Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC!🐌🐦

I decided to request this ARC based on the synopsis, which sounded rather intriguing, and I have to say, this book definitely delivered.

The beginning was a little slow paced (especially the bird parts🙄), but once people started "deading" the plot definitely began to pick up. The main plot is basically about our main characters trying to navigate and survive this new world that they are thrust into, and I had a lot of fun (not fun for them though🤪) following along on their journey. There are a lot of different elements and PoVs, and at times it made the book feel kind of bloated. I feel like some of them could have been reduced or even removed from this book entirely, because they take away/distract from the main plot.

I quite enjoyed the writing style, which switched between first- and third-person for different characters, which I find to be an interesting narrative choice, as well as a good way to distinguish each PoV's voices. The depictions of the horror-y bits were also really good, like it was legit creepy. :3

Some minor complaints:
- the ending was kinda vague and I wish it could have been more fully explained; maybe that was deliberate, but like.
- way too much of this book was spent talking about birds. I understand that the author is an avid birdwatcher, and that 3 of the main characters are also big fans of birds, but multiple pages in a row listing various birds is a bit much innit
- one of the blurbs pitched this book as "eco-horror", but the horror elements weren't necessarily due to/caused by climate change, so I found that misleading.

P. S. love the grimace shake reference💜

Thank you to Netgalley, Erewhon Books, and Nicholas Belardes for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I want to preface my review by acknowledging that I am one of those readers who frequently does not read the blurb or genre tags listed before picking up a new book. More often than not, I find that the blurb gives away too many spoilers for the plot, so I developed this habit to compensate. That being said, in the case of The Deading, this might be precisely why I was able to enjoy this book more than the majority who have reviewed it so far.

As an avid lover of Under the Dome and The Last of Us, I genuinely believe this book aligns with neither of these fandoms. To be perfectly clear - this does not mean I disliked the book. On the contrary, I found myself really enjoying it. However, if you're searching for a more accurate comparison, I'd say it's like if Chuck Palahniuk's younger sibling or nephew, after spending years studying Freud's unconscious mind theory, wrote an eco-horror extolling the virtues (or lack thereof) of the general population amidst an alien invasion.

The writing frequently shifted in point of view, but it was a deliberate narrative choice to indicate which of the (many) characters we were following in each chapter. It didn't alienate me, but I can see how it might be confusing or off-putting to others. I think, had it been used as a tool for shifting between the human and inhuman perspective, it might have made a little bit more sense to the majority of readers, but I can appreciate what Nicholas was doing.

The author had a lyrical writing style that was, in my opinion, unsettlingly beautiful. The birds played an important part in this, shifting from something beautiful into something uncanny-valley-esque (it's a word now, don't fight me) over time. This book made me feel hopeless. This book felt like a disturbingly accurate depiction of how people would react to an eco invasion.

I enjoyed it. I don't know if I'd read it again, but it deserves the four stars, because it's made me think a lot, and it's taken me three days to come up with the right words for this review.

I know it's not for everyone, but it was for me.

“We need horror,” Nicholas Belardes says in the acknowledgements to his debut novel, The Deading. “We need the primordial terror in ourselves to show us that we can face fears, imagine ourselves as the heroes, or the ones who get caught, or the monsters that create fear. . . The mirror that horror holds up to us is real. And we are in the reflections. And we’re better for it.” The Deading is an eco-horror novel that charts the downfall of a small California town as its environment succumbs to the mysterious and eponymous “deading.” The fictional town of Baywood, CA, is a microcosm for the highly polarized America we live in. A dark exploration of humanity, The Deading depicts how a single person’s actions can tip the scales between life and death, unity and war, and salvation and the earth’s destruction. With The Deading, Belardes holds the mirror up to the reader, emphasizing the anthropogenic and post-pandemic similarities between the horrifying world of the novel and our own.

Baywood is a peaceful, coastal town known for its bird sanctuary and sprawling oyster farms. The multi-perspective novel shifts between Blas, a teenager bird watcher, Chango, his older brother, Ingram and Kumi, two elderly bird watchers, and Bernard, a self-centered farmer. Everything forever changes for the citizens of Baywood—especially Blas, Chango, and Kumi—when a deadly contagion strikes back (a la The Last of Us, deadly snail edition). The force of nature—born of pollution, toxins, and an alien, otherworldly force—infects every sea creature, animal, and person on Baywood’s shores. Though the author refrains from revealing everything about the actual nature and effects of the contagion, each perspective offers a new layer—a new truth—about this world. As inexplicable and bone-chilling transformations begin to happen to the citizens of Baywood, the experience comes to be known as “the deading.” Those infected drop randomly, sporadically, their soul and consciousness going elsewhere, and their bodies cease to function for seconds to minutes before they rise back up like nothing happened. The elusive and bewildering origins of the contagion, of nature’s vengeful hitman, immerses the reader into the characters’ tangible—and highly relatable—fear of the unknown.

