Reviews tagging 'Murder'

The Deep by Nick Cutter

34 reviews

trippyotter's review

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dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • 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

I'll admit my rating is based heavily upon what happened to LB, I'm so angry about what transpired and that an animal would be allowed to suffer in such a horrific way. 

Also, while reading the book, I felt it could have easily been 50-100 pages shorter, but come to find out all the excessive trips down memory road and the journey entries was actually critical to the ending. 

After several memory flashbacks, I was about ready to close the book when Luke was reading the journal. It just went on forever. Then what happened to LB angered me so much that I was basically emotionally numb (maybe that was the intent?) that I just finished the book. 

I'm not sure if I'd truly recommend this to anyone, but if you decide to take the plug, beware of the various triggers.

Triggers: missing child, child abuse, child sexual assault, emotional abuse, toxic relationships, death, gore, grief, animal abuse, animal testing, animal death 

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e_gracereads's review

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challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense 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? Yes

3.5

This book is a 5 star read until literally the last… 20 pages? Which is just really typical for Nick Cutter, unfortunately. I LOVE his plots and I LOVE his books and they’re nauseating and gut wrenching, and then the last 20 pages rolls around and totally ruins it. The plot gets lost by whatever weird crock shit he’s come up with, overexplaining things to the point where they’re no longer scary, and the ending will just leave you unsatisfied. I am just not ever impressed with how his books end — he spoon feeds you the answer instead of just leaving you with dread. 

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lithoerary_atria's review against another edition

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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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acbrummitt's review against another edition

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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? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5


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alsavini's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious 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

4.5

"There are places on Earth where light is unwelcome. Light has no power down here. Darkness is king. Light flees the dark, or it gets devoured."

In October I try to only read horror books and this was a great way to kick off my spooky book season! The Deep starts off with a global pandemic called the gets. Its basically like a Alzheimer's but you also develop black spots and anyone can get it. There is a station, the Trieste, down at the bottom of the pacific ocean in the Mariana Trench (the deepest part of the ocean) where some of the most brilliant men on Earth are researching for a cure. Things go haywire and Luke, the veterinarian brother of Clayton, one of the scientists in the the Trieste, goes down to the station to see if he can help his brother. Let the horror begin.

I already have a fear of drowning, suffocation, and treading open water so I knew this one would crawl under my skin. Someone else described this book as The Abyss meets The Shining and that description couldnt be more perfect. At no point did I know what was going to happen next. Keep in mind they're 8 miles below the sea level. At any point if one thing were to go wrong the pressure is so immense they would be crushed in an instant. It's a hard no from me.

I guess Luke is technically the protagonist but I would argue the station itself is the main character, the way it comes alive during the story. The characters were okay but this is definitely a plot driven story.

I found myself holding my breath several times while reading. The concept was very unique. Perfect amount of psychological/body horror. The only issue I had with it is that there is animal cruelty/death that had me bawling like a baby. I dont like that in movies or books. The ending was interesting, like a horrible fever dream where I had no idea what was happening in the best way. Safe to say, if you're looking for a horror book to start your spooky book season off with, this is a great choice.


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currentlyreadingandcrochet's review

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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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apolloniablooms's review against another edition

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dark tense slow-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

2.5

Like a lot of horror/thrillers this book suffers from hitting the peak amount of tenseness a person can feel really early on and then maintaining it instead of giving the reader relief then building tension again.  By the end I was skimming.  Bad guy is bad because of mental illness. Wish it had been a short story.  Would be a good premise for a video game.

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eileenmccoy's review against another edition

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dark 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? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.75

The last line of this book gave me chills 

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dromedaryreader's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark reflective sad tense 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? Yes

4.0

I really enjoyed this book, even though I have some issues with the plot. Many things that are brought up such as
the fig men
and the 'gets aren't really carried much throughout the story and I feel like I would forget about those parts until they were thrown back in.

That being said, I still very much liked this book. The amount of background given on the main character alone made it worth the read, and I do love how so much of the things casually mentioned about his childhood are circled back to and become bigger, more important things.

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finleyfrogreads's review against another edition

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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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