so i'm around chapter 3 now. so far the book's pacing is kinda slow? but i'm not sure how much that has to do with me listening to the audiobook vs reading it?
the prologue is kinda useless. a lot of words to essentially just say "evolution is gonna come along and make a creature that is sooo scary just you wait." chapter 1 opens with two couples on a boat going to have lunch somewhere. we get a few cuts to "ooo there's something scary down there! it's gonna eat that seagull!" but i don't think any seagulls actually get eaten? the point is to establish the spooky critters can fly.
in chapter 2 one of the creatures gets left behind & ends up jumping onto the boat. it flops around a bit trying to fly while everybody hems and haws about what is that thing. one of the girls, theresa, knows enough about fish to know that this is some kind of ray. it bites her when she tries to help it off the boat but she's fine. the thing finally manages to fly off the boat.
theresa's like, hmm, i should look into this. she remembers this one time when she went to a manta ray aquarium that sucked because it didn't even have any mantas and decides to go ask somebody there.
gotta be honest, not really feelin the fishy frights here. the creature just seemed kinda sad tbh. i was kinda expecting the first chapter to be the typical first kill scene, which might have been cliché but it would have been better than what we got lol
that being said, the concept of a manta-less manta ray aquarium is just so funny to me. like, do they just have other rays on display? or do they just not have anything? are there even any fish at this aquarium?
"where are the mantas? oh, y'know. around. well okay we don't actually have any mantas. but we will. Soon. take a few more laps around the gift shop i'm sure they'll turn up eventually"