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The Flesh of the Sea
June 25th, 1760
Jean-Baptiste,
Before I begin, I want to assure you that I am fine—in fact, you could say I am in quite good spirits considering recent events!
I’m afraid I found myself in quite the predicament—but it’s been sorted out now. My ship was boarded by a group of what I soon learned were pirates…
After Wilford Bowen is denied entry into the Royal Society of London, he sets off on a mission to discover natural marvels and earn his place in the scientific community. But his mission is off to a rocky start when he’s kidnapped by pirates, encounters parasitic wasps, and a host of other incredible Eldritch creatures. On the high seas, Wilford will need to find support within his new crew, survive dangerous encounters, collect scientific evidence of impossible beasts, all while tangling with his own complicated feelings for the friend he left Jean Baptiste de Beaupré.
With every new discovery, a new mystery is unveiled and Wilford is left wondering if the greatest secret is perhaps what is hiding in the treasure room.
Pitched as Our Flag Means Death meets Lovecraft Country
Jean-Baptiste,
Before I begin, I want to assure you that I am fine—in fact, you could say I am in quite good spirits considering recent events!
I’m afraid I found myself in quite the predicament—but it’s been sorted out now. My ship was boarded by a group of what I soon learned were pirates…
After Wilford Bowen is denied entry into the Royal Society of London, he sets off on a mission to discover natural marvels and earn his place in the scientific community. But his mission is off to a rocky start when he’s kidnapped by pirates, encounters parasitic wasps, and a host of other incredible Eldritch creatures. On the high seas, Wilford will need to find support within his new crew, survive dangerous encounters, collect scientific evidence of impossible beasts, all while tangling with his own complicated feelings for the friend he left Jean Baptiste de Beaupré.
With every new discovery, a new mystery is unveiled and Wilford is left wondering if the greatest secret is perhaps what is hiding in the treasure room.
Pitched as Our Flag Means Death meets Lovecraft Country
150 pages, Hardcover
Published August 15, 2024
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 62 reviews
October 24, 2024
An epistolary love story in which the monsters are not the only thing being romanced… how did I end up here?
I enjoyed the imagery in this one but the format wasn't really my jam even though I thought it was pretty well done.
3.5 rounded up.
I enjoyed the imagery in this one but the format wasn't really my jam even though I thought it was pretty well done.
3.5 rounded up.
January 23, 2025
An adorable MM epistolary romance AND and gory creature horror with found family pirates and terrifying sea monsters.
🐙🐙🐙🐙🐙/5
I fucking loved this book. Omg.
It's told in a series of letters and journal entries between two men who love each other but aren't sure how to express it. (Don't worry, they figure it out 💗)
Wil, sets off on a navy ship which soon gets taken over by pirates. He quickly becomes the surgeon and the chef. Every letter he writes home to his best friend (and hopefully more) is about the wild, unhinged, and distressing situations he gets in.
Right when you think it can't get weirder or more surreal - it does.
I giggled and kicked my legs excitedly through this whole novella.
🩳 It's short (150 pages)
📖 It's on KU
🏳️🌈 It's queer
🇨🇦 It's written by Canadians
You'll love
⚓ Zombie lobsters
⚓ Demonic entity
⚓ Tentacle orgy
⚓ Sirens
⚓ A large mole referred to as "my wife Deborah"
Thank you to Hedone Books and Shelley Lavigne for ensuring I received a copy of this book.
TL;DR - Cozy, gory, queer pirate novella that you have to read RIGHT NOW.
🐙🐙🐙🐙🐙/5
I fucking loved this book. Omg.
It's told in a series of letters and journal entries between two men who love each other but aren't sure how to express it. (Don't worry, they figure it out 💗)
Wil, sets off on a navy ship which soon gets taken over by pirates. He quickly becomes the surgeon and the chef. Every letter he writes home to his best friend (and hopefully more) is about the wild, unhinged, and distressing situations he gets in.
Right when you think it can't get weirder or more surreal - it does.
I giggled and kicked my legs excitedly through this whole novella.
🩳 It's short (150 pages)
📖 It's on KU
🏳️🌈 It's queer
🇨🇦 It's written by Canadians
You'll love
⚓ Zombie lobsters
⚓ Demonic entity
⚓ Tentacle orgy
⚓ Sirens
⚓ A large mole referred to as "my wife Deborah"
Thank you to Hedone Books and Shelley Lavigne for ensuring I received a copy of this book.
TL;DR - Cozy, gory, queer pirate novella that you have to read RIGHT NOW.
July 10, 2025
Surprisingly charming and upbeat for body horror in which many people perish in disgusting ways!
