the_coycaterpillar_reads's review
4.0
When an author opens with such a chapter you just know that it’s going to continue to shock and surprise throughout the story. The quality and the balance of the tale were upheld perfectly and found myself enthralled at the propensity of the narrative. The writing never fails to accurately nail what is beloved about horror. Dead in the Water is a rollercoaster of action and emotion about the ups and downs of family life with a haunting element of supernatural and folklore injected in just the right places.
Dead in the water is the stage in which we see societal issues explored with clarity and finesse, a story with a three-dimensional sting contained. A story of triplets dealing with the death of their grandmother, the real matriarch of the family. She raised them after the death of their parents and was the rock that kept them steady through years of grief and suffering. When Shaelyn took the difficult decision to put their grandmother into a home it already felt like the end of an era. She couldn’t communicate with them anymore and had ultimately fallen into a vegetative state. After being informed that their grandmother had been able to slip past them and head to the docks and left a note it seems impossible after her years of being incommunicado. Why did their grandmother leave them in this way?
The sisters arrive back in Provincetown to sort out the estate and funeral of their grandmother. Shaelyn, Cordelia, and Riley have had limited contact with each other for several years now. It’s perceived by all the girls that the others have had better lives. Shaelyn has had twins and has been running the Inn that their grandmother owned, It’s a real struggle in the off-season though. Cordelia has been the victim of domestic abuse from the complete ass of a husband. Riley has a high-flying career in music but at the cost of the love of her life. Growing up isn’t a bed of roses as can be highlighted by the experiences of the three sisters.
Reading Dead in the water reminded me of the stillness that can be found on the water. Everything can seem calm like glass but underneath there is a torrent of action, an engulfing magnitude of pain. Imagine an iceberg – what’s underneath is far more dangerous than the surface. No quiet or peace can be found. Soucy delves into hard topics such as grief and domestic abuse with tact and respect but doesn’t diminish the impact that it has on the story.
I love this kind of read the kind that you can immerse yourself into for hours. The relationships, the coming back together felt like the light at the end of a tunnel. Everything becomes more manageable when the family sticks together through hardship and pain.
Dead in the water is the stage in which we see societal issues explored with clarity and finesse, a story with a three-dimensional sting contained. A story of triplets dealing with the death of their grandmother, the real matriarch of the family. She raised them after the death of their parents and was the rock that kept them steady through years of grief and suffering. When Shaelyn took the difficult decision to put their grandmother into a home it already felt like the end of an era. She couldn’t communicate with them anymore and had ultimately fallen into a vegetative state. After being informed that their grandmother had been able to slip past them and head to the docks and left a note it seems impossible after her years of being incommunicado. Why did their grandmother leave them in this way?
The sisters arrive back in Provincetown to sort out the estate and funeral of their grandmother. Shaelyn, Cordelia, and Riley have had limited contact with each other for several years now. It’s perceived by all the girls that the others have had better lives. Shaelyn has had twins and has been running the Inn that their grandmother owned, It’s a real struggle in the off-season though. Cordelia has been the victim of domestic abuse from the complete ass of a husband. Riley has a high-flying career in music but at the cost of the love of her life. Growing up isn’t a bed of roses as can be highlighted by the experiences of the three sisters.
Reading Dead in the water reminded me of the stillness that can be found on the water. Everything can seem calm like glass but underneath there is a torrent of action, an engulfing magnitude of pain. Imagine an iceberg – what’s underneath is far more dangerous than the surface. No quiet or peace can be found. Soucy delves into hard topics such as grief and domestic abuse with tact and respect but doesn’t diminish the impact that it has on the story.
I love this kind of read the kind that you can immerse yourself into for hours. The relationships, the coming back together felt like the light at the end of a tunnel. Everything becomes more manageable when the family sticks together through hardship and pain.
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