Title: Her Teeth, Like Waves

Author: Nikki R. Leigh

Release date: August 15th, 2023

Huge thanks to Robert P. Ottone and Spooky House Press for sending me a digital ARC of this one!

I was intrigued by this one right off the hop when I read the teaser synopsis in the email I was sent.

It’s funny, as I’ve typically not read a lot of ‘water/ocean’ based dark fiction, but over the last little bit I’ve enjoyed Ottone’s own ‘The Rise Trilogy,’ Daniel Kraus’ ‘Whalefall’ and Tim McGregor’s ‘Lure.’

So, when this one arrived, even though I am super swamped with review books, I thought Hell yeah, I’m fitting this in!

Described as novelette length, this ended up being a single sitting read and one that had me captivated from the very beginning.

What I liked: The story follows Kat, sister to Mitch, who hasn’t been heard from in a few days. This is unusual, especially with their bond as twins and united after their parents died while they were in their teens. Mitch has spent his life in the ocean, while Kat has steered away from it. But now, with him missing, she – accompanied by her girlfriend, Jules – travel to where he was living in the hopes of finding him.

Leigh does a great job of adding in back story, especially considering the short word count of this one, and you root for Kat to find Mitch almost immediately, especially as more of her history is shared and her fears of the water are revealed.

With such a short page count, we get to the heart of the action fairly quickly and the ending arrives with a blistering volume of carnage and blood. Based on what we were led to believe and what was suggested would happen, it fits well and we get a blistering finale.

What I didn’t like: There really is no resolution at the end. We get to it, things happen, the end arrives and that’s it. I think some expansion would’ve really helped with this ending and made it more impactful. We are shown how it ends, but based on the ‘why’ of the the reason Kat went in the first place, there’s no pay off.

As well, we do get a quick bit of back lore with the arrival of an odd character, but it flashes by too fast, we don’t get enough to really ramp up the tension.

Why you should buy this: This one was a ton of fun for what happens and a lot does happen, even in such a short read. Leigh grabs the reader quickly and holds them, which is a fantastic thing to happen when we’re not completely sure where we will end up, but the reader will want to know and that’s always a powerful thing.

4/5