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gbeezz's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gore, Animal death, and Death
Moderate: Animal cruelty and Ableism
talonsontypewriters's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.0
Very few things in books have made me as irritated as this exchange (edited slightly for brevity):
"If they have a language -- not just one language, but two languages, one spoken and one not -- and if the complexity of their spoken language is anything like the complexity of their singing, they must be sentient."
"Cats meow and know what they're saying. Birds sing. That doesn't make them smart."
"There's a lot of difference between a song that basically says, 'Hey, come fuck me' over and over again and a distinct, signed language."
Let's unpack some of this!
1) Sentience =/= (human-like) intelligence. Most animals are recognized as sentient beings; this is the entire point of animal welfare.
2) There are some debates around applying labels of intelligence to animals, but since it seems mostly accepted in this setting that animals (like dolphins) are capable of intelligence, it is very widely studied and accepted, even beyond deeply scientific spheres (thus not even really justifying the character without a background in science expressing this view), that birds* possess some level of quantifiable intelligence.
3) If it is specifically on the basis of "distinct language"**, many bird species do in fact use this, and not just for mating calls! Even if you look beyond stereotypically smart corvids and parrots, who are famously capable of mimicking human speech, plenty of birds have complex call/song systems to indicate danger (for instance, chickadees have varying calls depending on the exact predator they've spotted) and other purposes.
* I'm ignoring cats as an example because I don't know enough to counter that, but I'm sure saying they're not smart is not true either.
** This seems weird in and of itself when most animal intelligence surveys focus on memory, reasoning, learning ability, tool use, etc, but communication can be studied as a signifier of intelligence so I won't nitpick it as hard.
The lack of cursory research in this very basic area -- not to mention frequent references to "us," implying modern primates, "leaving/coming from the sea," with continuous implications that such an exit was because of a humanoid competitor, which just shows a poor understanding of evolution all around (especially when the character saying it has multiple biology degrees), and some other nitpicks (like forgetting the existence of lungfish) -- stripped any interest I otherwise would have had in various other scientific tangents, since I was no longer confident enough in the author's knowledge to trust her descriptions. The hard sci-fi angle feels (if you'll excuse the slight pun) shallow, with the author seemingly wanting to skate by on an introductory biology course and artistic license. To be fair, with speculative fiction some suspension of disbelief is always required -- but if your setting is an explicitly realistic, grounded one filled with ostensibly intelligent, educated scientists, of course I'm going to expect super simple scientific facts to be portrayed accurately.
Though that bit and others alone certainly soured my reading experience, I had a multitude of other problems, to the point where I waffled for a while between 1 and 2 stars for my rating. Ultimately, I suppose I can see where others might enjoy the novel, so I left it at the latter, but it's certainly not a higher-leaning 2 as other books might have been for me.
First and foremost: The writing. Listen, I will cop to the fact that I'm a pretentious person whose writing is reasonably pretentious, but there is a natural level of pretentiousness and then a tryhard one. This is the latter. It, in line with its confidently spoken but dubiously accurate scientific tangents, tries so hard to be smart and unique that it wraps back around into being insufferable to read. More than a few lines seem to be written just to be quotable and poetic, since in context they're jarringly out of place -- notably, one description of a bulge in a character's pocket as, instead of just belonging to the gun he has on him, "[speaking] of gunfire and violence." The dialogue in particular is stilted and weird and very far from natural human speech, which is kind of ironic considering how crucial a theme communication is. In general, the purple prose Grant weaves is, while superficially elegant, against the purpose of the novel: A thriller fundamentally does not work when there's enough breathing room to drag out extensive descriptions and work in paragraphs of background information and introspection on the characters and their lines of work.
As for those characters, I found them painfully uninteresting and difficult to connect to. Stories like this, where anyone can, at least in theory, die, require that kind of investment -- a character death is, to me, meaningless if it provokes no particular emotion. Character backstories are fleshed out to an almost unnecessary degree, and yet I couldn't tell you who most of the characters were as people, what their interests (beyond, in many cases, science) were, what their defining personality traits were. Characterization depends more on what the story needs than what actually fits the character's personality or feels like something an actual human would do, resulting in a lot of questionable and outright idiotic decisions. Some secondary characters are only introduced after the 70% mark, and others only shortly before then, when the action requires their existence. Other characters disappear for chapters on end or full stop, their final fate a mystery. Nothing is done to distinguish different characters' narration (which is presented in third-person omniscient already, another strike against attempted suspense) or dialogue; if you struck names and some descriptions from the dolphins' brief perspective, it would blend in seamlessly with every other PoV.