The pacing was a little off. I'd have liked the final third to be drawn out a bit more, with more time spent with the Tear folks. And more time with Jean, who was my favorite of the two MCs!
I quite enjoyed this and would recommend it to people who like quirky characters and weird romps.
This isn't horror in the scary sense, although if you're very squeamish it may be too icky for you.
The pacing was a little off. I'd have liked the final third to be drawn out a bit more, with more time spent with the Tear folks. And more time with Jean, who was my favorite of the two MCs!
I quite enjoyed this and would recommend it to people who like quirky characters and weird romps.
This isn't horror in the scary sense, although if you're very squeamish it may be too icky for you.
December 30, 2024
I originally read this book back in July. I'll be including that review below, so this first bit is specific to the audiobook.
Wow. Ben Galpin is THE voice of Wilford and Jean-Baptiste. I loved the text the first time I read it, but now...I'm now going to specifically recommend the audiobook edition. I truly felt I was hearing each character's thoughts from their own mouths. I'd say I'm speechless but I could go on about how incredible this piece is. I am begging people to give this book a listen immediately.
Now for the text review...
Wait...this is wholesome??
The Flesh of the Sea is a charming and incredibly gay epistolary horror. I love the main characters' voices! All the chaos is filtered through nerdy scientist nonsense and hopelessly homosexual pining. Delightful, 10/10, reasonable tentacle-to-pirate ratio.
Thank you to Hedone Books for sending me both the initial ARC and now the audiobook for free. I'm leaving this review of my own accord.
Wow. Ben Galpin is THE voice of Wilford and Jean-Baptiste. I loved the text the first time I read it, but now...I'm now going to specifically recommend the audiobook edition. I truly felt I was hearing each character's thoughts from their own mouths. I'd say I'm speechless but I could go on about how incredible this piece is. I am begging people to give this book a listen immediately.
Now for the text review...
Wait...this is wholesome??
The Flesh of the Sea is a charming and incredibly gay epistolary horror. I love the main characters' voices! All the chaos is filtered through nerdy scientist nonsense and hopelessly homosexual pining. Delightful, 10/10, reasonable tentacle-to-pirate ratio.
Thank you to Hedone Books for sending me both the initial ARC and now the audiobook for free. I'm leaving this review of my own accord.
August 26, 2024
Pirates, romance, monsters and an amazing adventure, These are just a few of the amazing things to expect from the flesh of the sea, I was lucky enough to be given an arc of this book, and I loved every minute of it. I'm definitely gonna recommend this to people.
May 29, 2025
Guess I'm a 'purveyor of moist fiction' now?? Fast, fun, weird(ly wholesome), packed with adventure, and there's the iconic wtffff did I just read moment when we discover who the pirates are visiting in the Treasure Room. [What happens in the Treasure Room STAYS in the Treasure Room!] FLESH calls down on the great olde sea tropes, throws in a few of its own, and never takes itself too seriously.
Wilford and Jean are just two nerdy little fellows trying to find their way back to each other, with every siren and flesh-eating creature of the seven seas out to keep them apart. How can we not cheer them on?
Wilford and Jean are just two nerdy little fellows trying to find their way back to each other, with every siren and flesh-eating creature of the seven seas out to keep them apart. How can we not cheer them on?
September 2, 2024
Such a fun read! A blossoming queer romance, fantastical creatures, and adventures on the high seas: what’s not to love?!
Read
August 22, 2024A goopy, swashbuckling adventure told through love letters? Giant monsters and pirates? What's not to love here? Get in the boat, loser, we're going sailing! Highly recommended.
August 21, 2025
Short Story: This book felt like watching a movie directed by Guillermo Del Toro and/or Alfonso Cuaron and scored by John Williams or Michael Giacchino. I would want a million sequels, some spin-offs, and to watch the original every day of my life.
Sometimes you begin to read a book and know instantly you're going to love it. Sometimes you fall deeply in love with a story and it's characters, getting more and more lost with every page. Sometimes a book compels you to coin your own personal term for a piece of media because you loved every second you spent with it so much that terms like "best" and "favorite" and "incredible" seem to fail you: a Soul Book. Sometimes a book is all three of these things. The Flesh of the Sea was that book for me.
One of my favorite things about this book is that the aching romantic tension between our two distant lovers is apparent immediately, and so is how uniquely bizzare the world is. Wilford's side of the book is brought to us via letters written to his dear Jean, revealing a logical and scientific thought process often peppered with soul-baring romanticism that he's crossed out and re-written more tamely, with devastating effect. The excerpt's from Jean Baptiste's diaries are equally raw and moving, leaving us with two intimate portraits of very different men experiencing an uncannily similar time apart.
