Stranded - Review

Title: Stranded   

Author: Bracken MacLeod

Synopsis:  “In the spirit of John Carpenter’s The Thing and Jacob’s Ladder comes a terrifying, icebound thriller where nothing is quite what it seems.

     “Badly battered by an apocalyptic storm, the crew of the Arctic Promise find themselves in increasingly dire circumstances as they sail blindly into unfamiliar waters and an ominously thickening fog.  Without functioning navigation or communication equipment, they are lost and completely alone.  One by one, the men fall prey to a mysterious illness.  Deckhand Noah Cabot is the only person unaffected by the strange force plaguing the ship and her crew, which does little to ease their growing distrust of him.

     “Dismissing Noah’s warnings of worsening conditions, the captain of the ship presses on until the sea freezes into ice and they can go no farther.  When the men are ordered overboard in an attempt to break the ship free by hand, the fog clears, revealing a faint shape in the distance that may or may not be their destination.  Noah leads the last of the able-bodied crew on a journey across the ice and into an uncertain future where they must fight for their lives against the elements, the ghosts of the past and, ultimately, themselves.”

Review:  I loved Stranded.  My favorite type of horror novel, or movie, is psychological horror.  I don’t like a lot of blood and guts (unless it’s a zombie novel, but that’s a whole different review), however give me give me ghosts, demon possession, empty wastelands, or a vast nothingness and I’ll be up all night, with all the lights on, because I’m too frightened to sleep. 

     Stranded was a creepy, short novel that I stayed up until 4am finishing and then could not go to sleep.  I could not figure out what was happening until the story told me, which is unusual for me, so I was reading at breakneck speed to get to the end and find out what was going on.  I’ve seen other reviews that compare Stranded to an episode of the Twilight Zone, and I think those reviewers are dead on.  This novel definitely has that creepy, "is this really happening?" feel to it. 

     I really enjoyed Stranded, and if you are a fan of psychological horror and weird shit I think you will too.

Publisher:  Tor Books

If you like this book you may want to read:

Coldbrook by Tim Lebbon (read BookGirlR’s review here)

Hex by Thomas Olde Heuvelt