It's also difficult to react to character deaths when none of the in-universe reactions are especially strong. An exploration of different expressions of grief -- and the complications that would lead to when action was necessitated -- could have fit in really neatly and not disrupted too badly from the plot, but emotional beats are given very little time to linger before pushing onto the next sequence, leading to weird moments that don't fit into the current stakes or tone at all. One could argue that few characters are given the time to process matters and react appropriately, and of course there's no one right way to respond to bereavement, but when the reactions are lackluster all across the board -- with one or two notable exceptions -- that doesn't hold up as well. Deceased characters are also rarely acknowledged after the fact, with even Tory's sister, whose pre-novel death drives her motivation, only coming up in critical moments.
The pacing, in general, was pretty poor. At least 40% of the novel could have been trimmed out to its benefit -- it takes a while for the plot to really kick in, and then it drags on for a long time only to rush into its ending. Some character/setting details don't come up until they're absolutely necessary, leading to a couple of deus ex machina moments rather than more reasonable foreshadowing. The final major reveal comes across as contrived at best, and an ass-pull contradictory to former established facts at worst, with some prior sprinklings of hints but nothing strong enough to really justify it as a proper conclusion, and things wrap up without properly resolving either the plot as a whole or any characters' lives.
Some character dynamics were interesting -- Jillian and Theo's, for instance, as well as Tory and Luis's friendship, and as unlikable as both individuals were there was a certain intrigue to Jacques and Michi's relationship -- but the forced romantic subplot was not one of them. The first two interactions between Tory and Olivia have them on hostile terms; after starting to resolve their differences, their very next interaction establishes infatuation with no lead-in or room to develop. Their relationship itself forms awkwardly and under odd circumstances, and how underdeveloped they both are as characters eroded any potential for chemistry.
As for the actual plot, it was fine -- a bit too close to a corny Syfy movie in some places, but I did like the basic ideas and some developments as well as the multimedia format used in between parts (however grating some of the actual content thereof was). Even if it was handled poorly, I liked the basic gist of the ultimate twist, and in general felt like the sirens -- the very central point of the novel -- were relegated to mere plot elements and not truly explored in as great detail as they could have been.
On the representation side of things: The three major characters of color, I felt, were depicted awkwardly at best. Whiteness is, overall, presented as the default in character descriptions, with characters of color quickly established as such but white characters pretty much never specified to be so. Furthermore, any cultural connection is stripped down to centuries-long whaling in Michi's family -- referenced as dubious motivation for her being a big game hunter who kills for the (sometimes explicitly sexual) thrill, things that go completely against traditional Japanese whaling values; historical whaling practices are not equivalent to the modern commercialized form thereof -- and Jillian's connection to the sea and appearance. Luis's Mexican heritage is only mentioned once or twice. Another major character has a Hebrew middle name, as revealed in one scene, but her religion/ethnicity are never really established outside of that. Though the setting isn't necessarily one that allows for extensive exploration of character backgrounds and habits, that doesn't seem to matter anywhere else, so some effort to acknowledge upbringing and language, if nothing else, could have at least been extended.
I found the disabled/neurodivergent representation more palatable, although I have my issues with it as well. While the basic mechanics of Theo's chronic illness and the Wilson twins' deafness are portrayed decently enough, at least the latter two and their older sister's characterizations seem to revolve around being d/Deaf, and around the hardships thereof by extension. Olivia being autistic, while adequately coded throughout (if a bit constrained to social difficulties and overlooking other traits), is also only explicitly mentioned when ableism faced from her parents is mentioned. Portraying ableism experienced, as well as difficulties of navigating an inherently inaccessible society, is obviously an important part of portraying disabled characters, but it can drag a bit to see disabled characters almost exclusively experiencing trauma and adversity. Speaking as an autistic and physically disabled person -- yes, being disabled is hard! Experiencing ableism is hard! But disabled lives are not composed entirely of strife and pain, and seeing some joy to offset the largely negative experiences would have helped a lot.
I was a bit uncomfortable with the descriptions of Holly's voice as well, which came across as varyingly infantilizing and dehumanizing, but I'm not d/Deaf/HoH so YMMV on that.
All in all, there are some strong ideas at play in Into the Drowning Deep, but unfortunately, in my eyes it fails as both science fiction and horror, with its many flaws detracting majorly from what positives it does have going for it.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Violence, Murder, Medical content, Gore, Animal death, Fire/Fire injury, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Death, and Animal cruelty
Moderate: Panic attacks/disorders, Ableism, Alcohol, Drug use, and Chronic illness
Minor: Misogyny, Sexual content, Cannibalism, Vomit, Suicidal thoughts, Sexism, Biphobia, Child abuse, and War
Climate change, drought. Use of needles/syringes. Dissection/necropsy scenes. Cissexism.stephanieluxton's review against another edition
dark
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
1.0
This book was exhausting and I couldn't wait for it to be over. This was disappointing because I'm a firm believer that we need more mermaid horror stories!!! The pace is really strange. Its not a surprise that there's mermaids because you see them right away - there's not enough mystery for it to be scary which felt like a missed opportunity. But rather than being a thriller, the story just stops intermittently so the author can try make it focus on science more. But no one really cares about the science and none of the scientists seem to have any common sense in this book. There's a lot of characters and none of them are very dynamic, likeable, or have any character arcs. There didn't need to be that many characters because very few of them actually do anything.
