This quick read was a delightfully dark yet fun look at what life on a queer cruise ship would be for a vampire couple. Rebeka and Hugh have been together for centuries, but there’s trouble on the ship when a third named Heaven joins the party. I enjoyed everything about this book; the pacing, the setting, our insane MCs. Can’t wait to read more from this author and thank you for the arc!

The duality of this narrative, between human war and the war within ourselves, is nuanced. There is so much I want to read into this short tale of love, lust, marriage, betrayal, fear, bravery, finding yourself while killing yourself, and humanity, but all I can hear is Rebekah saying something akin to “humans try too hard”.

I ATE this story up and was left unsatisfied and needing more.

This was a cute quick read with an interesting premise. Fans of “What We Do in the Shadows” will enjoy the story of two vampires who go on a queer cruise and meet an unexpected new “friend”. Although intended to be quite short, I feel like this could have used a bit more development. There was a lot more about the world I wanted to know; the supernatural elements were a little vague and in some parts, didn’t shine through. I might have preferred if the story leaned into horror a bit too. Also, the threat of a vague war was interesting but again not well explained and left me with more questions than answers.
If you like vampires or queer fantasy books, definitely give this is a shot. This would be a great palette cleanser or maybe even a quick comfort read for many.

Thank you to NetGalley, Creature Publishing and Lindsay Merbaum for the opportunity to read this in exchange for an honest review.

What a fun, humorous light read! I breeze through this as I follow the main character Rebekah through her kooky adventures on (and off) the cruise hip. I love how the author explore themes of queerness and identity through the lens of vampires.

3.5 ⭐️. What We Do In The Shadows is one of my favorite shows & this gave such big Lazlo/ Nadja vibes. I loved this current take on vamps.

TY to Creature Publishing and NetGalley for an advance reading copy in exchange for an honest review.

A different type of vampires that felt kind of refreshing.

Husband and wife, they join a queer cruise in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea.
It was difficult for me to start, but then the story suddenly picks up. If not for the title, it’s difficult to know who’s narrating at first and what they are.
I don’t think I am the right audience for this book, as it’s almost a constant string of sex scenes, with some mystery about a third party who enters their open relationship, and turns out not to be what they seem to be.

For the right readers, I feel it will be ecstatic, provocative, and amusing.

Many thanks for the ARC, provided in exchange for my honest and personal review.

I absolutely loved this book and thought it was so fun. I hate cruises but I almost wish I’d been on one just so I could have read this at the same time. These are definitely problematic characters who should probably as prime examples of how to not practice ethical non-monogamy. But this is just a story and these are Vampires. At Sea! So naturally, things go very badly, in what I found were very interesting ways. They’re dramatic, they’re obnoxious, they’re hyper focused on feeding and well, f*cking. The global war of poverty in the background didn’t need to serve a larger purpose than providing a backdrop to rich people having bad days on a cruise ship, so I enjoyed that it wasn’t explained in more depth. I was all in, as far as seeing what happened to the trio of main characters, and I found the ending satisfying. No notes, I’m ready for more from this author!

A sultry cruise into identity and discovery.

An exotic escape. The titillation of a beautiful stranger. Watching all that is familiar and comforting in the world slip far, far away. But, hey, we’re on vacation!

Vampires at Sea is the second work of author Lindsay Merbaum, who brings her own distinct brand of queer, feminist magic to her many projects. Merbaum is the founder of Pick Your Potion, a curated cocktail enterprise, and is the author of multiple award-winning short stories. Her first book, The Gold Persimmon, was a 2021 Foreward Indies Finalist. In Vampires at Sea, Merbaum blends masterful study of queer themes in art and literature to a decadent (depraved) escape a la The White Lotus.

Let’s set sail!

“Immortal beloveds Rebekah and Hugh are on vacation! Against a backdrop of ongoing war, this pair of chic emotional vampires from San Francisco sets off on a queer Black Sea Cruise, eager to relax, join an orgy, and feast upon their fellow passengers’ desires and sorrows. When Hugh becomes enchanted by an alluring–and possibly magical–non-binary social media influencer named Heaven, Rebekah’s reality capsizes.”

