REVIEW:
From the Belly​

Runestone, volume 11

REVIEW:
From the Belly​

Runestone, volume 11

Reviewed by Ava French

— 

“When the man was cut from the belly of the whale, he was as
soft and blood-mottled as a stillborn calf.” — Emmett Nahil

Looking to drown yourself in strange, nautical horror? If that quote was enough to tickle your spine, then all aboard the Merciful: the star whaling ship on which Emmett Nahil’s From the Belly is set. This is more of a rainy night, tea-in-hand, candles-in-the-dark read than a beach read: trust that you’ll be avoiding the ocean for days after this one. 

The novel is published through Tenebrous Press, who specialize in “new weird lit” as they put it. This is no joke, as Nahil jumps right into the weirdness of it all, starting the novel with the crew’s latest catch. 

A corpse is found and cut from the belly of a whale they’ve reeled in, but upon further inspection, is revealed to be just on the verge of becoming a corpse. Caught between morality and their ever-shrinking food supply, Captain Coffin and some of the crew are tempted to feed him back to the sea from whence he came, while others vouch that it’s bad luck to abandon him. When Isaiah Chase, our protagonist, offers his jacket to the mysterious man as a small act of empathy, Coffin places the burden of keeping him alive entirely on his shoulders. The man is locked in the brig below the ship and doesn’t wake for days. The longer Isaiah speaks to him after he wakes, the more he starts to realize that this man is not what they thought he was. The weird creeps in further in through Isaiah’s clairvoyant, vivid dreams: a phenomenon he hadn’t experienced since he was young: “In his long, midnight-black drop through the depths, he felt the essence of what made him, him, slipping…” 

That sort of vividness. When these visions begin manifesting into reality, it quickly becomes apparent that the sea is calling the crew to halt their mission. Capitalist greed (and karma) are big themes at play here—there’s an amusing irony in naming a ship that engages in the merciless business of whale-oiling the Merciful, after all. The greed is most apparent with Coffin, whose decisions weighing the value of financial gain from oil and the fate of his own crew become quite telling.

Things escalate quickly; bloody accidents occur here and there, while barrels mold below the ship and a barnacle ridden illness festers in the background. It becomes clearer and clearer to Isaiah that his crew cannot ignore what they’ve trapped beneath the floorboards in a glorious Tell-Tale Heart fashion— and in this case, they aren’t lying to anyone but themselves about their wrongdoings. The longer they ignore the ethics of their line of work the faster it comes back to bite them. 

I enjoyed seeing lots of women and gender diverse characters filling different positions aboard the ship. Isaiah’s friendships within the crew, as well as his strange yet compelling relationship with the mystery man, all had good, steady development over the novel. The crew have so much spunk and personality, while all retaining that classic pirate charm. It’s obvious Nahil had a lot of fun writing the dialogue in that sense, and leans into the yarr-harr of pirate talk unapologetically. It really helps bring the nautical setting to life. 

As beloved as the crew are, do note that there are quite a few to keep track of. We catch the names of a lot of people in the first chapter alone, and even more characters are introduced over the first half. I found it difficult at times to remember the names of some minor characters in accordance with their roles. This was slightly less of a problem by the second half of the novel, though. You might be able to guess half the reason! 

Also, if you aren’t familiar with the parts of a ship, you might need a guide handy for this. I found it difficult to remember my ports from my starboards and had I not been able to reference that, it would have been hard to visualize where things were taking place sometimes. Regardless, the setting is very well done. It’s enough to make you feel trapped and lost in the vastness of the ocean all at once. 

All that being said, the cover art—illustrated by Chris Shehan—is what made me pick this novel up in the first place (and if you enjoy art with your words as much as I do, there are a few more surprises scattered between the pages from Megan Llewellyn for you!). 

No, I’m not ashamed to judge a book by the cover, and there really isn’t a better choice for this one, either. It perfectly captures the journey the novel will take you on: you might think you have your eyes above the water from the beginning, but Nahil has an anchor wrapped around your foot, and he will not hesitate to drag you deep, down under. Slow enough to really hurt, too. 

If you’re a big fan of Nahil’s horror, be sure to check out some of his other media too!