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studiouspencil's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
I was all set to give this 5 stars based on the premise- evil flesh eating mermaids, WLW, autistic and disabled rep, hard sci-fi, but I found the writing a bit off putting. The third person omniscient made me feel detached, and the sort of dry statements that are common in this style drained a lot of the tension for me.
I loved a lot of the characters, particularly Doctor Toth and Olivia Sanderson, but I felt we never delved as deep as I wanted to go into their emotional states.
I thought Olivia was really interesting as autism representation. She reminds me of myself in that she’s clearly high masking and using scripts, repeated phrases, and and studying the people around her to get through social interactions. She’s constantly mentioned as having a flat affect and little to no emotion on her face unless she’s “performing” it deliberately, something I also struggle with. However I kept expecting her to crash. One cannot go through a deeply stressful situation like this as an autistic person without stimming, going nonverbal, melting down or shutting down, and just plain losing it. She seemed unrealistically composed to me.
As for the science. I’ve seen some complaints about the scientific infodumping but I LOVE the way marine biology was incorporated. Everything felt soooo realistic and it made things much eerier in my opinion. I could picture how these creatures looked and moved and thought and it was a constant reminder of how unexplored the ocean really is.
I enjoyed the ‘angler fish’ twist at the end but I thought the ending itself was a bit rushed- I would have liked to see the siege of the ship start earlier so we could develop who these characters are in a crisis before everything ended. I wanted to see more of the siren’s language and the captive siren. I wanted more tension around the toxin element, I wanted more moments where the mimicry came into play.
All and all a solid book with a rushed final section
I loved a lot of the characters, particularly Doctor Toth and Olivia Sanderson, but I felt we never delved as deep as I wanted to go into their emotional states.
I thought Olivia was really interesting as autism representation. She reminds me of myself in that she’s clearly high masking and using scripts, repeated phrases, and and studying the people around her to get through social interactions. She’s constantly mentioned as having a flat affect and little to no emotion on her face unless she’s “performing” it deliberately, something I also struggle with. However I kept expecting her to crash. One cannot go through a deeply stressful situation like this as an autistic person without stimming, going nonverbal, melting down or shutting down, and just plain losing it. She seemed unrealistically composed to me.
As for the science. I’ve seen some complaints about the scientific infodumping but I LOVE the way marine biology was incorporated. Everything felt soooo realistic and it made things much eerier in my opinion. I could picture how these creatures looked and moved and thought and it was a constant reminder of how unexplored the ocean really is.
I enjoyed the ‘angler fish’ twist at the end but I thought the ending itself was a bit rushed- I would have liked to see the siege of the ship start earlier so we could develop who these characters are in a crisis before everything ended. I wanted to see more of the siren’s language and the captive siren. I wanted more tension around the toxin element, I wanted more moments where the mimicry came into play.
All and all a solid book with a rushed final section
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gun violence, Animal death, Blood, Violence, and Gore
Moderate: Ableism
Minor: Medical content and Misogyny
gawdz0rz's review against another edition
dark
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.25
absolutely loved the mermaids and the concept behind them, super unique. i really enjoyed the alternating pov, as well. and the dolphin chapter. the book was really slow at the beginning, but if you can make it to when they’re actually on the boat, it picks up.
a bit disappointing the mermaids didn’t use their mimicry to trick humans to open doors or come around corners or something similar.
also, the implosion of heather’s submersible would not have left any remains behind, and she would not have lived long enough to see water make it into the submersible at that depth.
overall a really good book and clearly written with another one in mind!
also, the implosion of heather’s submersible would not have left any remains behind, and she would not have lived long enough to see water make it into the submersible at that depth.
