Michael Regina’s debut in 2021, The Sleepover, established him as a creator of thoughtful horror stories for a middle grade audience. His sophomore effort, Deepwater Creek, repeats this theme but with a new group of kids.
It’s the last fishing trip of summer and brothers Wade and Andrew and their friends Camilla and Tommy are determined to enjoy themselves with the brothers’ dad, despite the recent destruction of a hurricane and the resultant rumors that… something… is causing problems in the river. The dynamic of the brothers – Andrew, hesitant and cautious, Wade, constantly pushing him past his boundaries – is established during the trip while Camilla and Tommy are more background characters. Then disaster strikes. A strange fog rolls in, the fish start looking strange, and Andrew and their dad go overboard. Wade manages to help them escape, but there’s… something… in the water, seen only dimly as a blacker shape with three gleaming red eyes and a sharp horn against a cloud of shadows.
In the aftermath of the accident, Andrew withdraws into himself but Wade refuses to leave him alone and eventually convinces him, and their friends, to make another trip up the river and face their fears. Their journey will lead them into a terrifying world of strange underwater creatures and dark secrets from the past, forcing them to confront not only the monsters hiding in the fog but also their own fears.
Regina’s art has a distinctive, swirling look, due to the watercolors used to paint it. Regina’s medium is perfect for the story, with dirty grey fog drifting throughout the images and terrifying shadows lurking under the dark, murky water. Even the sunny day at the very beginning has ominous yellowish clouds in the sky and the story grows darker and darker as it progresses, with monstrous shapes only partially glimpsed through the clouds until they are briefly but fully revealed, evil red “eyes” blazing against churning teeth and whipping tentacles. When the group flees the monster, pushing through the fog to find the deserted wreck left from the monster’s last incursion, the art shifts to sepia tones. They encounter a “survivor” who tells the story and its disastrous results. After this sequence builds to a terrifying revelation, the small group plunges back into the fog, desperately trying to survive, the increasing darkness pierced only by strange sparks of light. The story ends in the dark water, now cleansed of the monster, as the two brothers together swim towards the bright light of the day and future.
This is classic horror, the monsters shown as both a very real menace and a dark, terrifying mystery with a deeper layer to the story reflecting on the hidden layers of the characters involved in the story. Both Wade and Andrew have layers of feelings they are hiding, especially Wade, who covers his anxieties over future change with his pushy insistence on Andrew “getting over it” and sticking with the group of friends. Andrew and Wade’s mom speaks Spanish, Tommy is Black, and Camilla is white with blonde hair. Although secondary characters, both Tommy and Camilla are fully realized people; Camilla has her own scientific agenda and can take over leadership when needed and Tommy has a dry sense of humor, firm loyalty, and a determined, practical streak that keeps the group going through their adventure.
Readers who ventured into Regina’s previous book will be excited and nervous about stepping into another one of his strange worlds, where a new group of intrepid kids overcome their fears and venture forward to face both the monsters that lurk in the shadows and their own insecurities. The story will remain in readers’ imaginations long after they finish it, not just for the delicious thrill of what might be hiding in the shadows, but also for the hope of seeing the light beyond the darkness of fear, change, and grief.
Deepwater CreekÂ
By Michael Regina
Penguin Random House, 2025
ISBN: 9780593117378Â
NFNT Age Recommendation: Middle Grade (7-11), Tween (10-13)