Merbaum and Vampires at Sea join a proud literary tradition of vampires as ideal canvases for reflections on time, our cultured self versus our most primal nature, and what it is to face the notion of forever. Centering Hugh and Rebekah as energy vampires, over the more “fang forward” versions, keeps the story centered in a cerebral, philosophical plane. It also places our two lovers on opposing ends of a cosmic spectrum. Two forces that have the power to either create perfect harmony, or destroy one another.

As a central pairing, Rebekah and Hugh are utterly captivating. Brought to life by Merbaum’s sensual prose, it is the influence of the characters that holds readers in thrall. A bitter aftertaste of melancholy and danger that balances rich vignettes of sex and hunger.

The introduction of Heaven — a non-binary being of mysterious origin — is a perfect catalyst to destroying the careful balance of Rebekah and Hugh’s perspective. But, more importantly, Heaven acts as a direct challenge to the reader’s expectations of Old World and New World ways of thinking. Even in contemporary retellings, the vampire legend is rooted in what is ancient and unmoving. Heaven is positioned in the novel as a social media influencer. A creature that, by their very essence (I won’t spoil it for you), breaks the careful categories of existence.

This distinction on Merbaum’s part is what makes Vampires at Sea so much more than a delicious smutty read. With every page, Merbaum poses question that brush against what’s expected and comfortable. Combine that with beautiful, ethereal queer representation and Vampires at Sea strikes a chord as contemporary philosophy sipping a mai tai.

Vampires at Sea is a vicious, delicious read. As deeply sensual as it is intellectually probing, Lindsay Merbaum offers readers a next level experience in narrative intimacy. Hypnotic.

Vampires at Sea arrives on October 7, 2025.

3.5 ⭐ I am thankful that I received an e-arc copy of this book through NetGalley for my honest opinion. <b>Review contains minor spoilers.</b>

In barely 200 pages, I experienced so many emotions that I'm finding it difficult to process. Mostly, this book isn't very deep or thought-provoking and is largely just hedonistic fun. Unfortunately for me, I am unable to separate myself from putting getting emotionally invested as if I were the person in the situation, so watching a husband get entranced by another and leave his wife really did a number on me, and I ended up sending my boyfriend a tearful voice note at 1:30 am. He found this highly amusing. In the process of reading this book, I was very quickly reminded of why I could personally never be in an open/poly relationship, despite my love for polyamorous romance books.

Right off the bat, I could tell this book was quite unique just based on the writing style. It took me a while to get used to, and a part of me feels like I never did. There would often be moments I would need to re-read a section, thinking I missed a line, only to find I didn't, leaving me starved for more context. There were a lot of things I would have loved more clarification on, and I feel like the writing style excused itself from providing such information to the reader, as it was subject to the whims of Rebakah's short attention span and selfish desires. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, and I actually found myself enjoying it most of the time, but there were things I wish had been communicated in more depth:
- How do the vampires feed? It is quite apparent that they largely feed on emotion. Whether it's an emotion of their choosing or something each individual is naturally inclined towards is unknown, but I wonder if they also feed on blood.
- What is Rebekah and Hugh's relationship like, really? They largely seemed not to enjoy each other's presence or personalities, both being bored or even annoyed at the other's interests and conversation topics (feelings, especially expressed by Rebekah and Hugh, were a seemingly one-dimensional character that didn't get very fleshed out). Despite my personal reaction to him leaving her, I am under no illusion that she was impacted by that for the same reasons I was. Rebekah craves attention and has an almost possessive hold on Hugh because she knows she would always have his. Until the moment she didn't, which in turn rocked her view of herself and self-confidence, which was the much more devastating blow.

It's hard to explain, but the tone of the book and the way Rebekah communicated her thoughts and feelings reminded me of the film <i>Poor Things</i> starring Emma Stone. She is an incredibly unreliable narrator, exacerbated in how she's childish in the way a child only cares about their wants and desires, possessive in the way a child doesn't like to share their favourite toys, and greedy in the way a child craves the attention of the people in any given room. There was also a sense of unease present throughout the entire book as we, alongside Rebekah, are watching her husband very quickly fall under the thrall of an unknown being who seemingly has it out for Rebekah. It made for a very unsettling but intriguing experience that made it difficult to put the book down before I knew how it ended, which is great for such a short book.

