The Kraken Sea

by E Catherine Tobler

[Terri M. LeBlanc]

I’m sad to say that I didn’t get The Kraken Sea. The atmosphere of the story is stunning. Dark, gritty with just enough mystery to keep me reading, but I struggled so much with the plot.

Here’s what I know. Jackson is coming of age and he’s got some kind of transformation power—think Grimm and Wesen. Some lady in San Francisco wants his power, but I don’t understand what the heck was going on under that bakery across the street from the Moulin Rouge-esque club where Jackson’s love interest (I think that’s what Mae was) works and why this whole story appears to be some kind of weird deja vu for everyone involved. I think there are references to the Fates and maybe this novella is an homage to Lovecraft and Cthulhu. I don’t know.

Also playing against my connection with the story is the poor layout and formatting. This is a novella so there are no chapters. There did seem to be breaks in the action, there is no major formatting indicator to signify those breaks (maybe a couple of hard returns at most). The text just seemingly runs on for pages and then in the last pages of the book, there is suddenly a character signifying a break in the story.

The whole time I read The Kraken Sea I felt like I was on the outskirts of this story. I don’t know enough of the base mythology to connect with the story and the characters, I was lost during all 122 pages. Honestly, I felt that I wasn’t smart enough to be reading this book.


This review was originally posted on Second Run Reviews