TW/CW: Language, drinking, toxic relationships, graphic sex scenes, cheating, violence, gory scenes, death

*****SPOILERS*****
About the book:
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. As she comes to terms with a future she never imagined, Rebekah begins to question her past, much of it lost to time. Ultimately, her journey becomes one of self-discovery, and acceptance of her true nature.
Release Date: October 7th, 2025
Genre: Horror
Pages: 168
Rating: ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐

What I Liked:
1. The writing style was fantastic
2. Absolutely hilarious things said
3. Short book
4. Clever writing
5. Reminded me of What we do in the shadows
6. Rebekah had me cracking up
7. So much packed inside 200 pages

What I Didn't Like:
1. Some parts felt they rambled on and on without clear direction where we were going
2. Wish Hugh was a more flushed out character - he felt such a simp to Rebekah and then Heaven

Overall Thoughts:
{{Disclaimer: I write my review as I read}}

Memory is a lie anyway. Half of what you remember is just what you imagine.


I feel like Rebekah and trying to figure out what Hugh finds in Heaven that's so special. They seem pretty basic and preformative.

Rebekah has me rolling. She's trying to hold the attention onto her by asking Heaven questions.
“Are you a makeup artist? Where did you study? Where do you get your lip rouge?”“I was a professional makeup artist, when I was younger.”They preen. “Now, I’m a motivator . . .”I can’t do it, I stop listening. No one needs to hear this.

Rebekah is every introvert short tempered person that hates small talk. I'm so here for her! The things you'll do for a unicorn.

Some of the stuff they talk about is so outlandish and ridiculous in the best way possible. Rebekah says they aren't ready for a ship orgy and that Hugh didn't even bring his cape. What does he do with his cape? I wish I knew haha

Heaven being a shapeshifter wasn't something I thought wasn't going to happen in this book. Love that Rebekah gets one last sexing in with them despite their equal hatred of each other. Doing the finger guns out the door was the icing on the cake for me.

I am confused on what substance they feed on though. It seems like Rebekah is a energy vampire since it's never said she directly feeds of blood. Not sure what Hugh is - maybe the same since he loves the attention from people knowing his art.

Loving all the different vampires in the book. She meets Misha another vampire but I quite enjoyed the way in which they talked about how they fed. Rebekah mentions she uses her beauty while Misha uses grief or anger to feed. He even feeds from Rebekah while getting her to talk about her husband leaving her. Just enjoying the vampires that sucked emotion out of people.

Oh I love that Rebekah chose herself. I get what Hugh was saying about how she always did what she wanted but in an open relationship he crossed a line of falling in love that you just don't do. Yeah, he had a spell put on him but at that point Rebekah was clearly done.

Is Heaven really gone? I doubt it.

Final Thoughts:
This book reminded me in so many ways of What We Do In the Shadows (series)
Rebekah and Hugh are just like Laszlo and Nadja and sprinkled with Colin's psychic vampire feeding since he's an energy vampire too. So if you loved this book watch the show there are queer rep and relationship goals. (in the acknowledges author says they are a fan of the show!)

I love that the author mixed influencer with shapeshifters. It's so clever and I was loving it.

This book was so much fun! I seriously hope we get a second book!

queer vampires. pirates. tongue in cheek humor and saber sharp wit. what more could you want? this was such a gem.

I didn't really *get* this novella. I wasn't sure what it was trying to say, or even if it was saying anything at all. It was a short read, and I got through it, but had it been a full length novel I would have DNFed. I'm not really able to explain why this didn't work for me, but it just didn't. And I love queer vampires, but this was just a miss.

I am not 100% sure what I read here and for me, that's ok. I like weird. This won't be for all readers, that's for sure. As someone in the lGBTQIA community, I appreciate it and think other members of the community will as well. We don't often get works of fiction like this in our world so it's fun and it feels nice to be in the cool/weird kids club :)

What a weird -in a good way- little story about -very horny- vampires on a queer cruise! It was a bit chaotic in the execution but fast-paced for a quick and nice read. I liked the whole idea, especially the change with the vampires feeding on emotions and people's energy rather than blood. Rebekah was a wickedly funny narrator and the change operating on her during the last bits of the book just makes me want to say "good for her".

This book was weird! It wasn’t for me, because I am, sadly, a little normal. I do know, exactly who it is for, though, and I do think I’ll be recommending it for the Queer bookclub around Thanksgiving!

This was an incredible read! It was fast paced, interesting, yet the characters had depth and were well developed. I was hooked and couldn’t put it down and read it it one sitting! I cannot recommend it enough!
Thank you to the publisher and net galley for the ARC!

I had high hopes for this book. Queer vampires? On a cruise? What's not to love? Unfortunately it was hard for me to root for the main character. However, I was definitely rooting against the antagonist. Which when we get to the climax, was disappointing. It was a lot of built-up, for them to be dispatched so easily and quickly. And for the protagonist to move on From their paramour, with so little emotion, seemed bizarre. But maybe that's what vampires like that are.

Vampires at Sea is a book I judged by its cover—and it disappointed me, unfortunately.

The writing was the main issue for me. I couldn’t get into it or enjoy any aspect of the story. The writing was unfortunately corny and cringey which made the entire reading experience unenjoyable.

this is currently being marketed as a quick, fun romp, but all it is is a quick romp. what is it they say, two out of three ain't bad?

to elaborate: i'm not really sure what kind of humor youre supposed to be packing in order to enjoy the "humor" this one claims to have. i didn't laugh once, not even a pity-snort.
i guess what im trying to say here is that the bar was low. all i expected was to laugh at least once. at the very least, half a laugh. a snort, even. none. nothing. very boring characters in a bland story.

but let's go back to what i said: 2/3 isn't really a bad miss. it's just not for me.

thank you NetGalley for the eARC!

