Reviews with content warning for Body horror - Into the Drowning Deep

Very interesting premise for a book, the plot was great! The character development and ending?.. not so much.
The characters felt flat and their relationships didn't matter to the storyline or even really provide enough for the reader to be emotionally invested, so wouldn't read if you're here for that. There were definitely some unnecessary tangents with side characters that didn't really need to be there and took away from the focus on the plot.

I loved the science-y bits and the overall scifi feel this book gave! The detail to mermaid anatomy and habits was very interesting! If you're reading it for scary killer mermaids, this book is an 11/10. The only thing I wish this book had more of was a better ending with more of a finale. The ending was extremely abrupt and short and honestly fell flat for me because there was so much build up and action towards the end!
More about what I wish I wanted from characters/plot:

I wish that there was more post story findings and research news! They found so much on the trip, but we didn't even get in to what our main characters did with the findings? What will Tory do now that she found mermaids? What will Dr. Toth do? Is Luis's research complete now? Will Imagine actually air the recordings taken during the trip? There was so much the ending didn't wrap up! Really left me disappointed.

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hauntedantiqueshop's review against another edition

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dark mysterious 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

4.0

I had so much fun with this read! I loved the 2011 mockumentary Mermaids: The Body Found so much when I was a teenager (even after I realized it was fake) and this book was so clearly inspired by it. The mermaids/sirens in this are so cool and vicious and the use of interspecies sign language was so unique. The ending was a little lackluster but I think it’s overall good so it kinda makes up for that. rip to those dolphins tho

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writeasiread's review against another edition

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challenging mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.75

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trashkingmax's review against another edition

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challenging dark tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.75

Into the Drowning Deep is a fantastic read. It has a slow start to introduce readers to a plentiful cast of characters that are so deeply human in a way that a lot of horror novels don't get into with secondary characters. Once the action picks up, though, it doesn't slow down. The only reason I didn't give this book 5 stars is that the ending felt a little too light on details.

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thisonecassie's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional mysterious tense fast-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

5.0

Im just gonna start this with saying, I love the novels prequel, and I highly recommend it as your appetizer before reading Into the Drowning Deep, HOWEVER it does have a note on mermaids that is a bit of a spoiler to the novel. This slight (and I do mean slight) spoiler did NOT affect my enjoyment of the book, BUT if you want to be as 'in the dark' as to what happend to the Atargatis (the boat from the novella, who the Museuline [the boat in this novel] is attempting to research what happened to) as the characters in the novel, not reading the novella would mimic their lack of deep knowledge about the events of the novella, and about mermaids.

This is... I can't think of words that fully encompass how amazing this book is, so im gonna break it down.

Characters: each character is unique, no one feels same-y, nor do any of them feel flat, yes some of them are quite 'cartoony' or 'exaggerated' but it is a novel about killer mermaids for crying out loud, I think its allowed some loud personalities.

Relationships: the character dynamics and the relationships between all of the characters are explored with some amount of depth for nearly all of the characters who interact with one another (aided in part by the use of many points of view, ranging from a whole host of characters as well as a few instances of mermaid POV!!!) You root for all of the characters, even the ones that you don't like, and that in my opinion is what makes a good book great.

Writing style: I love how this book (as well as the novella prequel) is written, the entire book feels like a conversation between me the reader, and the book. (complete with parenthetical side statements about the wider picture and cosmic comedy of the situation at hand)

The horror: I get most of my guts and gore content from whatever executives thought they could get away with putting on tv (aka, criminal minds, bones, supernatural, and my fave the x files <3), so jumping into this amazing book with BLOOD!!! and GUTS!!!! I love it, I LOVE it!!!! i love the tense suspense, i love the pacing of the more intense scenes, LOVE LOVE LOVE!!!

overall: seriously, read this book, head the content warnings, but read it... its amazing. I LOVE it!!.

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