This is a slow burning folk horror novel that was admittedly not to my tastes. The narrative was very slow. The prose was quite good but the horror elements were just too subtle for me. I understand that the book was written to be more atmospheric than overtly scary but it was just too quiet.

This was not a book for me. It sounded right up my alley but unfortunately I found the pace too slow and I kept putting it down and forgetting about it.

Not a bad book by any means, but entirely too long for what it is. Unfortunately, this plot is not the most unique premise, and perhaps that why the length became such an issue.

I do think there will be readers who like it - but literary horror is not always my jam.

I know a book is great when I finish it and wish there was more. I love the way all the characters were fleshed out and their relationships explored, all while we as the reader know something ominous is going on. The buildup to the action was great, and once I got about 75% through I could not put the book down. Between this book and A Boy and His Dog at the End of the World, C.A. Fletcher is going on my auto-buy list.

A variety of people on a small island in the North Atlantic are featured in this quiet story. We meet:
-Sig, who's full of guilt and grief after her beloved husband died,
-Matt, Sig's brother-in-law, with whom she has an argumentative relationship because of her grief-induced behaviour, including a solo climbing accident where she badly broke one of her legs
-Rex, Sig's stouthearted dog
-Evie, Sig's niece by marriage who's recovering from a car crash that killed her parents,
-Tom, newly arrived on the island with his divorced father and new wife and baby half-sister, and
-Kevo, an ex-con newly arrived on the island to reunite with a former girlfriend

There are several other characters, but most play supporting roles, and end up essentially becoming fodder when a malevolent, ancient curse is released on the island, transforming those it takes over into essentially zombies.

The first half of this quiet book has a measured pace, allowing you to get comfortable with the characters' lives. The author delivers a slow build of suspense; the book is atmospheric, claustrophobic, and has a great sense of growing dread.

I liked how C.A. Fletcher gave me time to care about the characters, before destroying the peace and safety of the island in the back half of the book when the pace picked up. Though this was not a gore fest, there were enough sudden deaths and mayhem to keep me worried about the main cast.

I had no idea what to expect from this author's work, as I haven't yet read "A Boy and His Dog", but I thoroughly enjoyed this creepy and disturbing pleasure.

Thank you to Netgalley and to Redhook Books for this ARC in exchange for my review.

* Thank you Netgalley for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review*

*Trigger Warning: Some animal violence and death.

I’ll be totally, 100% honest. I totally picked this book based on the cover! I was browsing the horror category and saw this book and was just captured by the cover. Didn’t know the author. I didn’t even read the plot blurb, just went straight to getting it.

When I began reading Dead Water, I had no idea what to expect. It had something to do with water, maybe a curse or plague? Sounds like a good time! Nice Scottish folk horror tale maybe? 🙂 Awesome!

I really, really enjoyed this book. More on that later! First, though, I wanted to talk about the pacing for a hot minute. Dead Water is VERY slow burn. By that, I mean very, very, VEEEEEEERY slow burn. It is one of the biggest complaints I’ve heard from other reviewers.

Truthfully, I didn’t mind. I thought the pacing was just right. It reminded me of watching a UK mini-series….Slow build focused mostly on characters first, the setting and then the plot. I really enjoyed watching the island life slowly become unraveled and messed up.

While not all the characters are likable, they all felt very realistic. Everyone had realistic flaws, secrets, and normal problems. I appreciated how there are characters with different ages, disabilities, and part of the LGBT+ community. As the story progressed, I grew to really care about everyone.

I absolutely LOVED the big reveal of what was going on. Wow. I was NOT expecting plague- curse zombies at all. What a great surprise! I did not expect it and was pleasantly pleased. I also loved that there is a wild zombie bunny running the island! I’m sorry, what? YES. Zombie…… BUNNY. Hell yes!! Awww cute!! ❤ (Also, I think…… did….. did the zombunny get away? >.> Hmmm….)

Now. The ending was…. a little different. Not bad at all! It was just different. I thought it was very unique, but I could see some people may feel like it was a little anti-climatic? I thought it had nice closure though.

Dead Water is a spell binding Scottish folklore. A slow burn story that is filled with true to life characters. This story had a reveal that definitely caught me off guard in the best possible way! The ending is a strange, tense, quick sprint to the final show down. The finale is a little unusual, but it felt very authentic to the story and characters. Bonus points because there was a zombunny and the pet dog LIVED!! 🙂

A thrilling story that stands out from others in the genre because the writing is actually REALLY GOOD. I thoroughly enjoyed Dead Water and have recommend widely since I read it.

