Seafood

by Hester Hatchette

I Feed Her to the Beast and the Beast Is Me meets Into The Drowning Deep, for fans of dark tales of questionable morality and teenage mistakes.

Brent’s best friend, Steven, vanishes. Brent hopes his friend is out sailing the world, getting tattoos, and drinking hard lemonade. Then Steven’s boat is recovered, but the man has vanished.

Men go missing around the water of seaside towns, and it’s no different for Star Harbour. Pieces of men wash ashore, maybe not. Officially, it’s a random coincidence with no connections from one savage dismemberment to the next. Watch the news, stay off the water when they say to, and the wave of tragedy will devastate the next town.

Time moves on. But Brent doesn’t. He spirals and ventures out to the water to meet whoever stole Steven. Instead, he meets a mermaid. She’s gorgeous and compassionate, and he’s hooked. More men go missing from his town, and it doesn’t matter, does it, as long as he has her? He forgets his problems, his grief, his friends. Their love is all-consuming, and he’ll do and give anything for her. And the water is hungry. It demands so much of Brent, and he is the perfect boyfriend and secret keeper.

A mermaid’s love can be a curse, and the concept of free will becomes murky. It hurts to think about the red in the water, what happens to men lured to the beach, who is deserving, and what is justice–but having a mermaid’s love is the most fulfilling purpose, isn’t it?


Accidental harm of an animal
Alcoholism
Bullying
Cursing
Gore
Ideation and attempting to end oneself
Murder

287 pages, ebook

Published October 1, 2024

Reviews

[K. Weikel · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved every detail and moment of this book. Deadly sirens and intoxicating love, what's a better combination. Everything was so real and raw and wonderful. I want to read this again, almost immediately. Amazing, amazing book.

I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

[Hester Hatchette · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ok, this is my book. Hear me out. My favourite authors, traditionally published and indie, rate their own books, so I’m trying not to feel bad about it. Please forgive me if you feel strongly about this—if you don’t have a decent amount of ratings, your book isn’t going to be picked up by readers. I’ll offer some more info about myself and the book in return for this 5 stars.

This book was written in Canadian English and has been professionally edited. I’m still a human though, so if you find a spelling/grammar mistake, if you’d be so kind, you can tell me and I’d be forever grateful. A great thing about being self-published is that I can go in and fix mistakes in minutes!

It took me years to write this book. I tried for an agent and got strung a long for a bit with full re-writes and suggestions, and the results were terrible versions of my own book. That stings and I regret that time. But it was my dream, since I was a teenager, to be a traditionally published author. I shelved this, wrote other things, and eventually I looked into self publishing. The stigma around self publishing was (largely) gone. So, I thought, I can try again for agents, or try for small publishers, and all this takes time with no guarantee, OR…I could self publish and do it all myself and be done with it and write the next book. That’s the path I decided to take.

My inspiration? Let’s just say that a bad man did a bad thing, and nothing was done about it, and I wasn’t strong enough to make a fuss about it and be “that girl”. A tale as old as time. I was swimming in an above ground pool, underwater, round and round, thinking about justice and mermaids. I also like to think about the real horror of looking at someone you love and they lie straight to your face. It wrecks you.

So there, that’s it. I hope this justifies my rating. I hope everyone reading this has an awesome day (and if this day irreparably sucks, my hope is that tomorrow is better for you).

[Angela Brannon · Rating 5 out of 5]

This nice little horror story by Hester Hatchette was a fun read. It is multi-layered with both a back story about Brent and his best friend Steven, and a side story about a mysterious librarian that seems to know a lot about mermaids. I enjoyed the twists and turns with Brent's dysfunctional family, and who wouldn't love a beautiful girlfriend who can make the school bullies not be a problem any more.

This story is rather dark and has trigger warnings about suicide and self-harm ideation. But I thought these subjects were handled in a thoughtful way. As a teen I had a close friend commit suicide, so I can attest that it was handled movingly and realistically.

This story is truly horror, not romance, and examines issues of how far you will go if you are obsessed with a romantic fantasy. I thoroughly enjoyed this story. It is definitely high on my recommend list and I think it will resonate with YA readers as well as adults of any age.

[Hanna Belle · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book, had a new concept I had not previously seen in a story. Looking forward to the next book in the series.

I received a copy of this book via BookSirens and am voluntarily leaving a review.

[Brianna · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked this book! I received an ARC for free, so I am leaving an honest review. I loved the main plot with the mermaids, and I like how the book goes into their lore instead of just being the surface level of what everyone knows. The length of some of the chapters would have been better if they were shorter, and there were also a few spelling errors in my book. I liked most of the characters, and the ones that I didn't like were the ones that nobody's supposed to like. It was engaging and made me feel all the emotions. Overall, it was a pretty good novel!