The POV changes and going from 1st 2nd 3rd person is a bit jarring but I didn’t mind it. Each pov gave different insights to the town and a well rounded view if what was happening. It’s bizarre and campy but horror books tends to be a bit outlandish and that’s why I love them.

One of my favourite horror audiobooks of this year, this audiobook was the best. The story itself is super descriptive and creepy and the narration, oh my goodness, elevated it to another level. That ending was an experience in itself and I loved listening to it.

The deading is a strange read. They are still the same person but different. Did something take over their body when they really died. While deading the infected people come back happy. But one members and his brother that has not been affected feels where his brother is. And it is not a happy place. A group of non deaders try to find a way out of the crazy town they are in since the world has shut them out.

The book has a unique and interesting concept. Somehow, it didn't really work for me. There were a lot of OIV and sometimes it was hard to keep track. The story really intrigued me, but it was all over the place. Thanks to Netgalley for the opportunity

The concept was genuinely interesting - the comps are pretty spot on actually. The interpersonal relationships will capture most readers but the overall execution wasn't satisfactory or memorable.

In The Deading, a seaside town grapples with a mysterious ocean-borne contagion. Sea snails wash ashore, attacking everything in their path. Wildlife transforms, and people start “deading”—dying and rising again, changed.

Pros:
Compelling Premise: The concept of a town succumbing to an otherworldly infection is intriguing.
Linguistic Brio: Belardes weaves vivid descriptions and action into the narrative.

Cons:
Overstuffed Plot: The book struggles with complexity, making it hard to follow.
Horror Overload: Some passages are genuinely horrifying, but they overwhelm the story.

Beyond pacing issues, the novel’s overstuffed plot and relentless horror detract from the overall experience. Despite its potential, The Deading fails to strike the right balance.

This book started off incredibly strong for me. The characters are full and relatable; I love them all. The premise is fascinating, and I wanted that to continue throughout the plot, but it didn't for me. What started off grabbing me just ended up sort of letting loose until it was gone.

The Deading by Nicholas Belardes is a strange dystopian novel. Set in the small seaside town of Baywood, the novel begins with a strange and unsettling occurrence: sea snails washing ashore, harbouring a mysterious infection that quickly spirals out of control. Belardes does an exceptional job of building tension as the infection spreads, transforming not just the town’s wildlife but its residents as well. The concept of “deading,” where the infected die only to rise again with terrifying changes adds a layer of horror that feels all too real.
The characters in The Deading are complex and relatable.
Belardes’s writing is lyrical and evocative, capturing the haunting beauty of the coastal setting even as it becomes a nightmarish landscape. The novel’s exploration of the disintegration of society, the horror of survival, and the unexpected connections that emerge in times of crisis is both thought-provoking and deeply moving. The tension is palpable throughout, with the claustrophobic atmosphere of Baywood intensifying as the story unfolds.

Thank you Netgalley, RB media and Nicolas Belardes for the audio Arc of The Deading.
Narrated by June Angela, Robb Moreira, Luis Moreno

After reading the synopsis of The Deading, I loved the premise of this book. Unfortunately i felt it let itself down somewhat. Even though I really enjoyed the narrators in their own right . I felt that they didn’t really fit the cadence of the book at all. Not often does that bother me with an audio book but this time it did.

The pacing of the book itself was constant and a slow burn but I found myself wanting to rush through the book to get it finished. I feel that because the POV kept swapping from 1st to 3rd person, it didn’t flow for me at all. It’s a shame really because the premise is a great one.

3 stars

I'm feeling pretty let down by this. The narrators of the audiobook were fantastic and my gripes with this title have nothing to do with their performances. They're part of the reason that I'm rating this higher than if I would have just read it outright. The writing felt very disjointed and clunky. And dear goodness, if there would have been one more chapter of just straight up descriptions of birds, I would have likely lost my mind. I will say one thing the author did do well was body horror. Some of the scenes were really gruesome and made me feel uncomfortable, so thumbs up for that. *Thank you to NetGalley and RBmedia for the ARC of this audiobook.*

First off, I am one of those readers that genuinely loves being freaked out by birds and if you're not, well, be careful with this one. This is a dark mystery that involves BIRDS, contagions, weird deaths and after-deaths, and social structures.
This was an interesting read but it never quite gripped me the way I wish it had. There were bits where it rambled and so it dragged quite a bit at times.

Unable to give feedback as title didn't want to downland to the netgalley shelf app. I'm not sure if this is an error in my part or if the app is just not the best working app.

Thanks to NetGalley and Erewhon Books for the audio ARC. This novel features three different narrators: Luis Moreno, Robb Moreira, and June Angela.

The Deading, which the kids totally started first and then the adults started copying, is a phenomenon where people just drop wherever they are and play dead. Men, women, animals, it can happen to anyone.

What sounds like a somewhat interesting idea, unfortunately ends up being an incredible mess. It’s almost as if someone took the creepy idea behind Bird Box or Your Shadow Half Remains, those unseen but unstoppable changes in people, and instead just made it about people planking? At the start they kind of just play dead like hysteria fueled pranksters…and later it just evolves into shaking and spitting on the ground?

The deading is also started by sea snails, that are also alien, that are also a hive mind absorbing all in their path? It was far too confusing to me, eradicating anything scary or creepy that could have been. It also starts in a bay where they are harvesting oysters, a huge focus of the opening chapters, which I thought would be a big thing, but it’s not at all.

