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studiouspencil's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
I was all set to give this 5 stars based on the premise- evil flesh eating mermaids, WLW, autistic and disabled rep, hard sci-fi, but I found the writing a bit off putting. The third person omniscient made me feel detached, and the sort of dry statements that are common in this style drained a lot of the tension for me.
I loved a lot of the characters, particularly Doctor Toth and Olivia Sanderson, but I felt we never delved as deep as I wanted to go into their emotional states.
I thought Olivia was really interesting as autism representation. She reminds me of myself in that she’s clearly high masking and using scripts, repeated phrases, and and studying the people around her to get through social interactions. She’s constantly mentioned as having a flat affect and little to no emotion on her face unless she’s “performing” it deliberately, something I also struggle with. However I kept expecting her to crash. One cannot go through a deeply stressful situation like this as an autistic person without stimming, going nonverbal, melting down or shutting down, and just plain losing it. She seemed unrealistically composed to me.
As for the science. I’ve seen some complaints about the scientific infodumping but I LOVE the way marine biology was incorporated. Everything felt soooo realistic and it made things much eerier in my opinion. I could picture how these creatures looked and moved and thought and it was a constant reminder of how unexplored the ocean really is.
I enjoyed the ‘angler fish’ twist at the end but I thought the ending itself was a bit rushed- I would have liked to see the siege of the ship start earlier so we could develop who these characters are in a crisis before everything ended. I wanted to see more of the siren’s language and the captive siren. I wanted more tension around the toxin element, I wanted more moments where the mimicry came into play.
All and all a solid book with a rushed final section
I loved a lot of the characters, particularly Doctor Toth and Olivia Sanderson, but I felt we never delved as deep as I wanted to go into their emotional states.
I thought Olivia was really interesting as autism representation. She reminds me of myself in that she’s clearly high masking and using scripts, repeated phrases, and and studying the people around her to get through social interactions. She’s constantly mentioned as having a flat affect and little to no emotion on her face unless she’s “performing” it deliberately, something I also struggle with. However I kept expecting her to crash. One cannot go through a deeply stressful situation like this as an autistic person without stimming, going nonverbal, melting down or shutting down, and just plain losing it. She seemed unrealistically composed to me.
As for the science. I’ve seen some complaints about the scientific infodumping but I LOVE the way marine biology was incorporated. Everything felt soooo realistic and it made things much eerier in my opinion. I could picture how these creatures looked and moved and thought and it was a constant reminder of how unexplored the ocean really is.
I enjoyed the ‘angler fish’ twist at the end but I thought the ending itself was a bit rushed- I would have liked to see the siege of the ship start earlier so we could develop who these characters are in a crisis before everything ended. I wanted to see more of the siren’s language and the captive siren. I wanted more tension around the toxin element, I wanted more moments where the mimicry came into play.
All and all a solid book with a rushed final section
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gun violence, Animal death, Blood, Violence, and Gore
Moderate: Ableism
Minor: Medical content and Misogyny
librarymouse's review against another edition
dark
funny
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
5.0
Seanan McGuire as herself and as Mira Grant always has such a strong writing style, making her characters funny even in the darkest of settings and situations. I read this before I read Rolling in the Deep, and I'm glad I did for the sense of mystery that choice allowed. McGuire is very good at feeding readers bits of information that become pertinent to the plot in such a way that plot twists feel more like pieces of a puzzle finally fitting together, as opposed to the rug being pulled out from underneath the reader. I do really enjoy how competent the characters are and I loved the disability representation. Having multiple physically and socially disabled characters in a story added so much nuance to the storytelling and the interactions between characters.
Heads up: It's very gory. Remember going into the novel that mermaids originated from myths in which they lured sailors to their deaths to eat them.
I was listening to this on audiobook while driving, and when I got to my destination, I paused it and told the friend I was meeting "There's not much book left, and it's not getting better 😐," in reference to the characters' situation. The storytelling was uniformly enjoyable!
The book does finish quickly after extended suspense, but I think I may enjoy that a good part of it was left unresolved. Tori coming to tolerate and then to love(?) Olivia was good closure for the plot point of Anne's death that started the novel, offering the possibility of Tori being able to move forward from her sister's death, if not move on from it. I hope there's a sequel. There's enough still left unfinished for one, though I've seen that the publishing company may have rejected McGuire's proposal.
Heads up: It's very gory. Remember going into the novel that mermaids originated from myths in which they lured sailors to their deaths to eat them.
The book does finish quickly after extended suspense, but I think I may enjoy that a good part of it was left unresolved. Tori coming to tolerate and then to love(?) Olivia was good closure for the plot point of Anne's death that started the novel, offering the possibility of Tori being able to move forward from her sister's death, if not move on from it. I hope there's a sequel. There's enough still left unfinished for one, though I've seen that the publishing company may have rejected McGuire's proposal.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gore, Murder, Cannibalism, Confinement, Medical trauma, Injury/Injury detail, Gun violence, Violence, Animal death, Blood, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Medical content, Mental illness, Body horror, and Sexual harassment
Moderate: Sexual content
Cannibalism tagged for humanoids eating humanscatinaflatcap's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
Content Warnings
Moderate: Violence, Animal death, Gore, Death, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, and Medical content
Minor: Ableism and Drug use
itsheyfay's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
informative
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
3.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Body horror, Death, Blood, Gore, Grief, and Medical content
Moderate: Ableism, Drug use, Abandonment, Animal death, Toxic relationship, and Gun violence
Minor: Child abuse
aas's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
slow-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
4.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cursing, Violence, Confinement, Fire/Fire injury, Gun violence, Death, Body horror, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Drug use, Blood, Gore, Murder, and Grief
trashkingmax's review against another edition
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.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Fire/Fire injury, Blood, Sexism, Gun violence, Drug use, Ableism, Animal cruelty, Confinement, Murder, Drug abuse, Animal death, Alcohol, Abandonment, Death, Body horror, Gore, Violence, and Toxic relationship
Moderate: Grief, Suicidal thoughts, and Biphobia
Minor: Medical content, Sexual content, Xenophobia, War, Genocide, and Panic attacks/disorders
kelnicash's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, Blood, and Gore
Moderate: Gun violence
thisonecassie's review against another edition
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!!.
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!!.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Gun violence, Blood, Cursing, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, and Violence
Minor: Ableism
sonygaystation's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Confinement, Death, Body horror, Gore, Violence, Blood, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Gun violence, Ableism, Animal death, Cursing, and Grief
Minor: Drug use, Death of parent, Medical content, and Sexual content
melliedm's review against another edition
dark
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
Holy shit. Holy shit holy shit holy shit. Look, if you like Alien and think the ocean is messed up, this is going to slap for you. Just read it already.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Lesbophobia, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, Fire/Fire injury, Animal cruelty, Blood, Violence, Ableism, Animal death, Body horror, Confinement, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Medical content, and Misogyny
Moderate: Homophobia
Minor: Sexual content and Drug use