- ASIN: B0C9BLZPVF
- Publisher: Crystal Lake Publishing
- Publication date: 5 July 2023
- Language: English
- Print length: 404 pages
- Genre: Seculative Science Fiction With Horror Elements
The BookViral Review:
Elana Gomel’s The Cryptids is an imaginative, unsettling, and genre-blending work that merges science fiction, horror, and speculative mystery into a narrative as intellectually stimulating as it is eerie. With her background as both a scholar and storyteller, Gomel crafts a tale that asks as many questions as it answers, drawing the reader into a world where the boundary between scientific plausibility and the fantastic is deliberately blurred.
At its heart, The Cryptids follows three central characters: Dr. Sharon Manley, a disillusioned British biologist-turned-cryptozoologist navigating personal upheaval and professional marginalization; Mark Kaminski, her estranged academic partner whose career and worldview clash sharply with hers; and Lester Choy, a charismatic but enigmatic tech entrepreneur whose wife has disappeared under extraordinary circumstances. Their intersecting lives form the backbone of a mystery that moves fluidly between scientific investigation, personal entanglement, and the uncanny.
The novel is structured in three distinct parts, with Parts Two and Three delving deeply into the disturbing alternative reality of Dis—a realm that feels both alien and unnervingly familiar. Dis is a place of warped natural laws, strange cryptid-like beings, and an unsettling atmosphere that hints at intersections between quantum variations, evolutionary “roads not taken,” and human consciousness. Gomel uses this eerie parallel world to expand the novel’s speculative scope, revealing how encounters in Dis ripple back into the characters’ lives in our own reality.
What makes The Cryptids distinctive is its commitment to treating the paranormal with a kind of rational seriousness. Gomel clearly delights in weaving real evolutionary theory, speculative science, and cryptozoological lore into her plot. The novel often pauses for intelligent, well-researched discussions—about evolutionary contingency, the multiverse, and the noosphere—that add richness and depth to what could otherwise be a straightforward creature-feature story. This willingness to engage with big ideas elevates the work beyond conventional horror or thriller territory.
The prose is vivid and often cinematic, especially in descriptions of landscapes and cryptid encounters. Gomel has a gift for evoking place—whether it’s the eerie stillness of a fog-laden California beach, the green-gold twilight of the redwood forests, or the surreal alien vistas of Dis. These moments ground the novel’s more fantastical elements in a tactile, believable reality. The dream sequences, in particular, are unsettling in their blend of the banal and the bizarre, hinting at hidden patterns connecting disparate events.
Characterization is another of the novel’s strengths. Sharon is a compelling protagonist—intelligent, flawed, self-aware yet sometimes blinded by emotion. Her complicated relationships with Mark and Lester add personal stakes that balance the intellectual intrigue. Secondary characters, from the taciturn reptile enthusiast Frank to the elusive Lester himself, are sketched with enough ambiguity to keep the reader questioning motives and alliances.
While The Cryptids offers moments of suspense and horror, it resists easy classification as a thriller. The pacing is deliberate, at times contemplative, allowing the story’s speculative framework to unfold organically. Readers looking for nonstop action may find the novel more reflective than expected, but those who appreciate a slow-burn mystery enriched by philosophical speculation will find much to admire.
In the end, The Cryptids succeeds as both an engrossing mystery and an intellectual exploration of what might lurk beyond the known edges of science. Gomel invites us to consider not only the existence of strange creatures but also the possibility that reality itself is far stranger—and more permeable—than we imagine. It’s a thoughtful, eerie, and rewarding read for anyone intrigued by the shadowy borderlands between science and myth.
It is an unreservedly recommended Golden Quill read.