That time apart manages to be similar, for one, because of the unfathomable horrors of the sea this universe contians. There is a level of detail here in the action and creature design that elevates the horror and gore in this book to nothing short of exquisite. I found my mouth hanging open at the descriptions of the monsters the men encounter: gigantic mutant versions of land and sea things that I'm already afraid of because of their sharp claws or unsettling size, nightmare editions of mythical creatures, and creative abominations that I would love to see more of in future installments (a sentiment that left me feeling rather like the terminally curious Wilford).
Our protagonists' love story was as thrilling to read as the action storyline, and we get a thoroughly satisfying conclusion for their arc. It's astounding that a book which manages to be this scary can also be so heart-fluttering and romantic, but that's just what a Soul Book does. It checks all your boxes just when you thought nothing else could.
Thanks to the team at Hedone books for this advance copy! It was a pleasure to review.
Sometimes you begin to read a book and know instantly you're going to love it. Sometimes you fall deeply in love with a story and it's characters, getting more and more lost with every page. Sometimes a book compels you to coin your own personal term for a piece of media because you loved every second you spent with it so much that terms like "best" and "favorite" and "incredible" seem to fail you: a Soul Book. Sometimes a book is all three of these things. The Flesh of the Sea was that book for me.
One of my favorite things about this book is that the aching romantic tension between our two distant lovers is apparent immediately, and so is how uniquely bizzare the world is. Wilford's side of the book is brought to us via letters written to his dear Jean, revealing a logical and scientific thought process often peppered with soul-baring romanticism that he's crossed out and re-written more tamely, with devastating effect. The excerpt's from Jean Baptiste's diaries are equally raw and moving, leaving us with two intimate portraits of very different men experiencing an uncannily similar time apart.
That time apart manages to be similar, for one, because of the unfathomable horrors of the sea this universe contians. There is a level of detail here in the action and creature design that elevates the horror and gore in this book to nothing short of exquisite. I found my mouth hanging open at the descriptions of the monsters the men encounter: gigantic mutant versions of land and sea things that I'm already afraid of because of their sharp claws or unsettling size, nightmare editions of mythical creatures, and creative abominations that I would love to see more of in future installments (a sentiment that left me feeling rather like the terminally curious Wilford).
Our protagonists' love story was as thrilling to read as the action storyline, and we get a thoroughly satisfying conclusion for their arc. It's astounding that a book which manages to be this scary can also be so heart-fluttering and romantic, but that's just what a Soul Book does. It checks all your boxes just when you thought nothing else could.
Thanks to the team at Hedone books for this advance copy! It was a pleasure to review.
July 28, 2024
First of all, thank you to Hedone Books for sending an ARC copy to me. Thank you for your trust!
Secondly, this book is a must read in my opinion. It has everything you'd like in a story like this. Well written plot, well written characters, great dialogues and personally, I've found very interesting the letter format as well (I loved the first letter, to be honest).
Overall it is very enjoyable, and refreshing too! The perfect read for a hot summer night 🩷
Secondly, this book is a must read in my opinion. It has everything you'd like in a story like this. Well written plot, well written characters, great dialogues and personally, I've found very interesting the letter format as well (I loved the first letter, to be honest).
Overall it is very enjoyable, and refreshing too! The perfect read for a hot summer night 🩷
June 13, 2024
Big thank you to DarkLit and the authors for sending an ARC.
Ferociously fun. THE FLESH OF THE SEA throws all your favourite things—Pirates! Queer pining! Adventure! Giant monsters!—into a ship at sea and ties you to the mast to watch its irresistibly charming journey unfold. Alive with mischief, madness, and shenanigans. You'll love every minute of it.
Ferociously fun. THE FLESH OF THE SEA throws all your favourite things—Pirates! Queer pining! Adventure! Giant monsters!—into a ship at sea and ties you to the mast to watch its irresistibly charming journey unfold. Alive with mischief, madness, and shenanigans. You'll love every minute of it.
July 24, 2024
Wait...this is wholesome??
The Flesh of the Sea is a charming and incredibly gay epistolary horror. I love the main characters' voices! All the chaos is filtered through nerdy scientist nonsense and hopelessly homosexual pining. Delightful, 10/10, reasonable tentacle-to-pirate ratio.
Thank you to Hedone Books for sending an ARC my way for free. I'm leaving this review of my own accord.
The Flesh of the Sea is a charming and incredibly gay epistolary horror. I love the main characters' voices! All the chaos is filtered through nerdy scientist nonsense and hopelessly homosexual pining. Delightful, 10/10, reasonable tentacle-to-pirate ratio.
