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thebigemmt505's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
“It’s as strong as it needs to be. It exists- it, and everything in it- at the benevolence of something far greater and more terrible than itself.”
The Deep is a a book that encapsulates the horror and mystery of the deep blue sea. We follow Luke, a veterinarian with a troubled past, as he’s called to see his brother in a base built at the bottom of the Mariana Trench.
I really, really loved the atmosphere in this book. It’s consistently eerie and unforgivingly grimy and gory, which, is not for everyone. I’m personally a fan of the body horror in this book as it served a purpose to the main plot, (it showed how disgusting and powerful the ambrosia is). It was not meant to be just for shock value. The world building was really unique. I loved the description of a semi-post apocalyptic world, with a population whose collective head is barely above water against an incurable illness. Everything in The Deep kills slowly; everything is driven to madness then stamped to a pulp. The descriptions are written well and the tension is sustained well throughout the book. We feel the pressure build with those eight miles of water above. There were parts that meandered, and certain flashbacks that felt unnecessary, but overall the pacing was fine. I liked Luke as a character; he was be no means extremely profound or deeply relatable, but likeable and easy to root for. He was perfect for this plot. The plot, speaking of, is really want drew me back to this book over and over. I absolutely love horror that tackles themes of trauma and this struck a great balance for me… well… until… the end.
I was planning to give this four stars until the last part. Admittedly, the full last 50-75 pages or so I found to be a bit messy, but not so bad it impacted my enjoyment. It felt as though it couldn’t wrap up all of its themes, drive them home, so they were left scattered in a pile of gore at the bottom of the Trieste like everyone else in this book. The last part of this book, The Fig Men, was so, so bad. It read like a shitty villain speech, dumping unnecessary and cliché exposition to wrap up all of the parts of this story that were best left to the imagination. I mean come on man, two alien creatures calling the character my child, ancient beings that control parts of the human experience, oOoOoOohhhhh we want to be fReE, fReE so Luke accept our GIIFFTT, everything just… … listen I finished this book moments ago so my thoughts aren’t fully collected, but GOD that really pulled down the rating for me. I legitimately thought that whole section would be revealed as a dream, or at least a mix of dream and Luke’s mind succumbing to grief and madness. When it wasn’t, I let out such a disappointed sigh, my first breath at the surface of this ocean and I was so annoyed I couldn’t even inhale. After reading other reviews, it seems I’m not alone in that thought, at the very least.
Anyways, ending aside, I want to offer my opinion on a part of the book that is quite divisive. There’s lots of talk about the gore in this novel too, notably, the death of LB. Usually, I would have a huge issue with this, not even because of the concept, but because dogs are so often killed off unnecessarily in horror stories purely to shock the viewer. In the case though, I can actually make a pass. LB’s death scene was written with so much care and emotion, much more so than the human deaths. It was gross, it was awful, I did shed tears, but Luke’s love for that creature was evident. I hated her death but I ended up really liking the scene. In addition, everyone else died too, so her death felt less like a sacrifice to the plot and more like a part of it. That’s just my take, though. It was still upsetting to read.
