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Tidepool
If ye give not willingly, the Lords will rise…
In 1913, Henry Hamilton disappeared while on a business trip, and his sister, Sorrow, won’t rest until she finds out what happened to him. Defying her father’s orders to remain at home, she travels to Tidepool, the last place Henry is known to have visited. Residents of the small, shabby oceanside town can’t quite meet Sorrow’s eyes when she asks about her brother.
When corpses wash up on shore looking as if they’ve been torn apart by something not quite human, Sorrow is ready to return to Baltimore and let her father send in the professional detectives.
However, after meeting Ada Oliver, a widow whose black silk dresses and elegant manners set her apart from other Tidepool residents, Sorrow discovers Tidepool’s dark, deadly secret.
With this discovery, some denizens of Tidepool—human and otherwise—are hell-bent on making sure Sorrow never leaves their forsaken town.
Lovecraftian dark fantasy gets a modern treatment in this terrifying debut novel.
In 1913, Henry Hamilton disappeared while on a business trip, and his sister, Sorrow, won’t rest until she finds out what happened to him. Defying her father’s orders to remain at home, she travels to Tidepool, the last place Henry is known to have visited. Residents of the small, shabby oceanside town can’t quite meet Sorrow’s eyes when she asks about her brother.
When corpses wash up on shore looking as if they’ve been torn apart by something not quite human, Sorrow is ready to return to Baltimore and let her father send in the professional detectives.
However, after meeting Ada Oliver, a widow whose black silk dresses and elegant manners set her apart from other Tidepool residents, Sorrow discovers Tidepool’s dark, deadly secret.
With this discovery, some denizens of Tidepool—human and otherwise—are hell-bent on making sure Sorrow never leaves their forsaken town.
Lovecraftian dark fantasy gets a modern treatment in this terrifying debut novel.
300 pages, Kindle Edition
First published August 3, 2021
114 people are currently reading
4532 people want to read
About the author
Nicole Willson
7 books143 followersNicole Willson has been a frequent visitor to small coastal towns located along the Eastern seaboard but has yet to see anything truly alarming emerge from those waters, much to her disappointment. She’s hopeful that her lifelong aversion to eating fish or seafood might earn her a little mercy when the hungry ocean gods finally start coming ashore.
Her Bram Stoker Award-nominated debut novel "Tidepool" is out from Parliament House Press. Her novella "The Shadow Dancers of Brixton Hill" is coming from Cemetery Gates Media in 2023, and her YA novel "The Keeper of the Key" is forthcoming in Fall 2024.
Her short fiction has appeared in Cemetery Gates Media and on Medium.
Her Bram Stoker Award-nominated debut novel "Tidepool" is out from Parliament House Press. Her novella "The Shadow Dancers of Brixton Hill" is coming from Cemetery Gates Media in 2023, and her YA novel "The Keeper of the Key" is forthcoming in Fall 2024.
Her short fiction has appeared in Cemetery Gates Media and on Medium.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 230 reviews
June 8, 2024
Repetition With A Circular Plot...
TIDEPOOL by Nicole Willson
No spoilers. 2 1/2 stars. Tidepool looked like a place people went to die, not to live...
In 1913, Henry Hamilton's father chose Tidepool as the seaside location for his new resort...
The town was made up of sea-warped buildings and rusty, corroded metal signs over-exposed to the salty Atlantic air...
Even the beach looked tatty with an old sun bleached sailboat carcass and dead sea birds washing ashore...
There was a pervasive odor of sea salt and dead fish coming off the crashing waves, along with the underlying perfume of some sort of decay...
The townsfolk openly stared at Henry as he walked the dirt streets in his business suit...
And he grew increasingly uneasy...
The town felt as if it were holding its collective breath, waiting for something bad to happen...
Tidepool rolled up its sidewalks at sunset, so Henry reluctantly entered the only open establishment, Cooper's Inn and Tavern...
There, Henry met rich widow Ada Oliver, who invited him to her mansion on the hill for dinner...
Afterward, Henry Hamilton was never seen again...
Two weeks later, Henry's sister Sorrow showed up in Tidepool looking for him and immediately sensed danger, but she was constantly prevented from leaving town...
This novel started off with a great first chapter, which hooked me immediately. Having lived near the Pacific Ocean most of my life, I appreciated the atmosphere presented at the beginning of the story.
It quickly went south for me with the repetitiveness of the rest of the story. How many times does a reader have to be told that the town smelled of salt and fish? We are told numerous times that Sorrow didn't like the rubbery eggs and bitter coffee that the Inn served for her breakfast.
When Sorrow retired to her room, we were constantly reminded that the door to the kitchen below squeaked, which annoyed her no end. I read too many times that the stew she was served for dinner was watery.
Sorrow, the name given to the main character, was an unfortunate choice. I was reminded of WONDERLAND by Soje Stage, in which the author named one of her characters, a child, Eleanor Queen, and she was called the full Eleanor Queen throughout the novel. As with Eleanor Queen, I hit a mental road block every time the name Sorrow was used.
The plot circled itself over and over with Sorrow wanting to leave town, and then something or someone prevented her from leaving. She was a very disagreeable and unlikable character, and I pictured Sheila Kuehl playing Sorrow in the movie version in my head.
Lastly, the story's big, bad secret was revealed at the start, removing the mystery and leaving the rest of the story to catch up to what we already know.
Summing up: I found the story repetitive and boring, and I struggled to finish.
TIDEPOOL by Nicole Willson
No spoilers. 2 1/2 stars. Tidepool looked like a place people went to die, not to live...
In 1913, Henry Hamilton's father chose Tidepool as the seaside location for his new resort...
The town was made up of sea-warped buildings and rusty, corroded metal signs over-exposed to the salty Atlantic air...
Even the beach looked tatty with an old sun bleached sailboat carcass and dead sea birds washing ashore...
There was a pervasive odor of sea salt and dead fish coming off the crashing waves, along with the underlying perfume of some sort of decay...
The townsfolk openly stared at Henry as he walked the dirt streets in his business suit...
And he grew increasingly uneasy...
The town felt as if it were holding its collective breath, waiting for something bad to happen...
Tidepool rolled up its sidewalks at sunset, so Henry reluctantly entered the only open establishment, Cooper's Inn and Tavern...
There, Henry met rich widow Ada Oliver, who invited him to her mansion on the hill for dinner...
Afterward, Henry Hamilton was never seen again...
Two weeks later, Henry's sister Sorrow showed up in Tidepool looking for him and immediately sensed danger, but she was constantly prevented from leaving town...
This novel started off with a great first chapter, which hooked me immediately. Having lived near the Pacific Ocean most of my life, I appreciated the atmosphere presented at the beginning of the story.
It quickly went south for me with the repetitiveness of the rest of the story. How many times does a reader have to be told that the town smelled of salt and fish? We are told numerous times that Sorrow didn't like the rubbery eggs and bitter coffee that the Inn served for her breakfast.
When Sorrow retired to her room, we were constantly reminded that the door to the kitchen below squeaked, which annoyed her no end. I read too many times that the stew she was served for dinner was watery.
Sorrow, the name given to the main character, was an unfortunate choice. I was reminded of WONDERLAND by Soje Stage, in which the author named one of her characters, a child, Eleanor Queen, and she was called the full Eleanor Queen throughout the novel. As with Eleanor Queen, I hit a mental road block every time the name Sorrow was used.
The plot circled itself over and over with Sorrow wanting to leave town, and then something or someone prevented her from leaving. She was a very disagreeable and unlikable character, and I pictured Sheila Kuehl playing Sorrow in the movie version in my head.
Lastly, the story's big, bad secret was revealed at the start, removing the mystery and leaving the rest of the story to catch up to what we already know.
Summing up: I found the story repetitive and boring, and I struggled to finish.
March 4, 2021
Richly dark and enthralling! The premise of Tidepool with it’s Lovecraftian vibe sucked me in with vivid imagery and deliciously creepy lore. Sorrow’s brother has not returned from a business trip to Tidepool and it is not like him to disappear without notice. Against her father’s wishes she travels to Tidepool and soon realizes the town has a lot to hide from outsiders and some will stop at nothing to protect their town.
