Elaine White's Life in Books

Book – Skyships Over Innsmouth
Author – Susan Laine
Star rating - ★★★☆☆
No. of Pages – 200

Cover – Gorgeous!
POV – 3rd person, multi-POV
Would I read it again – No

Genre – LGBT, Steampunk, Science Fiction, Horror


** I WAS GIVEN THIS BOOK, BY THE AUTHOR, IN RETURN FOR AN HONEST REVIEW **
Reviewed for Divine Magazine



DISCLOSURE: I had never read a Lovecraft novel, and didn't know it was going to be paramount to my understand of this story, so I ended up being really confused, thinking this was all the author's original concept, until countless reviews told me otherwise (after I'd written my own, of course). This is why it's a 3 star and not a 2, as it would normally be. I'm pretty sure Lovecraft fans would love this, but I'm not a fan and I didn't love it; perhaps for this reason or maybe just because it didn't work on its own merit.


While the overall story has merit in terms of old classic horror, in the style of Lovecraft (as the author implies), the rest is just a little too garishly ridiculous for my taste. I've marked it a 3, because I'm sure diehard fans of Lovecraft and old horror might enjoy it, but for me, it just didn't work as an overall, cohesive, captivating story.

I've read quite a few Susan Laine books by now and they're a little lopsided for me – I either love them or feel completely ambivalent about them. This one falls into the second category. Although parts of it were good – the first 45% and moments thereafter – there was just no cohesiveness to the plot, the horror aspects felt sort of stolen from the greats of the genre, even mentioning Lovecraft and Derleth multiple times and the characters sort of became second fiddle to the Innsmouth aspect of the story.

There were aliens, tentacles, zombie-like creatures and squids, skyships, amnesia and more. It was just far too much for one story to handle. And, honestly, the horror wasn't scary or frightening, but overdone and over-exaggerated. I found most of it predictable and the rest fancifully ridiculous.

With monologues all over the place and a pair of male MC's that were will-they-wont-they, there was already a lot to keep track of. But then Malia came into the picture, as the only female, but a very unlikeable, unrelateable character, who was borish, rude and marginalized others at the drop of a hat. Her POV scenes were quite a challenge to read, even though she was a character central to the forwarding of the plot.

Again, there were hints of other horror books/movies included here – a little of The Ring, Lovecraft, Derleth, an Ancient Egyptian twist reminiscent of Stargate, even a little hint of The Hills Have Eyes.

By 45% I started skim reading. I normally wouldn't, for a book I'm reviewing, but this one really was a challenge to read and, honestly, by 45% I could see it ending within a chapter or two, as a short story, while wrapping up the plot and giving us a suitable ending. However, it dragged on to the very end, about 98%, and just became more and more elaborate as it went.

Oh, and the end location (not telling you, in case you read it) just added the cherry to the top of the ridiculousness. That one really made me glad I'd skimmed most of the action/adventure aspect in the second half of the book, because it warned me that there might very well be another book in this world and I'm not going to read it.

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Overall, I think Laine just tried far too hard to emulate the likes of Lovecraft and classic horror novels. Perhaps if the plot had been simplified and the over-exaggeration of danger every second, twists and turns in every chapter.