I want to recommend this book, especially if you love aquatic horror but god the ending… you choose on this one. Maybe you’ll love it. The read was still worth it for me, but boy am I let down. Oh well! I would still recommend it more than Our Wives Under The Sea.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Adult/minor relationship, Gore, Grief, Incest, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual content, Violence, and Pedophilia
Moderate: Cursing, Confinement, Pandemic/Epidemic, and Fatphobia
Minor: Murder
carlomartinez__'s review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Animal cruelty, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Death, and Animal death
Moderate: Fatphobia
dragonstea's review against another edition
dark
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
2.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Emotional abuse, Grief, Animal cruelty, Mental illness, Murder, Pandemic/Epidemic, Suicide, Injury/Injury detail, Torture, Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Fatphobia, and Gore
Moderate: Sexual assault, Incest, Child abuse, and Sexual harassment
wonkyfrogg's review
dark
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Death, Dementia, Animal death, Animal cruelty, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, and Confinement
Moderate: Gore, Injury/Injury detail, and Emotional abuse
jn0016's review against another edition
dark
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Injury/Injury detail, Suicide attempt, Terminal illness, Confinement, Violence, and Suicide
Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Excrement, Animal cruelty, Body shaming, Dementia, Incest, Animal death, Gore, Mental illness, Murder, Physical abuse, Death, Fatphobia, Medical content, Medical trauma, and Violence
larry1138's review against another edition
dark
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
I'm opening with this disclaimer: for those of you who are into detailed gore scenes, depressing character backstories, and psychological horror, then this book might actually be good for you. For me, this was self induced torture to read because I went into it thinking it would be a horror experience that I could enjoy. I was very wrong and I'm genuinely glad to be done with the book, which has in fact taught me to set proper boundaries on books: if a book is actually causing a negative physiological or psychological reaction in me, I should definitely stop reading it fully.
This book made me feel nauseated physically and sad mentally, and in the end I didn't even get a modicum of a satisfying ending. Perhaps I should have read some reviews first before I purchased the book but just going by the description, it seemed like this would be right up my ally. I actually typically hate horror, but there is a subgenre that I absolutely LOVE: science fiction horror where a group of people is trapped on a spaceship or space station and something is hunting them. I have no idea why that's really the only horror I can tolerate, but I just know I like it. Underwater research bases are similar to space stations in terms of aesthetic so I enjoy those stories too. I've had great fun reading books in this same genre and playing videogames and watching movies and TV in related genres. There are little throwbacks to some of these very media pieces in this book in fact. And yet, this book was a horrible experience for me for one very important reason: it's not what was advertised.
I thought this story was going to be something akin to the movie Underwater mixed with a little Event Horizon/Pandorum/Dead Space for the psychological parts. What I got was a story that bounced around every possible phobia in the grossest possible ways with the cruelest possible ending. The "trapped in a station with something hunting them" was really just superficial set dressing for what seemed to be Nick Cutter's bread and butter: gore and trauma.
I have a sensitive stomach, so too much goo/blood/vomit/slime/pus/ichor/filth or any other descriptor you want to use makes me sick. I did not, in any way, expect there to be SO MANY disgusting scenes of things bursting out of things, things being squashed, and sound effects of oozing and dripping and squirming. It was ridiculous. I will never see the appeal to gorefests and I will never understand people who like them. Hell, videogames with blood and guts are fine because the gore in those is either realistic (which I can handle) or ridiculous and over the top (which allows me to distance myself from any nauseous feeling). Cutter describes things in horrible detail, and since I have an active imagination, things got very intense. If you have a sensitive stomach, you should not read this book.
The other specialty seems to be emotional trauma. Half of this book isn't even spent inside the Trieste (the name of the underwater research lab). It's spent in the main character's flashbacks. We get to experience the incredibly traumatized life of Luke. These trauma's could have been interesting chances for character and story development if tackled in a sensitive way with a character and story that had the potential for a redemption arc. But this is not that story. The traumas are dumped on Luke incessantly. Hell, even if you wanted to write a book where trauma does actually tragically consume someone, you could've done it WAY better than this. And that's just the mental and emotional flashback trauma. There's plenty of physical trauma to be had whenever we are present with Luke in the station. Bodies are crushed, infested, warped, perverted, violated, and broken.
And perhaps most unforgivable in this book is animal cruelty and animal trauma. Humans can be evil and die off (that's basically the entire focus of modern horror) but nobody except for sociopaths and psychopaths wants to experience animals suffer and die. If you're sensitive to this in particular, stay away from this book. I was able to just blow through these scenes, I didn't want to add too much to my already depressed and saddened mental state from all the other traumas present.
