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A review by catbooking
The Dead Sea by Tim Curran
3.0
It would have been 4 stars if not for the last section. The first 2/3 of the book were great, creepy atmosphere, dumb characters getting picked off one by one by creepy creatures, things getting progressively worse. I was eating popcorn and enjoying watching everyone die in inventive ways, and then the 'rescue' happened.
Can someone explain to me the purpose of Elizabeth as a character? Was she the solution when Curran wrote himself into a corner? Was she there to provide food and be mansplained at? Was she a love interest?
Besides the spoiler above it felt like the narrative jumped the shark, as much as the book about a haunted sea can jump the shark, in the last section of the book. Unexplained things are creepy because they are unexplained, there is no need for half baked explanations trying to make sense of everything.
Not sure if I will be reading another Curran book. On the one hand I really enjoyed it, and the writing itself is pretty good, but on the other hand there were a lot of things that felt like a pebble in the shoe that just ruined the whole thing.
Spoiler
Can someone explain to me the purpose of Elizabeth as a character? Was she the solution when Curran wrote himself into a corner? Was she there to provide food and be mansplained at? Was she a love interest?
Besides the spoiler above it felt like the narrative jumped the shark, as much as the book about a haunted sea can jump the shark, in the last section of the book. Unexplained things are creepy because they are unexplained, there is no need for half baked explanations trying to make sense of everything.
Not sure if I will be reading another Curran book. On the one hand I really enjoyed it, and the writing itself is pretty good, but on the other hand there were a lot of things that felt like a pebble in the shoe that just ruined the whole thing.