Fangtooth

by Shaun Jeffrey

After the death of his wife, Bruce Holden moves to the quaint coastal fishing village of Mulberry with his son, Jack. He is hoping for a fresh start, but the locals greet their arrival with mixed reactions, from friendliness to open hostility. Bruce puts it down to them being outsiders, but when a tourist is killed while swimming, the real horror is unleashed. There's something ravenous in the sea. Something that's coming ashore in search of prey. Now Bruce and Jack find themselves embroiled in a nightmare where humankind is no longer at the top of the food chain.

First there was the Creature From The Black Lagoon…
Then there was Jaws…
Prepare yourself for Fangtooth.

Genres: Horror

246 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2011

About the author

Shaun Jeffrey was brought up in a house in a cemetery, so it was only natural for his prose to stray towards the dark side when he started writing. He has had five novels published, The Kult, Killers, Evilution, Fangtooth and Deadfall, and one collection of short stories, Voyeurs of Death. He has also had over 40 short stories published in places such as Dark Discoveries and Cemetery Dance. His novel The Kult was optioned for film.

Reviews

[Kimberly · Rating 5 out of 5]

I pre-ordered this one as soon as I could. I loved the premise--and seriously, what's not to love about a monster story--LOL! A very entertaining read that captivated my attention right from the start. I really liked the characters, and felt that I was in the story with them the entire way. Yes, I would recommend this to all who appreciate a good "monster' story. :)

[Mae Clair · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you like SyFy's monster movies, you'll love this book. A widower moves his teen son to a quaint fishing village, not realizing it has a horrible secret. It isn't long before mutant fish with razor-fanged teeth are terrorizing the village. The widower and his son find themselves in the middle of the situation. Along with a colorful assortment of characters that include love interests for both the father and the son and a fisherman with questionable ethics, there's plenty of action...and plenty of gore.

Break out the popcorn! This is a fun read that I would love to see translated to SyFy!

[Robert Krone · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked this up recently from the publisher during a sale, and I am very glad that I did! I have been looking at getting this for a while, as I thought it sounded like an enjoyable read. Really like that cover too, of course. :) Really enjoyed the action and the interaction between the characters. If you don't like descriptions of gore, I would suggest avoiding this title, but if you do like that kind of stuff I highly recommend picking this one up! This was my first read of Jeffrey's work, but I have picked up more since reading it.

[Lorraine Versini · Rating 5 out of 5]

Definitely rating this one as one of my favouritest stories. It starts with a bang and draws you right in, and then keeps you on the edge of your seat right until the end.
It's a really good mix of everything: grief, difficult relationships, love, a bit of romance, some seriously crazy and weird people, some gore, and definitely lots of suspense and lots of action. Me = happy reader !
I had an absolute great time reading this book, such a shame it's so hard to get hold of, more people should read it !

[Neil · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fangtooth, part Jaws, part Wicker Man. This is a romping good old monster tale.

[Justin · Rating 1 out of 5]

Dnf at 70% it started out very scoby doo ish, then kind of reminded me a bit of clickers but that's just because there are not many sea monster type books I have read. A little over halfway through it switches to an all out action novel when the sea monsters attack and started boring the hell out of me. I don't like a lot of action packed novels and since I don't really care about the characters or the outcome of the story I have no desire to stick it out and see how it ends even though I'm 70% into it.

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

This one came recommended by Jeffrey Kosh, since he knew I was a fan of creature features, and right off the bat, I have to say, based on this particular novel, it's a shame Shaun Jeffrey stopped writing (or so I've been told), and I will be checking out his other books.

Fangtooth hooks you from the very beginning. Howser, captain of the Silver Queen, spies an odd configuration on this ship's tracking equipment. All the technology is new to him and he pretty much leaves it to his more knowledgeable crew. Billy Trasker admits to having never seen anything like it. It could be a school of fish, but it might be something else. Well, whatever it is, it attacks the shipping; the ship sinks, taking the crew with it.