So there I was, approaching the end of the book, actively suffering nausea and having a heavy chest due to sadness. How will Luke and the others survive? How will the aforementioned 'Gets disease be cured? How will these very traumatized characters avoid being consumed by the station? I needed a break of some sort and I sort of got it. There were two moments where Luke seemed to confront a horror in the station but had the mental fortitude and growth to deal with it. "Here we are!" I probably said to myself. The story and characters are finally... protagonizing, and any minute now we'll get a great resolution to a really horrifying story. My suffering will all be worth it.
Spoilers Ahead:
The ending of this book is confusing and incredibly unsatisfying. Not only do we not get a solution to the problem of the Gets disease, we get an out-of-nowhere cosmic horror resolution that results in all the characters dying and likely the eventual destruction of humanity on Earth. We also discover that the incredibly traumatizing life Luke and his brother Clayton had led was the result of this cosmic horror toying with humanity. But is Luke, when presented with this new information, stiffened in resolve to destroy the source of his life's pain? No. He gives into it and let's his past traumas consume him. Perhaps not by choice, he has just gone through an experience that seems to destroy human minds. But then humanity is doomed. The end.
So I just suffered through nausea and sadness to experience bleakness? What an incredibly awful use of my time. I had a somewhat similar reaction to the ending of the horror movie Life, but at least Life had an interesting and likeable cast of characters, used a monster that was plausible in-universe, and didn't make me want to vomit and/or call my therapist. I was so emotionally and physically traumatized I needed my friend to hug me for a bit (thank you, Victoria). After recovering, I looked at further reviews on Goodreads and things started to make a little more sense.
From what I've seen, this book has very mixed reviews. This was my first Nick Cutter book, so while The Troop intrigued me with its description, same as The Deep, I don't think I'll delve into it if there are similar gore scenes in it. Apparently though, to fans of Nick Cutter, this book is actually rather disappointing. Characters are unlikable, the story is nonsense, and even the horror elements are copy-pasted or extremely derivative.
After some reflection, I do realize that Cutter threw EVERYTHING into this book. Most conceivable traumas and phobias are here: thalassaphobia (fear of the ocean), claustrophobia, fear of gore, fear of the loss of a family member, fear of an abuser, fear of animal abuse, fear of insects, body horror (things growing inside you, your body not listening to your brain, body parts changing to other things), fear of being hunted, fear of the dark, etc. You name it, it's probably here. And while empathetic little me seemed to be emotionally affected and manipulated by some of these, it was for no purpose and no greater message. It's like Cutter threw an amalgamation of horror tropes and traumas into an underwater station just to see what would happen without considering how to effectively use those traumas and tropes to tell an interesting story.
Film critics might be familiar with this in certain bad movies: you can write all the cool action scenes you want, but if you don't have a coherent story to tie them together, then there's very little point to the movie. Writers have to cut cool stuff all the time to maintain a consistent theme or tempo or aesthetic. Nothing in The Deep was consistent, it was jarring gorefest to jarring trauma flashback to jarring station horror over and over and over again.
There was no real ending payoff. Luke went through his entire traumatizing life just to give up and doom humanity to extinction? What's the message here, Cutter, to people with actual trauma who may have gone through some of the same experiences as Luke? Don't give in to your trauma or you'll hurt other people and worst case doom the Earth? Or, since Luke's trauma was influenced by cosmic beings, your trauma is not your fault, just don't go down to the bottom of the ocean? Was there any theme or greater purpose to this book or did you just want a playground of horror ideas because you like writing gore and trauma scenes?
This book is advertised on the back cover as a story about a brave team that goes down to an ocean floor research station to potentially find a cure to a disease that's ravaging Earth's population but they find an evil down there. The quotes on the back and front promise: "unflinching bleakness... all-out horror...unshakable haunting...[and making] you question your sanity." Nothing in the advertising mentioned anything about gore in particular. I was basically promised Event Horizon but perhaps scarier and in the ocean. What I got was worse in every conceivable way.
A huge not recommend (really a stay away) for... basically most people. If you are someone who likes gore porn or torture porn, then fine, go ahead. As I mentioned earlier, I never understood people who liked gore a lot, or who were fans of the Saw series for example. Perhaps I'm too empathetic, and my stomach is too weak, to engage with this horror. I will continue, however, to be on the lookout for excellent sci fi horror books like Dead Silence, Salvation Day, Devolution, and Annihilation.