overall a really good book and clearly written with another one in mind!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Blood, and Gore
Moderate: Animal death
Minor: Biphobia, Misogyny, Ableism, and Animal cruelty
catinaflatcap's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
Content Warnings
Moderate: Violence, Animal death, Gore, Death, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, and Medical content
Minor: Ableism and Drug use
itsheyfay's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
informative
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
3.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Body horror, Death, Blood, Gore, Grief, and Medical content
Moderate: Ableism, Drug use, Abandonment, Animal death, Toxic relationship, and Gun violence
Minor: Child abuse
pryingblackbird's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence and Blood
Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Body horror, and Gore
Minor: Biphobia and Ableism
hauntedantiqueshop's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
I had so much fun with this read! I loved the 2011 mockumentary Mermaids: The Body Found so much when I was a teenager (even after I realized it was fake) and this book was so clearly inspired by it. The mermaids/sirens in this are so cool and vicious and the use of interspecies sign language was so unique. The ending was a little lackluster but I think it’s overall good so it kinda makes up for that. rip to those dolphins tho
Content Warnings
Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Grief, Gore, Body horror, Death, and Animal death
Moderate: Medical content, Confinement, and Kidnapping
Minor: Ableism
writeasiread's review against another edition
challenging
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
4.75
Content Warnings
Moderate: Medical content, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Gore, Animal death, Animal cruelty, Death, and Body horror
Minor: Ableism
trashkingmax's review against another edition
challenging
dark
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.75
Into the Drowning Deep is a fantastic read. It has a slow start to introduce readers to a plentiful cast of characters that are so deeply human in a way that a lot of horror novels don't get into with secondary characters. Once the action picks up, though, it doesn't slow down. The only reason I didn't give this book 5 stars is that the ending felt a little too light on details.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Fire/Fire injury, Blood, Sexism, Gun violence, Drug use, Ableism, Animal cruelty, Confinement, Murder, Drug abuse, Animal death, Alcohol, Abandonment, Death, Body horror, Gore, Violence, and Toxic relationship
Moderate: Grief, Suicidal thoughts, and Biphobia
Minor: Medical content, Sexual content, Xenophobia, War, Genocide, and Panic attacks/disorders
thisonecassie's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
emotional
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
Im just gonna start this with saying, I love the novels prequel, and I highly recommend it as your appetizer before reading Into the Drowning Deep, HOWEVER it does have a note on mermaids that is a bit of a spoiler to the novel. This slight (and I do mean slight) spoiler did NOT affect my enjoyment of the book, BUT if you want to be as 'in the dark' as to what happend to the Atargatis (the boat from the novella, who the Museuline [the boat in this novel] is attempting to research what happened to) as the characters in the novel, not reading the novella would mimic their lack of deep knowledge about the events of the novella, and about mermaids.
This is... I can't think of words that fully encompass how amazing this book is, so im gonna break it down.
Characters: each character is unique, no one feels same-y, nor do any of them feel flat, yes some of them are quite 'cartoony' or 'exaggerated' but it is a novel about killer mermaids for crying out loud, I think its allowed some loud personalities.
Relationships: the character dynamics and the relationships between all of the characters are explored with some amount of depth for nearly all of the characters who interact with one another (aided in part by the use of many points of view, ranging from a whole host of characters as well as a few instances of mermaid POV!!!) You root for all of the characters, even the ones that you don't like, and that in my opinion is what makes a good book great.
Writing style: I love how this book (as well as the novella prequel) is written, the entire book feels like a conversation between me the reader, and the book. (complete with parenthetical side statements about the wider picture and cosmic comedy of the situation at hand)
The horror: I get most of my guts and gore content from whatever executives thought they could get away with putting on tv (aka, criminal minds, bones, supernatural, and my fave the x files <3), so jumping into this amazing book with BLOOD!!! and GUTS!!!! I love it, I LOVE it!!!! i love the tense suspense, i love the pacing of the more intense scenes, LOVE LOVE LOVE!!!
overall: seriously, read this book, head the content warnings, but read it... its amazing. I LOVE it!!.
This is... I can't think of words that fully encompass how amazing this book is, so im gonna break it down.
Characters: each character is unique, no one feels same-y, nor do any of them feel flat, yes some of them are quite 'cartoony' or 'exaggerated' but it is a novel about killer mermaids for crying out loud, I think its allowed some loud personalities.
Relationships: the character dynamics and the relationships between all of the characters are explored with some amount of depth for nearly all of the characters who interact with one another (aided in part by the use of many points of view, ranging from a whole host of characters as well as a few instances of mermaid POV!!!) You root for all of the characters, even the ones that you don't like, and that in my opinion is what makes a good book great.
Writing style: I love how this book (as well as the novella prequel) is written, the entire book feels like a conversation between me the reader, and the book. (complete with parenthetical side statements about the wider picture and cosmic comedy of the situation at hand)
The horror: I get most of my guts and gore content from whatever executives thought they could get away with putting on tv (aka, criminal minds, bones, supernatural, and my fave the x files <3), so jumping into this amazing book with BLOOD!!! and GUTS!!!! I love it, I LOVE it!!!! i love the tense suspense, i love the pacing of the more intense scenes, LOVE LOVE LOVE!!!
overall: seriously, read this book, head the content warnings, but read it... its amazing. I LOVE it!!.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Gun violence, Blood, Cursing, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, and Violence
Minor: Ableism
nightstitch96's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Grief, Blood, and Gore
Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Animal death, Medical content, and Ableism
Minor: Biphobia, Toxic relationship, and Sexual violence