I actually quite liked the book and it is a story I would recommend to people as something that doesn't take a long time to read and is interesting to talk about.

Thank you, NetGalley, for giving me this e-ARC in exchange for my honest review.

I was expecting a little bit more from this book. Since it’s a short novel, I didn't expect much worldbuilding, however, some was needed. In the beginning of the story, I was just confused. I didn’t know who any of the characters were since the writing was quite chaotic (in a good way, I think I would've loved it in a longer book, it just didn’t work in this short novel), and a lot of characters felt flat, especially Hugh. The protagonist herself was interesting and well developed, but she did get on my nerves sometimes.

There were too many unnecessary spice scenes. I feel like if we understood more about the new take the author had on vampires, the book would've been much more enjoyable and a lot less chaotic. The immortals themselves were interesting, which is why I was quite sad that we didn't delve deeper into their world.

In the second half of the story, I got really invested and I started enjoying the book a lot more. However, the ending was anticlimactic. The final fight itself gave us nothing—it was way too fast and easy (although I did enjoy the suspense).

This book was certainly not like anything I've ever read. Rebekah and Hugh are energy vampires invited to vacation on a queer black cruise. Rebekah feasts on desire and Hugh on sadness, and they're here to avoid problems - both their personal problems and the problems of the world at large. Then they meet Heaven, another inhuman creature who enters their poly relationship and throws a wrench in the whole thing.

Every character is incredibly hate-able. Some personas are characters are completely over the top personas, while other fall flat. I found this quite hard to get into, as the writing style is a little erratic with its random and unnecessary switches to second person, and it's certainly not your trendy current romantasy. I wanted to love this. I love What We Do in The Shadows and Interview with the Vampire and Twilight, but somehow it just wasn't for me. There is actually an interesting psychological horror element going on in the background in a couple different ways, but the narrator's obsessions and self-centeredness get in the way of anything interesting actually going on. The story also pokes at questions of human condition (What does it mean to be human? What is human enough to not be a monster?) we don't really get to explore enough to be interesting or meaningful.

It was, of course, delightfully queer and and a quick read which I enjoyed. I loved the idea of this but it just wasn't quite for me.

I kept waiting for there to be more actual vampire but that was my own preconceived notions of what that would look like- they were draining emotions and feeding off that.

The premise of a married vampire couple going on a queer, poly cruise to get up to some debauchery, with a horror tag on it? Should have been right up my alley.

Honestly, I liked the structure and the story kept picking up but the ending felt rushed. Hugh felt like such a flat character and I instantly hated Heaven but I really wanted to lean into the jealous/reactive feelings that Rebekah kept having. Her need to be a spectacle and seen by those around her while being ignored by the one she wanted most was the most relatable part about her.

Ultimately, I don't think this felt much like a "horror" novella, I felt like I was constantly waiting for something to happen and it didn't

Thanks Netgalley for this ARC, this is scheduled to be released Oct 7, 2025.

Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for gifting me a ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I chose the book blindly on NetGalley because I thought the cover and title were fun and boy was I in for a ride. This novella follows Rebekah and Hugo, immortal vampires who are on a 'queer Black Sea Cruise'. If you love What We Do In The Shadows vampires and White Lotus's vacation drama, this is for you! It was truly so fun and silly with heavy What We Do In the Shadows vibes without being an exact copy. It made me laugh out loud at times but also kept me entranced with these unapologetic queer characters. I loved how temperamental and nonchalant these immortals were but also how they weren't just 'normal' vampires. The author's take on vampires was interesting, unique, and exciting without being too different from a standard blood sucker. That being said, I enjoyed most of the plot but found the ending a bit lackluster and wrapped up too easily. My only other negative for the book was that Hugh was not fleshed out enough and was really more of a background character than a love interest. All in all though, I loved the concept, and it was definitely a wild and entertaining ride.