I expected an enticing horror read but not in the ghastly forms of what lurked in these pages. I was riveted as Sorrow unlocks the secret behind her brother’s disappearance and the town around her erupts into chaos. Sorrow was a well-developed character. She has a genuine heart and righteous attitude that makes it easy to appreciate her perspective. Her persona follows a believable path of change as the fear slowly eats away at her. I was honestly impressed with the start to finish aspect of Sorrow as she morphs physically and mentally in this book. She isn’t all though. Ada and Quentin Oliver are just as fleshed out and unique as Sorrow. Each with a colorful past and characteristics that make you appreciate what they do for the plot.
The POVs fluctuate between a few of the characters but not in any way that makes the story confusing. I loved the backstory on Ada that was added. She is seriously a mixture of haunting, admirable and soulless that I could not turn away from. The writing style is easy to follow and expertly descriptive. I did feel it was a little longer than needed in some areas, but my anxiousness may be to blame for that. This is set in 1913 and there is a semi disturbing sexual scene. Also, a good dash of gore and murder and floating people parts. This is a horror after all, and you’ll probably never look at dark ocean depths the same way again.
Thank you to Parliament Press and Nicole Willson for the opportunity to read this gifted ARC in exchange for an honest review. If you love ghastly, gory and unique reads set in older eras than I highly recommend this. Especially if you’re a Lovecraft connoisseur.
True rating 4.5/5.
I expected an enticing horror read but not in the ghastly forms of what lurked in these pages. I was riveted as Sorrow unlocks the secret behind her brother’s disappearance and the town around her erupts into chaos. Sorrow was a well-developed character. She has a genuine heart and righteous attitude that makes it easy to appreciate her perspective. Her persona follows a believable path of change as the fear slowly eats away at her. I was honestly impressed with the start to finish aspect of Sorrow as she morphs physically and mentally in this book. She isn’t all though. Ada and Quentin Oliver are just as fleshed out and unique as Sorrow. Each with a colorful past and characteristics that make you appreciate what they do for the plot.
The POVs fluctuate between a few of the characters but not in any way that makes the story confusing. I loved the backstory on Ada that was added. She is seriously a mixture of haunting, admirable and soulless that I could not turn away from. The writing style is easy to follow and expertly descriptive. I did feel it was a little longer than needed in some areas, but my anxiousness may be to blame for that. This is set in 1913 and there is a semi disturbing sexual scene. Also, a good dash of gore and murder and floating people parts. This is a horror after all, and you’ll probably never look at dark ocean depths the same way again.
Thank you to Parliament Press and Nicole Willson for the opportunity to read this gifted ARC in exchange for an honest review. If you love ghastly, gory and unique reads set in older eras than I highly recommend this. Especially if you’re a Lovecraft connoisseur.
True rating 4.5/5.
Read
December 18, 2021*received from NG for some reason**
This is a lovecrafty-gothic horror type thing, set in early 20th century America and centering on a rundown coastal town with dark secrets. The heroine, Sorrow, has come to Tidepool in order to discover what’s happened to her missing brother—although this isn’t much of a mystery to the reader because we find out in the prologue.
I wanted to like this more than, in practice, I did. It has lots of elements I usually find appealing—and there’s definitely a decent sense of atmosphere alongside some moments of pleasing creepiness—but the writing and the characterisation ultimately fell pretty flat to me. The brother is kind of a lechy dick for the two seconds he’s on page, so it was hard to care that he was eaten by sea monsters (not a spoiler, he’s eaten by sea monsters literally in the prologue), even if he was an important to Sorrow. As for Sorrow herself, she’s got that independent heroine vibe going, but I never really felt I knew who she was. The secondary characters, similarly, had a sketched quality to them that never quite let them feel like individuals.
By far the most interesting character is the antagonist, Mrs Oliver—but, with only one chapter from her POV, I personally felt there wasn’t enough of her. I think she’s meant to be a dark reflection of Sorrow but the only reason I think this is because she literally gives the “we are not so unalike, you and I” speech near the end of the book. She also has faint queer vibes, although they ultimately manifest in her having dubiously consensual sex with her abusive husband and then murdering him in a scene that I found somewhat uncomfortable. And not in the “ooh, I’m out of my comfort zone” sense so much as the “I don’t quite understand what you’re trying to say with this” sense.
I also felt the middle section of the book degenerated the oddest quadrille around whether the heroine was going to leave Tidepool. I suspect this is an integral problem to what you might call place-based horror: you keep having to address the question of why the protagonist just doesn’t get the fuck out of there. The problem here was that the book kept addressing it, and then addressing it some more, with various characters apparently rolling a dice every morning to decide whether they were going to demand she leave or insist she stay. For me, the issue here wasn’t so much that the heroine doesn’t leave—with this kind of story, one suspends disbelief around such ideas. It was on-going hokey-cokey around it that made it feel like a distraction from the … you know. The actual story of whatever creepy shit was going down in Tidepool, and the degree its denizens were complicit in it.
And while the final reckoning in Tidepool felt both inevitable and darkly satisfying, this was not, in the end, the conclusion of the story. We move forward in time, jumping perspectives between Sorrow herself, Sorrow’s father, and Mrs Oliver’s weird brother. I think this was meant to give the events at Tidepool an impact beyond a single place and time, except it didn’t fully work for me. Not least because the very final chapter includes a trans woman named Natalie whose sole narrative purpose seems to involve being misgendered by some dickheads. Again, this is complicated—and it is definitely not my place to pass judgement on the representation of marginalised groups to which I do not belong—but I don’t think anyone is served by this particular inclusion since Natalie’s transness is less about her than about the cis-gaze of both the aforementioned dickheads and indeed (rightly or wrongly) the narrative.
Anyway, Tidepool didn’t end up working for me. But it’s certainly an engaging read, especially for fans of gothic-Lovecraftian horror.
This is a lovecrafty-gothic horror type thing, set in early 20th century America and centering on a rundown coastal town with dark secrets. The heroine, Sorrow, has come to Tidepool in order to discover what’s happened to her missing brother—although this isn’t much of a mystery to the reader because we find out in the prologue.
I wanted to like this more than, in practice, I did. It has lots of elements I usually find appealing—and there’s definitely a decent sense of atmosphere alongside some moments of pleasing creepiness—but the writing and the characterisation ultimately fell pretty flat to me. The brother is kind of a lechy dick for the two seconds he’s on page, so it was hard to care that he was eaten by sea monsters (not a spoiler, he’s eaten by sea monsters literally in the prologue), even if he was an important to Sorrow. As for Sorrow herself, she’s got that independent heroine vibe going, but I never really felt I knew who she was. The secondary characters, similarly, had a sketched quality to them that never quite let them feel like individuals.
By far the most interesting character is the antagonist, Mrs Oliver—but, with only one chapter from her POV, I personally felt there wasn’t enough of her. I think she’s meant to be a dark reflection of Sorrow but the only reason I think this is because she literally gives the “we are not so unalike, you and I” speech near the end of the book. She also has faint queer vibes, although they ultimately manifest in her having dubiously consensual sex with her abusive husband and then murdering him in a scene that I found somewhat uncomfortable. And not in the “ooh, I’m out of my comfort zone” sense so much as the “I don’t quite understand what you’re trying to say with this” sense.
I also felt the middle section of the book degenerated the oddest quadrille around whether the heroine was going to leave Tidepool. I suspect this is an integral problem to what you might call place-based horror: you keep having to address the question of why the protagonist just doesn’t get the fuck out of there. The problem here was that the book kept addressing it, and then addressing it some more, with various characters apparently rolling a dice every morning to decide whether they were going to demand she leave or insist she stay. For me, the issue here wasn’t so much that the heroine doesn’t leave—with this kind of story, one suspends disbelief around such ideas. It was on-going hokey-cokey around it that made it feel like a distraction from the … you know. The actual story of whatever creepy shit was going down in Tidepool, and the degree its denizens were complicit in it.
And while the final reckoning in Tidepool felt both inevitable and darkly satisfying, this was not, in the end, the conclusion of the story. We move forward in time, jumping perspectives between Sorrow herself, Sorrow’s father, and Mrs Oliver’s weird brother. I think this was meant to give the events at Tidepool an impact beyond a single place and time, except it didn’t fully work for me. Not least because the very final chapter includes a trans woman named Natalie whose sole narrative purpose seems to involve being misgendered by some dickheads. Again, this is complicated—and it is definitely not my place to pass judgement on the representation of marginalised groups to which I do not belong—but I don’t think anyone is served by this particular inclusion since Natalie’s transness is less about her than about the cis-gaze of both the aforementioned dickheads and indeed (rightly or wrongly) the narrative.