Thank you to Hedone Books for sending an ARC my way for free. I'm leaving this review of my own accord.
September 3, 2024
If Cronenberg directed Our Flag Means Death. I really loved the inventiveness of the creatures and monsters depicted and how they were described. I would love if Lor and Shelley made a return to this world they've created, because I want to know even more. I think this would make a sick graphic novel too.
August 24, 2024
Blue Monkey - The Faculty - Lair of the White Worm
Oh, gross! This book is actually totally my jam. It’s got ooey gooey, creatures, weird blobs, and a really sorta sweet little lovey going on between all of it.
Oh, gross! This book is actually totally my jam. It’s got ooey gooey, creatures, weird blobs, and a really sorta sweet little lovey going on between all of it.
November 20, 2024
Adventure! Goop! Monsters! Pirates! Longing! Romance! Deborah! Heartwarming characters in horrifying predicaments with high stakes! This book has everything I love. It’s a wild, delightful, swashbuckling love story that I couldn’t put down and I can’t recommend it enough.
January 12, 2025
I snagged this book during the Dark Mode SYKD and I’m so glad I did. The cover drew me in and the story sealed the deal for me! Genuinely wish it was longer!
This is a unique shorter story where we learn everything about our characters Wilford Bowen and Jean Baptiste de Beaupré through letters and journal entries. Close friends with the hint of something more there, have separated while one makes it in the Royal Society Fellowship while the other doesn’t. Keep in mind this tale takes place in 1760. Jean is on land wondering and worrying about Wil while Wil has made it (kidnapped, really) onto an actual pirate ship, Sea Goddess.
As Wil quickly becomes a cook and doctor on Sea Goddess and begins to uncover all the weird ailments and other strange medical wonders of the crew, Jean waits on shore for Wil’s updates through letters. Wil grows close with the crew and starts to realize that the sea is full of wonders and creatures that he knows no one but maybe Jean would believe him about.
I loved the pining that Wil and Jean have for each other and you get to see how their feelings develop. Wil’s wild pirate adventures are actually quite awesome and this was a super fun part of this story. Wil’s letters and Jean’s journal entries tell a story that is wholesome even if it involves weird medical conditions and killer sea creatures! I wanna know the rest of Wil and Jean’s story!
Happy reading! 📖🦑🧜♀️🦀🪼
This is a unique shorter story where we learn everything about our characters Wilford Bowen and Jean Baptiste de Beaupré through letters and journal entries. Close friends with the hint of something more there, have separated while one makes it in the Royal Society Fellowship while the other doesn’t. Keep in mind this tale takes place in 1760. Jean is on land wondering and worrying about Wil while Wil has made it (kidnapped, really) onto an actual pirate ship, Sea Goddess.
As Wil quickly becomes a cook and doctor on Sea Goddess and begins to uncover all the weird ailments and other strange medical wonders of the crew, Jean waits on shore for Wil’s updates through letters. Wil grows close with the crew and starts to realize that the sea is full of wonders and creatures that he knows no one but maybe Jean would believe him about.
I loved the pining that Wil and Jean have for each other and you get to see how their feelings develop. Wil’s wild pirate adventures are actually quite awesome and this was a super fun part of this story. Wil’s letters and Jean’s journal entries tell a story that is wholesome even if it involves weird medical conditions and killer sea creatures! I wanna know the rest of Wil and Jean’s story!
Happy reading! 📖🦑🧜♀️🦀🪼
June 10, 2024
I was lucky enough to be offered an advance copy for review by the publisher.
The Flesh of the Sea is a rollicking adventure shot through with both pitch-black horror and charming character building in equal measure. The dual narrative builds beautifully, and the central relationship brings a wonderfully fresh perspective to the epistolary structure. Moving along at a lively pace, Gislason and Lavigne breathe new life into the nautical adventure narrative in a way that feels effortless. The authors are both ones to watch in the horror and dark fantasy genres, and I can't recommend Flesh of the Sea highly enough. Take this one to the beach, folks, and be spooked.
The Flesh of the Sea is a rollicking adventure shot through with both pitch-black horror and charming character building in equal measure. The dual narrative builds beautifully, and the central relationship brings a wonderfully fresh perspective to the epistolary structure. Moving along at a lively pace, Gislason and Lavigne breathe new life into the nautical adventure narrative in a way that feels effortless. The authors are both ones to watch in the horror and dark fantasy genres, and I can't recommend Flesh of the Sea highly enough. Take this one to the beach, folks, and be spooked.
August 14, 2024
Absolutely loved this heartfelt horror with so much character and imagination
Imagery...this book is full of beautiful Imagery. I feel like I stumbled upon a message in a bottle containing a long lost love letter, and the details were this book.