What a fantastic read to start the spooky season with!
The story is told from several different points of view, even the two ravens take part in this. It's also told from the perspective of a "Viking" hundreds of years ago.
It stars on this ferry making its way to a small fishing village on remote island somewhere in the northern Atlantic. The main character, Sig, is a woman struggling with loss and has taken to free diving solo, which is dangerous, though she claims she does not want to die. She finds a half buried backpack with what appears to be a book with strange runes on it. She thinks nothing of it and takes the bag home hoping to find its owner.
On the other side of the island, Kathleen, who is 80+ years old stumbles upon a desecrated seamark, a cairn of stones that had been there since before she was born. After collapsing and being found by her grandson and Sig, Kathleen starts behaving violently. As her grandson walks her home Sig discovers that something has been dug out from beneath the cairn. Strange things start happening to the islands residents.
Such a good story! Definitely recommended for fans of Nordic landscapes and horrifying curses.

On a remote Scottish island lives a small community seeking a slower way of living. However, their peaceful existence is threatened by a mysterious water-borne illness. Some claim the illness may be a case of mass hysteria, others say it’s a curse.

Whatever the cause, once the ferry service and the phone towers go down, panic ensues and begins to tear the community apart.

Dead Water by C.A. Fletcher is a book I genuinely wanted to love. At first glance, it seemed like a book that would be right up my alley: an atmospheric folk horror about an isolated community.

However, I feel that the story was far too long for what it was trying to achieve. It’s 513 pages long, which is something that might work more for a complex fantasy novel with a lot of worldbuilding. Instead we get a lot of quiet character scenes that focus on the various villagers mundane lives, and the characters themselves (except for maybe Sig) weren’t compelling enough to hold my interest.

It takes about 60% of the novel for us to finally get to the meat of the story, and while there are some moments of creepiness, this book was honestly a slog to get through.

At first, I had this down as a book I was not going to review, but then I decided against it.
Not entirely sure why I changed my mind, but I did. So, this is my review for Dead Water.
Well let me start off by telling you why I chose this book in the first place.
I think that it safe to say that any medical professional would immediately be curious about this synopsis.
“When a strange disorder begins to infect them all” that right there had my Spidey senses tingling.
“Strange disorder” “INFECT” (That word was the one that got me) what in the hell could be going on this book?
So! Downloaded the book, then what did I get? Slow burn is what I got.
Did I need all of the back stories, probably not? So, I put the book down, then picked it back up and this went on and on for many months. Now here we are back at this review.
So, we have these group of people on this remote island, cut off from the rest of humanity. Plagued by the very thing that A. they need to survive and B. the thing that they are literally surrounded by on all sides of them. “Water.” Not just water, but a water borne illness!
This book is dragged out over one weekend on this remote island, a fishing village that survives on tourism also.
Half the village has gone on the mainland, and half has stayed due to work or whatever reasoning has caused them to miss the last ferry. (Sounds like Staten Island a bit. No! New York has other ways off the Island, Thank God!)
During this time, the Telecom company is out there working on the wiring. They are supposed to making sure that the entire island is routed to the mainland. Instead, one of the workers cuts the wires and there is NO service whatsoever, leaving the islanders stranded.
Now this group of about 100 stranded individuals, have NO way off the island until Monday, and no way to call for help. This story follows the many points of view of the remaining islanders and what happens to people when there is no where for them to turn.
Especially when the “Drowned” cannot be killed!
This book gives you nothing but slow burn the entire first half, with an introduction to a host of characters, their POV’s, mixed with their secrets.
Fletcher does, however, give the perfect atmospheric world setting based on his novel. The Island is definitely creepy and water zombie enough.
The Island curse does give that Nordic/Viking touch, it just could have gone into more detail. You can never go wrong with a Viking tale.
The main dislike for me was the disability aspect.
Disabilities are never a hindrance, nor should they be portrayed as one.
People in wheelchairs, prosthetic limbs, crutches, etc... These all give Strength, Purpose, Survival, Mobility, Freedom, and most of all their Lives back. I’d give a point for including disability in the book. However, next time maybe work with disabled patients at the VA hospital. This way you see exactly how they feel. I promise you; they will not feel their chair as being “Stuck” or are a burden to anyone. Some can get around better than you or I.
Other than that, Overall, the book was good! Just long and a very slow start to get anywhere good.
Thank you, NetGalley/C.A. Fletcher/Redhook Books/Redhook

Okay, so I am back again with a bit of the mixed feelings, friends! I was really exited for this one, and it wasn't bad, but it did drag a bit. So let's break down what I liked versus what didn't quite work for me!

What I Liked:

►The atmosphere was perfect. You knew you were on a creepyass island, and you knew it wasn't going to go well, from page one. Basically all the things that can go wrong on the island do, and you have a very real sense of ominousness from the beginning.

