TIDEPOOL by Nicole Willson – Review

I received this book for free from the Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Tidepool by Nicole Willson
Published by The Parliament House Press on August 3 2021
Genres: Adult, Gothic, Horror
Pages: 300
Format: eARC
Source: Publisher
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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. 

There are ladies present were four of Sorrow Hamilton’s least favorite words. All the truly interesting parts of life seemed to happen in the places where ladies weren’t supposed to be.

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.