Fanciful, nostalgic, and longing juxtaposed with horror, myth, and the grotesque. Beautifully melding the bleak from the joy.
The blossoming love between two friends, the
carefree and unique cast
of pirates, the monsters...every detail
is lovingly crafted.
My imagination was
thoroughly satiated
by the amazing imagery
in every correspondence
🐙🐙🐙🐙🐙
Five Squids
Imagery...this book is full of beautiful Imagery. I feel like I stumbled upon a message in a bottle containing a long lost love letter, and the details were this book.
Fanciful, nostalgic, and longing juxtaposed with horror, myth, and the grotesque. Beautifully melding the bleak from the joy.
The blossoming love between two friends, the
carefree and unique cast
of pirates, the monsters...every detail
is lovingly crafted.
My imagination was
thoroughly satiated
by the amazing imagery
in every correspondence
🐙🐙🐙🐙🐙
Five Squids
August 1, 2024
This was more of a love story than I expected, and I’m not complaining it’s a gay pirate live story!
Wil and Jean’s relationship is pretty evident from the beginning but throughout the letters Wil sends and Jean’s journal entries you start to see their relationship bloom for them.
On top of that the creatures featured in this story are on par with many a fantasy book Ive read. It’s a nice blend!
Oh and tentacled and many eyed goddesses and gods!
Wil and Jean’s relationship is pretty evident from the beginning but throughout the letters Wil sends and Jean’s journal entries you start to see their relationship bloom for them.
On top of that the creatures featured in this story are on par with many a fantasy book Ive read. It’s a nice blend!
Oh and tentacled and many eyed goddesses and gods!
January 1, 2025
there was nothing wrong with this book other than that i didn’t realize this wasn’t gonna be what i expected based off what i had been told. it’s not fair to hold it against the book but it did diminish my enjoyment coming to terms with my disappointment.
August 1, 2024
This was an unexpected read for me! At first, I was like “okay, I was told it’s horror, what’s happening,” then things started getting creepy. I loved the way it is written from the perspective of two friends (who definitely feel more for each other than friendship) who write letters and journal entries. If you’re wanting a pirate story with a sci-fi/horror twist, this is the book for you!
Did Not Finish
August 5, 2026DNF al 14% perché mi aspettavo una cosa completamente diversa e questa non è per niente nelle mie corde
Read
July 12, 2025An historical romantic monster horror sea voyage piracy supernatural science research epistolary queer romp.
October 6, 2024
i love stories told through letters and journal entries <3 this book was such a perfect read for the start of halloween season. it exceeded all my expectations and was delightfully more queer than i thought it would be!!
August 13, 2024
This book was like Robinson Crusoe meets Our Flag Means Death, a gay, goopy, swashbuckling adventure! Ultimately, it’s a story of separated lovers battling regret, longing, and a maritime world of grotesquely beautiful creatures. I thoroughly enjoyed it!
September 1, 2024
I've been charmed by The Flesh of the Sea, which sat me down, took my hand, and offered me a cup of tea full of queer pining, a splash of scientific fascination with strange creations, and two cubes of tentacle-shaped sugar. I'll be back for another cup.
August 2, 2024
Sometimes, as soon as you start to read a book you just instantly know you’re going to love it. This is one of those books for me. I fell deeply in love with the story and the characters. One of my favorite things about this book is how this story is told through letters and journal entries.
The love story that was slowly unfolding, the horror elements and the action are so beautifully done. It’s a weird, surreal and queer story full of pirates, found family and sea monsters.
Thanks to Hedone books for the ARC.
The love story that was slowly unfolding, the horror elements and the action are so beautifully done. It’s a weird, surreal and queer story full of pirates, found family and sea monsters.
Thanks to Hedone books for the ARC.
August 7, 2024
Loved this epistolary queer horror novella! I’m not a big fan of pirate-esque themes but this was written in a very palatable, and non-stereotypical(?) way I think.
July 3, 2026
The best book I read last year was How to Survive this Fairytale by SM Hallow. It was by a new indie publishing house, so I decided to pick up a few other of their titles. Unfortunately, Hedone Books has gone under, because I very much would have been interested in more of books they put out. Currently, you can only read The Flesh of the Sea via Audible; I was lucky enough to have purchased my physical copy before the publisher went under. This won’t be my favorite read of the year (or even this project), but it was very enjoyable. It’s a quick read - even in the context of novellas - and I think it would be a fairly good palette cleanser, especially when paired with other weird-nautical series like Tide child.
