I'm not terribly familiar with the horror genre, so I don't feel like the best judge of this as a work of horror in terms of tropes, but I liked how the themes of loss/grief and responsibility were continuous through the story.  There are some reviews that I saw that said the ending feels like a deus ex machina and really out of nowhere, and while that makes sense if you are judging this as a zombie story, I personally feel like it was consistent with the themes I previously mentioned.

Dead Water by C.A. Fletcher is, by all accounts, a well-written book. The tension and pacing were perfectly balanced, leaving the reader excited to see what happens next and dreading the moment everything goes sideways. I really enjoyed the in-depth character studies and thought it was interesting how there seemed to be a theme of toxic masculinity in multiple forms. Many of the characters weren't inherently likable, but I actually didn't hate any of them like I typically would with unlikable characters. They just felt like they were really fleshed out and flawed in a way you expect other humans to be. 

I thought the mystery was interesting, and the little bits and hints I got throughout the book were really fun to slowly put together, and figure out the real story. I will admit that I didn't fully understand what was happening to the people and the island, and I felt like I could've used some clarity in the flashbacks that were trying to show why this was happening. I thought the horror elements were unique in some ways, but could've been better fleshed out and explained. I think Fletcher was attempting to show some of the horrors in the unknown, but in my opinion, sometimes things are more horrifying the more information you have. There is horror in knowing exactly what is going to happen to you if you don't run away fast enough, if you let it catch you. 

Other than all that, I wasn't too impressed with this story. Overall, a sort of average read, and I would like to see if the author releases any books in the future to see him improve his craft. 

55% in, it was still just build up. And it felt like the major mysteries were already cleared up. I didn't really feel like sticking about for the "people dying and chaos" that this was building up to. No hook was presented that I cared about.