This story does include spice (and an orgy), cheating, toxic relationships, drugs and alcohol, and language so it's definitely for an adult audience but I wouldn't classify it as 'horror', it's more fantasy mystery comedy.

Immortal lovers Rebekah and Hugh take a risqué, pleasure filled cruise to satiate their deepest sexual (and vampiric) desires. A captivating, spirited, enchantress named Heaven comes along and fills their world with temptation and lust.

Things I like:

1. The sultry, dark romance & seductive tone of this story is really enticing.
2. IMMORTAL lovers??? Yes please!
3. Confined to a floating vessel with nothing to do but feed your darkest cravings? 1000% yes.

Things that could be better:

1. The characters all could have been flushed out a tad bit more. Specifically Hugh & Heaven, they’re a bit 1 dimensional.
2. I wanted more TENSION. The slow simmer, deep aching, longing…. More of that please!


Thank you SO much for this ARC. I thoroughly enjoyed this story!

I was very excited for this book but unfortunately it fell flat for me. I was expecting vampires and horror on a cruise ship but it didn’t deliver for me and the horror never showed up.

Thank you for the ARC and apologies I couldn’t rate it higher.

This seemed like it would be quite fun, but it unfortunately was a miss for me. I found the narrator’s voice to be painfully grating, on top of just wondering what was the point the whole way through.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the e-arc.

Vampires at Sea promised a lot of things that were completely missed for me. I was expecting a hilarious horror, complete with glittery debauchery on this cruise ship that Hugh & Rebekah were embarking on after a rocky time in their marriage. At no point did the horror show up and while the description very plainly states they are emotional Vampires, I didn’t anticipate that being so literal. I thought I’d get blood sucking Vamps and felt bored, like something was missing, while reading of them only consuming desires and sorrows. One thing is for sure - it promises unbridled narcissism and delivers so hard, that even for immortal standards not a single taste of true empathy by the main characters was shown and left me disconnected from all of them. The writing style is what kept me going to the end. I did enjoy the vivid descriptions and the pictures Lindsay Merbaum was able to create while reading of these insufferable creatures. I think this book will 100% find its niche audience.


Thank you to NetGalley and Creature Publishing for the eARC of this novella in exchange for my honest review.

This was a trial. The prose was fine, I suppose. Technically the first person protagonist's voice was a strong one. Unfortunately the character convincingly portrayed by that voice was a vapid narcissist. At least she wasn't alone. I hated every character in this book equally. Merbaum seemed to be shooting for a satire but the end result was neither funny nor thematically resonant in any way. The potentially interesting questions of 'what's going on with Rebekah's missing memories' or 'what's going on with the war' were ditched like unwanted prom dates, ever to remain unresolved. Just to be clear, this isn't ambiguity. This is irritatingly dropped plot threads.

I've been sitting here for half a minute, trying to figure out whether I've got anything else to add to my review. But I don't.

At least it was short. And now I'm done.

Thank you to NetGalley and Creature Publishing for the free ARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions within are my own.

This was a fun read! I did find it hard to connect with the characters and was a bit confused with the ending, but overall it was a nice queer short story!

Thank you NetGalley for the early copy!

This book is a fever dream in the best possible way. Imagine queer vampires on a boat with biting (pun intended) political commentary, dripping in atmosphere and tension. The writing is rich and dripping with intention, and at times deeply surreal—but always in service to the emotional undercurrent. Your brain is going to itch at times and if you don't utter wtf did i just read, I am not sure we read the same book.

I will say if you are going into this book looking for a traditional vampire book... this one isn't for you. The feeding isn't bloody or grotesque in the normal sense. But deeply personal and at times can leave your brain a little drained.

The pacing wobbles a bit in the middle, and there were moments I wished for just a little more grounding. But the payoff? So worth it. Merbaum isn't afraid to get weird, to get bold, and to get bloody.

If you want something sapphic, gender non-conforming, gothic, and, lets be honest, completely unhinged (in the best way), climb aboard. Just don’t expect to get off unchanged. 🖤🩸⚓