This was a weird one and while it didn't work for me I can absolutely see why other people are loving it.

You jump right into the world with basically no world building or context, into a relationship that's existed for a long time and then everything changes so rapidly! It's a whirlwind 2 weeks at sea with 2 vampires.

I'm sure this will work for plenty of people and I have to say the ending satisfied me

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for a free eARC of this book

Vampires at Sea
Lindsay Merbaum

3.5 / 5

This one was slow to start, but once I got into it, I found it really fun, frisky and funny.

If you're prudish, you might not enjoy it as much, but I had a blast. Recommend.

It was…fine. I found myself really enjoying it at times. I love how vampires were handled in terms of them draining emotions instead of blood. I think it could’ve paralleled in an interesting way with what Heaven was doing but it just…fell flat. Ultimately my biggest issue is that I don’t feel like I read a finished story. The ending seems like it comes out of no where and is incredibly unsatisfied. The author poses this question about Rebekah’s past that she doesn’t remember and it’s repeatedly brought up and it’s never answered, which could be fine, but instead of wrapping it up in any kind of way it’s just left as a dangling plot thread. Pretty much the entire plot is left as a dangling thread. What war is going on? It seems to be framed as a world war, yet it doesn’t seem to be effecting most of the world just the part the author needs to be plot relevant. What was going on with the ship? They were stuck at sea one chapter the miraculously at port the next. I don’t feel like Rebekah had any meaningful character growth even though that’s the only real point I can see. Yeah she ditches Hugh at the end, but it doesn’t feel like growth it just feels like a continuation of her being upset at him. It all just felt incredibly disappointing because these are cool characters, this is a cool idea, the prose is nice, etc but I feel like I’m missing half the story here.

Vampires at Sea by Lindsay Merbaum is a very unique novella that is sleek, mysterious, and sexy at once. This book mainly follows Rebekah, a vampire who feeds on naked desire rather than strictly blood and her husband Hugh as they meet an influencer named Heaven on a queer cruise in the black sea. Hugh falls in love, whereas Rebekah despises Heaven.

This was a fun novella and I was certainly never bored while reading it. Many aspects of the story were left unexplained, and while I wish some of them had been made more clear I do think that leaving them unexplained was purposeful. I was really fascinated by the dynamic between Rebekah and Hugh, and I did like the lore bits we got of how vampires and shapeshifters work. This was a pretty fascinating and fun read, overall!

This was certainly one of the most unique books I've ever read. I didn't know what to expect and I was surprised! The mysterious, magical, lustful atmosphere was so interesting and engaging, and so was the setting. I mean, a queer cruise ship in which everyone's horny all the time and there are vampires and... other creatures... Really cool concept.

I understand that this is a short book and the idea of making everything seem very mysterious and unexplained was intentional, but I would have liked a little more explanation on certain things– especially regarding the supernatural elements and this looming war in the background. It is a matter of taste and preferences, as I'm sure many readers enjoy this overly mysterious element. I just felt, for the most part, as if the author knew so many things I didn't know, and that it was all being whispered next to me, and I couldn't figure out what was going on.

Rebekah, though, was such an interesting main character. You could really feel her insecurities and fears through the page, being masked by her sense of power and immortality. I would have loved to know more about her past and her decades roaming the Earth preceding the story.

The last 40% of the story was very well-paced and I couldn't stop reading. The beginning was a little confusing and slow, but with some time you get used to the curious atmosphere and the quirkiness of it all.

This book provided commentary on the sacrifices of women and how we stamper our ambitions and wishes for the ones we love. It was a powerful novella that was thought-provoking and deeply resonated with me. I appreciate the realizations throughout the story of what she wanted only to have given up so much of herself for her husband and compromised her wants and behavior to please him. I will think about this book for months and how it emotionally rocked me. Superbly done!

Thank you, NetGalley and Creature Publishing for the opportunity to review and provide my feedback.

this book includes some of by favourite things: comedic horror vibes, queer dynamics, and vampires. nothing about vampires or how they operate is known or explored in this book. however, i think this is because the vampiric nature of the characters is more metaphorical than a driving force behind the plot or characterisation. vampires conjure a sense of consumption: whether that is sex or love or attention. at its core this is a story about the intensity of love, of watching the person you love fall away, of fruitlessly clinging onto that love, of learning who you are without that love, and ultimately of understanding that even when it hurts, you’ll be okay and be able to move on without that love. having this happen on a cruise added to the absurdity of this story and allowed for the forced proximity which made the protagonist go through all of the above in such a short amount of time. the length of the story worked well in that it gave us all we needed without excess—which is ironic as the protagonist is all about excess.

This was unlike anything I have ever read before. I went in with no expectations and found the story slow to begin with until I got stuck in. I do not know if it is a book that will stay with me though I appreciated the representation within it and loved its queerness. I am a fan of all things Vampiric and this was definitely one of the more unique vampire stories I have ever read I have to say.

I will say that the pacing felt a little off and the writing style was sometimes not to my taste but I am still very much glad to have been able to read it.

This was a fun and funny read, moved quickly and amused me throughout. World building was minimal but pacing was good and the cruise setting somehow made it all funnier. Entertaining novella.

A very interesting quick read about queer vampires being on vacation. I found that the emotions coming across were particularly emphasized so that they were over-the-top, and the slow burning was unnaturally satisfying. The novel doesn't focus too much on plot, rather focusing on the characters. This is not a scary story, though at first it sounds like it would be forbidding. Instead, we get a romcom. The writing style takes a moment to get into.

Thank you NetGalley and Creature Publishing for the arc copy for my honest review.