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.
Crawlspace by Adam Christopher Published by Tor Nightfire on March 17 2026
Genres: Adult, Horror, Science fiction
Pages: 240
Format: ARC
Source: Publisher
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The nitty-gritty: Despite a solid story idea and plenty of tension, Crawlspace didn’t deliver on the horror.
Crawlspace had so much potential, but unfortunately the execution did not work for me at all, which resulted in a slow paced space thriller with very little scares. It was also bogged down with page after page of technical jargon, which frustrated me to no end. The characters are lackluster, the horror is basically non existent, and a lot of the action didn’t make much sense. I know all that sounds grim, but there were some positives for me. Adam Christopher knows how to create tension and atmosphere, and while the plot wasn’t ground breaking, I loved the idea of cosmic horror in space.
The XK72 is about to leave on a test mission. Liv Halliday is the Mission Lead, and she’s excited because it’s her first trip to space. They will be testing the ship’s hyperdrive engine, called the SLIP drive. Along with her fellow crew members—Astrid Healey, Avery Cormack, Titus “Deak” Deacon, Mirai Ikeda and pilot Josef Redway—Liv prepares for launch. But although all the ship’s status lights are green, something goes wrong, and the XK72 ends up in the wrong place.
When Redway starts acting strangely and they discover that Astrid is missing, all hell breaks loose. Where is Astrid? Why is Redway writing over the mission program? And what is that strange knocking sound coming from the crawlspace of the ship? Things are about to get weird, and Liv and the others wonder if they’ll make it home alive.
Let’s start with the things I enjoyed. First, the tension is very well done. Christopher uses some tried-and-true tropes but they work. For example, after Astrid disappears, the rest of the crew have to split up to look for her, and in a horror story, splitting up is never a good idea! Then the strange noises and the visions start. Each crew member starts to see people that couldn’t possibly be there, like Mirai keeps seeing her dead sister Suki, and Liv sees Astrid even though she doesn’t appear to be on the ship. The other horror element that really worked was the crawlspace. While looking for Astrid, the crew starts tearing apart the ship, thinking she might be hiding somewhere. And when they take a wall panel off, they discover there’s a very dark crawlspace running throughout the ship. It’s the perfect hiding place, whether you’re human or something otherworldly, and I loved the claustrophobic feeling when the characters go inside.
The cover of Crawlspace is fantastic, but it sets up certain expectations which were not met, unfortunately. Yes, there is a tentacled creature that (finally) shows up on page 198, but it makes a brief and vague appearance and disappears a few paragraphs later. So while I wanted this to be more of a space creature/alien horror story, I was sorely disappointed.
The rest of the story is full of confusing action as the crew moves about the ship, trying to figure out what’s going on. With way too much technical information on every single page, I kept losing the thread of the plot while I was trying to make sense of how the ship operates, and while I do think tech speak can make the story feel more authentic, here it was overdone to the point of ruining the story for me.
In addition to more horror, I wanted the characters to be better developed. Some of my favorite horror stories hit me hard on an emotional level, and that’s mostly due to caring deeply about the characters. The author barely scratches the surface with his characters in this book, and I just couldn’t bring myself to care much about them. Astrid’s disappeared? Oh well. Mirai just got sucked into space? Sigh.
And while the last 30-40 pages were thrilling, and I did like the vague, dread-inducing ending, it was “too little, too late” for me.
With thanks to the publisher for providing a review copy.
I was looking forward to this one, but some of the early reviews made me reconsider, because it didn’t sound like the thing I’d envisioned. And now you went and confirmed that. I think the technical jargon wouldn’t be a dealbreaker for me if I could bond with the characters, or the mystery and plot were compelling (like with The Staircase in the Woods), but it doesn’t seem to be the case…”Astrid’s disappeared? Oh well. Mirai just got sucked into space? Sigh.” LOL. Sorry this one wasn’t a winner, but I loved your review nevertheless!
Thanks Roberta!! I saw the early (low rated) reviews too, but sometimes I enjoy those books, so I was hopeful.
Well, that cover definitely does give off ‘Alien’ vibes doesn’t it? So, I would probably be disappointed by a lack of critters taking centre stage. Plus, if you’re not connected to any of the characters then you’re not invested are you.
Lynn 😀
It was a very surfacy read for me, I just didn’t connected with anyone.
Ohh, that’s a very creepy looking cover, though. Sad that the book doesn’t really deliver.
Yes, I’m sad. I’ve enjoyed this author in the past.
Oh no, what a letdown! If the characters aren’t developed enough to make you care about them, then all the scifi/horror trappings can’t save it.
Everything really hinges on the characters, right?
Noooo not the tentacled creature not showing up until it was almost page 200 and it being so vague. I’d also would’ve expected more when looking at the cover.
The cover is soooo good! I wish the story matched it.
Of course this was on my radar because of the tentacles on the cover (which I admit the first few times I saw the cover I sort of thought they were horns). However, seems like it is a bit of a drag and I certainly don’t want to have to wait so long to meet my tentacled friends!
I thought they were horns too, lol. I think they deliberately made the “creature” vague since it’s vague in the story.
Lackluster characters and no suspenseful horror? Bummer!
Yes, it was sad…
Bummer. They lost me at technical jargon.
Yeah, it was so overly complicated!
Bummer that one didn’t live up to its potential.
So sad! I really wanted to love it.
Ouch a 2.5 star rating from you is pretty rare but this does sound like a rather rough read overall. Weak characters are definitely hard to care for and the tiny appearance of the monstrous being from the cover sounds very frustrating. I hope youre next space horror goes better.
Thanks Charlotte. It’s a rare low rating from me for sure.
Aww that sucks that all the technical info got in the way.
It was too much, and based on other reviews I wasn’t the only one who felt that way…
Yep, yep, couldn’t agree more! I was waffling between a 2 and a 2.5 but the ending made me BIG mad so I think I will do 2 heh. Like- I DID want to keep reading to know what happened, but everything else was so… flat! And very info-dumpy, I concur. That was legit a note I made in my Kindle- why so much tech-y info dumping?! So sorry this one didn’t work for you either, but glad we can commiserate!
I can’t wait to read your review! Yep, I also wanted to keep reading, I kept expecting something momentous to happen, lol.
This sounds like it wanted to be EVENT HORIZON but didn’t want to go too far. Ah, well.
Yes, it’s been compared to Event Horizon a lot!
I had such high hopes for this! But yeah “slow paced thriller”… That just doesn’t compute. Sorry it didn’t work for you, I just received this one for review too and now I’m a little worried about picking it up.
Thinking about horror in space, and to some extent cosmic horror, had me remembering the Hellraiser movie franchise. I absolutely loved that first movie. It freaked me out in ways no other horror story had up till then. But eventually they decided to make a movie with Pinhead on a space ship. Interesting idea, though I don’t honestly remember anything else about that particular movie. 🙂
Sorry this one didn’t work so well. When I hear crawlspace I think of the one under my house that I refuse to go in and just let anyone who comes for repairs do it themselves, lol. Thanks for sharing your thoughts on this one.
https://lisalovesliterature.bookblog.io/2026/03/21/lisa-loves-to-discuss-2026-3-authors-i-think-are-well-known-but-maybe-they-arent/