Reviewer: Sharon Brunner
Craig A. Brockman’s Dead Ships: Eternity Is a Frozen Sea tells the story of a party of four, burdened with regret and sorrow, who survived a haunting kayaking adventure on the majestic and harrowing Lake Superior. The story takes place in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula (U.P.), and it mentions Grand Marais, Pictured Rocks (near Munising), and the Delirium Wilderness (near Marquette). The author lives in Tecumseh, Michigan, near Ann Arbor, but he has spent much of his life around Lake Superior. He has hiked 140 miles around the U.P. Lydia Aquilar, a grieving mother; Luke LaVoie, Lydia’s brother; Matt, Lydia’s son; and Tally, Luke’s daughter, were the main characters in this story. Lydia and Luke planned a kayaking trip on Lake Superior to help them overcome the loss of Lydia’s daughter and to help Luke deal with a painful divorce. Both losses left the four kayakers deeply grieving.
Their distressing adventure involved many supernatural occurrences that began while they were kayaking. The weather was nice at first. Lake Superior weather can be unpredictable. Conditions changed quickly when they faced a storm and heavy fog. When the fog cleared, they saw a ghost ship, which made the kayakers very uneasy. When they found land, they ended up at a strange community. It felt like some of the characters were ghosts, trapped in the small town. The buildings felt strange, abandoned, and like they were watching them. The hostess at the inn seemed normal at first, but later her eyes turned black and ominous. Everyone dressed differently: some in modern clothes, others in much older styles. Even the stars were peculiar, and they could not find the Big Dipper. They were told not to go out at night because they might get bitten. To leave the community, they had to take part in what seemed like a dangerous activity.
One of the main themes involved the regrets the main characters experienced. Tally blamed herself for her parents’ divorce. Many children do. Matt felt guilty for his awful behavior after his sister’s death. Luke questioned his role in his divorce. He examined how his ex-wife struggled with her parents’ lack of approval of her. Luke regretted the affair he had with another woman. He realized he probably caused the divorce, and he could not go back to his ex-wife because she had moved on. Lydia experienced a lot of remorse concerning Sophie’s, her daughter’s, death even though it was not her fault. A board fell on her daughter’s head, which left a bump. Lydia’s husband, a surgeon, kept a close watch on her. While her daughter was alone in the garage, Lydia and her husband argued. Lydia felt guilty about the argument while at the same time as Sophie’s accident. Her daughter died of an aneurysm that had been developing for a long period of time. Sophie’s death devastated the entire family.
Most people face a multitude of regrets and struggle to find peace when they feel they were at fault for terrible circumstances. I have a lot of regrets, but they don’t run my life. One of my regrets is not attending college right out of high school. When I was in high school, women weren’t encouraged to pursue further education. The expectation was to set up a household and have children. My first husband turned out to be a mistake. Other regrets include wasting my precious time and eating the wrong foods.
The movie that came to mind was the 2005 film “The Fog,” about a strange fog that covered an island town off the coast of Oregon. The fog introduced a host of vengeful spirits of mariners who were murdered at the location 134 years before. The townspeople found themselves trapped and fighting for their lives while they explored the truth of their town’s dark history. This story involved a menacing fog that revealed a ghost ship. The book The Spirit Within Us: Understanding Our Gifts by Tamara Lauder reminded me of this book. Lauder explored various attributes and how individuals like Bicycle Betty lost sight of their gifts. The characters in this story struggled with regret, which negatively affected their lives, and they were forced to face their shortcomings through supernatural phenomena.
I recommend Dead Ships: Eternity Is a Frozen Sea for its interesting supernatural circumstances, its realistic view of psychological struggles, and its strong family connections. Captain Cato De La LaFuente, a dead ship captain, provided the kayakers with supportive information about their predicament. He took them to the island to meet their adversaries, forcing them to face their shortcomings. Lydia’s family faced multiple regrets that deeply affected their lives. Their family did stick together when they faced scary situations, and they felt a lot of anxiety when separated from their family. Lydia served as a mother figure for Tally, and Lydia and Luke supported each other. Brockman provided a haunting supernatural horror novel in which the characters struggled to survive while trying to heal old wounds.
Title: Dead Ships: Eternity Is a Frozen Sea
Author: Craig A. Brockman
