The Burial Tide
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5.0 • 1 Rating
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- $6.99
Publisher Description
“A real page turner. Every time I thought I had it figured out, the plot twisted into a different shape. Thoroughly enjoyable, delightfully grotesque, and an absolutely satisfying read.” —T. Kingfisher, New York Times bestselling author of What Feasts at Night
From New York Times bestselling author Neil Sharpson comes a page-turning novel drawing on the horrors of Irish folklore. The Burial Tide unearths our darkest truths: how far we’d go to win our freedom, and how quickly our desires can become monstrous.
A woman who can’t remember her death.
On an eerily quiet island off the coast of Ireland, a woman with no memory claws her way out of her grave and back to life. But not everyone welcomes the return of Mara Fitch.
An island with a terrible secret.
Inishbannock. Where strange misshapen figures watch from the trees and the roads are covered in teeth. Where two brothers gamble for nothing, the doctor only treats one patient, and the pub owner speaks in riddles. Where a poet loses and finds his soul. And a man without a heart claims he's the key to unlocking Mara's secrets.
A past that refuses to stay buried.
As Mara returns to her life on this upside-down island, her memories begin to leech their way back to the surface. The more she remembers, the more the village will do anything to stop her . . .
But the sea remembers it all.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
A remote Irish island with an insular community of crusty locals provides the perfect backdrop for this riveting splice of suspense and folklore from Sharpson (Knock Knock, Open Wide). Inishbannock is just recovering from a deadly "outbreak" (though an outbreak of what goes unspecified) when one of its victims, Mara Fitch, claws her way out of her grave, having been mistakenly buried alive. At least that's what her caretakers tell her, since Mara has no memory of the life she lived before. But as Mara tries to rebuild her identity from the stories fed to her by locals, she uncovers inconsistencies that lead her to suspect she's being gaslighted about both her life and her death. Even more mysterious, she chances upon a series of photos spanning nearly a century of a person who closely resembles her. While Mara tries to make sense of these discoveries, something slaughters the island's sheep, prompting residents—who seem to know more than they tell—to take up arms. Sharpson marshals a large cast of distinctive characters and weaves the subplots spun from their individual motivations for hiding the truth into a dark history leavened with Irish myth and legend. The result is sure to enchant readers with a taste for folk horror.