Read If Looking For: weird travelogues, disaster academics, yearning and pining, epistolary novels, quirky pirate crews
Avoid If Looking For: intense horror and gore, bespoke prose, Romantasy
Comparable Media: Tide Child, Memoirs of Lady Trent, Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Elevator Pitch:
Wilford is a natural scientist who, after getting rejected by the Royal Society in London, ends up on a really weird pirate ship. He sends letters of his misadventures to a fellow naturalist, Jean Baptiste, whom he had been avoiding after a drunken kiss. On his travels, Wilford encounters all sorts of disturbing and disgusting creatures, befriends his crewmates, and generally tries to prove his worth to himself, Jean Baptiste, and the Society. Meanwhile, Jean Baptiste’s journal shows his life feels empty without Wilford in it, and he gets very upset about an overprotective pirate who has been making moves on Wilford.
But is it Horror?
I came in expecting a really intense Eldritch Horror experience, which the cover and the story’s blurb seem to push towards. It didn’t quite hit that brief for me. I consider myself a fairly squeamish person, but I never felt grossed out by this book, even when it felt like I probably should be. One of the very first things Wilfred faces are worms that burrow into human flesh, and it gets more gruesome from there. However, I just never felt like Lavigne and Gislason quite captured imagery and sensory details the way that I needed for the horror in this book to shine through like I wanted. Maybe this is a mismatched expectation, but I wanted to have to walk away from this book and give myself breaks to avoid getting overwhelmed. This felt a lot more mellow, and I don’t think the prose reflected the grotesqueries of the journey.
On the other hand, our protagonist Wilford himself has no sense of safety or care when it comes to these creatures. In fact, he advocates several times to keep monster specimens alive (or even dead) so he can study them. He’s got overflowing curiosity and a bounce in his step even in the weirdest of times. This came through clearly from his narrative voice and was reinforced with Jean Baptiste’s own accounts of Wilford. So perhaps my feelings about the horror levels in this book make sense when thinking about this as a series of letters written by someone who does not himself feel that intense revulsion.
To avoid spoilers, I won’t talk too much about the different creatures we see, but I appreciated the variety and originality of what was presented. Other than the wasps, nothing felt quite like anything I’d seen before, and even familiar concepts came with a twist or subversion that kept them from feeling too familiar. This book had one of my favorite interpretations of Sirens out there, and they bear almost no resemblance to the monsters of Greek Myth. I think the way to know whether The Flesh of the Sea is for you is to think about whether you’d like to read Alfred Russel Wallace’s travelog if he were in something Lovecraft-adjacent and in love with Darwin. You’ll see some wonderful, gross, and bizarre critters (and parasites) and get some funbanter.
From a prose standpoint, this book seems to fit into Sanderson-style writing. It was direct and simple, clear with descriptions and easy to parse. Subtext is fairly obvious, and the episodic nature of the chapters (each letter is usually a complete encounter with a single species), make this an easy story to float in and out of. The characters are fairly archetypical and open about their thoughts (it's a letter/journal after all), with interesting details to latch onto and spur your imagination. It’s a very approachable horror book, low commitment even for a 130 pages. However, it doesn’t achieve anything significant enough to warrant me nominating it for awards, though I’ve generally found myself disappointed with most nominees outside the Le Guin Award. The Flesh of The Sea is a great workhorse book, but not revolutionary.
Conclusion: A delight, but missing a ‘wow’ factor that should have been easy to come by with this premise
Want More Reviews Like This? try my blog Marked For Plot
Read If Looking For: weird travelogues, disaster academics, yearning and pining, epistolary novels, quirky pirate crews
Avoid If Looking For: intense horror and gore, bespoke prose, Romantasy
Comparable Media: Tide Child, Memoirs of Lady Trent, Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Elevator Pitch:
Wilford is a natural scientist who, after getting rejected by the Royal Society in London, ends up on a really weird pirate ship. He sends letters of his misadventures to a fellow naturalist, Jean Baptiste, whom he had been avoiding after a drunken kiss. On his travels, Wilford encounters all sorts of disturbing and disgusting creatures, befriends his crewmates, and generally tries to prove his worth to himself, Jean Baptiste, and the Society. Meanwhile, Jean Baptiste’s journal shows his life feels empty without Wilford in it, and he gets very upset about an overprotective pirate who has been making moves on Wilford.
But is it Horror?
I came in expecting a really intense Eldritch Horror experience, which the cover and the story’s blurb seem to push towards. It didn’t quite hit that brief for me. I consider myself a fairly squeamish person, but I never felt grossed out by this book, even when it felt like I probably should be. One of the very first things Wilfred faces are worms that burrow into human flesh, and it gets more gruesome from there. However, I just never felt like Lavigne and Gislason quite captured imagery and sensory details the way that I needed for the horror in this book to shine through like I wanted. Maybe this is a mismatched expectation, but I wanted to have to walk away from this book and give myself breaks to avoid getting overwhelmed. This felt a lot more mellow, and I don’t think the prose reflected the grotesqueries of the journey.