This book made me feel nauseated physically and sad mentally, and in the end I didn't even get a modicum of a satisfying ending. Perhaps I should have read some reviews first before I purchased the book but just going by the description, it seemed like this would be right up my ally. I actually typically hate horror, but there is a subgenre that I absolutely LOVE: science fiction horror where a group of people is trapped on a spaceship or space station and something is hunting them. I have no idea why that's really the only horror I can tolerate, but I just know I like it. Underwater research bases are similar to space stations in terms of aesthetic so I enjoy those stories too. I've had great fun reading books in this same genre and playing videogames and watching movies and TV in related genres. There are little throwbacks to some of these very media pieces in this book in fact. And yet, this book was a horrible experience for me for one very important reason: it's not what was advertised.
I thought this story was going to be something akin to the movie Underwater mixed with a little Event Horizon/Pandorum/Dead Space for the psychological parts. What I got was a story that bounced around every possible phobia in the grossest possible ways with the cruelest possible ending. The "trapped in a station with something hunting them" was really just superficial set dressing for what seemed to be Nick Cutter's bread and butter: gore and trauma.
I have a sensitive stomach, so too much goo/blood/vomit/slime/pus/ichor/filth or any other descriptor you want to use makes me sick. I did not, in any way, expect there to be SO MANY disgusting scenes of things bursting out of things, things being squashed, and sound effects of oozing and dripping and squirming. It was ridiculous. I will never see the appeal to gorefests and I will never understand people who like them. Hell, videogames with blood and guts are fine because the gore in those is either realistic (which I can handle) or ridiculous and over the top (which allows me to distance myself from any nauseous feeling). Cutter describes things in horrible detail, and since I have an active imagination, things got very intense. If you have a sensitive stomach, you should not read this book.
The other specialty seems to be emotional trauma. Half of this book isn't even spent inside the Trieste (the name of the underwater research lab). It's spent in the main character's flashbacks. We get to experience the incredibly traumatized life of Luke. These trauma's could have been interesting chances for character and story development if tackled in a sensitive way with a character and story that had the potential for a redemption arc. But this is not that story. The traumas are dumped on Luke incessantly. Hell, even if you wanted to write a book where trauma does actually tragically consume someone, you could've done it WAY better than this. And that's just the mental and emotional flashback trauma. There's plenty of physical trauma to be had whenever we are present with Luke in the station. Bodies are crushed, infested, warped, perverted, violated, and broken.
And perhaps most unforgivable in this book is animal cruelty and animal trauma. Humans can be evil and die off (that's basically the entire focus of modern horror) but nobody except for sociopaths and psychopaths wants to experience animals suffer and die. If you're sensitive to this in particular, stay away from this book. I was able to just blow through these scenes, I didn't want to add too much to my already depressed and saddened mental state from all the other traumas present.
So there I was, approaching the end of the book, actively suffering nausea and having a heavy chest due to sadness. How will Luke and the others survive? How will the aforementioned 'Gets disease be cured? How will these very traumatized characters avoid being consumed by the station? I needed a break of some sort and I sort of got it. There were two moments where Luke seemed to confront a horror in the station but had the mental fortitude and growth to deal with it. "Here we are!" I probably said to myself. The story and characters are finally... protagonizing, and any minute now we'll get a great resolution to a really horrifying story. My suffering will all be worth it.
Spoilers Ahead:
The ending of this book is confusing and incredibly unsatisfying. Not only do we not get a solution to the problem of the Gets disease, we get an out-of-nowhere cosmic horror resolution that results in all the characters dying and likely the eventual destruction of humanity on Earth. We also discover that the incredibly traumatizing life Luke and his brother Clayton had led was the result of this cosmic horror toying with humanity. But is Luke, when presented with this new information, stiffened in resolve to destroy the source of his life's pain? No. He gives into it and let's his past traumas consume him. Perhaps not by choice, he has just gone through an experience that seems to destroy human minds. But then humanity is doomed. The end.