►I did grow to really like the characters and their stories. Despite having like, roughly three hundred and thirty five points of view characters, I ended up quite enamored with some of their stories! Not all, mind, because again, so many, but the more significant ones certainly.

►The story really picked up around the 75% mark. Here's the thing: it did get good! And I did end up feeling more positive about it than negative. But really, how many readers are going to stick with it through the slow bits? I can't say much about the end obviously, but it was at least an exciting conclusion.

What I Struggled With:

►Honestly it was just too slow. Especially at the beginning, I was just flat out bored. We're hearing from every fool on this island and I felt like it was overkill. Too much description, not enough plot movement. And the thing is, it really did have some good moments, that would have packed a lot more of a punch had some of the extraneous bits been pared down.

►The whole island had a turn to be a featured character. Look, I can deal with a handful of POV characters. But genuinely characters who really ended up either having nothing whatsoever to do with the plot, or whose stories didn't end up being resolved in the end, had chapters of needless narration. There were even some POVs from birds and you guys know how I feel about that.

Bottom Line: Certainly atmospheric, and with a cast of characters that grew on me, this one moved a bit slower and with much detail- for better, and for worse.

It took me a huge while getting into this book, but once I did, it was a fun read. This book was so creepy and I regret reading it at night. I had trouble sleeping after finishing it lol. It was extremely atmospheric and the setting was so real. The characters were pretty complex also. I guess I would recommend it.

On a remote island off the coast of Scotland there is hidden a curse. Inked on human skin and buried in a lead box, the curse has never been a problem ... until some idiot with a metal detector digs it up and all hell breaks loose.

We've all heard the phrase "something in the water". In this book there is definitely something in the water but there is also definitely some water in the people who suddenly turn zombie-like, losing the ability to speak or think and then rambling about with mouths and eyes leaking before ultimately walking straight into the sea.

It sounds a bit like a B-movie horror but the truth is that the book is written in such a way that it's more beautiful and sad than scary, although there are definitely some tense moments. There's a sense of isolation as most of the residents of the island have gone to the mainland for a big festival, then a series of incidents take out the phone and internet lines and cut the thirty or so remaining people completely off from civilization. Of course the few boats moored around the island are set aflame and an endless onslaught of wind and rain means that the ferry won't be coming back any time soon. A small group of survivors must band together to escape from the dead-eyed water zombies (again, that term sounds far more kitschy than the book actually is) and of course, work out some of their own internal struggles at the same time.

If you're thinking this sounds a lot like that Netflix show, Midnight Mass, you are correct. It definitely has the same sort of location and feel, but I found it unique enough in its own right to still stand up as a good story. The settting is dreary and desolate, the characters an odd bunch with plenty of secrets between them, and the curse itself is explained in centuries-old flashbacks that swell with Norse mythology. All in all, a chilling little tale (well, not little, the book is over five hundred pages) for those who like a slow burn and the horror of isolation and the unknown.

Dead Water by C. A. Fletcher is a highly recommended folk horror novel of a blight in a small island community.

Set on a small remote island off the western coast of Scotland is an amicable community of residents, some island born going back generations while others are new to the island. All of them have their secrets, however, some secrets are more ominous than others. When the island ferry service breaks down and communication to the mainland is lost, the residents must try to work together. This becomes increasingly difficult when a mysterious infection begins to spread and rumors begin to circulate.

I loved A Boy and His Dog at the End of the World, and Dead Water doesn't live up to it, but it does have strengths of its own. It must be said that there is a very slow start to the novel, which is potentially off-putting, but it does serve to introduce the characters before the subtle psychological horror begins. Then this becomes a narrative that showcases perseverance in the face of hardship while also creating a sense of dread and horror that will build.

The characters secrets are carefully exposed and their flaws shown. They aren't likeable, but they are portrayed as realistic individuals. And this is the strength of the novel, the carefully crafted characters that are then placed in a horrific, frightening situation, which is portrayed with the same level of care. 3.5 rounded up because of all the positives, however the slow setup is too tedious and the novel loses your attention. I will look forward to Fletcher's next novel.
Disclosure: My review copy was courtesy of Orbit via NetGalley.
The review will be published on Barnes & Noble, Edelweiss, Google Books, and Amazon.