On the other hand, our protagonist Wilford himself has no sense of safety or care when it comes to these creatures. In fact, he advocates several times to keep monster specimens alive (or even dead) so he can study them. He’s got overflowing curiosity and a bounce in his step even in the weirdest of times. This came through clearly from his narrative voice and was reinforced with Jean Baptiste’s own accounts of Wilford. So perhaps my feelings about the horror levels in this book make sense when thinking about this as a series of letters written by someone who does not himself feel that intense revulsion.
To avoid spoilers, I won’t talk too much about the different creatures we see, but I appreciated the variety and originality of what was presented. Other than the wasps, nothing felt quite like anything I’d seen before, and even familiar concepts came with a twist or subversion that kept them from feeling too familiar. This book had one of my favorite interpretations of Sirens out there, and they bear almost no resemblance to the monsters of Greek Myth. I think the way to know whether The Flesh of the Sea is for you is to think about whether you’d like to read Alfred Russel Wallace’s travelog if he were in something Lovecraft-adjacent and in love with Darwin. You’ll see some wonderful, gross, and bizarre critters (and parasites) and get some funbanter.
From a prose standpoint, this book seems to fit into Sanderson-style writing. It was direct and simple, clear with descriptions and easy to parse. Subtext is fairly obvious, and the episodic nature of the chapters (each letter is usually a complete encounter with a single species), make this an easy story to float in and out of. The characters are fairly archetypical and open about their thoughts (it's a letter/journal after all), with interesting details to latch onto and spur your imagination. It’s a very approachable horror book, low commitment even for a 130 pages. However, it doesn’t achieve anything significant enough to warrant me nominating it for awards, though I’ve generally found myself disappointed with most nominees outside the Le Guin Award. The Flesh of The Sea is a great workhorse book, but not revolutionary.
Conclusion: A delight, but missing a ‘wow’ factor that should have been easy to come by with this premise
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June 14, 2026
The YEARNING…
I think this might be the first time I’ve read a purely epistolary book, and it was an interesting experience, especially as it wasn’t a directly back and forth communication. In some way, both Jean and Wilford were screaming into the void, and hoping against hope the other would eventually hear their words and understand their feelings. Jean in some ways had much more of a grounding with the occasional mail drops, and yet only had himself and his own thoughts and words as an outlet for most of the book, while Wilford had more of an external outlet, albeit without the guarantee that the letters would ever reach their destination. That disconnect could have fallen flat, and yet Gislason and Lavigne, have crafted it into some of the most exquisite yearning I have ever read.
The feelings these two had for each other, as tangled and confused as they are by past events, and societal expectations, are raw, powerful and dedicated. These are two souls literally oceans apart for a large part of the novella, and yet even as life, experiences and other people move in between them, potentially threatening that connection, their thoughts and hearts are ever turned towards one another, like a compass point always finding its own north. And my favourite aspect was that we see them both in their own, stumbling ways, working not only to find their way to one another, but to grow and prove themselves to the other.
And the ending was chef’s kiss…a brilliant, satisfying conclusion to this arc of their story; that made ever second of yearning pay off.
Now as dominant as their relationship is. This is also a fascinating horror story, and was not constrained just to the sea, although aside from the last horror, the ones that Wilford encountered at sea were definitely my favourite. Tapping very much into the idea of the wild, unknown of the ocean; and the rich biology and folklore, in a way that felt both straight out of the great epics, but also fresh in a way that kept me on the tips of my toes, and also bizarrely wanting to set sail (self-preservation skills potentially 0). My favourites were the Siren fish, which were both such a fascinating explanation for folklore, but also absolutely horrifying (think ear-worm song turned up to one thousand); and then to see the flip side of them, and the interconnection with another story later on. I also loved the Hermit Crab inhabiting a ship, just both bizarre logic of it, as well as the thought of a crab that size – and then the resulting fight, and losses were just so well done.
The one thing that I don’t think worked as well was the length. In terms of it being an epistolary novella the length worked really well, because keeping up the tension of delayed communication, and the beautifully drawn-out tension of not knowing how the other was, or what they were thinking and feeling about the situation, would not necessarily have worked over a greater length. However, the shortfall was that were giving so many fascinating encounters, but the pacing made it feel like you had just had a delicious bite before the waiter is whisking the dish away and setting another course in front of you. For some of the encounters that worked well, especially early on in Wilford’s adventures when he was less established with the crew; but particularly the latter part of the book, it felt as though we needed more time with the encounters.