Anyway, Tidepool didn’t end up working for me. But it’s certainly an engaging read, especially for fans of gothic-Lovecraftian horror.
October 23, 2020
The creeping dread of Lovecraftian horror by way of American Horror Story - Tidepool will ensure you never look at the ocean the same way again!
July 11, 2021
'Tidepool' is a dark, dank, deathly story about fate, truth, and human relationships. The story is set in Tidepool, a mysterious oceanside town harbouring deadly secrets beneath its ominous waters. After her brother goes missing on a business trip, Sorrow Hamilton ventures out to the eerie town where secrets alive and dead bind and menace her to its terrifying curse. A sinister woman dressed in black and macabre things that wash ashore haunt and horrify Sorrow until she is able to uncover the true goings on of the creepy town.
Atmospheric, tantalizing, and suspenseful, 'Tidepool' is dark gothic fantasy at its finest. The author Nicole Willson’s evocative writing creates a sense of doom and gloom that will keep readers on the edge of their seats. Willson’s dark elegant characterization and vintage horror inspiration, stains every page of this engrossing tale.
I look forward to reading more from the author.
Thank you to the publisher for providing me with a free ARC via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review
Atmospheric, tantalizing, and suspenseful, 'Tidepool' is dark gothic fantasy at its finest. The author Nicole Willson’s evocative writing creates a sense of doom and gloom that will keep readers on the edge of their seats. Willson’s dark elegant characterization and vintage horror inspiration, stains every page of this engrossing tale.
I look forward to reading more from the author.
Thank you to the publisher for providing me with a free ARC via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review
February 25, 2021
Super enjoyed Tidepool. Super inspiring female lead, venturing out [in 1913 no less] to rescue her brother and take matters in her own hand, even continuing as the gnarly, green and wet tentacle thingies rise from the deep. Bumbling non-committal men are along for the ride except one young/old fellow who is treated with kindness. Amidst the gore and the horror is REAL humanity from start to finish and that is not easy to do in a genre that is saturated with attempts to outdo Lovecraft in grossness and piling on tropes. Splendid debut!!!
August 23, 2022
The pervasive odors of salt water and fish wafted off the nearby ocean, but another smell lurked underneath those, something even less pleasant. Henry couldn’t identify it, but it reminded him somewhat of the stench of a dead animal rotting in the woods. The putrid smell suited Tidepool well. The longer Henry remained here, the more anxious he felt to get home.
1913. Young Sorrow Hamilton travels alone to the coastal town of Tidepool looking for her missing brother Henry despite her father’s orders to stay at home in Baltimore, just to meet silence and hostility from the local residents.
“Is it always this quiet in Tidepool, Mrs. Oliver?” He saw almost no other people out on the street. “I suppose so. People tend not to like going out at night.” “Oh? Why’s that?” “There are mostly silly, superstitious folk around here. They talk of ghosts. And sea monsters, if you can imagine.” She let out a chuckle that didn’t sound even the slightest bit amused.
So, after ravaged corpses, torn apart by something not human at all, start appearing on the shore, Sorrow is ready to leave Tidepool and leave the search for her brother to her father’s investigators at last.
Mrs. Oliver lifted a lantern from the table and led him out of the sitting room to a door in the hallway. She paused, glancing back at him. “Please be careful on the steps. Lucy prefers the basement, and it’s rather dim down here.” Lucy? What sort of a child—and a girl, at that—liked to linger in dark, dank basements? And why didn’t Mrs. Oliver just call the child upstairs?
Such a shame that fate and some denizens of Tidepool are willing to take action on making sure Sorrow never leaves their forsaken town and reveals to the world its dark, deadly secrets.
An entertaining gothic horror mash-up with great, thrilling atmosphere, gore and strong lovecraftian vibes.
As Sorrow passed a cemetery on her way to Cooper’s, her eyes were drawn to a hand painted sign stuck in the ground close to the gates. The wood bore a stark message painted in square black letters: If ye give not willingly, the Lords will rise. Whatever on earth that meant and whoever the Lords were, the graveyard looked positively vast for such a small town, and Sorrow shuddered.
Not bad at all, sadly the setting and atmospheres were far more interesting than the cast of characters starring here, excluding Lady Ada Oliver’s depiction and backstory that I just loved a lot.
Besides, the rushed mystery revelations in the first chapters, main character’s name hinting things are not going to end well at all for her since the start, sex, blood and gore popping out sometimes just to remind the reader this was not a young adult novel, and a drawn-out epilogue after an already satisfying final reckoning, and final result was for me a creepy engaging read, just not as good as could have been.
Sorrow slipped out of bed and cracked the window open slightly in the hopes that the rhythmic sounds of the ocean might soothe her. As she settled down on the hard mattress and closed her eyes, she heard voices. Whispers. Murmurs. Low, sibilant sounds that made her think of hissing.
Three stars and an half.
July 17, 2021
Do not go to Tidepool. Unless you want hungry ocean gods to feast on you. As a fan of sinister seasides and Lovecraftian overtones, I had a blast reading Tidepool.
Sorrow Hamilton loves her brother Henry. When he goes missing, she follows him to Tidepool, the last place he visited before disappearing. The small shoreline city seems boring and its residents backward-thinking. Just when Sorrow wants to leave, a body washes up on the beach. From there, things only get worse.
Once I started it, I couldn't put the book down. With twists and scares aplenty, Tidepool won me over with its creepy atmosphere, well-rounded characters, and compelling mystery.
ARC through NetGalley
Sorrow Hamilton loves her brother Henry. When he goes missing, she follows him to Tidepool, the last place he visited before disappearing. The small shoreline city seems boring and its residents backward-thinking. Just when Sorrow wants to leave, a body washes up on the beach. From there, things only get worse.
Once I started it, I couldn't put the book down. With twists and scares aplenty, Tidepool won me over with its creepy atmosphere, well-rounded characters, and compelling mystery.
ARC through NetGalley
May 7, 2021
This was good fun. Or maybe bad fun? Because it is a horror novel, and it delivers on those things that people expect from horror novels like the claustrophobic setting that characters mysteriously cannot escape from. And the extravagant true story that half the cast just cannot believe. I would've liked to know more about the monsters/spend more time with them, but perhaps that will be in another novel.
August 29, 2022
Eh! This was entertaining, but also repetitive and fairly predictable. I also found there is a certain amount of presentism which grates me in historical fiction.
Henry Hamilton went to the small coastal town of Tidepool, Maryland, to explore the possibility of developing the area into a resort town. But he never makes it back home to Baltimore, never even sends a message to his father or his beloved sister, Sorrow, to let them know of any delay. Convinced that something terrible happened to her brother, Sorrow decides to go to Tidepool and try to find out what happened to Henry. What she finds in the strange little isolated community is odd, to say the least: a little fishing town that seems inexplicably protected from bad weather, yet everything seems shabby and dark, people refuse to talk to her – or even acknowledge that her brother was there just days ago. Just as Sorrow begins to think that coming to Tidepool was a bad idea, a dead man’s body washes up on the beach, and soon, there is no way for her to go back home…
This is a debut novel, and it shows: there’s a lot of enthusiasm, but Willson didn’t really make the ideas her own or polished. The novel reads fast, but I feel that that was mostly because repetition and short chapters were used where pacing should have been. I appreciate what she was trying to do: Lovecraftian weirdness, a dash of “The Woman in Black”, period-appropriate head-strong heroine… Those are all cool things, but they need atmosphere to really stand out, and I just didn’t feel it.
A bit of a bummer.
