From the Belly

This does not feel like a finished draft of a book.The world building is wholly inadequate. Is this a fantasy world with gods? Is this a version of our world? What century is this in? Are gods understood as a real element of the world, or are they an element of superstition? What powers do the gods have? What does the layout of the boat look like? What does Isaiah look like? None of these questions are answered sufficiently and leaves the whole setting feeling hazy, which did not help with the hard to follow plot.There were too many characters and names to keep track of, and I'm only somewhat confident that I knew who everyone was in the end. When there is nothing to distinguish between the dozen or so characters except occasionally rank, it is really hard to tell what's happening.I did like the illustrations, but I felt that there were too few? They felt more random than they should have been.There were numerous typos and inconsistencies throughout. For example, at one point 25 is written as both 25 and twenty-five. At another point Isaiah is reading notes that say that someone was "of indeterminable age" and then almost immediately was "between 25-30," which just feels like the author kept two versions of the same section and didn't notice. Further, there is also a lot of repetitive word choices? Akimbo, preternaturally, and paltry are all used at least 3 times, often quite close to other instances. This seems like a small detail, what are 3 words among a several thousand word novel? But I noticed it being repetitive every time.The pacing is odd and the romance feels unjustified. Throughout most of the book, nothing happens except more people get sick. Isaiah is not cruel to the man from the whale, so that means that they're in love and no actual development of their relationship needs to happen, apparently.The acknowledgements mention how this novel is the press' debut, and unfortunately it shows. This book needed more editing and care than it probably had the resources for, and that's disappointing because this really has the bones of something great. I adored the body horror elements of it and this had so much potential, but in almost all elements of its execution it just fell flat.