A water-borne blight hits a remote community on a small island on the edge of the Northern Atlantic. Rumor says the illness may be a water-borne neural infection from the shellfish farm, a case of mass hysteria - or even a long-buried curse - but when ferry service fails, inconvenience grows into nightmarish ordeal as the outwardly harmonious fabric of the community is unnervingly torn apart.
I would say this book is a thriller and not really a horror. I loved the setting of the Scottish island. I loved this book’s unique take, which I won’t go on detail in since I don’t want to ruin it for anyone who decides to read it. I did not like the characters and how the point of view changed. The book has a slow start but picks up halfway through. I received an advance review copy for free and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

While I did end up enjoying this work, I do have to say that, man, this was a really slow book. I think that did afford us more time to get to know the characters and understand the perspectives, but boy was I itching for the pace of this to pick up a bit. I was hoping this would be a bit more horrifying, but it was actually more of a thriller which was a bit of a let down, but it wasn't bad. I think I just needed a bit more from the story--I needed faster pacing, I needed a bit more going on, I was hoping for more mystical-ness from the world. It wasn't bad but it wasn't a new favorite.

I have to agree with other reviewers of this book, it is a very slow burn to begin with, there is a lot of descriptive text and not much dialogue at the beginning, but if you persevere you will be rewarded with a good story. The story is told from multiple view points of people who live on an island in the north Atlantic, there isn't really one MC per se, though I would say Sig, a woman tormented by past decisions, would come closest. The island has about 100 people that reside there and take a ferry to the mainland for items the island doesn't provide. Sig, who had injured her leg quite badly in a fall, free dives off the coast of the island, something she does alone, coming to the surface after a dive, she finds she surrounded by basking sharks, not harmful as long as you don't get hit by their tail, while waiting for them to leave, a fellow islander, Matt, comes into the bay where she's waiting and they get into an argument about her free diving alone. A lot of things happen at the same time, a man who secretly watches Sig through binoculars, his dog, Milly wanders off and finds a corpse and eats a portion of it and returns, unknown to the man, Milly is now infected with a virus, an ancient one that spreads quickly across the island. The infected become known as the drowned, their bodies fill with water and they cannot be killed. Sig, Matt and a few others who had so far escaped the infection race around the island trying to stay one step ahead of the drowned. The last part of the book went very quickly, I enjoyed it the most. Thanks to #Netgalley and #Redhook Books for the ARC.

I wanted to read this beauty the moment I read the summary. This little piece had me hooked, "A water-borne blight hits a remote community on a small island on the edge of the Northern Atlantic. The islanders are a strange mix, some island-born, some seeking a slower life away from the modern world. All have their own secrets, some much darker than others."
I've always been interested in the spread of illness and the thought of a water-borne illness hitting such an isolated area seemed to creepy to pass up. You need to understand just how isolated this small island is to tuly understand the level of claustrophobia all the inhabits will eventually feel and you, the reader, somehow feel the entire time. One scheduled ferry is your only way off the island. Yes, the island has small stores for needs but it is completely surrounded by the very water they learn to fear. Can you imagine?
The book started slow and it focused on just one character at a time. You got to get a real feel for the mind of each character, learn their most well-kept secret, and for most - truly empathize with their heartache. This book is filled with unlikable characters with huge flaws and secrets you do not want to be the keeper of, but these flawed souls will also remind you of your neighbor, your cousin, your best friend, and maybe even yourself.
The honesty the author uses with the characters is something I cherished. I find most books hand you a flawed character with a handful of excuses and a guaranteed redemption. This author didn't spoon feed you redemption or even what you want to hear about each character, choosing instead of delve into brutal honestly and stark lines. I loved it and it left me feeling grounded in the story.
I think this book would be amazing for anyone who finds themselves interested in plagues, illness, collapse of social structure... or maybe even my zombie loving friends. This book starts slowing, building up our relationships to the characters, then slowly ratcheting up the dread with each page turn. It's a beautiful ride and it is well worth the slow start by the end. I took my time reading this book because of the slow beginning and almost decided not to finish it, but I am so glad I came back to it and dropped my need for instant gratification because the pay-off was so worth it. I closed this book on the last page and felt like I had not only seen the events unfold (the author is so descriptive and methodical and you never have to guess where you are or who you are with), but I was a part of the story. I ending this book feeling exhausted in the best way and I can't wait to read whatever this author writes next.

A slow burn of a read. I actually really enjoyed getting to know the characters in depth, and the shifting perspectives narrating the story.

At first the ancient prologue made no sense to me, but it fit in nicely and helped to tie up some lose ends.

Not a horror, per say, more of a thriller/ general fiction, but an excellent read all the same. I did enjoy Kevo & Malc’s humour especially.

Sig was a meh character, I would’ve like to see more mystical things happening with her: transformation to actual shield maiden.

Thank you to NetGalley, RedHook Books, and C.A. Fletcher for a copy.

I really did not like this book. Too many unlikable characters and not enough development. The story just goes round and round and seems to get nowhere. Also, I found the language and writing style difficult to digest.