Henry Hamilton went to the small coastal town of Tidepool, Maryland, to explore the possibility of developing the area into a resort town. But he never makes it back home to Baltimore, never even sends a message to his father or his beloved sister, Sorrow, to let them know of any delay. Convinced that something terrible happened to her brother, Sorrow decides to go to Tidepool and try to find out what happened to Henry. What she finds in the strange little isolated community is odd, to say the least: a little fishing town that seems inexplicably protected from bad weather, yet everything seems shabby and dark, people refuse to talk to her – or even acknowledge that her brother was there just days ago. Just as Sorrow begins to think that coming to Tidepool was a bad idea, a dead man’s body washes up on the beach, and soon, there is no way for her to go back home…
This is a debut novel, and it shows: there’s a lot of enthusiasm, but Willson didn’t really make the ideas her own or polished. The novel reads fast, but I feel that that was mostly because repetition and short chapters were used where pacing should have been. I appreciate what she was trying to do: Lovecraftian weirdness, a dash of “The Woman in Black”, period-appropriate head-strong heroine… Those are all cool things, but they need atmosphere to really stand out, and I just didn’t feel it.
A bit of a bummer.
May 26, 2021
TIDEPOOL had me by the collar right from the jump. I finished it in less than 24 hours.
Let’s start with the world-building. With any genre of fiction, immersive descriptions are the first indicator I will enjoy a book. If I am grounded in the environment enough to feel as if I’m experiencing events right along with the characters, I know I won’t be able to put a book down.
Nicole Willson does this effortlessly. (Which means she took a *lot* of effort as a writer, because the depth of her research shows itself with her historical world-building.) I could see, hear, and even smell Tidepool, the fictional coastal town where the novel is set.
Sorrow is a wonderful lead character with a wonderfully ironic name. When she goes to Tidepool to investigate the recent disappearance of her beloved older brother, she encounters an intriguing cast of locals...and hears disturbing rumors of an ancient eldritch horror that holds the town hostage.
Insular small towns with dark secrets and a snarling wariness toward strangers are a favorite trope in Gothic fiction. I truly felt for and empathized with Sorrow as she kept coming up against the meddling townsfolk and the endless, frustrating dead ends that complicated her quest for the truth.
As for villains, I swoon for a fully-realized Byronic antiheroine who is just as well formed and seductive as her oft-portrayed male counterparts. In Ada, Willson has created a brooding and sinister foil for Sorrow’s youthful exuberance. I fell in love with Ada’s malevolent presence in this book. Her backstory had me riveted. Even though her actions were dubious, her reasons for doing as she did made for an antagonist with sympathetic qualities. She was my favorite character and I couldn’t help but picture Eva Green while reading her.
The horror elements and monsters were well-placed and didn’t feel forced or contrived. While parts of the book are darkly humorous, the sense of looming dread is carried effectively throughout, ramping up fear and anticipation ahead of the climax.
This is a quick read, coming in just under 300 pages, and will satisfy readers who enjoy Lovecraftian horror. Readers who enjoyed Sarah Perry’s The Essex Serpent and Melmoth will also enjoy this book. I’m excited to see what Nicole Willson creates next!
You can pre-order TIDEPOOL from your favorite bookseller.
Let’s start with the world-building. With any genre of fiction, immersive descriptions are the first indicator I will enjoy a book. If I am grounded in the environment enough to feel as if I’m experiencing events right along with the characters, I know I won’t be able to put a book down.
Nicole Willson does this effortlessly. (Which means she took a *lot* of effort as a writer, because the depth of her research shows itself with her historical world-building.) I could see, hear, and even smell Tidepool, the fictional coastal town where the novel is set.
Sorrow is a wonderful lead character with a wonderfully ironic name. When she goes to Tidepool to investigate the recent disappearance of her beloved older brother, she encounters an intriguing cast of locals...and hears disturbing rumors of an ancient eldritch horror that holds the town hostage.
Insular small towns with dark secrets and a snarling wariness toward strangers are a favorite trope in Gothic fiction. I truly felt for and empathized with Sorrow as she kept coming up against the meddling townsfolk and the endless, frustrating dead ends that complicated her quest for the truth.
As for villains, I swoon for a fully-realized Byronic antiheroine who is just as well formed and seductive as her oft-portrayed male counterparts. In Ada, Willson has created a brooding and sinister foil for Sorrow’s youthful exuberance. I fell in love with Ada’s malevolent presence in this book. Her backstory had me riveted. Even though her actions were dubious, her reasons for doing as she did made for an antagonist with sympathetic qualities. She was my favorite character and I couldn’t help but picture Eva Green while reading her.
The horror elements and monsters were well-placed and didn’t feel forced or contrived. While parts of the book are darkly humorous, the sense of looming dread is carried effectively throughout, ramping up fear and anticipation ahead of the climax.
This is a quick read, coming in just under 300 pages, and will satisfy readers who enjoy Lovecraftian horror. Readers who enjoyed Sarah Perry’s The Essex Serpent and Melmoth will also enjoy this book. I’m excited to see what Nicole Willson creates next!
You can pre-order TIDEPOOL from your favorite bookseller.
August 5, 2021
The nitty-gritty: Dripping with atmosphere and creepy characters, Tidepool is a treat for lovers of cosmic horror.
Tidepool is Nicole Willson’s debut novel, and wow I had so much fun with this! This is a horror tale that takes place in 1913 Maryland and almost feels like a cozy mystery in the beginning. But watch out, because this story has teeth—or tentacles, maybe I should say—and it doesn’t take long before blood is spilled and bodies are torn apart. But I’m getting ahead of myself!
The story centers around Sorrow Hamilton, a young woman whose brother Henry has gone missing after he visited the seaside town of Tidepool. Henry and his father want to turn Tidepool into a tourist attraction, but the reclusive locals have no interest at all in opening their town up to a bunch of strangers. When Henry doesn’t return after a couple of weeks, Sorrow decides to take matters into her own hands and sets out for Tidepool, even though her father forbids her to go.
But when she arrives, she finds a dank, shabby town full of unfriendly locals who insist that they don’t know what happened to Henry. And when Sorrow sees a dead body wash up on the shore, she knows something isn’t quite right in Tidepool. Who is the mysterious Mrs. Ada Oliver and why does she keep her daughter Lucy in the basement? What really happened to Henry? And what does the ominous message in the cemetery-—“If ye give not willingly, the Lords will rise”—mean? No matter how hard Sorrow tries to leave Tidepool, she's thwarted by one thing or another. If she doesn’t get out soon, it might be too late…
This is one of those stories that creeps up on you, and I do mean “creeps”. The first chapter is told from Henry’s point of view, as he arrives in Tidepool and tries to make friends with the locals, telling them his grand development ideas and how they will benefit the town financially. But by the end of the chapter, the reader has an idea of Henry’s fate, although the details are a little vague. When Sorrow decides to go after him, we switch to her perspective. Sorrow doesn’t know what the reader knows, so it was fun to see her try to piece together all the clues. At the same time, there was always a question in the back of my mind about what really happened to Henry, so reading that chapter didn’t spoil anything, it only added to the suspense and creepiness of the tale.
Willson drops hints about the weirdness of Tidepool as the story goes along—the suspicious behavior of the townspeople, the odd man on the beach who is gathering sea water into jars, the local police who don’t seem concerned about a dead body on the beach—and that weirdness grows as the reader comes to realize that something sinister is lurking just below the surface. Sorrow senses this right away and tries to leave town over and over, but something is keeping her in Tidepool.
The story is full of fascinating characters, and my favorites by far were Sorrow and Ada, two very strong women who are complete opposites but actually have a lot in common. Sorrow is a woman way ahead of her time. Her father wants her to act like a proper lady and get married, but Sorrow is a writer and her dream is to become a journalist someday. She has an annoying suitor named Charlie Sherman, who is sent to Tidepool by her father to find her and bring her home. Charlie tries to push her around, but I was happy to see that Sorrow wasn’t going to have any of that nonsense. She was a delightfully independent woman in a time when women weren’t allowed to do much on their own.
Ada’s character surprised me, because in the beginning I didn’t like her much. She’s portrayed as the villain, and there are oh so many secrets swirling around her. She’s rich, for one thing, and she always dresses in outdated dreary black dresses. She lives in a creepy mansion on the hill with her daughter Lucy and her brother Quentin, and the townsfolk seem to respect her and her odd family, for some reason. It isn’t until Ada gets her own chapter that we learn about her past and how she came to live in Tidepool. This is the point where the story really took off for me, since another layer of the mystery is pulled back and the reader finally learns about what’s really going on in Tidepool. Ada is driven by her duty to protect the town, and in fact she reminded me a little of Buffy!