So I just suffered through nausea and sadness to experience bleakness? What an incredibly awful use of my time. I had a somewhat similar reaction to the ending of the horror movie Life, but at least Life had an interesting and likeable cast of characters, used a monster that was plausible in-universe, and didn't make me want to vomit and/or call my therapist. I was so emotionally and physically traumatized I needed my friend to hug me for a bit (thank you, Victoria). After recovering, I looked at further reviews on Goodreads and things started to make a little more sense.
From what I've seen, this book has very mixed reviews. This was my first Nick Cutter book, so while The Troop intrigued me with its description, same as The Deep, I don't think I'll delve into it if there are similar gore scenes in it. Apparently though, to fans of Nick Cutter, this book is actually rather disappointing. Characters are unlikable, the story is nonsense, and even the horror elements are copy-pasted or extremely derivative.
After some reflection, I do realize that Cutter threw EVERYTHING into this book. Most conceivable traumas and phobias are here: thalassaphobia (fear of the ocean), claustrophobia, fear of gore, fear of the loss of a family member, fear of an abuser, fear of animal abuse, fear of insects, body horror (things growing inside you, your body not listening to your brain, body parts changing to other things), fear of being hunted, fear of the dark, etc. You name it, it's probably here. And while empathetic little me seemed to be emotionally affected and manipulated by some of these, it was for no purpose and no greater message. It's like Cutter threw an amalgamation of horror tropes and traumas into an underwater station just to see what would happen without considering how to effectively use those traumas and tropes to tell an interesting story.
Film critics might be familiar with this in certain bad movies: you can write all the cool action scenes you want, but if you don't have a coherent story to tie them together, then there's very little point to the movie. Writers have to cut cool stuff all the time to maintain a consistent theme or tempo or aesthetic. Nothing in The Deep was consistent, it was jarring gorefest to jarring trauma flashback to jarring station horror over and over and over again.
There was no real ending payoff. Luke went through his entire traumatizing life just to give up and doom humanity to extinction? What's the message here, Cutter, to people with actual trauma who may have gone through some of the same experiences as Luke? Don't give in to your trauma or you'll hurt other people and worst case doom the Earth? Or, since Luke's trauma was influenced by cosmic beings, your trauma is not your fault, just don't go down to the bottom of the ocean? Was there any theme or greater purpose to this book or did you just want a playground of horror ideas because you like writing gore and trauma scenes?
This book is advertised on the back cover as a story about a brave team that goes down to an ocean floor research station to potentially find a cure to a disease that's ravaging Earth's population but they find an evil down there. The quotes on the back and front promise: "unflinching bleakness... all-out horror...unshakable haunting...[and making] you question your sanity." Nothing in the advertising mentioned anything about gore in particular. I was basically promised Event Horizon but perhaps scarier and in the ocean. What I got was worse in every conceivable way.
A huge not recommend (really a stay away) for... basically most people. If you are someone who likes gore porn or torture porn, then fine, go ahead. As I mentioned earlier, I never understood people who liked gore a lot, or who were fans of the Saw series for example. Perhaps I'm too empathetic, and my stomach is too weak, to engage with this horror. I will continue, however, to be on the lookout for excellent sci fi horror books like Dead Silence, Salvation Day, Devolution, and Annihilation.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Domestic abuse, Gore, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Injury/Injury detail, and Body horror
Minor: Child abuse and Animal death
Nothing on the advertising on the book itself indicates this will be a book with lots of trauma and gore, be aware of this if you decide to pick it upkier__'s review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Death of parent, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Blood, Grief, Confinement, Child death, Gore, Cursing, Murder, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Violence, Body horror, Drug use, Chronic illness, and Pandemic/Epidemic
Moderate: Dementia, Excrement, and Medical content
yearofthesnk's review against another edition
challenging
dark
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.5
Masterfully brutal and revolting. He describes violence, body horror, and psychological collapse in incredibly compelling and vivid ways — which made this hard to endure. I took a year-long break partway through after the dog's torture .