Then we're introduced to Bruce Holden, a recently widowed man, and his son Jack and their dog Shazam. I have to admit I almost stopped reading here. For some reason, whenever pets are introduced, they usually used as cannon fodder, one of the first victims of the big bad that lets the locals know something sinister is afoot. Thankfully, that doesn't happen. Hoping for a new start, Bruce and his son have moved to the small coastal village of Mulberry. Typical of scenarios like this, the son is an unwilling captive, being underage and having to cave to parental will, and he makes his displeasure know. From day 1, we know they're in for trouble, when they find the town crazy in their house. We will later learn that she becomes the cause of all the trouble for the Holdens. You seen, Mulberry is experiencing a drought of sorts. Besides the developments that were built all around the town, essentially cutting off the lifeblood to the residents, the waters appear to have been fished out, further jeopardizing the future of the town. We also learn later that the previous residents of the Holdens' new home, which has been vandalized with some strange, creepy graffiti, disappeared mysteriously. And through the Holdens, we're introduced to Erin and Jen, potential love interests for father and son, respectively. And we also find out the reason for the depleted fish population: giant, mutated, deep sea fish known as Fangtooths, and crazy Lillian believes that in order for to make the Fangtooths return to the depths and for the fishing to return to normal, a sacrifice needs to be made, and that sacrifice turns out to be the town's newest residents, since all the trouble started once they arrived. Best laid plans never go off without a hitch, and for folks who have enjoyed movies like Piranha and SyFy's Mega-Piranha, we know fish don't travel alone, and what was thought to be a one-off mutant turns out to be an entire school, and before you know it, the town of Mulberry is under siege.

This is one of those books where you curse life for interfering with your reading time because you just can't put it down (at least, that was my experience), but alas you must. Jeffrey does a great job leading the reader onward, ending each chapter in a min cliffhanger and compelling the reader to keep reading. He's fleshed out his characters, the main ones at least, so you find yourself rooting for them to come out of this thing unscathed. Others he provided just enough detail to make them interesting, and then there's the cannon fodder, folks we know nothing about except that they aren't going to make it out if this siege alive. And I confess, as much as I was rooting for the Holdens and those they cared about, I was more concerned with what happened to Shazam. I'm often criticized for my view of the treatment of animals in horror fiction: I don't care how many people you kill (kids, adult, old people), just leave the animals alone. And by animals, I mean the family pets. And folks will ask, But what about the fish? In this case, even though they are doing what nature has programmed them to do, they are still the Big Bad here, mutations that should not exist within the realms of nature, so they have to go. So, for folks like me, yes, Shazam does survive.

If you're a fan on nature strikes back horror, films and books like Night of the Lepus (adapted from The Year of the Angry Rabbit), Jaws, Piranha, Grizzly, and a whole host of movies from SyFy, then I can't recommend this book enough. Just turn off the TV, disconnect from Facebook and other social media, shut down your phones and tablets (unless you read on them), put up the Gone Fishin' sign, and and prepare for an action-packed tale of terror from the deep.

[Terry and dog · Rating 4 out of 5]

Boy, Mulberry is a messed up little town. It has it's share (plus a little more), of lunatics, and bullies, not to mention weird vicious sea creatures. At first it seems like a charming place but that image fades very quickly. There are good people and they are forced to fight for their lives in an epic battle against the sea beasts. Great setting, some good characters and lots of disgusting people behavior as well as violent creature action, make this a fast read that doesn't slow down. Super enjoyable.

[Christian · Rating 3 out of 5]

Tropey b-horror monster fun

[Marc-Antoine · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fun read, reminds me of a low budget monster movie. Quite campy and cheesy at times, but it works.

[Kathy Jackson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I did enjoy this book about these weird creatures that came out of the ocean to eat a village.  I was a bit disappointed how long it took the creatures to show up more than the first couple glances to stir up the anticipation.  

A bit predictable, I will say, but since I read it with a lot of interruptions, I found the predictability worked better for me.  

Still, a fun little read that might make me hesitant to go back into the ocean if I still lived in Florida.  Course, I never was stupid enough to go in the water at night.   I give the book a B+.

[constance coleman-loach · Rating 5 out of 5]

Captivating

The book was worth reading . The story kept you wanting to keep on reading. Wish there was more.I love reads like this.

[Shaun Horton · Rating 2 out of 5]

There was a lot in this book that I didn't like. Things that didn't make sense, or were cliche`. That being said, there is some very good prose in here, the monsters are fairly original, and the general story carries itself fairly well.


It begins with Bruce and his son Jack moving out of the city and into Mulberry after Bruce's wife and Jack's mother passed away and Bruce bought the house in the small coastal town sight unseen. Of course, Jack is none too happy to move out of the city (London, the only hint you're getting that this book is set in the UK, aside from being aware of some of the differences in spelling. I honestly kept imagining somewhere in north California).

The first day in town, both Bruce and Jack meet women. Bruce meets Erin, a marine biologist. Jack meets Jen, a local girl. Of course, Jen is already kind of with a local boy, Rocky, who seems to be the town bully, and instantly, Rocky and Jack are at odds over her.

At the same time as Bruce and Jack's arrival, things are going south for the town. The local fishermen have caught nothing for a few weeks and before Bruce and Jack drive into town, one of the two fishing vessels go down. The day of their arrival, a tourist is dragged underwater, never to resurface, and the next day, Erin and her diving partner on their research vessel are attacked on a dive. Her partner is killed, but she makes it up to the surface after a battle with the creature.