I also loved Quentin, Ada’s weird brother. Quentin and Sorrow develop a nice friendship during her stay in Tidepool, and he turned out to be a really interesting character with plenty of his own surprises. As for Charlie, well I couldn’t stand him, but I don’t think you’re supposed to like him. Charlie has only one thing on his mind—getting Sorrow to follow him around and do whatever he says. Luckily, Sorrow isn’t that kind of girl!
As for the story itself, it did not go at all where I was expecting it to go. The big, bloody finale happens well before the end of the book, which surprised me because I couldn’t figure out how the author was going to wrap things up. But then, we get to follow Ada, Quentin and Sorrow after those events to see what happens next, and I really loved the fact that Willson includes these “bonus” chapters in her story.
If you’re a fan of slow burn, creeping terror of the Lovecraftian variety, you’ll probably love Tidepool. I’m hooked, and I can’t wait to see what Nicole Willson does next!
Big thanks to the publisher and the author for providing a review copy.
Tidepool is Nicole Willson’s debut novel, and wow I had so much fun with this! This is a horror tale that takes place in 1913 Maryland and almost feels like a cozy mystery in the beginning. But watch out, because this story has teeth—or tentacles, maybe I should say—and it doesn’t take long before blood is spilled and bodies are torn apart. But I’m getting ahead of myself!
The story centers around Sorrow Hamilton, a young woman whose brother Henry has gone missing after he visited the seaside town of Tidepool. Henry and his father want to turn Tidepool into a tourist attraction, but the reclusive locals have no interest at all in opening their town up to a bunch of strangers. When Henry doesn’t return after a couple of weeks, Sorrow decides to take matters into her own hands and sets out for Tidepool, even though her father forbids her to go.
But when she arrives, she finds a dank, shabby town full of unfriendly locals who insist that they don’t know what happened to Henry. And when Sorrow sees a dead body wash up on the shore, she knows something isn’t quite right in Tidepool. Who is the mysterious Mrs. Ada Oliver and why does she keep her daughter Lucy in the basement? What really happened to Henry? And what does the ominous message in the cemetery-—“If ye give not willingly, the Lords will rise”—mean? No matter how hard Sorrow tries to leave Tidepool, she's thwarted by one thing or another. If she doesn’t get out soon, it might be too late…
This is one of those stories that creeps up on you, and I do mean “creeps”. The first chapter is told from Henry’s point of view, as he arrives in Tidepool and tries to make friends with the locals, telling them his grand development ideas and how they will benefit the town financially. But by the end of the chapter, the reader has an idea of Henry’s fate, although the details are a little vague. When Sorrow decides to go after him, we switch to her perspective. Sorrow doesn’t know what the reader knows, so it was fun to see her try to piece together all the clues. At the same time, there was always a question in the back of my mind about what really happened to Henry, so reading that chapter didn’t spoil anything, it only added to the suspense and creepiness of the tale.
Willson drops hints about the weirdness of Tidepool as the story goes along—the suspicious behavior of the townspeople, the odd man on the beach who is gathering sea water into jars, the local police who don’t seem concerned about a dead body on the beach—and that weirdness grows as the reader comes to realize that something sinister is lurking just below the surface. Sorrow senses this right away and tries to leave town over and over, but something is keeping her in Tidepool.
The story is full of fascinating characters, and my favorites by far were Sorrow and Ada, two very strong women who are complete opposites but actually have a lot in common. Sorrow is a woman way ahead of her time. Her father wants her to act like a proper lady and get married, but Sorrow is a writer and her dream is to become a journalist someday. She has an annoying suitor named Charlie Sherman, who is sent to Tidepool by her father to find her and bring her home. Charlie tries to push her around, but I was happy to see that Sorrow wasn’t going to have any of that nonsense. She was a delightfully independent woman in a time when women weren’t allowed to do much on their own.
Ada’s character surprised me, because in the beginning I didn’t like her much. She’s portrayed as the villain, and there are oh so many secrets swirling around her. She’s rich, for one thing, and she always dresses in outdated dreary black dresses. She lives in a creepy mansion on the hill with her daughter Lucy and her brother Quentin, and the townsfolk seem to respect her and her odd family, for some reason. It isn’t until Ada gets her own chapter that we learn about her past and how she came to live in Tidepool. This is the point where the story really took off for me, since another layer of the mystery is pulled back and the reader finally learns about what’s really going on in Tidepool. Ada is driven by her duty to protect the town, and in fact she reminded me a little of Buffy!
I also loved Quentin, Ada’s weird brother. Quentin and Sorrow develop a nice friendship during her stay in Tidepool, and he turned out to be a really interesting character with plenty of his own surprises. As for Charlie, well I couldn’t stand him, but I don’t think you’re supposed to like him. Charlie has only one thing on his mind—getting Sorrow to follow him around and do whatever he says. Luckily, Sorrow isn’t that kind of girl!
As for the story itself, it did not go at all where I was expecting it to go. The big, bloody finale happens well before the end of the book, which surprised me because I couldn’t figure out how the author was going to wrap things up. But then, we get to follow Ada, Quentin and Sorrow after those events to see what happens next, and I really loved the fact that Willson includes these “bonus” chapters in her story.
If you’re a fan of slow burn, creeping terror of the Lovecraftian variety, you’ll probably love Tidepool. I’m hooked, and I can’t wait to see what Nicole Willson does next!
Big thanks to the publisher and the author for providing a review copy.
July 1, 2021
I knew within the first few pages that Tidepool would be my type of book.
Against the wishes of her father, Sorrow Hamilton ventures to the East Coast town of Tidepool where her brother mysteriously vanished. Along with Sorrow, we find that many things seem off about Tidepool: the dilapidated look, the rotting ocean smell, and most notably the stand-offish people. What is the dark secret this town hides, and why oh why can't Sorrow leave?
Willson does a great job creating the town of Tidepool so that it becomes its own ominous character in the story. The cast of characters are well-realized and engaging with complex motivations. It's a very easy story to visualize and would make a wonderful movie or limited series. Is Tidepool the first of many adventures into the world Willson has created? I sure hope so!
Against the wishes of her father, Sorrow Hamilton ventures to the East Coast town of Tidepool where her brother mysteriously vanished. Along with Sorrow, we find that many things seem off about Tidepool: the dilapidated look, the rotting ocean smell, and most notably the stand-offish people. What is the dark secret this town hides, and why oh why can't Sorrow leave?
Willson does a great job creating the town of Tidepool so that it becomes its own ominous character in the story. The cast of characters are well-realized and engaging with complex motivations. It's a very easy story to visualize and would make a wonderful movie or limited series. Is Tidepool the first of many adventures into the world Willson has created? I sure hope so!
August 3, 2021
I loved this book which is a creepy, unsettling, Lovecraftian inspired horror story.
The setting of the small, seaside town of Tidepool is brought to life with such vivid imagery. It sent shivers down my spine with the dark, eerie suspense that was being created in the pages in front of me. Bodies in the sea, missing people, secretive townsfolk and a lot of graves for a small population . . . this would all make me want to get the hell out of Tidepool! The main character, Sorrow, however, is determined to discover what has happened to her missing brother and when she finds out what has happened to him, it is beyond her worst nightmares.
The mysterious and sinister Ada Oliver I found terrifying to read about! I certainly will not be forgetting about her for a while. . .
This is the perfect gothic read for the forthcoming spooky season with its vintage horror inspiration and American Horror Story type goriness oozing out of the pages. I certainly will be checking out more from this author in the future.
The setting of the small, seaside town of Tidepool is brought to life with such vivid imagery. It sent shivers down my spine with the dark, eerie suspense that was being created in the pages in front of me. Bodies in the sea, missing people, secretive townsfolk and a lot of graves for a small population . . . this would all make me want to get the hell out of Tidepool! The main character, Sorrow, however, is determined to discover what has happened to her missing brother and when she finds out what has happened to him, it is beyond her worst nightmares.
The mysterious and sinister Ada Oliver I found terrifying to read about! I certainly will not be forgetting about her for a while. . .
This is the perfect gothic read for the forthcoming spooky season with its vintage horror inspiration and American Horror Story type goriness oozing out of the pages. I certainly will be checking out more from this author in the future.