One of the things I hated most about this book is that it's totally omniscient. The perspective not only switches between many of the characters, but also switches to the perspective of the sirens AND a dolphin, which is ridiculous. If you're writing from the perspective of a dolphin, it doesn't make sense to use words like "philosophy" in their inner thoughts. Switching perspectives constantly means we know exactly what happens to every character when it happens, eliminating almost all suspense and mystery.
Finally I will close with some more specific spoiler things that bothered me:
<Spoiler>It was way too easy to find the sirens. You can't seriously expect me to believe that no one believes in these things when there's video evidence from a previous voyage and they find them on basically the second day of their trip with more video evidence? It makes no sense that Imagine would send out another voyage without testing the security systems or hiring properly trained security personnel. The legal implications would be huge. Why didn't they drove the boat away as soon as they captured a siren and people started dying? If they can't sail away, why didn't they call for help? It says they had internet access. How the heck is Jillian Toth, whose a sirenologist giving all the medical advice and acting like she knows everything about creatures that have yet to be properly discovered? Why did they try to make the game hunters into borderline serial killers? Why did they have to make Tory's ex boyfriend show up for like 30 minutes on the ship? So many characters served literally no purpose.
I could complain all day. This book was a really cool idea that just didn't work.
One of the things I hated most about this book is that it's totally omniscient. The perspective not only switches between many of the characters, but also switches to the perspective of the sirens AND a dolphin, which is ridiculous. If you're writing from the perspective of a dolphin, it doesn't make sense to use words like "philosophy" in their inner thoughts. Switching perspectives constantly means we know exactly what happens to every character when it happens, eliminating almost all suspense and mystery.
Finally I will close with some more specific spoiler things that bothered me:
<Spoiler>It was way too easy to find the sirens. You can't seriously expect me to believe that no one believes in these things when there's video evidence from a previous voyage and they find them on basically the second day of their trip with more video evidence? It makes no sense that Imagine would send out another voyage without testing the security systems or hiring properly trained security personnel. The legal implications would be huge. Why didn't they drove the boat away as soon as they captured a siren and people started dying? If they can't sail away, why didn't they call for help? It says they had internet access. How the heck is Jillian Toth, whose a sirenologist giving all the medical advice and acting like she knows everything about creatures that have yet to be properly discovered? Why did they try to make the game hunters into borderline serial killers? Why did they have to make Tory's ex boyfriend show up for like 30 minutes on the ship? So many characters served literally no purpose.
I could complain all day. This book was a really cool idea that just didn't work.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Animal cruelty, Blood, Body horror, Gore, and Animal death
charley34's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Animal cruelty, Blood, Death, Animal death, Grief, and Violence
rachaeldamms's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Violence, Grief, Death, Body horror, Biphobia, Injury/Injury detail, and Gore
laurajones's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Chronic illness, Grief, Death, Gore, Animal cruelty, Body horror, Ableism, Animal death, Blood, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, and Violence
Moderate: Confinement and Medical content
Minor: Biphobia, Fatphobia, Abandonment, Alcohol, Drug use, and Sexual content
offbrandclubsoda's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Death, Gore, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Ableism, Fire/Fire injury, and Violence
Minor: Animal cruelty, Animal death, and Biphobia
morevna's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Chronic illness, Death, Gore, Grief, and Gun violence
Moderate: Biphobia
gothbaby's review against another edition
dark
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.0
I had a really hard time with this book. The writing was good—maybe even great—but it wasn’t a natural read or a book that felt necessarily well composed.
I found the author’s description of Olivia very strange; at times it felt like a man wrote her. The way she was sexualised was very uncomfortable to me.
There was a lot of repetition, too. Especially regarding the sirens. Despite the set up for a horror story it felt like anything but. I was very disappointed by the final “attack” and the ending. It felt lacklustre and boring.
I found the author’s description of Olivia very strange; at times it felt like a man wrote her. The way she was sexualised was very uncomfortable to me.
There was a lot of repetition, too. Especially regarding the sirens. Despite the set up for a horror story it felt like anything but. I was very disappointed by the final “attack” and the ending. It felt lacklustre and boring.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gore
Moderate: Animal cruelty and Animal death
eriberry's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
3.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty and Gore