The Burial Tide by Neil Sharpson
I picked this up at the top of my work shift. I wanted something thrilling with a story that took place in one setting. I’ve read one other book by Neil Sharpson ‘Knock Knock, Open Wide’ and I really liked how the story was inspired by Irish folklore. So knowing that he had another novel based on an Irish tale I was excited to dive in.
This story beings with a woman waking up in a coffin. “Those fuckers!” she yells. She manages to fight her way out of being buried alive and makes her way to a near by home. Inside the home is a man named Declan who is absolutely rattled by this random woman breaking into the cottage he is staying at.
The woman has no memory of who she is or what happened. But she very much wants to know why the absolute fuck was she buried alive!
Declan explains that there was an outbreak, some people died including her…or so they had thought. He is new to the eerily quiet island just off the coast of Ireland and so he can’t give her much information as to what has happened to her. He calls the local doctor right away. The doctor pulls up calling the woman Mara, telling her that they thought she was dead as a door knob thus why she was buried. The doc also springs on Mara that her boyfriend, Cian, is worried, shocked, but mostly relieved that she is alive and okay! She tells her that she will be reunited with Cian soon, but first she must stay at the doctors place to be evaluated.
In such a vulnerable state Mara looks to Declan for reassurance and he tells her that he knows of her boyfriend but again, he is new to the area so he doesn’t know much.
The beginning so far was so confusing and intense. I was filled with SO many questions! Things really kicked into gear when a few days later Mara sees Declan again, he is happy to see her walking about and seeming well…or as well as you can be when you’ve been buried alive. But alarm rings when Cian calls Mara down the street something in the tone of “time to go!”. Declan discretely but very worriedly tells her that that is not the man he knew to be her boyfriend.
So who the hell is Cian?
I really enjoyed the progression of reveals throughout! I’m not super familiar with Irish tales and so it took till around 30%-40% until something started seeming slightly familiar to me and I had a guess as to what was happening(also I thought a different animal was on the cover of this book lol). Once everything has been revealed I think aside from this being a nod to a classic Irish story, this also points out what people will do to protect predators. These reveals are horrifying because of how real they are, even though set in a ‘fantastical’ setting. “Those fuckers!” indeed.
I really liked the ending, I enjoyed the tone it left off on and where we leave the characters. The audiobook was fantastically read! I highly recommend!