August 3, 2021
*Content Warning* - Gore, unwanted sexual advances, suicide attempts, PTSD, and stillborn babies
Thank you Parliament House Press for the eARC! Omg this was such an amazing book! I got chills from reading it. I totally agree with Willson’s dedication because horror is amazing and will beat serious fiction any day. This entire novel has such a dark, eerie, and mysterious vibe that I really enjoyed and it drew me deep into the story right away. The setting was so spooky and was just so well written. It was easy to imagine how dismal Tidepool was and I swear I could smell dead fish by the time I finished reading it. The characters were superbly written and it was great because I don’t think anyone was totally good or evil. The villain was morally grey too, so it was hard to automatically disagree with what they were doing. The book does pose a good question though of whether it’s ok to sacrifice one bad person to save an entire town. One thing I really enjoyed about this story was how Willson includes chapters of other people’s POV in order to add more information and backstory to the plot. Also this ending omg I think it ended perfectly. I love how you get to see the ending from multiple peoples’ perspectives and how everybody’s storyline gets tied up. Oooh and the gore! The gore was the icing on this horror cake. The kill scenes were quite gruesome and added to the chills you had going down your spine from the already eerie vibe of the book. Overall, this book is amazing and spectacular and you will not want to put it down! Go check it out I highly recommend it!
Thank you Parliament House Press for the eARC! Omg this was such an amazing book! I got chills from reading it. I totally agree with Willson’s dedication because horror is amazing and will beat serious fiction any day. This entire novel has such a dark, eerie, and mysterious vibe that I really enjoyed and it drew me deep into the story right away. The setting was so spooky and was just so well written. It was easy to imagine how dismal Tidepool was and I swear I could smell dead fish by the time I finished reading it. The characters were superbly written and it was great because I don’t think anyone was totally good or evil. The villain was morally grey too, so it was hard to automatically disagree with what they were doing. The book does pose a good question though of whether it’s ok to sacrifice one bad person to save an entire town. One thing I really enjoyed about this story was how Willson includes chapters of other people’s POV in order to add more information and backstory to the plot. Also this ending omg I think it ended perfectly. I love how you get to see the ending from multiple peoples’ perspectives and how everybody’s storyline gets tied up. Oooh and the gore! The gore was the icing on this horror cake. The kill scenes were quite gruesome and added to the chills you had going down your spine from the already eerie vibe of the book. Overall, this book is amazing and spectacular and you will not want to put it down! Go check it out I highly recommend it!
July 27, 2021
“If ye not give willingly, the Lords will rise…”
How amazing is that line on the cover? What else do you need to know? Alright, I’ll give you a little more.
Sorrow (yes, that’s the protagonist’s name) has come to the small town of Tidepool in search of her missing brother. She quickly realizes not everything is as it seems in Tidepool and there are those that will do anything to keep its secrets.
This book was a lot of creepy fun! As we find out more about Tidepool and why they’re not fond of visitors, things get Lovecraftian in a really cool way. I was pretty invested in Sorrow’s story (just let her leave!) and that kept me reading late into the night. What’s the deal with the widow that lives in the big house on the hill? Why are there bodies washing up on the beach? Things just get worse and worse and you’ll want answers.
One of the things I really enjoyed were the chapters from the widow’s perspective. Finding out more about what’s happening and why from a different POV kept me engaged and caring about a character I probably wasn’t supposed to like.
If you like your small towns with secrets and your scaled creatures with scary teeth, you have to check this out. I know I’ll be anxiously awaiting whatever Nicole Willson puts out next.
*Thanks to The Parliament House Press for the ebook ARC for review.
How amazing is that line on the cover? What else do you need to know? Alright, I’ll give you a little more.
Sorrow (yes, that’s the protagonist’s name) has come to the small town of Tidepool in search of her missing brother. She quickly realizes not everything is as it seems in Tidepool and there are those that will do anything to keep its secrets.
This book was a lot of creepy fun! As we find out more about Tidepool and why they’re not fond of visitors, things get Lovecraftian in a really cool way. I was pretty invested in Sorrow’s story (just let her leave!) and that kept me reading late into the night. What’s the deal with the widow that lives in the big house on the hill? Why are there bodies washing up on the beach? Things just get worse and worse and you’ll want answers.
One of the things I really enjoyed were the chapters from the widow’s perspective. Finding out more about what’s happening and why from a different POV kept me engaged and caring about a character I probably wasn’t supposed to like.
If you like your small towns with secrets and your scaled creatures with scary teeth, you have to check this out. I know I’ll be anxiously awaiting whatever Nicole Willson puts out next.
*Thanks to The Parliament House Press for the ebook ARC for review.
August 3, 2021
Tidepool doesn’t quite make a proper stand in for a beach trip, because despite it being a small coastal town, it’s about as uninviting as they come. By design. The locals don’t want you visiting and uncovering their dark secrets. The town is drab and reeks of seafood that’s gone off with an underlying base note of fear. And yet, one young man sees a business opportunity there, a chance to make Tidepool into a new Ocean City or maybe even some day Atlantic City.
Ambitious. Deadly so. The young man checks in, never checks out. And soon enough his adoring and now anxious younger sister comes looking for him. She isn’t going to like what she’ll find. In fact, she will be forever changed by it. And you know why?
Because something lives beneath the sea, something hungry, something that must be fed at all costs. Yeah, it’s that kind of a story and it has those tenacled Lovecraftian connotations.
So it’s fun, in a way doomed towns provide a gloomy atmospheric kind of fun. Tidepool traps its visitors like a nightmare, it won’t them gone but also doesn’t really want them to leave.
There’s some plot confusion here, because the locals, especially the sheriff, oddly oscillate between expelling the newcomers and locking them in. It isn’t the ambivalent thing about the narrative, there are also some questionable actions undertaken by the leads, but one must remember a. they are very young, the main protagonist is just 21 and b. they are not very worldly and that it’s over a century ago.
Also, if you name your main character Sorrow, you can’t really respect her to come to a happy end. It’s a Chekhov's gun of a moniker.
Overall, it’s a pretty good gothic tale. It has a lot of gothic clichés (pale people in black living in a mansion and all that) and works them nicely. It’s also ever so slightly underbaked, too lite tonally, occasionally veering into the light when it should resolutely stay in the shadows. The ending is a fine example of that. It’s like the mood is almost…tantalizingly almost…right. Which is, I suppose, another way of saying the book and the author show lots of promise and need to mind the estrogen and sunshine infusion in the text, if it’s meant to be a work of dark psychological genre fiction. The narrative is at times ever so slightly, very slightly amateurish, but well on the way to becoming professional in quality. Pretty entertaining, overall though. Tenacles and all. Thanks Netgalley.
This and more at https://advancetheplot.weebly.com/
Ambitious. Deadly so. The young man checks in, never checks out. And soon enough his adoring and now anxious younger sister comes looking for him. She isn’t going to like what she’ll find. In fact, she will be forever changed by it. And you know why?
Because something lives beneath the sea, something hungry, something that must be fed at all costs. Yeah, it’s that kind of a story and it has those tenacled Lovecraftian connotations.
So it’s fun, in a way doomed towns provide a gloomy atmospheric kind of fun. Tidepool traps its visitors like a nightmare, it won’t them gone but also doesn’t really want them to leave.
There’s some plot confusion here, because the locals, especially the sheriff, oddly oscillate between expelling the newcomers and locking them in. It isn’t the ambivalent thing about the narrative, there are also some questionable actions undertaken by the leads, but one must remember a. they are very young, the main protagonist is just 21 and b. they are not very worldly and that it’s over a century ago.
Also, if you name your main character Sorrow, you can’t really respect her to come to a happy end. It’s a Chekhov's gun of a moniker.
Overall, it’s a pretty good gothic tale. It has a lot of gothic clichés (pale people in black living in a mansion and all that) and works them nicely. It’s also ever so slightly underbaked, too lite tonally, occasionally veering into the light when it should resolutely stay in the shadows. The ending is a fine example of that. It’s like the mood is almost…tantalizingly almost…right. Which is, I suppose, another way of saying the book and the author show lots of promise and need to mind the estrogen and sunshine infusion in the text, if it’s meant to be a work of dark psychological genre fiction. The narrative is at times ever so slightly, very slightly amateurish, but well on the way to becoming professional in quality. Pretty entertaining, overall though. Tenacles and all. Thanks Netgalley.