However, some citizens seem to be immune to this alien, sea-born contagion—including Blas, Kumi, and other aging birdwatchers—who interestingly enough maintain their deep connection to nature and ornithology throughout the novel. It remains mysterious as to why—another obscuring tactic employed by the author. Yet, I theorize a connection between their immunity and the loving, appreciative relationship each has with nature and its creatures. In this way, the deading becomes a terrifying lesson in its own right. As a governmental quarantine is enforced on the town of Baywood, the characters are cut off from the rest of the world and monitored by a swarm of animal-like drones. During this time, a fanatical group called the Risers—people who are willingly infected with the contagion—take over the town, forming a new society built on death and blood and sacrifice. Those that don’t follow the Risers, those who are immune to the alien-like contagion and refuse to pretend to participate in the deading, pay the ultimate price. If the contagion is the lit match, the fanatic citizens of Baywood are the kerosine.


The Deading opens with evocative descriptions of birds, sky, and nature which continue throughout the narrative—especially within the avid bird watchers’ perspectives. Belardes’ exploration of nature and wildlife are nearly pastoral in the harmonious rapture-like language, and yet is distinctly set apart with the presence of foreboding and death: “the sun melting its orange eye into the darkness of Morro Bay’s tidelands, spreading a dust haze into lavender blood” and “the Milky way shoot[ing] its arm along the bowl of the night, loom[ing] like an open wound revealing the scintillating white-and-blue blood of starlight.” The reoccurring visual of blood emphasizes Belardes’ overarching vision of nature’s beautiful violence, and the persistence of the picturesque in the apocalyptic.

DnF at 19%

Thank you to NetGalley and Kensington Books | Erewhon Books for the use!lending of the book in question for an honest review.

The author is definitely knowledgeable about a lot of subjects which comes off both confusing and know-it-all. It was also repeatedly told to us rather than shown and I found the writing to be too much like a non-fiction book that I was studying rather than the fiction I was expecting. Where was the horror and why did it take so long and jump around so much? Just wasn't moving fast enough for me, I suppose.

It's just so unfortunate, honestly, I was hoping to get through it, but it was such a slog and I kept falling asleep which never happens to me when I am reading.

I think this was a very ambitious project. It seems as if the author has something to say about many different topics, or that his interests are quite broad. In any case, this book tries to say something or be profound about so many different things that none of it truly lands.

The story was intriguing and interesting but halfway through it felt like it started to drag. Even so, I was still interested enough to finish the book.

Thank you so much to netgalley and the publisher for the arc of this one in exchange for an honest review!

This book is like a dystopian book about a town that becomes infected with a contagion and things quickly go downhill.

This book has a very low rating on Goodreads and I understand why (unfortunately). This one was a DNF for me because the writing was just all over the place. I felt so confused and I just couldn't continue.

I hope others love this one but it wasn't for me.

Strange and dark, this horror exploration of identity and pollution takes you on a journey through time and space and down a well of doubt and decay. I think you’ll love the creepy atmosphere, the unearthly menace, and the flawed characters.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for my copy. These opinions are my own.

The Deading was... definitely unique. Let's start with that. The concept of "deading", in which young folks basically dropped in the middle of whatever they were doing to literally "play dead" was introduced at the start. Of course, like all things popular, eventually The Olds start doing it, and it becomes decidedly less cool. And then... things go off the rails, and right into bird watching. Look- I try not to punish books for how much I dislike birds, and how I'd rather watch paint dry than birds, and I can overlook a pretty reasonable amount of bird shenanigans. But what we have here is not a reasonable amount, I fear. Mostly because I don't really understand what the point of the birds even was?

When the crux of the story starts, the "bad stuff" happens in the water, with an oyster farming operation. The first folks who fall to the "stuff" are in the water. The "stuff" are not birds and have nothing to do with birds, as far as I can tell. Anyway, when the "stuff" infects people, it's like their minds are taken over, and they start deading. What does this have to do with the "deading" trend mentioned at the start of the book? Your guess is as good as mine. But this is a thing that happens to most of the town.

Some members of the local ornithological group, mostly older folks but one teen guy, find themselves immune. Is it because of bird watching? I don't know, but probably not since all of them are not immune. And now they have to, in essence, try to fight back against the townspeople who are infected.

There are some definitely relevant commentaries that are present in the story, but for me, the extraneous topics muddied the waters a bit. There were some interesting pieces, but none of them really came together in any cohesive way. While I liked the concept of the uninfected trying to survive the town, because of all the other stuff, it just didn't hit as hard. Also, how does this random infection cause "deading", which, as we are meant to understand it, was basically a TikTok trend? So... I have questions, and most of them went unanswered. Also, too much bird talk.

Bottom Line: Unique and with some relevant commentary, but the various topics just didn't mesh together in a way that flowed.

When a small fishing town called Baywood is seized by an inexplicable infection that causes people and animals to experience “deading,”: the act of abruptly dying and then returning to life mentally and physically changed, a bird-loving teenager named Blas and other uninflected residents must adjust to a new existence.

Cut off from the outside world by the government, they contend with the changes to the environent around them and the rising paranoia and unhinged death-worshipping rituals concocted by the Risers, who fixate upon their inability to dead as they do.

