisherman Matt) must escape from those they once called friends before this curse drowns them as well. The book has a large cast of characters, all given distinct voices and accents by narrator Siobhan Redmond, but their individual stories are a lot for a reader to wade through. These different tangents and multiple story lines, not to mention the narrative of how this curse was born hundreds of years ago, hinder the creeping dread that typically marks tales of curses.