Dead in the Water

Rating:
Summary: Somewhere between dead and just comatose in the water
Review: A group of unhappy people go on a budget cruise on a rundown freighter. An accident while they are overtaken by a fog bank causes them to have to abandon ship, whereupon they discover the nightmare has just begun.
The book had a couple of creepy moments, but mostly it just annoyed me. I can't really even put my finger on why, other than the fact that I found it to be rather cliched and predictable. It didn't outright insult my intelligence, but it did talk down to me a few times. It wasn't a bad read, but I can't honestly recommend it either.

Rating:
Summary: A nightmare from which you will not awaken
Review: From its famous opening line to its unsettling conclusion this surreal horror tale will hold you spellbound. It is the tale of shipwreck survivors being "rescued" by what turns out to be ghost ship of The Flying Dutchman type. Author Nancy Holder keeps the reader locked inside a fever dream that refuses to end at the novels finish. Highly original and deserving of its Bram Stoker award.

Rating:
Summary: A nightmare from which you will not awaken
Review: From its famous opening line to its unsettling conclusion this surreal horror tale will hold you spellbound. It is the tale of shipwreck survivors being "rescued" by what turns out to be ghost ship of The Flying Dutchman type. Author Nancy Holder keeps the reader locked inside a fever dream that refuses to end at the novels finish. Highly original and deserving of its Bram Stoker award.

Rating:
Summary: Haunting...it definitely stays with you
Review: I read this book over the course of two days - I couldn't put it down. Although, as another reader mentioned in an earlier review, there were some stock characters, they, and the story itself veered off in directions I never anticipated. It was a confusing, haunting book that still left me wondering days later. I wouldn't classify this book as true horror - it really wasn't that scary - I would consider it more of a horror "mystery".

Rating:
Summary: Haunting...it definitely stays with you
Review: Most of my fellow reviewers are exactly correct. This book starts with a crusher of an opening sequence and only gets better as the plot develops. Seemingly 'stock' characters are introduced, but fortunately Nancy veers away from all tired cliches, heading off into a horrible, surreal nightmare. Easily one of my favorite horror novels, even now, 5-6 years after first reading it. Holder covers the gruesome and, yes, touching aspects of her novel with equal skill and aplomb. Readers should be advised to seek out Holder's short fiction as well - she appears in countless horror anthologies and I've yet to find a clunker. Why we haven't seen a new, 'original' horror work from her (aside from her myriad 'Buffy' novelizations and collaborations) continues to escape me. She also wrote a good SF trilogy ("Gambler's Star") that is worth checking out as well.

Rating:
Summary: Cliche-defying and truly frightening
Review: Most of my fellow reviewers are exactly correct. This book starts with a crusher of an opening sequence and only gets better as the plot develops. Seemingly 'stock' characters are introduced, but fortunately Nancy veers away from all tired cliches, heading off into a horrible, surreal nightmare. Easily one of my favorite horror novels, even now, 5-6 years after first reading it. Holder covers the gruesome and, yes, touching aspects of her novel with equal skill and aplomb. Readers should be advised to seek out Holder's short fiction as well - she appears in countless horror anthologies and I've yet to find a clunker. Why we haven't seen a new, 'original' horror work from her (aside from her myriad 'Buffy' novelizations and collaborations) continues to escape me. She also wrote a good SF trilogy ("Gambler's Star") that is worth checking out as well.

Rating:
Summary: Horrifying and utterly original nightmare
Review: The prologue remains one of the most disturbing things I have ever read. From that point on, the story only goes up in terms of pure horror and violence. The book continues to haunt me 2 years after I first read it. It's passages have a haunting poetry to them, and the overall effect is that of living through a particularly horrible nightmare. In the right hands, it could make one of the most horrifying and visually arresting films ever created.

Rating:
Summary: A dark disturbing masterpiece ...
Review: This is simply one of the best, most disturbing horror novels I have read for some time. I have a habit of judging novels by their opening pages and this book opens with a tour de force which draws the reader him/herself into the nightmare of drowning. I think it is fair to say that the rest of the book is even more disturbing and the ending still haunts me ... a must-read for horror fan

Rating:
Summary: Horrible
Review: Written in 1994 and the winner of the Bram Stoker Award, it is significant that this book has had only 2 reviews, both with 5 stars. Nobody else bothers to waste their time reading it. I love a good horror novel, but this beats anything I have ever plowed my way through. The pickings must have been slim, indeed, for it to have won the award. Someone, (if anyone in the world bothers to click onto this one) please tell me how the Bram Stoker awards are chosen. I am not stupid and I have a rather good imagination but throughout the majority of this thing, I could not tell what was real and what wasn't. Maybe the author would email me and tell me. HaHa.

Rating:
Summary: Horrible
Review: Written in 1994 and the winner of the Bram Stoker Award, it is significant that this book has had only 2 reviews, both with 5 stars. Nobody else bothers to waste their time reading it. I love a good horror novel, but this beats anything I have ever plowed my way through. The pickings must have been slim, indeed, for it to have won the award. Someone, (if anyone in the world bothers to click onto this one) please tell me how the Bram Stoker awards are chosen. I am not stupid and I have a rather good imagination but throughout the majority of this thing, I could not tell what was real and what wasn't. Maybe the author would email me and tell me. HaHa.