I gave it a high rating because it delivers exceptionally well on what it promises. I have no doubt I'll still think about parts of this years from now.
That being said, the flashbacks can get tedious. I also didn't feel the ending entirely lived up to the harrowing journey through rest of the novel.
I gave it a high rating because it delivers exceptionally well on what it promises. I have no doubt I'll still think about parts of this years from now.
That being said, the flashbacks can get tedious. I also didn't feel the ending entirely lived up to the harrowing journey through rest of the novel.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder, Violence, Torture, Injury/Injury detail, Child death, Death, Animal death, Animal cruelty, Emotional abuse, Incest, Confinement, Gore, Physical abuse, Child abuse, Sexual assault, Pedophilia, and Body horror
zeroschatz's review against another edition
dark
emotional
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Very well written, but terribly hard to get through some parts.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Animal cruelty, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Medical trauma, Animal death, Panic attacks/disorders, Body horror, Mental illness, and Gore
Moderate: Sexual assault, Incest, and Pedophilia
keiraonyxraven's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
TW: Extreme animal cruelty, suffering and death
TW: Child abuse
The Deep really had promise. I enjoyed the general concept along with the claustrophobic atmosphere and unnerving events. I loved the eeriness of the setting and I can’t think of many other books that have had such a unique narrative. I found myself rooting for certain characters and despising others, so I also cannot fault Cutter for his ability to write complex and interesting characters. Unfortunately, there were just a few, not so small, aspects of The Deep that significantly lowered my overall enjoyment of the book.
Firstly, I found myself extremely disappointed with the ending. The suspense, build up and the first three quarters of the book had such promise, I was enthralled by the story and was desperate to find out how it concluded. However, I personally felt the ending bordered on laughable. Without including spoilers, I cannot fully explain my reasoning, however, the explanations given for certain events really fell flat for me.
However, the primary reason for my reduced star rating and what mostly quashed my enjoyment of The Deep was the unnecessarily graphic and incessant animal cruelty and suffering. I am painfully aware that The Deep is not alone in this graphic use of animals for nothing more than an easy shock factor, however, Cutter in-particular takes this to a distressing level, and not in a good way. This theme occurred so often that I took it upon myself to create a list of page numbers to avoid for readers who, like myself, are particularly sensitive to this sort of content but are still interested in reading this novel.
Please see below but beware of minor spoilers:
Key:
💚 Mentioned in passing and/or not overly upsetting
💛 Suffering/death described with more detail, somewhat upsetting
🧡 Detailed description of suffering/death, overtly upsetting
❤️ Extremely detailed description with very upsetting and disturbing content
Page 31-34 🧡
Mouse experimentation, suffering & death
Detailed & upsetting
Page 44-46 💛
Mouse experimentation & minor suffering
Page 127 💚
Insect death
Page 145
Bee death 💛
Lizard death 💚
Page 168-172 🧡
Guinea pig experimentation
Guinea pig suffering & harm
Page 179-181 🧡
Guinea pig experimentation, suffering & death
Page 223 💛
Raccoon suffering & death
Page 243 💛
Squirrel corpse description
Page 248-249 & 251 💚
Mention of bee deaths
Page 254 💛
Bee killed
Page 260-261 💛
Bee deaths
Page 262-264 & 266 🧡
Bee suffering & death
Page 315-316 🧡
Dog injury & cruelty
Page 322 🧡
Guinea pig cruelty & death
Page 336 💛
Detailed description of using maggots as fishing bait
Page 341-350 ❤️
Dog cruelty & experimentation
Dog on dog injury & suffering
Detailed description of the pain and sadness of euthanising stray dogs
Long and detailed description of a very upsetting and graphic dog death with suffering and extremely emotional descriptions
DO NOT READ IF YOU’RE AN ANIMAL LOVER: this destroyed me.
