Published June 7, 2024 by Wicked House Publishing
Horrible dreams.
Dreams that stretch the very fabric of the real and the unreal as he is pulled by a voice across the country to a small crab fishing ship set to depart into the Bering Sea. At sea, the memories piece themselves together in cracked fragments. But there is something out there. Something speaking to Whitt in his dreams. A voice from a long-forgotten memory that promises peace at the cost of madness. A voice that leads to a place unimaginable and inescapable
A Dark and Endless Sea is a quiet, introspective horror novel that leans heavily into grief, memory, and isolation. Blaine Daigle clearly has a talent for atmospheric writing—his prose is thoughtful and often poetic, creating a somber tone that lingers throughout the book.
The story centers on Whitt who has woken with no memory of what came before this moment. He's plagued by nightmares of a flooded town and floating dead bodies. He's directed to a crabbing boat in small-town Alaska.
There’s a lot to admire in how Daigle explores the fragility of human connection while in isolation. The emotional realism is the book’s strongest point. There are a lot of dream sequences, compounding Whitt as an unreliable narrator, and leaving the reader with a sense of surrealism.
That said, the pacing is slow—very slow. While some readers may appreciate the quiet build, I found myself wanting more payoff, and a clearer sense of stakes. It’s a story that flirts heavily with dread but the ending just didn't deliver in a satisfying way.
I loved The Broken Places but this one just wasn't for me.