This and more at https://advancetheplot.weebly.com/
November 8, 2021
4.5 stars
Firstly drawn to the gorgeous cover, I thoroughly enjoyed Tidepool by Nicole Willson. Certainly, a great debut novel and I look forward to reading more from this author.
I simultaneously read the kindle and listened to the audible version, and I'm so glad I did. There were some parts that were lifted through narration, sending that spine tingle.
Set in 1913 the story follows Sorrow Hamilton, a young woman in the search of her missing brother Henry. His last known destination, Tidepool, an oceanside town with a dark heavy shrowd, reluctant residents, and Ada Oliver, a mysterious widow.
Tidepool oozed Lovecraftian vibes. It's difficult not to give too much of the plot away, only that it has everything I love in a good dark gothic tale; historical detail, mystery, intrigue, and those moments that leave a cold (slimy) shiver.
Firstly drawn to the gorgeous cover, I thoroughly enjoyed Tidepool by Nicole Willson. Certainly, a great debut novel and I look forward to reading more from this author.
I simultaneously read the kindle and listened to the audible version, and I'm so glad I did. There were some parts that were lifted through narration, sending that spine tingle.
Set in 1913 the story follows Sorrow Hamilton, a young woman in the search of her missing brother Henry. His last known destination, Tidepool, an oceanside town with a dark heavy shrowd, reluctant residents, and Ada Oliver, a mysterious widow.
Tidepool oozed Lovecraftian vibes. It's difficult not to give too much of the plot away, only that it has everything I love in a good dark gothic tale; historical detail, mystery, intrigue, and those moments that leave a cold (slimy) shiver.
April 25, 2022
This feels like a YA book trying to be adult, and not quite getting there. Or maybe a not-very-horrible book sidling up to the horror genre, thinking “Hey, I can party with these books!!”, but never quite gets up the nerve to join, and rightly so. There are plenty of tropes here, I won’t list them lest they possibly give away what could be labeled as atmosphere for this book, but there isn’t much depth to any of what we get offered. The characters are razor-thin and quite bland. Mrs. Oliver is the best of the lot, but she gets almost no time to be wholly nasty, in my opinion. Sorrow comes across like a 13 year old girl trying to party with the college students. The Prologue gives away what was already a tad obvious anyway, and the rest of the book just drones on until we get to the not quite awful enough near-conclusion. The concluding chapter felt well out of place and was a poor attempt to broaden the scope of a tepid narrative. Granted, Cthulhu-related writing is not easy, even the best of Lovecraft’s heirs go off the boil sometimes (Barron and Langan have their faults), but this is just so not Old Ones territory at all. Fangs don’t make the vampire, and tentacles don’t make the Netherbeast. This was a bit like Sabrina the Teenage Nyarlathotep for me. Not that Sorrow is supposed to be Cthulhu-ian, but it has that pop culture feel, of horror that’s not truly horrific, just specifically recognizable horror-themed items and words and ideas but colored with comfortable, well-matched warm fuzzies and aptly dressed characters traipsing around, while no one gets too alarmed or frightened or terrorized unduly, but there is a monster of some minor level of awkwardness that allows us to say “this is a horror novel!”. Suffice it to say this was disappointing from any angle one utilizes.
July 23, 2021
I received this ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
Tidepool is a gothic horror novel following Sorrow Hamilton, a wayward young woman who defies her father and travels to the seaside town of Tidepool after her brother, Henry, fails to return from a trip there. The instant she arrives in Tidepool, Sorrow feels uneasy, and the residents of the town are unusually cagey about answering any of her questions about Henry. Sorrow sets about uncovering the mystery of her brother's whereabouts, and ends up discovering much more than she bargained for.
I could not stop reading this book. I just had to know what would happen next. It was creepy, atmospheric, and delightfully dark. Tidepool is full of twists and scares and just when I thought I knew who was who and who was what, I was thrown all over again. I enjoyed Sorrow as a character, and found her to be a very realistic heroine. I also particularly loved the way the backstory and the legend of the Lords was woven into the novel. All in all I thoroughly recommend this read!
Tidepool is a gothic horror novel following Sorrow Hamilton, a wayward young woman who defies her father and travels to the seaside town of Tidepool after her brother, Henry, fails to return from a trip there. The instant she arrives in Tidepool, Sorrow feels uneasy, and the residents of the town are unusually cagey about answering any of her questions about Henry. Sorrow sets about uncovering the mystery of her brother's whereabouts, and ends up discovering much more than she bargained for.
I could not stop reading this book. I just had to know what would happen next. It was creepy, atmospheric, and delightfully dark. Tidepool is full of twists and scares and just when I thought I knew who was who and who was what, I was thrown all over again. I enjoyed Sorrow as a character, and found her to be a very realistic heroine. I also particularly loved the way the backstory and the legend of the Lords was woven into the novel. All in all I thoroughly recommend this read!
August 23, 2021
This book was so much more than I anticipated. Horror, much less Lovecraftian horror, was never something I picked up willingly. I honestly wasn't expecting to fall in love with it. HOLY COW!! I had goosebumps on chapter one, and they STAYED with me until the end. It's so rare to find a book that elegantly written and can leave that lingering sense of foreboding even after your finished.
I loved reading Tidepool. Ms. Willson is an incredibly talented author, and I'm so glad I had the chance to read her novel. I'm absolutely converted to the genre now, and you have Nicole to blame for it.
I loved reading Tidepool. Ms. Willson is an incredibly talented author, and I'm so glad I had the chance to read her novel. I'm absolutely converted to the genre now, and you have Nicole to blame for it.
January 6, 2024
A bad case of "It's not you, it's me."
My 2024 New Year's resolution is to give up on books I don't enjoy, so that's what I decided to do with Tidepool.
Giving it 2/5 ⭐ out of respect for both the genre and the author.
My 2024 New Year's resolution is to give up on books I don't enjoy, so that's what I decided to do with Tidepool.
Giving it 2/5 ⭐ out of respect for both the genre and the author.
December 2, 2021
Rating : 4/5 ... The only word that comes to my mind is creepy ... and strangely I loved it ...
Review in english : What is Tidepool ? In 1913, Sorrow Hamilton is desperate to find her brother, Henry, who disappeared during a business trip in the small village of Tidepool. Sorrow decides to go to the village to investigate and find her brother. When bodies wash up on the shore, seemingly torn apart by something not quite human, Sorrow wonders if she'll ever get out of this place alive.
Tidepool surprised me a lot. I felt like I was reading a horrific tale. I liked Nicole Wilson's writing style. Sorrow arrives in a remote but typical US village. But little by little Tidepool loses its peaceful small town feel to reveal a dark secret. I loved that this horrific tale was so well handled by Nicole Willson. It's really progressive and creepy.
The female characters (like Sorrow and Ada Oliver) are key in this story. Each one will change Tidepool's fate. Sorrow is a strong character with logical reactions (which is not always the case in horror stories). I liked the fact that we have multiple POV like Quentin (one of my favorite characters) and Ada who explains to us a lot about Tidepool's history.
In my opinion, this story deserves a 4/5 because I loved the completely creepy atmosphere and the pace of the book that kept me on my toes. I couldn’t stop reading Sorrow's story.
I just would have preferred a different ending for Sorrow.
Review in english : What is Tidepool ? In 1913, Sorrow Hamilton is desperate to find her brother, Henry, who disappeared during a business trip in the small village of Tidepool. Sorrow decides to go to the village to investigate and find her brother. When bodies wash up on the shore, seemingly torn apart by something not quite human, Sorrow wonders if she'll ever get out of this place alive.
Tidepool surprised me a lot. I felt like I was reading a horrific tale. I liked Nicole Wilson's writing style. Sorrow arrives in a remote but typical US village. But little by little Tidepool loses its peaceful small town feel to reveal a dark secret. I loved that this horrific tale was so well handled by Nicole Willson. It's really progressive and creepy.
The female characters (like Sorrow and Ada Oliver) are key in this story. Each one will change Tidepool's fate. Sorrow is a strong character with logical reactions (which is not always the case in horror stories). I liked the fact that we have multiple POV like Quentin (one of my favorite characters) and Ada who explains to us a lot about Tidepool's history.
In my opinion, this story deserves a 4/5 because I loved the completely creepy atmosphere and the pace of the book that kept me on my toes. I couldn’t stop reading Sorrow's story.
