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ladycity's review against another edition
dark
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty and Animal death
chemicallykat's review
1.75
I'm an absolute sucker for the deep sea. Anything set on the sea floor is automatically on my tbr regardless of genre or quality. If anyone has any recs... let me know!!
Sections of this bored me and other sections seemed like they were just there for shock value.
This was creepy, dark, and graphic. The beginning was slow but introduced some neat concepts. The middle lost me a bit. I wanted to know what was going on and I was not getting answers! The way this book is written is confusing. Half the time I couldn't figure out what was real and what wasn't.
The writing wasn't to my preference - some scenes felt unnecessary, and the characters and dialogue drove me nuts.
The author tends to make a lot of comparisons, "it looked like a glob of partially set Jell-O" and sometimes these came back-to-back and felt redundant. If you say something is colorless, you don't also have to make a comparison to something colorless in the next line.
The way the main character kept describing his mom weirded me out. Every time she was mentioned, even in passing, he'd make a comment to remind us his mom was fat. In general, character descriptions and characterization were sorely lacking. Characters seemed like they were only there for the plot. There's no development and I could not tell you a single thing about any of them beyond factual things like "scientist" or "father."
Beyond that, the plot was THIN. Chapters are repetitive and everything was predictable. Throwing in a "magical" element felt like a lazy way to skip explaining anything properly, and quite frankly, I don't get it.
The child SA was so unnecessary and didn't add a single thing - so why was it included? There are a million other things that could have been included instead. It didn't add to the creepy/horror factor the book was developing and felt like shock-value because it's thrown in and never dealt with properly.In general, the sexual stuff seemed like it could have been cut. At multiple points there's a paragraph or two detailing how hard a man's dick is. What was the relevance? Am I missing something?
I was intrigued by the mysteries of "the Gets" and the ambrosia, but I don't feel like any of that was wrapped up or handled properly. Instead, this became an intentionally confusing gorefest that had a... weird ending that very much didn't satisfy me
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Fatphobia, Gore, Incest, Rape, Sexual assault, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Death of parent, and Murder
mexcryptid's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
4.0
Terrifying and oppressive. The Deep scratches so specifically an itch for unsettling isolation horror. The body horror of The Thing meets the scientific mystery of Sphere. While I didn't always appreciate the author's crude choices for thematic imagery (for example, fixating on the mother's obesity to accentuate the reach of her harm ) I found myself engulfed by the book's steady march of ever intensifying nightmares and, in the name of science, its "progress" towards its final, inevitable conclusion.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, and Fatphobia
mizmeeshell's review against another edition
dark
emotional
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? It's complicated
3.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty and Animal death
Moderate: Child abuse
marthadude's review against another edition
challenging
dark
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Gore, Torture, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, and Pandemic/Epidemic
Minor: Incest, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Sexual content, and Cannibalism
Heavy triggers for animal cruelty and fatphobia.practicallysprout's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
I love deep sea horror. The sea makes for a backdrop where anything can happen and Nick Cutter does that. I really enjoyed the book, however it was extremely slow pacing for me. It felt like it was taking forever as though I was trapped down there with them, which while cool not my vibe. I do recommend the book it is definitely someone's cup of tea.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Animal cruelty and Animal death
Minor: Pedophilia and Sexual assault
kiloxxo's review against another edition
dark
emotional
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
3.0
I enjoyed this book until the final part began. The ending completely ruined it for me. It felt rushed and left so many questions. The writing itself is okay, the plot and ending just missed the mark.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Animal death
Minor: Child abuse and Sexual assault
jules_withaxe's review against another edition
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death
Minor: Child death
scarygordita's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
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? It's complicated
4.0
This book left me a blubbering mess on the couch. 5/5 for evoking a visceral, emotional reaction. It does have some really heavy animal abuse, so it’s definitely not for everyone. This book would be a 5 star except for the way Cutter utilizes fatness as an allegory for evil. It feels pretty fatphobic to me, as a fat person, but luckily it wasn’t in most of the book so I was able to look past it to enjoy the rest of the book.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty and Animal death
pseyeyy's review against another edition
dark
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Torture, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Sexual assault