It was the same with the Goddess – which really was a turn I was not expecting, but I felt like I needed a bit more understanding of how she and the crew originally came together to really grasp that relationship. I think because it felt slightly at odds with how the captain and crew reacted to the myriad other weird and wonderful encounters and creatures. It was the same with the Tear, we get so many tantalising hints, but it felt a little like we were hurtling towards that last encounter, and while I understand the hourglass running out nature of visions etc, it just felt like it needed a bit more; and I desperately want to know more about that crew, and what else they have got up to beside helping Jean and Wilford here.
The Flesh of the Sea was absolutely not what I had expected, especially as I genuinely cannot remember when I added it to my kindle and yet I thoroughly enjoyed it. I wish there had been more exploration of the supernatural and body horror elements, but I loved the details and the sheer variety that we got within this novella; and as I said the payoff at the end for the yearning was absolutely spot on. An enjoyable and fascinating read for anyone who loves unsettling body horror, and deep-seated yearning.
I think this might be the first time I’ve read a purely epistolary book, and it was an interesting experience, especially as it wasn’t a directly back and forth communication. In some way, both Jean and Wilford were screaming into the void, and hoping against hope the other would eventually hear their words and understand their feelings. Jean in some ways had much more of a grounding with the occasional mail drops, and yet only had himself and his own thoughts and words as an outlet for most of the book, while Wilford had more of an external outlet, albeit without the guarantee that the letters would ever reach their destination. That disconnect could have fallen flat, and yet Gislason and Lavigne, have crafted it into some of the most exquisite yearning I have ever read.
The feelings these two had for each other, as tangled and confused as they are by past events, and societal expectations, are raw, powerful and dedicated. These are two souls literally oceans apart for a large part of the novella, and yet even as life, experiences and other people move in between them, potentially threatening that connection, their thoughts and hearts are ever turned towards one another, like a compass point always finding its own north. And my favourite aspect was that we see them both in their own, stumbling ways, working not only to find their way to one another, but to grow and prove themselves to the other.
And the ending was chef’s kiss…a brilliant, satisfying conclusion to this arc of their story; that made ever second of yearning pay off.
Now as dominant as their relationship is. This is also a fascinating horror story, and was not constrained just to the sea, although aside from the last horror, the ones that Wilford encountered at sea were definitely my favourite. Tapping very much into the idea of the wild, unknown of the ocean; and the rich biology and folklore, in a way that felt both straight out of the great epics, but also fresh in a way that kept me on the tips of my toes, and also bizarrely wanting to set sail (self-preservation skills potentially 0). My favourites were the Siren fish, which were both such a fascinating explanation for folklore, but also absolutely horrifying (think ear-worm song turned up to one thousand); and then to see the flip side of them, and the interconnection with another story later on. I also loved the Hermit Crab inhabiting a ship, just both bizarre logic of it, as well as the thought of a crab that size – and then the resulting fight, and losses were just so well done.
The one thing that I don’t think worked as well was the length. In terms of it being an epistolary novella the length worked really well, because keeping up the tension of delayed communication, and the beautifully drawn-out tension of not knowing how the other was, or what they were thinking and feeling about the situation, would not necessarily have worked over a greater length. However, the shortfall was that were giving so many fascinating encounters, but the pacing made it feel like you had just had a delicious bite before the waiter is whisking the dish away and setting another course in front of you. For some of the encounters that worked well, especially early on in Wilford’s adventures when he was less established with the crew; but particularly the latter part of the book, it felt as though we needed more time with the encounters.
It was the same with the Goddess – which really was a turn I was not expecting, but I felt like I needed a bit more understanding of how she and the crew originally came together to really grasp that relationship. I think because it felt slightly at odds with how the captain and crew reacted to the myriad other weird and wonderful encounters and creatures. It was the same with the Tear, we get so many tantalising hints, but it felt a little like we were hurtling towards that last encounter, and while I understand the hourglass running out nature of visions etc, it just felt like it needed a bit more; and I desperately want to know more about that crew, and what else they have got up to beside helping Jean and Wilford here.
The Flesh of the Sea was absolutely not what I had expected, especially as I genuinely cannot remember when I added it to my kindle and yet I thoroughly enjoyed it. I wish there had been more exploration of the supernatural and body horror elements, but I loved the details and the sheer variety that we got within this novella; and as I said the payoff at the end for the yearning was absolutely spot on. An enjoyable and fascinating read for anyone who loves unsettling body horror, and deep-seated yearning.
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