The local nutcase, Jen's grandma, thinks the problems with the fishing can be solved with a little human sacrifice. She knocks out Jack and ties him up on the beach with the tide coming in. Fortunately, Bruce and Erin notice he's missing, find Jen, who blames Rocky, dumps him, and grabs her friend to help look. Jen finds him first, just as the tide is getting over his head. That's when the monster first truly reveals itself.

The Fangtooth is a deep-sea fish, usually about six to eight inches long. For some reason, these ones are about four feet, come with arms and legs, and can breath air. Eventually, everyone is reunited and fighting off an entire shoal of hundreds of the things.

One thing I enjoyed in the story at this point, was the turn-around of Rocky's character. Despite Jack stealing his girl and challenging his position of power, he recognizes they have a bigger collective issue and decides working together isn't so bad. Unfortunately, the other members of the town who knew about the sacrificing attempt don't go through a similar transformation. One in particular, continues trying to kill the other people even while the town is being overrun by Fangtooth.

Then they discover something the monsters fear. Fire. Hmm. Yeah, I have no idea why you would expect fish to be afraid of fire. Especially deep-water fish, where light generally means food. On top of that, the way the townsfolk survive is by building a massive bonfire and huddling around it. Yeah. If fire keeps them away, how is it going to work when the people are standing between the monsters and the fire?

Finally, dawn brings police and the freaking army. Bruce and Jack decide to go back to the city they came from. Jen goes with because her Grandma was eaten, her father killed her mother, and then killed himself, supposedly over the whole human sacrifice thing. Erin goes too, just because, why not?


Like I said, I liked the turn-around of Rocky's character, the book from about 40 - 75% is great, and the story itself is okay. It's just the details and the execution of the beginning and the very end that really broke the book for me. Close to the end, one of the characters ducks into a house to help an old man that was attacked, and in the middle of that little chapter, is about a 250-word section going into extreme detail of what the old man's living room looked like. It completely broke the tension that had been building up to that point.

Also, there are hands and feet being severed left and right and intestines flopping everywhere. The intestines I had no problem with, but when you continually describe your monster's teeth as thin and needle-like, you should understand you're going to get lots of puncture wounds, but not so many severed limbs.

[Jeff · Rating 5 out of 5]

I waited a long time for this book. The Minute I first saw the cover of it, which is the cover art for the hardcover book I knew it was something I had to read, even before reading the synopsis. Why is that? Well, its because im a huge fan of monster stories and movie and well anything "monster". After I read what it was about, I knew I needed it. I've been basically reading urban Fantasy straight on for a few years, but, after following up on other authors of the same genre, which I found on Amazon, I discovered a whole new era of horror, that I haven't seen in a while.

Trying for months to find a affordable copy of Fangtooth was difficult at best, since it was only in limited hardcover format. But just recently it became available as a print to order book.
I'm not the fastest reader inthe world but not the slowest, I like to enjoy a good story. But for me I finished this book in about three days. I'm sure its slow by some other readers.

The mark of any good author is how fast their "hook" is. which is usually the first chapter. I was hooked right away. What I liked about Shaun Jeffery's book is that it gives you just enough back history on the main characters and places to make it all work. At times some authors may concentrate a little too much on their characters, which is all well and good, but not every story needs that specific plan. This novel has enough to make it all work. Its pretty well fast paced and the story rolls on. As if just walking into the middle of a scene in a movie, both you and the main subjects are quickly consumed by the events that had already started to unroll before all hell breaks loose. You've just walked into a series of unfortunate events, and now you have to deal with it.
You know enough about them to care about them and even more as the story goes on. Now the creatures, these are sea creatures, that are seemingly based on something as real as it can be. that's all I'll say about it. Once again, the action is swift and the story moves quickly.
Its hard to write a review of it without giving away all the good points, but I will say this, Its a monster story that I can see being made into a movie if it was brought up to a studio.

All in all, I do recommend this. As with a lot of the newer authors, its good to see them writing horror in the way it was written a long time ago but with newer flair.

[James Seger · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fangtooth is a silly, fun monster story about mutant fish-men attacking a quaint, seaside village. If that description didn’t make you smile, you probably won’t like the book. I did like it quite a bit. When I first heard about the book, it sounded similar to James Moore’s Deeper. The two books do have some similarities, except this book is good.

I enjoyed Shaun Jeffrey’s writing. He moved the story swiftly along and added just enough extraneous details keep the story from feeling shallow. There wasn’t much to the characters, but for a book that only wants to be the literary equivalent of Roger Corman’s Humanoids From The Deep, there doesn’t need to be. The main characters worked well enough. I remembered who was who as the story jumped from character to character.