The novel features more than one character that is a bird watcher, and at one point early on in the novel there is literally several chapters in a row where they are just naming bird species? It just felt so strange, like nothing else at all. Perhaps the author is a big bird watcher? The audio narrators all take a separate piece of the pie. The woman doing the section that features an older woman, one of the bird watchers. The younger male voice gives the arc of the kids that don’t dead. They meet at night in a kind of Midnight Club YA-feeling resistance that does not pan out. The older male voice does everything else, and none of the three mesh together at all. I thought perhaps they would converge in the end, but they didn’t.

I would perhaps have not shared my thoughts if I DNF’d, however with it being an arc I wanted to push on through. This felt disjointed, confused, and lacking a strong developmental edit. It’s really hard to write a book, and after all that work, I’d never want to hear that it was bad, but this really lacked direction.

DNF @ 50%
For a book with such an intriguing blurb, a badass horror cover, and great marketing it’s incredible disappointing to give up on it. But I cannot read another repetitive, useless, cyclical descriptive paragraph, or run-on sentence, again. There are so many issues with this story sadly.
Here are the big ones that stand out to me:
1) I never know who is talking at the beginning of the chapter! I need names please, or immediate orientating of which characters POV I’m getting. It’s very annoying (and distracting) to try and figure out whose thoughts I’m reading.
2) The extended descriptive, repetitive prose is unnecessary. I don’t need five different examples of birds being unable to fly or humans lying on the grass. This book could be less than half its size if the prose was cut down and made short, sweet, and impactful.
3) The actual plot has been lost inside the descriptions and constant discussion of birds. I do not care this much about bird watching! The Deading could have been a cool opportunity to get people interested in birdwatching. Instead it will bore you into looking for birds; anything to keep you distracted from reading more on the page in front of you.
4) The isolation of the town is illogical at times. Apparently no one was visiting when the quarantine was imposed? No one is missing family members who were travelling, all the kids have all their parents and friends in town at the moment of isolation? It’s strange that this assumption is put into place when it could have setup an interesting plot point about who is where and how the virus attacks locals versus tourists different. Huge lost opportunity in my opinion.
5) I’m sooo bored. I do not care at all what is happening in the bay, with the animals and humans, etc. I went and crept on some other reviews and read a lot of the same complaints I have. And so I’m DNFing this one because it doesn’t seem worth it to carry on if it doesn’t get any better (which according to other reviewers it doesn’t).

It’s always disappointing to be unsatisfied by a book, but to be downright annoyed, bored, and disinterested takes a fair bit of work (ironically). The Deading needed a heavy handed editor, some story boarding to map out who is where, when and why, and some focus on the point of the story or at least a sense of where it’s headed. Thus I concede, I’m beat and ready to move on get or into something that (hopefully) doesn’t include anything about birdwatching.

Please note: I received an eARC of this book from the publisher via NetGalley. This is an honest and unbiased review.

Thanks to NetGalley and the author for granting me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest rating.

There are so many great things about this book. It is an eco horror story, using elements of cosmic horror to illustrate the urgency of climate change. I have often wondered, what if Mother Nature goes full Lovecraftian and decides enough is enough from humanity. I also enjoyed the multiple POVs featuring such diverse characters, from teenagers to retirees with a passion for bird watching, from relatively privileged people to ones struggling against the system, thus giving insight into various communities of different socioeconomic situations.

However, I am not that interested in oyster farming and bird watching. There is sooooooo much fluff on the mundane daily lives and hobbies of all the POVs that I kept getting bored in a book that promises thrill and horror. It really could have been significantly tightened and trimmed.

I listened to this and the audiobook itself is stellar, with three narrators to bring the multiple POVs to life, each with their own distinctive voice and personality.
Thank you to the author, RBmedia and NetGalley for this eARC in exchange for an honest review.

2/5 Stars

First off, I want to say thank you for giving me an ARC of this audiobook to listen to.

I wanted to like the book so much. I was so excited after reading the premise, but the execution left a lot to be desired. I feel like there are too many different P.O.V.s. It causes the story to become disjointed and makes the reader feel as though they're being yanked around without getting any time to become invested in the characters. The diversity of the characters (age, ethnicity, etc.) was very well done though. I appreciated being able to see the town spiral, but sticking to just a couple P.O.V.s would have helped more in my opinion.

I think my favorite scene in the entire book was actually in the beginning where we watch the snails changing two characters into something other than human. That scene was so beautifully done. The creepiness factor was at a high point. However, that scene set an expectation for me that just wasn't followed through on in the majority of the book.

I also want to add that the narrators did a wonderful job. Without them, I'm not sure if I would have finished this book. They definitely added a lot to it.

I really enjoyed the concept of this book...a foreign conscious that starts to take over a whole area through snails, potentially. These people affected seem to die, then after a minute they get up and are changed but still themselves. They go to another place, and many like it there. This book is told from multiple POVs. While I can appreciate the attention to details of the birds and sea life (some of the characters are bird watchers), sometimes it got in the way of the momentum of the story. I absolutely loved this idea; however I am not sure it landed on its mark.

Thank you NetGalley and publisher for this arc!

WOW! What a great book! This book had me on the edge of my seat the entire time. Great writing style! My first by this author but will not be my last!

Reminded me of the movie the happening and the mist with elements from the last of us and under the dome thrown in. Took a while to get invested in the story. There does seem to have extra things thrown in. I did enjoy it. Felt like it had an abrupt ending. It was interesting to see all the elements of body horror, zombie, and dystopian all coming together in this one.