The Deading is a novel with an intriguing premise and is a blend of isolation, environmental, body and cosmic horror. Told from multiple perspectives and with a switch between first person and third person point of view, the disturbing disintegration of a community is interspersed with contemplations regarding existence and a great deal of detail pertaining to various birds and the subject of bird-watching.

Blas is an interesting character: a teenager who loves his hobby of watching and documenting birds despite some desparaging from his older brother Chango and other wealthier residents, who then must deal with his mother and brother in the grips of deading while his friends slowly dwindle and his community is reshaped into something malevolent.

His older fellow birder Kumi Sato also provides a thoughtful examination of her own experiences, as well as the extent of the fervor and indoctrination of the Risers when she infiltrates their nightmarish ceremonies.

Certain scenes are absolutely engrossing, such as the changes experienced by a character in the beginning of the novel, scenes involving the garish rituals created by the Risers and a final confrontation that edges into the surreal and yet remains unsettling.

Some of the writing resembles a rambling stream of consciousness and there are moments in the middle where the plot becomes slow and seems to drag. There are also characters who survived separately from Blas and who seem to reinvigorate the story, but they aren’t introduced until close to the conclusion of the novel, which is also slightly abrupt as well.

Nevertheless, The Deading displays an admirable passion for its subject matter. Thank you very much to NetGalley, Kensington Books and Erewhon Books for providing access to this ebook.

I was drawn to this book due to the cover art and the reference to The Last of Us. Unfortunately, I am DNFing this read. I think the story structure was just a bit too disjointed for me. Though I did really appreciate the details of birdwatching, that is not a topic I'm normally drawn to but it was really cool to read about in this context.

Horrifying and very strange. Mysterious and weird. I highly recommend this book for genre fans looking for something way out of the ordinary.

I received an eARC of this book and sadly it was a DNF for me. I got to about 30% and gave up I was so bored. I was intrigued initially because it was compared to the last of us, but from what little I understood the book focus is more on the mind of the disease which makes the writing weird and hard to read.

This book is for everyone who loves an extremely weird story, oftentimes creepy, and loves birds!

"Come with us. If you want to stay, you have to die."

The author blended a few genres here — the story is something between science fiction and fantasy, somewhat a mystery, and a lighter horror. I would definitely classify it as dystopian as well. The unique premise is the selling point of this story. However, I thought it was going to be bizarre and complex, but I ended up feeling unimpressed. I loved the exploration of community decline after some kind of an epidemic happens, how different characters reacted differently, how some type of a cult formed. Some actions were pretty disturbing, some scenes grotesque.
Also, I must admit I skimmed some parts. Birdwatching takes up a lot of the story and, while interesting, it was a bit too much for me. I didn't care for so many descriptions of different birds and eventually started ignoring them as they added little to the plot. The characters were fine but not really memorable, and the overall writing style was okay. Didn't impress me but this is a debut book so I kept that in mind! Although I appreciate the message behind the story, I wasn't entirely satisfied with the ending either.

Overall, it's an interesting story that would probably appeal to bird lovers and those who love experimenting with their reads, but I wouldn't recommend this to every reader!

Thank you for the ARC. No spoilers ahead. This was definitely an interesting and different read. There is a lot of talk of birds, a little too much for me but someone into birding would likely find it entertaining. I found myself getting a bit lost in the descriptions of the birds but it had the interesting effect of causing a feeling of disorientation. I would be deep into trying to picture these birds and then was suddenly reading very creepy passages (I won’t spoil!). The book has a very eerie and disturbing feel to it that kept me going. I definitely liked it for how different it was and the thriller/horror vibe. A solid read.

The idea of this story is better than the reality of this story. It had an interesting start as multiple character POVs were introduced, but at some point it got tedious trying to figure out which POV I was reading.

Long story short, I skipped my way through the chapters and read the ending. I'm definitely okay with my decision to abandon this one.

I received a digital ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

An intriguing premise that got lost in the soup. Ultimately boring, unfulfilling, and not really what I would classify as horror.

This book has a definitely creepy set up but the execution ends up making the whole thing a bit muddled. So much time is spent on describing things in minute detail that any suspenseful or scary elements are lost in the minutiae.

The blurb is giving M. Night Shyamalan's theatrical vibes mixed with Under The Dome by Stephen King. The blurb was just so damn good and everything I want in a speculative horror novel. Unfortunately, I don't feel like Belardes delivered on that.

The book is very disjointed, as many other reviewers have said. I wish I had listened to them before requesting this book on Netgalley. There's a lot going on but nothing going on at the same time. I really, really wanted to love this and maybe I set the bar too high prior to reading the ARC, but it fell so flat of my expectations that I nearly screamed.

I'll be totally honest, I couldn't get into this book. To be fair, horror isn't typically my genre, but this one sounding too intriguing to pass up. I really wanted to like it; the initial atmosphere setup was great, and I was really into the idea of the eco-horror, especially something coming from the ocean (because I am truly terrified of the ocean). But there was just too much going on; too many POV shifts without any real clarity, too many different topics trying to be covered...it's described as being similar to The Last of Us, which I loved because of the human survival stories, and I was hoping that's what I would be getting with this book. I didn't feel it at all. This might be someone's cup of tea, but unfortunately it's not mine.