🌊 Book Review: Eerie Basin by Ivy Pochoda (Kindle Edition, Amazon Original Stories)
A haunting, atmospheric short story that blends urban transformation with supernatural dread—Eerie Basin is Ivy Pochoda at her most unsettling, delivering a tale where gentrification meets ancient horror in the shadows of Brooklyn’s waterfront.
🧠 Overview
Published on October 1, 2025, Eerie Basin is a 72-page standalone short story set in Red Hook, Brooklyn, a neighborhood caught between its gritty past and glossy present.
The protagonist, Erin, tends bar at the last dive left standing in a rapidly gentrifying area. Her boss, Jimmy, is a former beat cop turned real estate mogul—one of the very people reshaping the neighborhood. But Jimmy harbors a secret: years ago, two neglected boys led him to a creature hidden in the depths of the waterfront, a being that granted him success… and nightmares.
Erin doesn’t believe his story—until the bar itself begins to change. Something ancient and hungry lurks beneath the surface, and it’s looking for a new host.
👁️ Key Themes & Highlights
- 🏙️ Urban decay vs. gentrification – The clash between old Brooklyn and its polished reinvention.
- 🧟 Supernatural horror – A monster that feeds on ambition and exacts a blood price.
- 🍻 Bar as liminal space – The dive bar becomes a portal between past and present, myth and reality.
- 🧠 Memory & myth – The story plays with unreliable narration and the power of storytelling.
- ✍️ Pochoda’s style – Gritty, lyrical, and deeply rooted in place.
“The tax on achieving your dreams must sometimes be paid in blood.” — Editor’s note
💬 Reader Reception
- ⭐ Goodreads rating: ~3.56/5 based on early reviews
- 📖 Readers praise its moody atmosphere, tight pacing, and blend of noir and horror.
- 🧾 Some note that the story leans more on tone and mystery than action, but its slow-burn dread is part of the appeal.
⚠️ Considerations
- 📄 Short format – Best read as a one-sitting experience; don’t expect full character arcs.
- 🧠 Ambiguous horror – The creature’s nature and origin are left deliberately vague.
- 📚 Standalone – Part of the Amazon Original Stories line, but not tied to a larger series.
🏁 Final Verdict
Eerie Basin is a chilling, character-driven horror short that uses Brooklyn’s shifting landscape as a metaphor for buried secrets and the cost of ambition. Perfect for fans of literary horror, urban legends, and stories where the past refuses to stay buried.