I appreciated that the author was able to give a reader the flavour of life in a sleepy seaside town. Details were given about fishing boats, nautical slang and the like that seemed genuine enough. The author either already knew the lifestyle or did some research (the lack of such detail was one of my major criticisms with the above-mentioned Deeper).

Mr. Jeffrey seems to revel in vivid descriptions of gore, but at heart he’s not an extreme horror writer along the lines of Ed Lee or Clive Barker. His sensibilities seem to be much more traditional, which any more in horror fiction was a nice change of pace.

I do think the book wrapped everything up too quickly. Even for a book that is essentially about piranhas with legs, the ending felt a little too rushed and unbelievable. There’s also a plot about some sinister goings-on in the town’s past that added to the tension, but ultimately felt like an under-developed dead end.

My problems with the book were small ones. Overall, Fangtooth is an enjoyable, quick monster story. Shaun Jeffrey isn’t going to unseat Stephen King anytime soon, but I enjoyed this book enough that I immediately picked up the similarly silly-named Eviloution.

If you’re on the edge, but are tempted by the description or lurid cover, I say take the plunge.

[Mark Polino · Rating 4 out of 5]

As others have said, Fangtooth reminded me of a SyFy channel B movie, all of that in good way. Competing love interests, monsters, bad buys, everything is in there. I had two problems with the book though. I kept forgetting it was set in England. Something about the dialogue kept making me think it was set in the U.S. then I'd hit a term like Lorry and remember that this was set on the English coast. I don't have that problem with other books and I couldn't pin down and example so maybe it's just me. Secondly, I really wanted and origin story for the Fangtooth. (fang teeth? fangtooths?). Were they mutations due to overfishing, did someone spill chemical waist, aliens,? Where did they come from?

Still, its a fun read and worth the time.

[Penny · Rating 3 out of 5]

The perfect beach read...  
 
It's over the top.
 
Cheesy.
 
Has almost every horror cliché possible.
 
A little romance.
 
Small town with crazy folk.
 
A horde of monsters with huge appetites.
 
Would make a great movie on the SyFi channel.
 
At the end of every chapter I kept waiting to hear: Da Da Daaaaaaaaa!!!
 
Is it a great book? No. but it's good.
Is it funny? I thought it was hilarious. I'm just not sure that was the writer's intention.
 
Great Cover- Good entertaining Fun read. 
 
 
 
 

[Mel · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a fun book. It was well written and I thought, pretty scary. I pretty much loved this one. I wanted to be entertained this did the trick. It was written well, it had some moments that put me on edge, and the creatures were pretty Lovecraftian. All in all a fun Large Monster book with some creepy elements of small town, we don’t like newcomers, thrown in the mix. It has some gore (not horrible) and B movie comic book type violence so if you are extra sensitive to that then those bits might bother you. If you are a horror fan and you like B movie type monster stuff with some Lovecraft influence thrown in the mix then you might enjoy this one. I did.

[Bob Cantrell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mutant fish on my

This was a good mutant animal attack story. Only this time there is more than one mutant fish. The characters were okay for the most part. Along that line though was one of my problems the dad in the story meets a woman and suddenly there are romantic sparks flying, which is okay since the dad is a widower. One thing I did like was a plot twist that I didn't see coming. I wish there had been a reason for the mutant fish instead of some random ideas tossed around. So if you like monster stories check this one out.

[Angela Crawford · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book had been on my wish list forever, so when I saw the request for reviews I jumped at the chance! I am so glad that I did! Creatures from the deep meet Lovecraft. The Fangtooth are a great addition to the sea monster genre (the real thing is scary looking, but these guys are on steroids!). I hope this is just the start, I can't wait to see what else Shaun Jeffrey has to offer. A fast paced, fun read that leaves you wanting more., 4 stars.

[Amanda · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wish that you could give half stars, as this book us a 3.5. A good fun read.

A widower and his son move to a small fishing village. A village in the throes of despair as it's fishing industry is decimated. Bruce just wanted a new start, and he got more than he bargained for.

This was an enjoyable read, as I've already said a good fun read, and the author doesn't pretend to make it anything else. Could gave been a little more tension and the monsters a little scarier.

[Randy Evans · Rating 4 out of 5]

They are big, they are bad, they have arms and legs and can walk like a man. Oh, also they are hungry! Yeah, that's right it's a fish! Not just one strange fish, this guy has a extended family. If you like creature horror stories (which I do) you'll love this one. It has a good plot, likable characters and lots of bloody action and the author has done a real nice job of laying it all out. It's a easy fast read and you will be done in no time at all. Take The Dive! READ IT!

[Stephen Thompson · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was set up nicely. pretty good characters with nice side stories. SPOILER. Then he got way too cute with the stupid dog and ruined the story. Really disappointed, most of the books ive been reading have been great until the ending and the author gets rediculous.