Narrated by: Pete Cross, A’rese Emokpae, & Ryan LaSala
Release Date: September 16, 2025
Published by: Push (Scholastic Inc.)
Read from: September 29-October 4, 2025
Stand-alone
Source: Audible (I used a free credit I had. I also received a physical ARC from the ALA conference that I read in tandem with this. This did nothing to influence my review)
Content Warning: Body Horror, Death, Death of a Parent, Child Death, Violence, Car Accident, Homophobia, Suicide, Religious Bigotry
For Readers Interested In: 2sLGBTQ+, Action, ARC, Audio, Horror, Sparkly Covers, Most Anticipate, Irregular Timeline, YAStephen King meets Holly Jackson by way of We Were Liars in this action-packed story of queer horror from the acclaimed author of The Honeys!
Two days before…
Ollie Veltman is finally coming home to the quaint island of Anchor’s Mercy after a year away while his mom battled cancer. It should be a celebration — his mom is cancer free, and she’s determined to have the best summer ever — but Ollie’s (now ex) best friends think he abandoned them, and he’s returning with a lot questions. Because for a place that’s perfect on the outside, a secret rots inside. A secret that could explain his mom’s illness, and the illness of so many other locals.
Ollie’s desperate search for the truth turns life or death when a storm descends upon the island. In its wake, a long-sunken horror rises . . .
Three weeks after…
Ollie is being held in isolation aboard a military hospital ship in the harbor. They say he’s a survivor, but they only know half the story. The truth is more dangerous than Ollie ever believed, and he suspects his saviors aren’t here to save anyone. Only Ollie can stop what comes next, but that means getting back to Anchor’s Mercy before it vanishes below the waves, taking with it everyone he has ever loved.
*MY THOUGHTS*
This is actually one of the craziest things I’ve read. Which is hilarious because I never really knew what they looked like. I had to keep consulting the cover because I kept thinking WHAT?
This book hit me a little harder because I was born on an island lol And the whole time I kept thinking what if something like this happened where I’m from .And so yeah, this kinda scared me a little more than it should have. And then y’all know how I am with body horror lol I was going through it with this book. The body horror part tho isn’t super scary. There’s no jump scares so I thought it was ok, but it does go in deep detail about the bodies and what is happening to them .
The science talk in this one was a little annoying too. I get it, there’s a scientist, but some of the things they were saying and talking about had me like “What?” I had to try and find out what was going from context clues. It was still a lot of fun tho. I also felt a bit bad because I kept wond0ering if this was the result of climate change somehow. And when he told the origin story, it confirmed it for me.
I don’t want to go too much into this because of spoilers, but please know, this is one crazy ass book. There’s bits of a mystery, some thriller, and some plenty more to hook you to this book. If nothing else, you’ll want to know WTF this and why it started happening in the first place.
Overall, I give