Page 353 & 356 💛
Bee death
Page 375 🧡
Description of dead dog & suffering
In conclusion, The Deep was by no means a bad read, and there were many things that I really liked about the story and the writing, but it certainly isn’t without its pitfalls. I advise proceeding with caution if animal cruelty/suffering and themes of child abuse are particularly triggering for you, but I also wouldn’t entirely steer others away from giving The Deep a chance, especially if you are an avid horror fan and love creepy and claustrophobic settings.
TW: Child abuse
The Deep really had promise. I enjoyed the general concept along with the claustrophobic atmosphere and unnerving events. I loved the eeriness of the setting and I can’t think of many other books that have had such a unique narrative. I found myself rooting for certain characters and despising others, so I also cannot fault Cutter for his ability to write complex and interesting characters. Unfortunately, there were just a few, not so small, aspects of The Deep that significantly lowered my overall enjoyment of the book.
Firstly, I found myself extremely disappointed with the ending. The suspense, build up and the first three quarters of the book had such promise, I was enthralled by the story and was desperate to find out how it concluded. However, I personally felt the ending bordered on laughable. Without including spoilers, I cannot fully explain my reasoning, however, the explanations given for certain events really fell flat for me.
However, the primary reason for my reduced star rating and what mostly quashed my enjoyment of The Deep was the unnecessarily graphic and incessant animal cruelty and suffering. I am painfully aware that The Deep is not alone in this graphic use of animals for nothing more than an easy shock factor, however, Cutter in-particular takes this to a distressing level, and not in a good way. This theme occurred so often that I took it upon myself to create a list of page numbers to avoid for readers who, like myself, are particularly sensitive to this sort of content but are still interested in reading this novel.
Please see below but beware of minor spoilers:
Key:
💚 Mentioned in passing and/or not overly upsetting
💛 Suffering/death described with more detail, somewhat upsetting
🧡 Detailed description of suffering/death, overtly upsetting
❤️ Extremely detailed description with very upsetting and disturbing content
Page 31-34 🧡
Mouse experimentation, suffering & death
Detailed & upsetting
Page 44-46 💛
Mouse experimentation & minor suffering
Page 127 💚
Insect death
Page 145
Bee death 💛
Lizard death 💚
Page 168-172 🧡
Guinea pig experimentation
Guinea pig suffering & harm
Page 179-181 🧡
Guinea pig experimentation, suffering & death
Page 223 💛
Raccoon suffering & death
Page 243 💛
Squirrel corpse description
Page 248-249 & 251 💚
Mention of bee deaths
Page 254 💛
Bee killed
Page 260-261 💛
Bee deaths
Page 262-264 & 266 🧡
Bee suffering & death
Page 315-316 🧡
Dog injury & cruelty
Page 322 🧡
Guinea pig cruelty & death
Page 336 💛
Detailed description of using maggots as fishing bait
Page 341-350 ❤️
Dog cruelty & experimentation
Dog on dog injury & suffering
Detailed description of the pain and sadness of euthanising stray dogs
Long and detailed description of a very upsetting and graphic dog death with suffering and extremely emotional descriptions
DO NOT READ IF YOU’RE AN ANIMAL LOVER: this destroyed me.
Page 353 & 356 💛
Bee death
Page 375 🧡
Description of dead dog & suffering
In conclusion, The Deep was by no means a bad read, and there were many things that I really liked about the story and the writing, but it certainly isn’t without its pitfalls. I advise proceeding with caution if animal cruelty/suffering and themes of child abuse are particularly triggering for you, but I also wouldn’t entirely steer others away from giving The Deep a chance, especially if you are an avid horror fan and love creepy and claustrophobic settings.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gore, Incest, Emotional abuse, Animal death, Domestic abuse, Grief, Child death, Confinement, Death, Child abuse, Death of parent, Pedophilia, Sexual harassment, Animal cruelty, Blood, Body horror, Kidnapping, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, and Sexual assault