Thank you to NetGalley and RBmedia for an ALC in exchange for my honest review!

The quiet coastal town of Baywood has something sinister wash upon its shores, and soon after some of its population exhibits strange symptoms. The quarantined locals quickly become divided between those infected and those who are not, as social hierarchies crumble and a new death obsessed cult takes over.

The premise and so many elements of this book should have made a great eco-cosmic-horror story, but ultimately fell flat. The characters are not really distinct or memorable. Three of the main characters are bird watchers, which leads to too much time spent on talking about birds. The perspective changes become disorienting at times, making it hard to fully immerse in the story. At times I almost forgot that this was supposed to be a horror story.

Ultimately, I feel like this book tried to do/say too much in a short amount of time, causing its message to become garbled in the chaos.

The Deading by Nicholas Belardes was a unique book but it didn't quite work for me. I'd like to start with what I did like though. The narration for the audiobook was wonderful. This book had multiple narrators and each one did a great job at bringing their character to life. I picked this book expecting a horror story but it ended up being more about conspiracy theories and bird watching. There were several bizarre and creepy moments but it really lacked what I wanted in a horror novel. I think the endless bird watching and bird facts really slowed the plot down.
I wouldn't recommend this if you're looking for horror but I'd definitely recommend trying it if you're looking for a creepy story with a focus on government conspiracies, small communities, and a lot of bird watching.

Thank you to the publishers and netgalley for this alc in exchange for an honest review.

Well...
I dont know about this.
This book didn't hook me, at all, the only reason why i finished listening is because it was on 2x speed and i was playing Stardew Valley on the side.
And before anyone says that that's the reason I didn't like it, I do this with pretty much every Audiobook and i've loved plenty of them.

But this one...
I'll get into it deeper when i've finished my exams...

DNF at 42%. I really tried to make this one work, but I just couldn’t get into it. I realized when I started skipping one character’s chapters, I should just call it, because skipping them didn’t seem to impact the story at all. I couldn’t even remember any of the characters’ names, other than Blas, who was the only character who I was interested in. The chapters I skipped were the ones with the entitled teenager. Again, I can’t remember his name, but those chapters were like fingernails on a chalkboard to me. I think this book could have been done really well were it only done from Blas’ perspective, or even his perspective and a third person view of the victims. I don’t know. I just know it really wasn’t for me.

Huge thanks to RBmedia and NetGalley for sending me this ARC for review! All of my reviews are given honestly!

Thank you NetGalley and RBmedia for the ALC.
This wasn't for me. I wanted to like it,hoping it would get better but it didn't.

This was a really unique horror. It starts out a bit slow but that really allows the terror to build and build as parasite spreads. Also the multiple povs really adds to the ambiance of the story. Everything feels very real and very creepy.