Blood in the Water

Slasherverse, Book 2

By: Matthew R. Corr

Narrated by: Nicholas Gilomen

After a deadly summer, Ander accepts an invite to The Oasis, the world’s first underwater research lab turned luxury vacation spot—in hopes to revive his VIBE content and spend time with his crush. But when a vengeful spirit is unleashed, the guests are hunted by a terrifying force lurking in the water. As bodies pile up, Ander must find a way to escape the nightmare beneath the sea before it’s too late. Who will survive? Prepare for a blood-soaked thrill ride in the second of seven books in Matthew R. Corr’s Slasherverse!

CONTENT WARNING avaliable on Copyright page.

©2024 Matthew Corr (P)2024 Matthew Corr

A Bit of a Slog to Get Through

I enjoyed Camp 1985 (the first book in this series) quite a bit, I thought it was a really fun well-paced throwback slasher with reasonably well-developed characters (for the genre) and a fun premise. So I was pretty excited to jump into Book 2. Unfortunately, this one didn't hit for me like the first one did. My biggest issue involves the pacing- it takes what feels like forever before anything happens- the killings need to be spaced out, this was an issue in the first book too, but it's much worse here. The writing gets a bit lazy as well, with the drag queen character's whole personality centered around recycled quotes from RuPaul's Drag Race and the female characters being pretty much interchangable.

I didn't like this, but I still love a queer slasher story and if there's an Audiobook for Book 3, I will totally pick it up and dive right in. With that said, after Blood in the Water, I'm a little bit skeptical that the saga of Ander and Liam can carry additional books. I'd love to see them get a happy ending and then get a reboot with new protagonists. I think a series like this can be carried by its concept, it doesn't necessarily require recurring characters.