Reviews tagging 'Adult/minor relationship'

The Deep by Nick Cutter

19 reviews

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

graveyardreads's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

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

tormlen's review against another edition

dark tense

• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No

2.5

I have lots of mixed feelings on this one. First, READ THE TRIGGER WARNINGS BEFORE YOU READ THIS IF YOU ARE SENSITIVE. I will say that the trigger warnings prepared me for much, but not how borderline hatefully this author writes fat people. I hated the character of the mother, Bethany. She felt evil and two dimensional, a monster, not a flawed human. It does not help that the author uses her size to illustrate her monstrosity every chance he gets. I got so sick of hearing about "her bulk." We get it; she's fat! It doesn't make her any more or less of a monster. That's all in her actions. The story of how she gains her weight also doesn't feel believable to me, and I feel like the choice of porridge was intended to just make it feel even grosser. It would have been nice to have a foil for her, a fat person who is actually likable. Granted, that would mean having more than one likable human character in the book.

That aside, parts of this book moved fast, and I couldn't put it down. I loved the setting. The story was engaging. I actually don't mind that the 'gets is abandoned once they board the Trieste. The disease is part of the bait. Some of the imagery in this book is very creepy and strong. However, be prepared as they can also be pretty disturbing. 

The weakest part of this book is probably the characters. Other than Luke, everyone feels pretty flat. Despite this flatness, Al is actually the only human character I liked. Of course, the dog is also endearing, but that's kind of a cop out. What happens to the dog was horribly sad. I almost cried.

I know a lot of people love this book, and I can partially understand why. The scare factor is really high, the writing (when not fat-shaming) is decent, and the story was really engaging. I actually did not guess the ending, so that's cool. I would be willing to read more by this author, especially if he can actually write diverse body types in a way that does not feel demonizing.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Bullying, Adult/minor relationship, Confinement, Fatphobia, Incest, Animal cruelty, Animal death, and Death

Minor: Eating disorder

The eating disorder is implied and horribly written. While the character's behavior pattern could be symptoms of Binge Eating Disorder, it's never explicitly said and feels extremely unrealistic. I would be shocked if the author actually researched Binge Eating Disorder much at all.

finleyfrogreads's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Gaslighting, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Gore, Confinement, Death, Cursing, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, and Self harm

Moderate: Blood, Domestic abuse, Eating disorder, Fatphobia, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Torture, Violence, Kidnapping, Medical content, Mental illness, Rape, Excrement, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Adult/minor relationship, Incest, Murder, Sexual assault, and Vomit

corruptednatz's review against another edition

dark emotional 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

I liked this book, Nick Cutter books always fill me up with dread and stress. And like all his other books the characters’ are tested mentally and physically that no amount of therapy can help them, I might have some distressing dreams after this book.

There was one scene that I didn’t like or didn’t fit. 2 characters experience a truly traumatic scene where the ambrosia brings a dead man from the past. He appeared horrific and was gurgling nonsense. The 2 characters flee back to their room clearly shaken. After they discuss what that was about, there was sexual tension between the two. That came out of left field and confusing. Who would feel perky after witnessing a monster trying to kill you?

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Grief, Body horror, Gore, Incest, Adult/minor relationship, and Blood

sunnyjreads's review against another edition

dark 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? No

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual violence, Suicide attempt, Torture, Violence, Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Gaslighting, Gore, Grief, Kidnapping, Mental illness, Murder, Physical abuse, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Incest, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Pedophilia, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Toxic relationship

queer_venus's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

I can't stress enough how desperately Mr Cutter needs to seek out therapy. I've never been driven to feeling physically sick from a book before. I've had fainting spells that have hurt less than reading this book. One time I trapped my nail in a car door and I watched it rot and fall out aged 8 and that experience scarred me less than this book. If given the choice to die or read this book again- I would already have my tickets booked for Sweden. What the fuck is wrong with this author, something truly terrible must have happened to him 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Body shaming, Cancer, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Gaslighting, Gore, Grief, Incest, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Medical content, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Torture, and Violence

the_escapist's review against another edition

dark sad tense medium-paced

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

3.25

I was here for the deep ocean setting, claustrophobia, and slowly losing sanity – that part was done really well. But a huge element features monstrous creations and really graphic gore, which I’m fairly indifferent about.

I thought the first half was great (tense, fast-paced, good with characters, nice balancing backstory with what's going on presently, slowly amping up dread...), the second half less so. It seemed to get slower and more samey. Or maybe it's just a taste thing because that type of horror just doesn't really capture my interest (I'm not squeamish or particularly bothered by it, it just doesn't really make me feel anything).

The ending wasn't bad, but I think it would've been far more effective if the last few chapters were cut.

Reading this taught me that I have a fairly high tolerance for terrible things happening to humans in fiction, but not animals. 

For what it was aiming to be, this book did a pretty good job overall. But it didn't match my taste and what I wanted from it and I found the latter half considerably less intriguing and engrossing.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Confinement, Death, and Gore

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Cursing, Death of parent, Dementia, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Grief, Incest, Kidnapping, Medical content, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, and Violence

chemicalpink's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-paced

• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Animal cruelty, Body horror, Blood, Panic attacks/disorders, Grief, Gore, Dementia, Confinement, Death, and Torture

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Bullying, Grief, Incest, Pedophilia, Fatphobia, and Body shaming