Reviews tagging 'Emotional abuse'

The Deep by Nick Cutter

72 reviews

jesshorn10's review against another edition

5.0

 This book was so good! The way the author built tension throughout the story was very well done, and there were lots of scenes that genuinely creeped me out. The twists were unexpected, and the imagery was horrifying at times. Parts of the story reminded me of IT and The Shining in the best possible ways. I loved this!

Check content warnings though! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child death, Confinement, Domestic abuse, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Gore, Incest, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Violence, Blood, and Injury/Injury detail

hannanni41's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-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? It's complicated

2.5

I really wanted to love this book. The description of the book made it seem like exactly my kind of thing: a mysterious evil lurking in an underwater lab that's 8 miles below the surface in the Marianas Trench. I had seen comparisons with The Abyss, The Shining, Alien, Sphere, Event Horizon, and Solaris. 

Unfortunately the story has absolutely zero slow burn and cranks up to an 11 almost immediately (and stays insane the whole time with no regard for pacing) and it felt like it was mostly just flashbacks and rarely creepy underwater lab.

Flashbacks to the protagonist's awful, abusive childhood with his evil fat, super fat (did I mention she's fat? The author takes every opportunity he can to remind us) mom. Flashbacks to tell us more about his sociopath scientist brother that we're supposed to care about saving. More flashbacks to the protagonist's son being kidnapped and his marriage falling apart. Other people describing their flashbacks to the protag or him reading about their flashbacks in journals. Flashbacks!

There are a few genuinely good moments that unnerved me, like

the stuff with the bees

, but not enough. Most of the parts that were supposed to be scary either felt like an exercise in how much misery the author could put the characters through or were derivative of the (much) better works this book gets compared to. The inciting incident of the nonsense pandemic doesn't even end up mattering to the story. It just gets shoved to the side with all the other nonsense plot points.

Also, there is so much description and talk about a millipede incident. It goes on for so long that it stops being scary and is just really gross. Please stop talking about the millipede.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Gore, and Blood

Moderate: Child death, Domestic abuse, Eating disorder, and Incest

papercrowns's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious sad tense medium-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? It's complicated

4.0

I really enjoyed The Troop—I gave it five stars—and I remember picking that one up because of the praise it received and how many of my fave booktubers said it was super disturbing. 

Well, I don't remember too many specifics about The Troop (my memory's fault, not the book's), but I do recall thinking it was awesome and gross, but not super disturbing per se. Well, The Deep was certainly disturbing. But, I understand why The Troop is the Nick Cutter book people talk about most, because while The Deep does what it says on the tin in terms of the horror, it's got its problems. 

• An overuse of onomatopoeia to the point of distraction.
• The story touches on a lot of serious, uncomfortable topics, and they certainly gave me the ick but for the most part, these serve the story and felt intentional. However, there was some fatphobia that didn't quite feel necessary or serve the story that I could have done without. It was very like
  "Ooh, she got fat, gross! We know she's gonna be a baddie!"
• The general dialogue was fine, but when it came to banter, it felt a bit forced and unintentionally cringe, particularly between the main character and his brother. 
• The 'Gets, the worldwide pandemic that instigates the whole narrative, was super interesting but is largely forgotten once we get to the underwater lab in the Challenger Deep. It was such an interesting concept that it would have been great to see it have more impact to the story rather than being a throwaway plot device. 

These things brought it down to a 4-star read for me, but none of them derailed the story. It's a real wild ride and intensely unsettling; exactly what I want from a horror book. Nick Cutter excels in describing horrifying, uncomfortable, and balls-to-the-wall cuckoo-bananas situations. 

His descriptions of the characters' psychological trauma as they grapple with desperate situations are so intense and unnerving; I often found myself wanting to put the book down to give myself a break but also being absolutely unable to tear my eyes from the page. There was one claustrophobic sequence in particular where Cutter describes

the main characters crawling through an access tunnel that gets narrower and narrower with no guarantee that they'll be able to get out at the other end

. Ooof, my skin was crawling, my heart was racing, and I almost threw the book across the room in vicarious panic. 

And frankly, that's some chef's-kiss horror writing if you ask me. 

I can't wait to read more Nick Cutter, cuz I know it'll be a grand creep-fest that does exactly what it says on the tin. However, I will say that I'd love to see a bit more character diversity, particularly more women.

Worth checking the trigger warnings before reading if you have triggers. Definitely do not read if bad things happening to animals in your reading is a dealbreaker. 😬

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Self harm, Blood, Grief, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Eating disorder, Fatphobia, Incest, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Excrement, and Medical content

Minor: Sexual assault and Death of parent

lithoerary_atria's review against another edition

dark mysterious medium-paced

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

2.5

the troop by nick cutter was one of absolute favourites this year and truly the mastery over body horror this guy has makes me wanna study his brain. and that thing persists here too!! that being said i didn't like this one as much i hoped to do.

lemme break it down for ya:

parts 1, 2 & 3? utterly boring and mind-numbing and the whole writing down the sounds made didn't help. also i DIDN'T appreciate the numerous flashbacks that went on for pages. they could've been done away with. 

parts 4 & 5? HELL YEAH, that's my stuff!! horrors beyond human comprehension & feeling helpless? fuck yes!! the writing was still meh tho especially with those internal voices inside luke's mind. it was silly & brought you out of the story lol.

part 6? i- we don't speak about it lol.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Fatphobia, Incest, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, and Death of parent

midnightgremlin's review against another edition

dark 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? It's complicated

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Death, Emotional abuse, Sexual assault, Death of parent, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

juliaaa02's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious 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

4.0

This book actually made me gag. I’ve never read anything quite as graphically unnerving. I almost didn’t finish because of the physical reaction I had to the book. I honestly am still confused about the ending. I had a hard time rating this book, since I was confused for a lot of it. I gave it a 4 due to the physical reactions I had and how genuinely scared I felt for a while after reading 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Body shaming, Child abuse, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Gore, Incest, Pedophilia, Self harm, Torture, Blood, Medical content, Dementia, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Pregnancy

graveyardreads's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Body shaming, Child abuse, Death, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Gore, Incest, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual content, Torture, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Medical content, Dementia, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail

miranda_redmond's review against another edition

dark sad tense medium-paced

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

3.0

Creepy right from the start, lots of body horror and claustrophobia. Almost too much going on though. The constant explanation of sounds was distracting. The animal scenes were...... I wish I had checked the content warnings. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Body horror, Child abuse, Death, and Fatphobia

Moderate: Animal death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Incest, Blood, and Injury/Injury detail

smahlcat's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

As with The Troop, the descriptions of unspeakable horror were spot on. The monsters had just that hint of Pennywise the Clown that made them just disturbing enough to hate spotting my cat peaking around my door at night.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, and Blood

infinitejess's review

challenging dark tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No

1.0

Dang. I was hoping Nick Cutter would be a go-to horror author for me after reading and loving The Troop. But after reading this - I know it will be hit or miss. 

There were a lot of plot points that I think were unnecessary. They did not tie into the story well throughout and weren’t wrapped up well enough by the end. Like the ‘Gets? The name is annoying in and of itself - but it’s written as a major plot point on the back of the book when really it serves a singular plot point, and has nothing to do with the large majority of the book.  

I found myself quite uninterested halfway through and probably could have DNF’d but still I kept on…

It can definitely be said that Nick Cutter knows how to write very disturbing imagery, however! That was certainly on point. It had me wondering - is this what TikTokers mean when they describe a book as a fever dream?

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, and Blood

Moderate: Child abuse, Death, and Emotional abuse

Minor: Incest, Death of parent, and Murder