I just would have preferred a different ending for Sorrow.
July 31, 2021
I really enjoyed reading this book, it was so mysterious I could not put it down! The setting of the story, Tidepool, has such a creepy atmosphere it was so easy to visualise the town the more I read about it!
This book is described as a lovecraftian horror, which is a completely new genre for me and I really enjoyed that the book emphasised the horror of the unimaginable without being overly gory. (There was definitely some gory parts but they were key to the story)
The story is told from Sorrow’s perspective mostly, but some of the chapters are told from other character perspectives and I really enjoyed the revealing insights into other characters in the book.
I also enjoyed the last few chapters of the book, they acted as an extended epilogue. When I finished the book I wasn’t left wondering what happened to some of the characters.
August 3, 2021
Really enjoyed this one! It had a good atmosphere and solid writing throughout. The MC was a decent balance between feeling historically accurate and appealing to modern audiences. Gotta appreciate someone who realizes that it’s time to grab a knife when it is clearly knife time—I can’t stand characters who are understandably nervous but don’t take any proactive steps to stay safe.
My main complaint is that the book is unbalanced. The epilogue is really long for no reason, especially the part that sets up a sequel? Not sure what was going on there. I would’ve liked to see the epilogue cut significantly and then more time spent with the townspeople who are briefly characterized but not enough to make us care about them. Especially the interracial couple! They were interesting and I would have liked more time with them.
Very solid overall, though.
My main complaint is that the book is unbalanced. The epilogue is really long for no reason, especially the part that sets up a sequel? Not sure what was going on there. I would’ve liked to see the epilogue cut significantly and then more time spent with the townspeople who are briefly characterized but not enough to make us care about them. Especially the interracial couple! They were interesting and I would have liked more time with them.
Very solid overall, though.
July 23, 2021
I always hated being by the water, even before I drowned in 1851.
Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with an e-ARC of this book
Tidepool takes place in a coastal city in 1913 where mysterious things occur. When her brother goes missing, Sorrow Hamilton (yes, that's her name) goes to the town to try and find him and well ... she finds some other things.
The book certainly starts off strong, it has a very captivating first chapter and the premise of a creepy "fishy" story. I liked the setting and how tangible the whole atmosphere is and I really like the couple of chapters that were set in the past to provide some sort of backstory. It's quick to read and captivating enough to keep you going. However, I felt the book shows its hand pretty early on and then really struggles with finding its voice and committing to it.
The characters and the dialogues all felt very flat to me. Sorrow is a 21 year old who sounds a lot like a teenager and doesn't really have a whole lot of personality, to be honest. I was disappointed that a book centered around two core sibling relationships is so quick to brush over both of these bonds and offers only a surface-level view of it all. Sorrow disobeys her father and travels to Tidepool to find her brother but when she gets her answers, she shows almost no emotion? Her discovery has almost no psychological effect on her (unless you count the very last few pages which ... more on that later). A lot of the drama felt manufactured, the characters have to leave town but then, for some random reason, they decide to stay or they decide to do something else first that prevents them from leaving town or, ... the main goal is always to leave town and I understand that in classic storytelling the whole structure tells you to present the characters with obstacle after obstacle but these obstacles are supposed to increase in intensity and to kind of make sense; here, most of it really feels unnatural.
Another issue I had with the story was that, as I mentioned, it reveals the mystery really early on (we know part of it by the end of the very short first chapter and the rest that is revealed pretty soon after is not that much of a question mark). The main plot here is to see if Sorrow leaves town as we know the whole town mystery before she knows (and she finds out most of it pretty soon, as I said). Since we've seen the "monster" at the start, the story loses this element of suspense and wonder which I think that, such a unique type of monster, could have been a huge asset to use.
Lastly, I may be nitpicking now but the story ends a good 50-60 pages before the actual end. There's not much to keep reading for and yet there are chapters after chapters of epilogue that really could have been simplified or just foregone altogether.
Overall, I liked the premise and I think there was a lot of potential here but, ultimately, I see this mostly as a 2.5 star read. It's good enough but it could have been so much better.
August 4, 2021
I received this and as an eARC to read for free in exchange for my honest review. Thank you to The Parliament House Press and Nicole Willson for giving me access.
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This is Nicole Willson’s debut novel and it had me hooked from page one. Willson seemed to combine some of my favorite genres into one:
Historical fiction ✔️
Horror ✔️
Mystery ✔️
Suspense ✔️
•
We follow a strong willed woman in the early 1900’s in search of her missing brother in Tidepool, but what she finds will have you fearing any place surrounded by ocean water. I really enjoyed the darkness of it and the vibe that was created.
•
This is Nicole Willson’s debut novel and it had me hooked from page one. Willson seemed to combine some of my favorite genres into one:
Historical fiction ✔️
Horror ✔️
Mystery ✔️
Suspense ✔️
•
We follow a strong willed woman in the early 1900’s in search of her missing brother in Tidepool, but what she finds will have you fearing any place surrounded by ocean water. I really enjoyed the darkness of it and the vibe that was created.
July 26, 2021
First, thanks to Parliament House Press for a copy in exchange for an honest review.
If ye give not willingly, the Lords will rise…
More like, Abandon hope all ye who enter here!
Wow, I normally don't read horror (I'm a big scaredy-cat), but this story really sucks you in and takes you on a terrifying ride that doesn't stop until the last page. I actually had to look up Lovecraftian, but this story is the definition of Lovecraftian horror. We're pulled along as Sorrow attempts to figure out what happened to her brother. There's the frustrating gaslighting the town does to convince her he just went elsewhere (though we know he didn't). Then as the truth/horrors reveal themselves to her, the men that should be helping her don't believe her and keep her trapped in the town.
This was atmospheric and claustrophobic and gruesome. I really liked Quentin and wish we could have seen more of him/had him take a bigger role. I didn't love Charlie (but I'm not sure I was supposed to).
Definitely check it out if you're a fan of the genre (and even if you're not!).
If ye give not willingly, the Lords will rise…
More like, Abandon hope all ye who enter here!
Wow, I normally don't read horror (I'm a big scaredy-cat), but this story really sucks you in and takes you on a terrifying ride that doesn't stop until the last page. I actually had to look up Lovecraftian, but this story is the definition of Lovecraftian horror. We're pulled along as Sorrow attempts to figure out what happened to her brother. There's the frustrating gaslighting the town does to convince her he just went elsewhere (though we know he didn't). Then as the truth/horrors reveal themselves to her, the men that should be helping her don't believe her and keep her trapped in the town.
This was atmospheric and claustrophobic and gruesome. I really liked Quentin and wish we could have seen more of him/had him take a bigger role. I didn't love Charlie (but I'm not sure I was supposed to).
Definitely check it out if you're a fan of the genre (and even if you're not!).
August 17, 2021
Considering It is my very first Lovecraftarian fiction, I wouldn't be able to judge how it is justified as the genre but the plot was amazing. It was, the plot's great and makes you want to read more.
But I didn't like this book. A good plot is all it has got, even so, it has failed to make the puzzled pieces fall into place naturally. Some incidents were written for the sake it, some were brilliant near the end, but it gets a bit predictable nonetheless.
I might have overlooked these small things but the poor character building leaves a bad taste. Charlie is the worst of course. Ada lacked her own glow. Sorrow was tolerable after 100 pages. Winslow was the only character which made sense and can be considered good, followed by Queintin. The last thing that bothered me was the timeline. There weren't enough descriptions that would make you picture the timeline the author wanted you to imagine.
But I didn't like this book. A good plot is all it has got, even so, it has failed to make the puzzled pieces fall into place naturally. Some incidents were written for the sake it, some were brilliant near the end, but it gets a bit predictable nonetheless.
I might have overlooked these small things but the poor character building leaves a bad taste. Charlie is the worst of course. Ada lacked her own glow. Sorrow was tolerable after 100 pages. Winslow was the only character which made sense and can be considered good, followed by Queintin. The last thing that bothered me was the timeline. There weren't enough descriptions that would make you picture the timeline the author wanted you to imagine.
December 21, 2021
Tidepool wears it's influences on it's sleeve, but never relies on them too heavily. Willson manages to create a story reminiscent of Shadow Over Innsmouth with a greater focus on it's characters. Don't go near water any time soon
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