'The Deading' Reviewed in both New York Times and WIPO
Novel excerpt appears in Reactor Mag, formerly Tor
When a kid I never thought that being a writer was a possibility. Reading was my escape and that’s all it was, taking me to other worlds, helping me to forget my troubled youth. I’m not like so many scribblers who knew they wanted to pen a novel right out of the womb. Sure, I loved stories. But I was just a kid who liked to explore his neighborhood, who almost drowned after school one day in a creek in San Jose, California, a boy who simply didn’t want to get thumped by the mean kids. No idea I would become a writer!
But now I’m way past the past, and this kid has been around a while, and now I can say that my debut novel The Deading has been given a rave review in the New York Times. Not only that, the NYT article’s cover art features a creepy scene from The Deading! Deena So’Oteh’s illustration is a masterclass in water textures, presenting the character Bernhard dumping toxins in Morro Bay as he tries to rid his precious oysters of snails.
Horror writer and critic Gabino Iglesias in his column, “4 New Horror Novels Full of Ghosts, Monsters and Other Terrors,” went so far as to call the novel a “dystopian eco-horror that perfectly balances social critique, lyricism and ghastliness. It’s a claustrophobic mosaic of a novel, and an outstanding debut.”
Whoop! Whoop!
This New York Times book review is amazing for a few reasons. Hundreds of horror novels are published each year, so I’m one of the lucky ones. Someone in the industry also once told me, “eco-horror isn’t a genre.” Well that just got proved wrong . . . again. I won’t even say who that was. Some have said that birds are boring. What? No! Nature can inspire us to write, and to want to save it at the same time (read some of my thoughts on this in CrimeReads: “Crafting the Real & Surreal in Eco-Horror: Nicholas Belardes on not turning away from unreal and mysterious occurrences in nature that can help us craft our stories”).
And while The Deading has been getting mixed reviews, horror writers, critics and fans who like a more “literary” and experimental structure, who want to read about nature and horror and how humans are complicit in nature’s destruction, have no problem with the novel. They genuinely find the story engrossing and unsettling. Don’t get me wrong, this isn’t Noah Lyles winning the Olympic 100 meter finals in dramatic fashion, but this is a much-needed victory in an industry that still hands out plenty of bloody noses. You take the good when it comes and use that as the extra motivation to keep plodding forward, to continue creating.
Another recent favorable review, “The Deading: Slimy peril descends on a small coastal town in this entertaining debut,” appears in the Washington Independent Review of Books (WIPO). Horror writer and critic Keith Donohue not only gleefully wields the fun made-up word “snailmageddon,” which I love, he also says, “Belardes conjures a big monster out of a wee snail,” and The Deading has “passages containing truly horrifying descriptions and action, along with a compelling narrative and linguistic brio.”
For having taken a chance to write The Deading using an experimental speculative fiction structure, I’m more than thrilled when Donohue says that “somewhere along the slithering way, the snails got me.”
Yes! Get ‘em, snailies!
If you want to read an excerpt, a sample just appeared on Reactor, formerly Tor. It’s another dream to be in that magazine, so very happy about this. You can read the excerpt here.
If you’d rather hear a sample, three incredible narrators, Luis Moreno, Robb Moreira and June Angela, have teamed up to bring you The Deading over on Audible. I haven’t listened yet, but plan on taking a long drive and just putting the story on and having an out-of-body entertaining experience. I can’t wait to do this!
Books have been shipping for over a week now, so I appreciate any continuing book orders. Try Kensington Books, Bookshop.org, B&N, or Amazon of you would be so kind. If you like the book, please leave a review on seller sites, on all of them if you want. Goodreads too!
I’m in the middle of final revisions to Ten Sleep, which now has a release date of June 24, 2025. So, yeah, been working hard. Looking forward to penning two horror novels after that. If I’m super lucky, will have one of those ready by the end of fall to try to sell. Gotta keep moving forward. Got some articles and essays appearing soon. Will let you know.
I appreciate all your support, and super appreciate if you can buy another copy or two to give to libraries, or your friends. If yo
u want me to appear near you, then please, raise some travel funds, maybe talk to a bookstore or library. I would be happy to make an appearance in person, via zoom, etc.
Thanks again!
Nicholas Belardes
nicholasbelardes.com