From Below by Darcy Coates

No light. No air. No escape.

Hundreds of feet beneath the ocean’s surface, a graveyard waits…

Years ago, the SS Arcadia vanished without a trace during a routine voyage. Though a strange, garbled emergency message was broadcast, neither the ship nor any of its crew could be found. Sixty years later, its wreck has finally been discovered more than three hundred miles from its intended course…a silent graveyard deep beneath the ocean’s surface, eagerly waiting for the first sign of life.

Cove and her dive team have been granted permission to explore the Arcadia’s rusting hull. Their purpose is straightforward: examine the wreck, film everything, and, if possible, uncover how and why the supposedly unsinkable ship vanished.

But the Arcadia has not yet had its fill of death, and something dark and hungry watches from below. With limited oxygen and the ship slowly closing in around them, Cove and her team will have to fight their way free of the unspeakable horror now desperate to claim them.

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100 years ago, at the height of the passenger ship trade, the SS Arcadia vanished. Although a few garbled cries for help were picked up by other ships, the coordinates given made no sense, and no trace of the ship was ever found.

The haunting mystery of the SS Arcadia’s disappearance becomes a terrifying reality for Cove and her dive team. After decades of silence, the wreck is finally discovered, and the team is given the chance to explore it. However, what begins as an exciting opportunity quickly spirals into a nightmare when they realize that something dark and malevolent is waiting for them beneath the ocean’s surface. Trapped inside the rusting, decaying ship with limited oxygen, the team must fight to survive as horrifying secrets unfold around them. Coates masterfully builds tension, creating a chilling atmosphere that keeps the reader on edge from start to finish.

The dual timelines worked really well here - I'm not always a fan of this type of storytelling, but here, following Cove's group forward in time, getting one of the garbled rescue calls and then going back to about two weeks before the sinking and working up towards it worked brilliantly. Being able to draw parallels between things they saw on the dives and things that happened a hundred years before kept me really interested.

The mechanics of diving were explained well enough that I, who knows almost nothing about diving, was well able to follow without feeling patronised. The claustrophobic scenes on the ship were so well rendered. Although we never find out the true source of the haunting - there's a plausible explanation, but it's only a guess on the characters' parts - it doesn't matter, as that's not the point of the story. The point is the lurking horror and the feeling of something in the corner of your eye. Don't turn around, it might be behind you...

Recommendation: If you enjoyed the claustrophobic and suspenseful atmosphere of From Below, you'll likely appreciate Dead Silence by S.A. Barnes. Both novels feature isolated settings, a long-lost vessel with disturbing secrets, and a supernatural presence that threatens to destroy the protagonists. Fans of underwater horror and creeping dread will find both books captivating.

Movie Recommendation: For a tense, claustrophobic experience, The Abyss (1989) is a perfect match. Directed by James Cameron, the film follows a team of underwater oil drillers who face terrifying unknowns when they discover something deep in the ocean. The isolation, escalating tension, and the eerie feeling of being trapped in an unfamiliar environment mirror the mood of From Below beautifully.