Adrift 🌳

By Will Dean.

Adrift by Will Dean is a high tension psychological thriller that slowly tightens its grip until it becomes almost unbearable.

Dark, claustrophobic, and emotionally devastating, this is a book that demands your full attention.

Peggy and Drew, both aspiring writers, move onto an isolated canal boat with their fourteen year old son, Samson.

Peggy is the emotional anchor of the family, quietly holding everything together while Drew grows increasingly resentful of her sudden writing success. Their son, bullied relentlessly for his appearance and their lack of money, dreams only of escape. As Drew’s frustration grows, he begins moving the boat further and further from civilisation, cutting the family off from support, stability, and safety.

What follows is a harrowing examination of control, isolation, and generational trauma.

Drew controls the finances, the living conditions, and even the silence of the boat, insisting Peggy and Samson remain quiet so he can focus on his own work. Peggy is allowed to volunteer but not earn, slowly being stripped of independence and confidence through relentless gaslighting.

The canal boat becomes both a physical and psychological trap, amplifying every fear and fracture within the family.

Dean writes Peggy and Samson with extraordinary empathy. Their inner lives feel painfully real, making their suffering deeply affecting. Samson’s loneliness and quiet resilience are especially heartbreaking, while Peggy’s slow awakening to the reality of her situation is handled with care and devastating precision.

Drew, meanwhile, is chilling in his plausibility, not a caricature, but a frighteningly believable portrait of coercive control.

The atmosphere is thick with dread. Dean explores claustrophobia and cruelty in a way that seeps under the skin, building tension through small moments as much as explosive ones. Each page feels heavy with inevitability as the family’s isolation intensifies and the consequences of Drew’s actions spiral.

This is a gripping, emotionally raw book that stays focused on character as much as plot. I was completely consumed by the journey of this family, particularly Peggy and Samson, and I have rarely empathised so strongly with characters in a thriller.

Adrift is unsettling, compulsive, and unforgettable, Thank you so much to Alainna and the team at Hodder & Stoughton for running this book-tour! The book is out now and available to purchase.

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