Reviews tagging 'Medical content'

Into the Drowning Deep by Mira Grant

78 reviews

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 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Animal death, Blood, Violence, and Gore

Moderate: Ableism

Minor: Medical content and Misogyny

librarymouse's review against another edition

dark funny 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

5.0

 Seanan McGuire as herself and as Mira Grant always has such a strong writing style, making her characters funny even in the darkest of settings and situations. I read this before I read Rolling in the Deep, and I'm glad I did for the sense of mystery that choice allowed. McGuire is very good at feeding readers bits of information that become pertinent to the plot in such a way that plot twists feel more like pieces of a puzzle finally fitting together, as opposed to the rug being pulled out from underneath the reader. I do really enjoy how competent the characters are and I loved the disability representation. Having multiple physically and socially disabled characters in a story added so much nuance to the storytelling and the interactions between characters. 

Heads up: It's very gory. Remember going into the novel that mermaids originated from myths in which they lured sailors to their deaths to eat them.

I was listening to this on audiobook while driving, and when I got to my destination, I paused it and told the friend I was meeting "There's not much book left, and it's not getting better 😐," in reference to the characters' situation. The storytelling was uniformly enjoyable!
The book does finish quickly after extended suspense, but I think I may enjoy that a good part of it was left unresolved. Tori coming to tolerate and then to love(?) Olivia was good closure for the plot point of Anne's death that started the novel, offering the possibility of Tori being able to move forward from her sister's death, if not move on from it. I hope there's a sequel. There's enough still left unfinished for one, though I've seen that the publishing company may have rejected McGuire's proposal.

 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Murder, Cannibalism, Confinement, Medical trauma, Injury/Injury detail, Gun violence, Violence, Animal death, Blood, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Medical content, Mental illness, Body horror, and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Sexual content

Cannibalism tagged for humanoids eating humans

maryam16080208's review against another edition

medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical content, Medical trauma, and Violence

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

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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

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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

aas's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-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? Yes

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Violence, Confinement, Fire/Fire injury, Gun violence, Death, Body horror, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Drug use, Blood, Gore, Murder, and Grief

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

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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

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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.

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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

tabookish's review against another edition

tense medium-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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical content, Death, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Confinement, Grief, and Animal death