From Below By: Darcy Coates

From Below
By: Darcy Coates

No light. No air. No escape.
Hundreds of feet beneath the ocean’s surface, a graveyard waits…

Years ago, the SS Arcadia vanished without a trace during a routine voyage. Though a strange, garbled emergency message was broadcast, neither the ship nor any of its crew could be found. Sixty years later, its wreck has finally been discovered more than three hundred miles from its intended course…a silent graveyard deep beneath the ocean’s surface, eagerly waiting for the first sign of life.

Cove and her dive team have been granted permission to explore the Arcadia’s rusting hull. Their purpose is straightforward: examine the wreck, film everything, and, if possible, uncover how and why the supposedly unsinkable ship vanished.

But the Arcadia has not yet had its fill of death, and something dark and hungry watches from below. With limited oxygen and the ship slowly closing in around them, Cove and her team will have to fight their way free of the unspeakable horror now desperate to claim them.

Because once they’re trapped beneath the ocean’s waves, there’s no going back.

Summary from the back of the book.

Date Started: 2/7/24 – Date Finished 2/9/24

3.5 out of 5 stars

The Quick Review – who want a hurry up and tell me yes or no:

This was a pretty decent book, one to help quell my love of underwater horror books. With that being said I do have to say that though the sight of a larger novel excited me, it was one of those books that could have been shortened. Or it could have more bang for its pages. The premise has been done before, but the spooky is a little different. The ship under the water has been missing, distress signals sent but never found. The main character and her crew have been hired to film and document signs of what happened to the ship. The age old question of missing ships… What happened? The book starts out with the main character, all describing they all need the pay day that comes with it. (The drive to complete the mission no matter the cost) and it does have sections where it flashes back to help explain what happened to the ship. The burrowing disease is a nice touch to add to the spookiness, and it makes sense in a ship where there isn’t really much spot to well die in comfort and familiar. In the end of course a happy ending as this writer tends to do, but it still leaves more to answer. Strange considering the length of the novel.

** *** **

The Long Review – For people who like to have a lot of information and some spoilers.

The SS Arcadia vanished, for sixty years it remained a mystery. Where did the ship go? What happened to the crew? What did their strange distress message mean? The ship has been found! So we delve in the book with excitement, we get to follow along while the mystery is unraveled. We have Cove (the main character/boss?), Roy (the camera man) Sean (the ROV handler), Aidan (the “assistant”), Hestie (marine biologist), Vanna (the dive specialist) and Devereaux (the captain of the ship). There are of course other characters to mention but with so many names already its easier to focus on the modern era first since it mostly concerns them. Do not get me wrong the flashbacks of the time period of what was happening to the SS Arcadia is important but there are a lot of people in that section as well. We will get to them in time. Back to the modern, so with the introduction of the characters we get some glimpse into who they are and sort of an idea of what sort of role they will play in the coming book. Its not super mysterious on who will be doing what which is okay with me. I just wanted to know what happened to the ship, ASAP. They have to dive and they have a set percentage of air for each section, going down, investigating, going up, etc. And of course there is someone who likes to walk that fine line of what is safe. They all but two have their deep diving certifications, but we learn that that is a shame for someone had help passing and really shouldn’t have at all (Aidan). He is also the one who makes a dumb decision at the end of the book, which made me physically sigh with irritation. This book was consistent with underwater information but it was lacking the spooky. The spooky was very far and few between, it had its good moments but it was repeated. The end was interesting of the main scare, and of course the way to “fight back” the spook was lights. (Makes sense being in the dark so long, things probably would not want the light.) But it still didn’t really explain what the heck happened to the ship.

Let’s float then, back in time to 1928. We have a few characters in this section as well. We have Harland (main character on this end), and we will mention Fitz (the stock master). There are others but we will focus on naming them because it focuses on them the most, and Fitz decent into madness. Harland mentions that Fitz is a hard worker and does not drink on the job ever. The beginning of the mystery unfolding happens when Fitz asks the question, Do you hear it? And that question propels the strange events that continue throughout the ship. The crew seem like they haven’t slept in days, its quiet, the ship’s passengers are invading the crews’ spaces ignoring their own amenities. It was unusual remarked Harland. Then the suicides began, a young couple, who were remarked to be a happy couple. Then more people dying, discovering a body inside the wall of the ship that was there when the ship was built. A thick fog surrounding the ship, slowly growing thicker and thicker. So many people burrowing away, digging deep into the ship for a place to pass away. It was unfortunate the way that Fitz died, being shoved into the hole where the original body was found. And Harland’s slow (undescribed) drowning. This part of the book built up suspense and mystery but again left so much unanswered.

Good book, could have been shortened.   

Now on to the Questions!

1. Why exactly did the corpses want them to destroy the ship? Why didn’t they have the ship destroyed while it was still being built?
2. What did they exactly whisper to those who committed suicide?
3. How were they able to destroy the ship so much it was able to take in water? I have doubts that a crowbar could do a lot of damage.
4. Why didn’t Harland describe what they were whispering, that would have made it creepier.
5. Why did it seem like Harland was the only one with marbles left in his head? Surely there was someone else or were they also in a silent purgatory thinking they were the last ones sane?
6. Why did Aidan carry around the dang engagement ring around?
7. Why did they want to make it seem like Vanna was the bad guy just because she was no nonsense?

** **** **

Up Next:
The Deep By: Alma Katsu

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